European Union Test Team

[Richard]

Yes, I remember it well - I forget his first name though.

 

[BoyBrumby]

Probably they both could having italian heritage. But to play they need to spend 150 days in Italy and in that time help the development of cricket in Italy. The problem is that they would never accept playing for Italy, they're still young and good batsman, playing even one innings for Italy (for very very little money) would make it nearly impossible to ever play for england.

If either opted to play for Italy I don't think it would necessarily affect their England chances. Joyce was allowed to continue playing for Ireland whilst he was satisfying his residential qualification, so I would imagine the same would be true for all associate nations.

 

[HeathDavisSpeed]

Never knew Pettini had Italian blood in him!

Unfortunately, I have no link to confirm this... I'm pretty sure I read it somewhere. Still, I doubt he'll ever play for Italy now (well, not after his 2006 season gave him ideas above his talent)

Palladino (a bowler) will never be good enough to play for England and should probably opt to play for Italy in my opinion... Though just as he's qualified doesn't mean that he'd want to play for Italy I guess...

In other (Essex related) news, I hear Graham Napier's going to be playing in the Hutt Valley this season (Upper Valley) along with Charlie Shreck (Hutt Districts)

 

[Jamee999]

Wouldn't a European Union Test Team just be England Reserves?

 

[BoyBrumby]

Wouldn't a European Union Test Team just be England Reserves?

Pretty much. I think that we're actually rather bad for the development of cricketing talent in other European coumtries. Anyone who shows even a modicum of talent ends up playing for us.We've half-inched Joyce from Ireland, obviously, & going back a few years we swiped Hamilton & Brown from the sweaties. Even Amjad Khan would seemingly rather play the occasional England A tour rather than helping his native Denmark.

It's not like we're holding a gun to their heads (as far as I know... ), but it must be bad for cricket in their home countries. As I've said before when I got on my hobby-horse about this I think the ICC should draft some kind of compromise wherein players from non-test mations can play ODIs or other matches for their own countries and play test cricket for England (or any other test nation they happen to be qualified for).

 

[James90]

Love how Richard makes assumptions on behalf of two countries.

 

[HeathDavisSpeed]

I wonder how Richard would have got on if he'd been at the Good Friday Agreement summits?

 

[Salixiscool]

its a good idea, but I think it has a few problems. What if one of the EU teams becomes too good and can afford to have one team for its country in the future? That would stuff up the EU team. And I think it would be a bit hard if the players from different countries spoke a different language.

 

[Richard]

Love how Richard makes assumptions on behalf of two countries.

Has it occurred to you that in cricket terms countries really don't matter at all?

 

[Goughy]

Has it occurred to you that in cricket terms countries really don't matter at all?

Has it occured to you that it should?

Its the general basis for most International sport

 

[Richard]

But I don't see why it should. Someday the ultimate level of cricket may be to play for Earth against the JX5V XI.

There are cricket teams at every level; some of these levels go even above countries. The same is true in other sports (FOR EXAMPLE Europe in the Ryder Cup).

I think there's a stigma attached to "your country" the way there shouldn't be TBH. You'd know more than most about that, having at various times called so many places your home.

 

[Goughy]

But I don't see why it should. Someday the ultimate level of cricket may be to play for Earth against the JX5V XI.

How about we cross that bridge when we come to it and not let it factor in to our decisions right now

 

[Richard]

Even now, a team of countless countries plays as West Indies; even now there is talk (quite rational and plausible talk) on the CricketWeb.net forums of a united team from the EU.

 

[Goughy]

Even now, a team of countless countries plays as West Indies; even now there is talk (quite rational and plausible talk) on the CricketWeb.net forums of a united team from the EU.

The European Union is a political entity to which its members have given sovereignty. It acts like an uber-country.

The British Isles has no such internal linkages.

The WI is a historical relic and Im not overly keen on it but I understand its relevance and why it exists. However, if Barbados wanted to go alone and no longer wanted to be part of the WICB then I doubt anyone could force them to stay.

Also the European Union team and The WI team are called just that. They describe the constituent parts. The England team is called England (representing the England and Wales Cricket Board) and not the British Isles and should reflect its title.

Now if you proposed a name change for the England cricket team, I wouldnt like it or agree with it but I could see where you are coming from a little more.

 

[Richard]

I'd certainly be only too happy were the name of the "England" team to be changed TBH - it was a small step in the right direction the have "The England And Wales Cricket Board". I'm more Welsh than English myself.

In fact, it's something I wish had happened in 1903 when the first "England" (rather than privately organised) team was picked. Had, say, East Stirlingshire and County Down been admitted to the County Championship in the 1920s the way Glamorgan were, I'm pretty confident there'd still be irretractable ties between the five countries. I wouldn't have expected the name of the Test-playing team to have been changed though.

Much as I'd love it to happen, I don't pretend the thing is remotely likely.

 

[Goughy]

A good 8 months since I started this thread and we are halfway through another North Hem summer.

So what would a current EU Test team look like?

 

[four_or_six]

Not sure about an EU test team, but an EU ODI team would be cool... it would probably be quite competitive.

Or perhaps an EU team in a T20 competition somewhere?

 

[BoyBrumby]

Had a bash. Have included players based on the passport they carry too:

Eoin Morgan (IRE) FC: bat 41.66
William Porterfield (IRE) FC: bat 38.50
Ed Joyce (IRE) FC: bat 45.53*
Hamish Marshall (IRE) FC: bat 36.31
Kyle Coetzer (SCO) FC: bat 33.14
Ryan ten Doeschate (HOL) FC: bat 51.30, bowl 33.96
Nic Pothas (GRE) FC: bat 39.70+
Kyle McCallan (IRE) FC: bat 23.63, bowl 29.19
Amjad Khan (DEN) FC: bat 19.61, bowl: 32.46
Dirk Nannes (HOL) FC: bowl 32.48
Boyd Rankin (IRE) FC: bowl 25.46

Struggled a bit for a spinner, tbh, but McCallan's batting got him the nod. Would beat Bangladesh I suspect.

EDIT: totally forgot Di Venuto as well, who qualifies for an Italian passport IIRC. Swap him for Porterfield, maybe.

 

[HeathDavisSpeed]

Did I hear that Pettini and Palladino were qualified for Italy? Also, Freddie Klokker could be an option.

Hamish Marshall looks the weak link in there

 

[BoyBrumby]

Did I hear that Pettini and Palladino were qualified for Italy? Also, Freddie Klokker could be an option.

I don't know how far back their Italianness goes, but wiki has them both on its English people of Italian descent list, for what that's worth, so you could be right.