Having lauded one century last week in these pages it is my pleasure to laud another this week, although unfortunately it came in a losing cause rather than Ian Thomas' winning one at Taunton.

Of course I am talking about Matthew Maynard's sublime effort at Northampton last Sunday.

It really was some innings, which deserved to be a match winning one too, but sadly the top order had left him too much to do. Even so he, in partnership with Alex Wharf, got Glamorgan desperately close to overcoming Northamptonshire's imposing 267.

I was commentating on Radio Wales and I was getting some weird looks from the other commentators when I kept saying that I thought that Glamorgan could win, even though the run rate was high and the wickets in hand small.

I just thought that Maynard looked in such control. Rarely have I seen him look so assured. It was almost as if he was toying with the bowlers and whenever he needed a boundary he seemed to be able to conjure one at will.

One six he hit late in the innings off Carl Greenidge will live long in the memory - a low full toss dispatched over square leg with barely any pick up of the bat, a shot of astonishing power and timing. He is now the deserved holder of the most number of centuries for Glamorgan in Sunday cricket.

Of the batsmen who have played ten innings in List A cricket this season (all one day cricket bar Twenty 20) Maynard has the highest average (71.16) of all English-qualified players.

But, of course, he was not in the list of 30 players announced this week by the England selectors for the ICC Champions Trophy although three other Glamorgan players were - Wharf, Mike Powell and Simon Jones.

The selectors must have had their work cut outpicking those 30 provisional players. It must have been mightily difficult. And I am not sure that it has clarified matters too much.

In fact it has muddied the waters.

But I am glad for Wharf and Powell. Powell was a certainty after his call up for the NatWest series, even though he is going through something of a run drought at the moment. That call up may actually have contributed to that, leaving him short of match practice, and Twenty20 is no place to be finding one's touch. He will come good though.

Wharf's progress this year has been eye-catching. Alec Stewart said last week that he should be included and so he has been. He has definitely improved and the introduction of a slower ball in one-day cricket has added variety to his natural pace and aggression.

He has been used as a pinch-hitter in one-day cricket (something I did not necessarily agree with) and that has allowed him to demonstrate his batting talent a little more, although the fact that he has scored two first class centuries tells its own tale.

Personally I found Jones' selection a little strange. He has only played in nine one-day games in his career and the two occasions on which he has played this year he has bowled ten expensive, wicketless overs. He does not make it into Glamorgan's full strength one day side - and that says it all.

I was also nonplussed by the comment of chairman of selectors, David Graveney, about Mark Butcher, emphasising that they were now looking at him as a possibility for the one-day side, even though he has never played despite having played 69 Tests. Surely it would be a backward step to go to him now, excellent player though he is - and he is not as agile as he once was in the field.

That is one area where England really do need to sharpen up. Much has been made of the fact that Warwickshire's Trevor Penney has been appointed their fielding coach. I don't think he has. I think he was just asked to oversee one session - in Cardiff after the England/Wales warm up match.

I was there for that and because of bad weather it was a session which had to be conducted indoors and Penney was very restricted in what he could do with the squad. Unfortunately, Marcus Trescothick twisted his ankle in that practice so he may not be looking forward to the next time Penney is invited.

And in considering people who might have been unlucky not to have been included in the 30, Northamptonshire's off-spinning all-rounder Graeme Swann would seem to me to be the most unfortunate.

But it would also seem that he has much to do to convince that his attitude has improved since the 1999/2000 tour to South Africa when apparently he did not impress Duncan Fletcher with his time-keeping.