The door has revolved again and out of it has emerged Kevin Pietersen who becomes the third South African (I think) after Tony Greig and Allan Lamb to lead England. In any other team, that would have been unthinkable. Not so for England. To its credit England doesnt have terms such as 'All-English' or some such to refer to the true-blood English. They welcome players from outside and surprisingly dont have a problem playing under an import. I guess they get used to playing under overseas players for their counties. Whatever the reason, it's pretty cool. I wonder how Pakistan took to Asif Iqbal when he was the captain.
All this does not mean that I totally favor Kevin Pietersen's candidacy. Some would suggest Flintoff but he has a fragile body. I thought Strauss should have been the choice . That would have set things right when the selectors overlooked the good work he had done during Vaughan's absence as the captain and instead chose to go with Flintoff during the Ashes. And Pietersen could have been the choice for the one-day team. That way the selectors could have gauged if Pietersen is ready for the top job or not. It'd have been like what India have going with Kumble and Dhoni.
The English selectors have been known to do dumber things such as pick a Chris Cowdrey or Brearley to lead the team (yes, that was a dumb choice and I dont care if his captaincy brought the best out of Botham - the credit for that goes to Botham) !! The name of Robert Key was bandied about. But fortunately the selectors did the smart thing by naming someone who would be an automatic choice to play for England. We'll see how Pietersen does.
Monday, August 4, 2008
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Another "import" that has led England in the recent past, is of course, Nasser Hussain. They have, as you rightly say, maintained a neutral stance.
But which other team (and I am wondering aloud here) has had that need to play with imports? Pakistan as you illustrate with Iqbal's example. Could Zimbabwe have had that situation?
BTW, can you name another "South" African that has played for Eng in the last decade and a half or so?
Robin Smith. And here's the list of all such captains -
http://ia.rediff.com/cricket/2008/aug/04stats.htm
Note that the list excludes Asif Iqbal and I wonder why. It could be that Pakistan and India's players during the early days could have been born either side of the border. For e.g Hafeez Kardar was probably born in India and Lala Amarnath was born in Lahore but played for India post-independence. I suspect Asif Iqbal has been consigned to that category. But that would be wrong because he grew up in post-independence India and only later migrated to Pakistan. He's just like the Pietersens and Tony Greigs.
Apparently Zimbabwe did have that situation too from that list - Andy Flower was born in South Africa. Now this is very similar to the Pak/India situation. Flower was born in the part of Rhodesia (which comprised of both SA and Zim ways back) and that area now belongs to SA. By virtue of that, he makes the list. I think Lala Amarnath's case is the exact same, is it not? Then why is he not on the list?
BTW, would you consider Hussain an import? Yes, he was born in Madras but he was probably a Britizh citizen because his mom is British. Moreover he moved to England while still a child. Whereas Pietersen and Greig qualified to play for England much later in their lives.
Well, the answer I was looking for was not Robin Smith (while that's a legitimate answer) but Greame Hick ... he was a "South" African!
Graeme Hick was born in Salisbury (harare) in erstwhile Rohdesia. You could call him South African. I vaguely remember reading that he could have qualified to play for South Africa too when they re-entered but had made his move to England by then and had even made his debut for England in '91.
Speaking of which ...
maybe you've already seen this
http://www.rediff.com/cricket/2008/aug/04stats.htm
Yes Hick was a Zimbabwean, but I was only joking about the "South" african thing.
Yes, he was big in the county circuit after he scored some 400+ (405 I think) in a county game playing for Middlesex (I think). But as you rightly said, he could qualify to play for Eng only after 1991.
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