England spinner Graeme Swann overjoyed on birth of first child
England spin bowler Graeme Swann, who did not join his team in Bangladesh to attend to the birth of his first child, has become a father for the first time.
The off-spinner’s wife, Sarah, gave birth to a baby boy on Thursday. The couple named the child Wilfred.
Swann expressed happiness over the birth of his child and said that it was an incredibly special day for the delighted and proud couple. “Both Sarah and Wilfred are doing very well, and I am looking forward to enjoying the next couple of days with them both
before I fly out to join the team for the World Cup,” he said.
Graeme Swann is currently on a paternity leave and will join his team in time for their opening ICC World Cup 2011 match against Holland. The English squad left for http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Pakistan-c755.
English all-rounder Paul Collingwood had also been expected to miss the warm-up matches, like Swann, for the birth of his child. However, his wife gave birth to a baby girl earlier than expected, enabling him to travel with his team to Bangladesh.
31-year-old Swann had not attended the final stages of the recently concluded One Day International (ODI) series against Australia, due to a knee injury and had flown back home along with other injured players of his team.
Swann is one of the key bowlers of his squad and has a brilliant bowling record. The player was awarded the Cricketer of the Year title last year by the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) for his excellent performance. http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Lancashire-c806 and India legend Farokh
Engineer said recently that Swann would have a key role if England were to win the ICC World Cup 2011. The current World Cup is his first appearance in cricket’s greatest arena.
Swann’s paternity leave worked as a two-pronged benefit for him, enabling him to give time to his family and recover from the injury he picked up during the ODI series against http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Australia-c746.
Several English players had been injured during the ODI series against Australia. These were: Tim Bresnan sustained calf injury, http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Ajmal-Shahzad-c42489 picked a hamstring, Swann suffered a knee injury, Chris Tremlett suffered from strain in his side and Eoin Morgan
fractured the middle finger of his left hand.
All the players have recovered except Eoin Morgan, who was replaced by Ravi Bopara last week. Morgan could not recover from his injury in time and was expected to require a surgery on his finger after which he had to rest it for two weeks – a break that
would eventually lead to him missing the entire World Cup. However, Morgan later tweeted that his injury has healed to a great extent and it did not require surgery, but he had already been dropped from the team and replaced by Bopara. His only chance to play
some matches of the World Cup in the later stages can be if a player got injured enough to be replaced.
http://www.senore.com/Cricket/India-c750 in their last ODI series, so this World Cup would provide them a chance to make their mark.
England will have their first World Cup encounter with the http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Netherlands-c753 on 22 February, 2011.
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