KENT quick bowler Martin Saggers has called for the England selectors to re-introduce trial matches to help the international selection process.

The 31-year-old Norfolk-born bowler put forward the idea after being overlooked for England’s 15-man squad to compete in February’s World Cup in South Africa and Zimbabwe.

Despite being named in the 30-strong provisional squad, Saggers did not survive the New Year’s Eve cull and is clearly upset at having his dreams of international cricket dashed. “I think it was frustrating more than disappointing,” he said.

“The frustration comes from the fact that the selectors don’t even appear to be looking at guys like me who are doing good work, day in, day out, in the county championship. That’s where you’re supposed to produce the goods. It's meant to be the proving ground for potential international cricketers but it doesn’t appear to working that way.”

Saggers believes fellow Kent players Rob Key, David Fulton and Ed Smith and many more county cricketers have also been harshly treated by the powers that be.

He stressed: “It’s hard to understand the thinking sometimes. They could have selected a couple of sides from the 30 players in the provisional World Cup squad and played two or three one-dayers as trial games.”