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Worrying about foreign-born players
By Jonathan Calder Sunday, last week, 9 Comments »
Should we worry about the increasing number of foreign-born players in the England cricket team?
To do so is to enter dangerous waters, particularly in the political circles in which I move. There, Not Being Racist is the greatest virtue. Often, it appears to be the only virtue still recognised.
And I can remember a journalist – can anyone tell me who it was? – getting into trouble a few years ago for suggesting that the variety of accents in the dressing room must mean that England lack cohesiveness and team spirit.
But that is not my worry and I am not sure it is even true. Plenty of football managers – Alex Ferguson of Manchester United, Jose Mourinho at Chelsea – have shown that it is possible to imbue a squad of players from extraordinarily varied backgrounds with a ferocious team ethic.
What I do fear is that the influx of foreign-born players will increasingly mean that the England team no longer represents the game in England.
Take rugby union, where sometimes this question seems even more urgent. You want to feel that one of the boys you see playing mini-rugby on a Sunday morning might one day play for England.
But if players like Lesley Vainikolo and Shontayne Hape are going to be brought into the team, not just from abroad but from a different game – rugby league – then that it is increasingly unlikely to happen.
The question then becomes why, in cricket or rugby, we should care much about the national side when it has so little connection with the wider game.
You might say the rise in the number of foreign-born players in the England team is just a reflection of increasing globalisation and intercontinental travel.
And it is not as if that team has ever been wholly English born. I am thinking not just of the sons of empire-building families like Colin Cowdrey and Ted Dexter: there have also been players who learnt their game abroad, like Prince Ranjitsinhji and Basil D’Oliveira.
But it is possible to ask whether the increasing modern trend towards foreign-born England players is good for the game as a whole. Cricket and rugby union are both popular in a strictly limited number of countries. It would be good for both games to see that number increase.
But will Ireland ever make it to test status if their best players, like Ed Joyce and Eoin Morgan, become English as soon as they shown signs of exceptional talent? And we are not the only offenders, as was proved when Dirk Nannes suddenly proved to be Australian rather than Dutch.
It happens in rugby union too, where any player from the South Pacific Islands – which should surely be emerging as a power at test level by now – who shows exceptional talent plays for New Zealand instead.
And it even happens in soccer. The multiracial nature of the French team that won the world cup in 1998 was less a tribute to the wonderful diversity of French society than a reminder that the French government is happy to give citizenship to outstanding players from former colonies.
So that is why we should worry about the growing number of foreign-born players in the England cricket team. It threatens to weaken the connection between the national team and the wider game. And it makes it harder for new powers to arise in the game.
Jonathan Calder blogs at Liberal England
9 Comments »Cricket geekery epitomised
By Will 2 months ago, No Comments; be the first!
It’s a wonder Andy Zaltzman is still a married man. Outstanding cricket geekery:
No Comments »Happy New Year, Confectionery Stallers, and welcome to a new year, a new decade (or the last year of an old decade, depending on your decade-defining proclivities). I am firmly in the New Decade camp, and so, I assume, is Jacques Kallis, if only so he can claim to be the 29th member of the highly exclusive club of players who have scored Test hundreds in three different decades.
(I have a full list of these 29 cricketing legends, but will not list them here for fear of antagonising my wife, who is anxious for me not to join the equally exclusive club of husbands who have spent excessive parts of two decades working out things on Statsguru. But a special mention for the great Indian batsman Vijay Merchant, who is the only man in the history of humanity to have scored just one Test century in three separate decades. Throw that little fact into your next conversation at work and see how people react. Hang on, I’m not quite finished with this one yet. If Kallis can somehow muster another five-wicket innings from his creaking limbs, he will become only the eighth bowler to take a five-for in three different decades, and join Kapil Dev as the only player to have both scored hundreds and taken five-fors in three decades. I’m done now.)
My cricket memory of 2009
By Jonathan Calder last year, at the end of December, 5 Comments »
It was the afternoon of Friday 21 August and I was on holiday in King’s Lynn. Having seen the sights, I went for a cup of tea at the Green Quay – a cafe and exhibition centre beside the Great Ouse in the centre of the town.
It was also the second day of the final Ashes test. England had been 307-8 overnight and were all out for 332. The last time I had looked at the score on my phone, the Australian openers were making an untroubled start.
When my tea came I checked the score again and almost choked on my Earl Grey. Australia were 117-7.
We were going to win the Ashes!
I was so overcome that I overcame my natural English reserve and looked for someone to share the moment with. There was an elderly couple at the next table. “Do you like cricket?” I asked. They did, so I told them the score.
With the rise of information technology – and the disappearance of live coverage from terrestrial television – that is pretty much my experience of test cricket these days. Twenty minutes of watching in a pub. An hour of Test Match Special on Saturday morning. Checking the score on my phone.
I can recall watching only two lengthy periods of watching the Ashes on television last summer. I saw the last hour of the very first day in Cardiff, when England let a promising position slip, in a Leicester hotel on the way home from work. And I saw the last hour of the series, as England wrapped up the series, in a bar in a strange Lincolnshire village called Sutton Bridge.
But it is that moment in the Green Quay that I shall remember from the summer of 2009.
Jonathan Calder blogs at Liberal England
5 Comments »England beat Diamond Eagles by 185 runs
By Jonathan Calder last year, at the start of November, 3 Comments »
As far as I am concerned, it serves them right for giving themselves a silly name like “Diamond Eagles”.
Jonathan Calder blogs at Liberal England
3 Comments »AB fluffs his lines
By Rich Abbott last year, at the start of November, 3 Comments »
Despite all the evidence to the contrary (no yearly Test bowling average below 34 since 2004, an overall away Test bowling average in excess of 36, a Test average in South Africa of 73.22), high quality opposition players are usually the most vocal supporters of Steve Harmison at times when his selection is called into question. ‘He’s a difficult guy to face’, we are told, ‘one of the best, when he gets it right’, we hear.
I’ve often wondered how accurate those assessments are: do these players really fear post-2005 Harmison? Or are they trying to trick Geoff Miller into thinking they do?
AB de Villiers, when questioned about England’s bowlers on Cricinfo’s Switch Hit podcast this week, was all set to add his name to a list of public backers which includes Ricky Ponting. “Broad and Anderson… blah blah blah… good, young guys…” Then he paused, who else is there? Um, oh yeah, “Obviously, Harmison – he… wait, is he even in the squad?”
Clearly AB was so worried about Harmy’s threat, that he hadn’t bothered to check the England squad for his inclusion at any point over the last few weeks. There, in a sentence, was how much the world’s best batsmen actually fear England’s erstwhile paceman. Not an awful lot, anymore.
3 Comments »Till the Cowdreys come home
By Jonathan Calder last year, at the start of November, 16 Comments »
Congratulations to Angus and Grant for supplying the correct answer to my question. The other father and son, besides Frank and George Mann, to have captained England are Colin and Chris Cowdrey.
Hywel, see me afterwards.
If you are really clever you will now be able to tell me who played in an England test side with both Colin and Chris Cowdrey.
Jonathan Calder blogs at Liberal England
16 Comments »Simon Mann and inhumanity
By Jonathan Calder last year, at the start of November, 4 Comments »
The release of Simon Mann from Equatorial Guinea reminds us of a little cricket history.
For Simon Mann is the son of George Mann, who captained England on their 1948-9 tour of South Africa and also against New Zealand the following summer. George was the heir to a brewing fortune (think Watney Mann) and the subject of a famous John Arlott witticism.
Back in the 1950s Arlott was commentating on a match in which George was being bamboozled by the South African leg spinner “Tufty” Mann. “What we are watching here,” he remarked, ”is a clear case of Mann’s inhumanity to Mann.”
George’s father (and Simon’s grandfather) Frank Mann also captained England in South Africa – in his case on the 1922-3 tour.
It’s a long shot, but there is a clear family pedigree here. If Andrew Strauss tweaks a hamstring on the eve of the first test, maybe Simon Mann could take over the reins?
And your homework for this week: Who are the only other father and son to have captained England?
Jonathan Calder blogs at Liberal England
4 Comments »Speaker’s Corner in Hyde Park
By Will last year, at the end of October, No Comments; be the first!
London never looks better than in autumn, so I took in Hyde Park today before stumbling across Speaker’s Corner, somewhere I’ve always meant to visit but forget to. I’m glad I went, even though I was left confused at the speakers.
There were three loud Americans and two British-sounding people. Two of the Americans insisted, by shouting their heads off to a perplexed crowd, that England (not Britain) “will rise again”. She shall “be saved”, though from what or whom was not clear. From the Americans? Hmm.
One of them, who wore a committed and voluptuous beard with a white cap on his head, went one step further by saying that one day, English television sets will be the envy of the world; people won’t just come to England “to buy their bullets”. Now, I don’t know exactly how many bullets we produce – and yes, we’re a major defence exporter – but thought it was an odd juxtaposition: the mass-produced box of electronics that spawns trivial bullshit versus mass-produced mass-death weaponry. Maybe the man had a point. Or maybe he was plain bonkers.
The second American did not have a point, other than in his relentless pursuit for “real natural pussy” (as opposed to what? Oh, wait…). Predictably, he drew the biggest crowds and, standing on a step ladder, demanded everyone’s attention by telling us that he wanted to smell a girl’s bottom. “This is my goal, friends!” he said to a pack of complete strangers. “Does he want the one at the front or the one at the back?” smirked a bystander.
A little old lady (there’s always a little old lady, apparently) called David Cameron all sorts of 1950s swear words: evil hound was a favourite, which was either carefully chosen or a Freudian slip given that her main argument revolved around banning hunting. Next to her was a chair for the World Socialist Party, and a forlorn looking rucksack. And no speaker. That image alone spoke louder than any of the Americans.
It’s worth a trip.
No Comments »Pre-tour pen pics (…continued)
By Jonathan Calder last year, mid-October, No Comments; be the first!
Last time we got at as far as Kevin Pietersen, which is more than the South African selectors ever did. Today we continue with…
Liam Plunkett (Durham)
I am delighted to learn that Plunkett is still alive. I thought he had been lost when Flintoff’s pedalo went down with all hands a few years back. No idea how he is bowling these days, though.
Matt Prior (Sussex)
“Considering he is really a batsman,” said one member at Hove, “he keeps wicket very well.” “Considering he is really a wicketkeeper,” said another, “he bats very well.” There you have Prior in a nutshell – or at least you did a couple of summers ago. Things have improved since he laid off the jellybeans.
Adil Rashid (Yorkshire)
When news came that Yorkshire had a good prospect I wrote to Headingly pleading with them to keep him away from all the temptations and dangers that beset a young leg spinner: drink, drugs, loose women, tight trousers, violent films, doughnuts, Matthew Hoggard’s dogs. This winter will see if they heeded my advice.
Ryan Sidebottom (Nottinghamshire)
“Is that Sidebottom?” someone asked me at Trent Bridge a few summers ago. “No,” I replied, “it’s just a quirk of his bowling action.” I was pleased when he was subsequently recalled to England colours with success, even if it did ruin my favourite quiz question about which father and son had only one test cap each.
Andrew Strauss (Middlesex – captain)
A scion of the famous family, Strauss ran away to Lord’s at an early age to escape becoming a composer. Has clearly modelled himself upon Mike Brearley as a captain. A couple of years ago he was batting like him too, which was taking hero worship a little too far.
Graeme Swann (Nottinghamshire)
Likeable rough diamond, Jack the Lad spinner currently appearing on “Strictly Come…” Hold on. That’s the other one, isn’t it?
Jonathan Trott (Warwickshire)
As English as Kevin Pietersen. Scored a hundred to help us win the Ashes, so that’s English enough for me.
Luke Wright (Sussex)
The new “new Freddie Flintoff”. I note that Sussex have just been relegated from Division 1 of the County Championship. Just saying.
And then there are three players who will flying south just for the limited overs games.
Tim Bresnan (Yorkshire)
As hardworking and straightforward as Greggs the bakers.
Joe Denley (Kent)
A promising opening bat who might challenge Strauss and Cook. Presumably that is why he is not in the test squad.
Sajid Mahmood (Lancashire)
Must have been found clinging to the same life-raft as Liam Plunkett.
Eoin Morgan (Middlesex)
A cunning selection this one. I don’t know if he is good enough for England, but by depriving Ireland of his services we increase our chances of remaining the best side in Western Europe – or at least the British Isles.
Jonathan Calder blogs at Liberal England
No Comments »Pre-tour pen pics
By Jonathan Calder last year, mid-October, No Comments; be the first!
When The Corridor invited me to accompany the England touring party to South Africa this winter I hesitated before accepting. Last time I was down there I was at the centre of an unfortunate misunderstanding over some missing diamonds and had to lean rather heavily on my old friend Nelson Mandela to get me out of it.
In the end my love of cricket won and I shall leave my beloved Market Harborough to be on the plane next month.
While we are waiting, I thought I would offer you some pen portraits of the England squad.
James Anderson (Lancashire)
Plucked from his Burnley primary school to join an England tour of Australia some years ago, Anderson has never quite known who he is. Is he a shock bowler or more a purveyor of swing? Would he be better off training as an electrician? This tour should provide answers to these questions.
Ian Bell (Warwickshire)
Bell was shaken to the core when the Australian started referring to him as “The Sherminator” – a character from the film American Pie. I hope he shows more backbone this time. If the South Africans start sledging, his best tactic will be to liken Morne Morkel to someone out of “Summer Holiday”. That’ll show ‘em.
Stuart Broad (Nottinghamshire)
This blond Adonis of the East Mildlands gives the modern spectator an idea of what it must have been like to meet Alexander the Great. Except that Alexander was probably less likely to drop short.
Paul Collingwood (Durham)
Batsman, swing bowler, purveyor of little off cutters, fieldsman, captain, bus driver… Collingwood has made himself indispensible over the years. If the radio on the coach breaks down and we need someone to sing – or it proves necessary to wrestle an escaped leopard – he will be your man.
Alastair Cook (Essex – vice captain)
Vice captain? Surely Cook is not old enough to vice captain? All it needs is for Strauss to get one up the snoot and Cook will be in charge. How will he fit in his homework then?
Steven Davies (Surrey)
Bob Taylor used to leave his pads at the top of the stairs in the hope that Alan Knott would trip over them, but reserve wicketkeepers are usually resigned to a quiet winter. Little is known of Davies and we may not know a lot more about him come next spring.
Following a poor show by the Es to Ns, we come to…
Graham Onions (Durham)
Onions was only picked for England following a sustained campaign by Fleet Street’s subeditors, but he turned out not to be a bad choice. Their petition for his Durham colleague Phil Mustard to be the reserve keeper on this tour was ignored by the selectors.
Kevin Pietersen (Hampshire)
Let us have no nonsense about this. Though he is returning to the land of his fathers, Pietersen is every bit as English as Greg Rusedski or Zola Budd.
Jonathan Calder blogs at Liberal England
No Comments »Surely this is the end for Harmison
By Will last year, mid-October, 3 Comments »
Well what an odd feeling it was reading (as opposed to doing, but I digress entirely) the England selection today. No Ravi Bopara, whose cocksure waves to the pavilion against West Indies to acknowledge his hundreds were greeted with initial surprise, followed by widespread admission that England had on their hands a great talent. His arrogance should therefore be embraced. We did, but he regressed without so much as a whimper.
And no Steve Harmison, presumably for the last time. He himself gave England a ridiculous ultimatum at the end of the Ashes that he didn’t want to be a part-time England player. Right – so, that’s full-time then Steve, except you don’t tour very well, you’re as consistent as a bowl of porridge with a sausage stuck in it, and you retired yourself from ODIs. And then you unretired. For his and his family’s sake, if not the media’s – it’s incredibly frustrating writing about players whose belief in their ability is so at odds with their results – let this be the last time we speak of Harmison in an England shirt.
His replacement is hardly a shining example of consistency himself, but at least he has youth on his side. For now. Liam Plunkett has had a fairly decent season, but more a surprise – and a pleasant one too – is the name Luke Wright. He’s quick with the ball and potentially a powerful hitter, with plenty of bottom-hand, and undeniably quick in the field, but Tests will stretch him to the absolute limit. I’ve always thought he has a bit of ticker about him, but his technique could be cruelly exposed by South Africa’s seamers.
England weren’t finished there with the giggles. Saj Mahmood – ha! – and Alastair Cook – honk! – were called up to the ODI side. In fairness, as much as it genuinely pains me to say, Cook went bonkers a couple of times this season for Essex in domestic ODIs. But, still, you can’t help feeling he might not fare quite as well against a side of South Africa’s quality. I hope he does. As for Mahmood, well, who honestly knows where the ball’s going to go, but at least we can enjoy his befuddled facial expressions as a result.
3 Comments »Ruddy idiots
By Will last year, at the end of September, 5 Comments »
Granted, I watched and commentated on most balls of the 2009 Ashes, but the real treat, alas, I was to miss. Holiday forced me away from the internet, from the 21st century’s umbilical chord of insanity, as it did from the TV. So I was distraught to hear England have lost the one-day series, but am rendered frankly speechless that they stumbled haplessly upon one victory. The last in a seven-match series.
If England were a schoolboy, he’d be a prefect for winning the Ashes and immediately subject to widespread bullying at his success, then victimised for losing the one-day series, and have cabbage thrown at him by smiling underlings when he won the final match in a show of yawning, consolatory success.
“Fuck off, England. You’re a loser.”
Cricket’s so August 09, and I’m still on holiday, so don’t expect much here. Pip, pip.
5 Comments »England’s 2009 celebrations in full
By Will last year, at the end of August, 2 Comments »
From the always-witty Alany Tyers:
2 Comments »Those Ashes Celebrations In Full
ANDREW STRAUSS: Busy night for the young dad skipper: doing up shoelaces, wiping noses, checking everyone had been for a wee. Surely it’s now time that other batsmen took some responsibility with their preparations for a night out?
STUART BROAD: Showed terrific temperament and all-round composure in dealing with hard-to-eat meal of crab followed by spaghetti and ordering difficult-to-pronounce wine from snitty waiter. Blotted copybook slightly by showing dissent when bill arrived.
JONATHAN TROTT: Found in street belting out national anthem (and mouthing words uncertainly during those tricky Zulu and Xhosa bits).
ALASTAIR COOK: Keeps making same basic errors at every night out: turning up in trainers when everyone knew it was ‘smart but casual’ and ensuring the group can’t get in anywhere; having to phone girlfriend every half an hour to reassure her he isn’t up to no good; being very boring when talking to a group of attractive women so they all leave…
PAUL COLLINGWOOD: Workmanlike fancy dress outfit (Your Basic Comedy Mexican) could not disguise modest overall contribution to night out.
MONTY PANESAR: Invited along for karaoke skills but “didn’t get a lot of assistance from the microphone”. Surprisingly effective on quiz machine; keeping team in it against the odds on quickfire round of Deal Or No Deal.
GRAHAM ONIONS: Absent; Steve Harmison nicked his ticket.
JIMMY ANDERSON: Started evening strongly but slumped incoherent in corner by closing time.
RAVI BOPARA: Cockiness ensured considerable female interest in nightclub and used pick-up lines successfully on some rather homely girls; panicked and spilt drink down himself when attractive ones turned up.
IAN BELL: Looked great, but struggled to really dominate the conversation and was reduced to going “Ha ha ha… yeah” and repeating what other people had just said.
MATT PRIOR: Stunned team-mates and punters alike by carrying tray of drinks back from bar without dropping and turning out to actually be a good bloke to have around.
GRAEME SWANN: Cheeky chappie, great all-round effort: booked stripper, provided comedy moustaches, got his round in, chatted up a hen-do. Suspicion that he might fall just short of being top-class entertainment manager.
KEVIN PIETERSEN: Absent; at home watching Police Academy VI on ITV4, eating oven chips. Texted to say he was having brilliant time in Bungalow 8 with Lamps, Jude Law and Clive Rice.
ANDREW FLINTOFF: Quiet meal with nearest and dearest (i.e. took Steve Harmison to Pizza Hut).
STEVE HARMISON: Became distressed by proliferation of “fancy foreign food” in Pizza Hut; got cab back up to Ashington.
Fixtures in 2010: Australia and Pakistan in England
By Will last year, at the end of August, 9 Comments »
So the ECB have dumped the Friends Provident Trophy, England’s 50-over domestic competition, from next season onwards. There will still be a 40-over thrash, mainly played on Sundays, along with tweaks to the Twenty20 Cup. More here.
More excitingly, England will host Pakistan and Australia next summer. Before that, there will be two Tests and three ODIs against Bangladesh, then five ODIs against Australia. Pakistan then take on Australia for two Twenty20s and two Tests before England have four Tests, five ODIs and two Twenty20s against Pakistan!
Obscene amount of cricket. But incredibly exciting, I think, for England to be the neutral host of Tests matched between two exciting teams, especially given how much support Pakistan will have in Britain.
What are your thoughts? Will you pay to watch Australia and Pakistan in England?
9 Comments »Ashes win just the start for the new England
By Will last year, at the end of August, 5 Comments »
England win the Ashes. No one even ponders an open-top bus tour. No medals are hung around players’ necks and, with due respect to MPs Brown and Cameron – and the Queen – very little fanfair has been afforded this England team.
And thank god for that. England’s win was unforgettable, in a tense, thrilling, pendulum-swinging series which might have lacked the greats of the game that we had in 2005, but for entertainment it was very much on a par.
Did the better team win? Just about. Man for man, the two sides are very close indeed, but England beat Australia on home advantage and a clearer idea of where they’re heading. Before the series, I thought England would win 2-1 owing to having an in-form spinner who can bat, and having a more balanced attack; the fact Hauritz wasn’t picked at The Oval by Australia was a remarkable decision. Surely, surely, they must have been made aware the pitch was a bunsen. It wouldn’t have taken much to realise that on first glance 24 hours before.
I almost felt deflated by the win. 25 days of ball-by-ball commentary can do that to you. But having had time to reflect, only now do I feel really excited; pleased that England won, even though it feels like a heist, because this is just the beginning. In 2005, the regaining of the Ashes was the culmination of Nasser Hussain, Duncan Fletcher and Michael Vaughan’s extensive planning. The 2009 win has come sooner than even Andy Flower would’ve hoped, and is just the beginning.
And one other thought, which I’ll write about when I can be bothered: Matt Prior, you played a blinder. What a turnaround in his career it’s been.
Oh, and by the way – just 457 days until the next series in Australia.
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