It is unlikely to be decided in the Welshman’s favour, though. Julio is a former World Boxing Association bantamweight champion with just one loss in nearly 40 fights, and has been boxing regularly while Regan suffered and fretted in enforced inactivity. Had Regan been allowed a few warm-ups to get the feel of the ring again he might have had a better chance, but as it is he will do well to last the full 12 rounds with the hard- hitting Colombian.The outlook is brighter for another Welshman, Joe Calzaghe, who makes the first defence of his WBO super- middleweight title on the same show. The WBO, showing fancy footwork which their fighters might envy, back-tracked and said the California fight had actually been for the “interim” title.It was the first time they had downgraded the status of a fight retrospectively since an unforgettable night in 1993 when a preliminary brawler, Tim Tomashek, was hauled out of the arena bar to fight Tommy Morrison for the WBO heavyweight title after Morrison’s original opponent, Mike Williams, had fled with an attack of nerves. Tomashek survived into the fifth round, but the storm of criticism was so intense that a few days later the WBO was forced to announce that the fight had not, after all, involved Morrison’s title.This time, sanity of a sort has prevailed with the Regan and Julio camps agreeing to a quick settlement of the dispute.

The WBO president, Francisco Valcarcel, and the chairman of the championships committee, Luis Batista Salas, were both present at ringside to lend their authority to the fight, which Julio won on points.The promoter Antonio Curtis paid the WBO the nominal sanctioning fees for a world- title fight, and insisted: “When we paid the fees, we did so with the idea that this was for the vacant WBO title. When money changed hands, that consummated the deal.” The fight was billed as a world-title match and announced as such, and when Julio won he was presented with a championship belt.Back in Britain, however, Regan’s promoter Frank Warren – a figure of immense importance to the WBO – protested that Regan had not relinquished the title or been stripped of it, and would indeed be ready to fight again by the end of 1997. Garner and the coach Roger Harper were glowing in their praise of his development in South Africa. He is clearly one for the future.Or, if the selectors decide to bite bullets and live dangerously, he and the others might be ones for the present.. Both are fit again and their progress against England will be carefully monitored.Collins, 21, from Barbados, does not have express pace but, in the professional jargon, hits the deck hard and has the benefit of being a left-armer. The Guyanese King is 22 and, in the words of the A team manager, Joel Garner, “like lightning” The problem with both has been injury.

McLean was out of the game for eight months when he was on the edge of the Test team last season; King broke down with knee trouble in South Africa. You had the fight, collected your nice plastic belt, went home to field the invitations from Celebrity Squares and Question of Sport, and prayed that the bimbo you pulled that night in Stringfellows wouldn’t turn up in next week’s News Of The World to tell lurid tales of “Nights of passion with my gentle giant”

Times have changed, even if the bimbos have not. Now Croft is advising Dillon to develop the speciality which served him so well, the leg- cutter delivered from wide of the return crease, to become the finished article.The fact that both are fast, safe, strong-armed outfielders – not adjectives readily attributed to Walsh and Ambrose – boosts their value still further.Only slightly behind them come McLean, King and Collins, who were three of the few successes with the A team on the tour to South Africa which exposed the many weaknesses of West Indies cricket at present.McLean, from the Windward Island of St Vincent, is 24, as tall as Walsh at 6ft 5in and pacy. WINNING a world title used to be an uncomplicated process. Colin Croft, another member of the 1980s strike-force, says he has the closest bowling style he has seen to his own – full-chested with a high arm action. Rose, 26, had been spoken of before but, for reasons that are still not entirely clear, dropped out of cricket entirely in 1996. He returned with renewed enthusiasm, gained his West Indies selection on his figures in the Red Stripe Cup and promptly proceeded to outbowl Walsh, Ambrose and Ian Bishop, announc- ing himself with a six-wicket haul against India on his debut.Dillon had not even appeared in a first-class match a year ago.

“In addition, and this is very important, he’s very keen and committed and does a lot of physical work to keep himself ready and in shape.”Dillon is a bit quicker and a bit taller. “Rose has a smooth run-up, a good action and stamina that means he doesn’t lose pace,” he said. In what was only his third Test, on the recent difficult and disastrous tour of Pakistan, he showed character as well as quality to take 6 for 111 from 29.4 overs in Karachi, where he filled in for the injured Ambrose.Holding is full of praise for Rose, his fellow Jamaican. So he had to wait for the home Tests against India, when he had played all of six matches for Trinidad and Tobago, before he could be slipped in courtesy of an injury which temporarily eliminated Bishop, who is, ironically, his cousin.The presence of Walsh and Ambrose and the return of Bishop has kept him waiting but, at just 23, he cannot be held back for much longer. The rest, as they say, is history.Marshall wanted to put him in the West Indies team for Australia right away, but that would have been too extreme.