English Ringers, mate!

[Tom Halsey]

a) He's actually a very good keeper, but has the odd lapse - hasn't had that many of them recently.

Had a very big one tonight - at a very important moment.

 

[Natman20]

Traitors

Well obviously they are so useless not 2 be chosen by there own country that they make it into a team thats struggling overseas lol

 

[SJS]

What would you say to players who would never get a chance to play for their home country because the team was too strong but they could play international cricket elsewhere ?

Why should they not promote their careers by qualifying for another country if they can ?

Lots of cricketers do that for first class cricket too. Why is it so different when it comes to international cricket?

 

[Marius]

With regards to Strauss, as far as i know, his parents are South African, and he still has family in SA. He started his schooling in SA (only about six months) and left when he was six for Oz. Stayed there for 18 months, and then moved to England. I really don't mind when guys like Strauss turn out for other countries, but it really gets my goat when the likes of Rathbone and Peitersen leave. Rathbone would have walked into the Springbok team, but decided to chase the Aussie dollar. However, as much as it pains me, Rathbone, with regards to his future probably did make the right choice, and he had the opportunity to emigrate to Australia, and he took it, good for him. But he is still a traitor in my eyes and I hate him

 

[Tim]

Im not too worried about Spearman playing for England..as he's already 34 & unlikely to be around for long.

However if he had left at the age of 25 after developing a promising FC & international career, then I would probably have wanted to hit something.

 

[social]

With regards to Strauss, as far as i know, his parents are South African, and he still has family in SA. He started his schooling in SA (only about six months) and left when he was six for Oz. Stayed there for 18 months, and then moved to England. I really don't mind when guys like Strauss turn out for other countries, but it really gets my goat when the likes of Rathbone and Peitersen leave. Rathbone would have walked into the Springbok team, but decided to chase the Aussie dollar. However, as much as it pains me, Rathbone, with regards to his future probably did make the right choice, and he had the opportunity to emigrate to Australia, and he took it, good for him. But he is still a traitor in my eyes and I hate him

Rathbone disliked the way SA was heading as a country and made a lifestyle choice.

Although I'm glad we have him, I find it curious that the qualification period seems to be so much shorter these days. Its also a kick in the teeth for the country where he was raised.

 

[BoyBrumby]

Rathbone disliked the way SA was heading as a country and made a lifestyle choice.

Although I'm glad we have him, I find it curious that the qualification period seems to be so much shorter these days. Its also a kick in the teeth for the country where he was raised.

Clyde qualifies by virtue of Oz-born Grandmother. I think Daniel Vickerman (sometime Oz 2nd row) is Saffie by birth too.

 

[Marius]

Yes Vickerman is also a SAn. Springbok coach Jake White joked that South Africa would have to stop using Afrikaans as a code for lineout calls, as half the Wallaby team are South Africans and can understand the language.

 

[BoyBrumby]

Yes Vickerman is also a SAn. Springbok coach Jake White joked that South Africa would have to stop using Afrikaans as a code for lineout calls, as half the Wallaby team are South Africans and can understand the language.

What happened with Rathbone, BTW? In (the English) summer it looked like White had persuaded him to play for The Boks (White being his ex-coach @ U21 level & all), the next thing I know he's running in a hat-trick against us!

 

[Neil Pickup]

Im not too worried about Spearman playing for England..as he's already 34 & unlikely to be around for long.

However if he had left at the age of 25 after developing a promising FC & international career, then I would probably have wanted to hit something.

I'm probably more worried than you are about Spearman playing for England...

 

[BoyBrumby]

All the Pietersen-related talk in the SA-Eng thread got me thinking; we've done rather well out of Aussies/Saffies & Kiwis coming to play for us, but I can't think of too many Poms who've made the reverse journey.

The only ones I can think of are Roger Twose & Dipak Patel (& Patel was East African born!) for NZ & (arguably) Gordon Greenidge for The Windies.

Any others I've missed? & why is it such a one-way street? Economics?

 

[Richard]

IIRR one of the giants of the early game (who eventually played for his home country), William Murdoch (who scandalised many - and put-paid to the theory that wicketkeepers being selected for batting is a modern thing - by ousting Jack Blackham in the 1st Test ever played due to his superior batting), was English-born and played for Australia.
Bill O'Reilly certainly had Irish heritage, but I think he was Australian through-and-through; same applies to Jack Fingleton.
Brian Lara's girlfriend is English, but that's different, of course.

 

[BoyBrumby]

All time Foreign-born English XI

I'm bored, so thought I'd amuse myself by picking an English XI who all originated from outside of the mother country. Think it'd go ok myself!

1) Andrew Strauss (South Africa)
2) Colin Cowdrey (India)
3) Ted Dexter (Italy)
4) Robin Smith (South Africa)
5) Douglas Jardine* (India)
6) Tony Greig (South Africa)
7) Geraint Jones+ (Papua New Guinea)
8) Gubby Allen (Australia)
9) Phil Edmonds (Zambia)
10) Andy Caddick (New Zealand)
11) Simon Jones (Wales)

I reckon they'd comfortably beat any other countries' foreign-born XIs. I doubt you'd be able to even get an XI of foreign-born players from some. I'm struggling with India (if you exclude Pakistani players who played for India before partition). Robin Singh & Ashok Gandotra are the only two I can think of.

 

[Robertinho]

Where's Kevin Pietersen? Gutted.

 

[simmy]

Well obviously they are so useless not 2 be chosen by there own country that they make it into a team thats struggling overseas lol

Peitersen and Strauss are useless?!?!

 

[BoyBrumby]

Where's Kevin Pietersen? Gutted.

Maybe in the ODI XI!

 

[superkingdave]

Others could get into the squad like Freddie Brown (Peru - 22 tests, bat 25, bowl 31) big Phil Defreitas, Basil and Nasser

 

[superkingdave]

what about the overseas a side
Hussain
Denness
Ranjitsinhji
D'olivera
Lamb
Pietersen
WK
Freddie Brown
Defreitas
Larter(scotland)
Mullaly


struggling for openers and a keeper

 

[BoyBrumby]

what about the overseas a side
Hussain
Denness
Ranjitsinhji
D'olivera
Lamb
Pietersen
WK
Freddie Brown
Defreitas
Larter(scotland)
Mullaly


struggling for openers and a keeper

The only other foreign-born keeper I know of is Leland Hone (Ireland) & I only know of him because he was our joint-first foreign born player (with Lord Harris). Cricinfo suggests he wasn't v good tho :

http://content-uk.cricinfo.com/england/content/player/14257.html

As for openers you could have Hugh Morris (Wales) or Chris Smith (SA, Robin's elder bro).

 

[BoyBrumby]

Things getting out of hand?

Apologies for the almighty dig, but one always feels slightly proprietorial about one's own threads and the question at hand definitely fits: are we (us poms) in danger of losing our cricketing identity with the sharp upturn in foreign-raised players being selected for our team? It's feasible we might soon see an ODI top order including Trott, Pietersen, Kieswetter & Morgan.

I don't think of myself as too much of a little Englander, but the situation makes me uncomfortable. Two questions come to mind: should we always select on merit even if it means native-raised sons of Albion form a minority in our team; & why are the neo-colonials so much better than those born-and-bred? Coaching? Pitches? Economics?