Time to move on from the South African debate?
Craig Kieswetter took his England bow yesterday in Bangladesh, becoming the latest in a long line of South African born and South African bred players to represent the Three Lions. Due to the frequency of South African players taking advantage of their English family heritage in order to play for England, you would reasonably expect the issue of their upbringing to be ignored, choosing to focus solely on the task of playing cricket for England. You’d be wrong.
Ranjitsinhji was one of the first ‘foreigners’ to represent England
Involved in the current England set up are Andrew Strauss, Matt Prior, Kevin Pietersen, Jonathan Trott and now Kieswetter. All were born in South Africa. Struass, with his perfectly spoken Queen’s English accent has not had to make an issue of the land of his birth. Prior, too, has never really had to answer questions of his upbringing. The difference for the others, however, is their accent.
Pietersen, Trott and Kieswetter were all brought up in South Africa and learnt much of their cricket there. They are all unmistakeably South African upon hearing them speak, too. But an accent can hide a man’s identity. All three men are playing cricket for England because they want to. They all have an inherent Englishness within their family tree and all have chosen to turn their back on their homeland in order to pursue their careers in England.
They are hardly trail blazers, either. In recent years England has been represented by a number of men who were born outside of its green and pleasant lands. To name but a few…; Eoin Morgan was born in Dublin, Owais Shah in Karachi, Geraint Jones in Papua New Guinea, Nasser Hussain in Madras/Chennai, Devon Malcolm in Kingston, Jamaica. This practice of players who were born outside of England representing England has pretty much occurred since the dawn of Test cricket, too.
Famous names from England’s past include a trio of highly talented men who were born and raised in India. Kumar Shri Ranjitsinhji, who was born in Kathiawar, is widely recognised as one of the finest batsmen of his generation, if not of all time. His nephew Shri Duleepsinhji, also born in Kathiawar, was a hugely popular figure within the England team and amongst its supporters following his uncle. Nawab of Pataudi also represented England, scoring a century in his first Ashes Test during the infamous ‘Bodyline’ series. He was born in, funnily enough, Pataudi. He is also the only man to have represented both India and England in Tests.
It can also work the other way. The scorer of Test cricket’s first ever run and Test cricket’s first century, Charles Bannerman was born in Kent, England. Yet he didn’t score these runs for England; he was playing for Australia.
Another famous name to emanate from the record books at the turn of the last century is one Albert Trott, born in Melbourne. He initially played in Tests for Australia before moving to Blighty to play county cricket at Middlesex. During his stay famously become the only man ever to have cleared the pavilion at Lord’s with an almighty swoosh of his willow. His career never recovered from this moment as he sought to replicate the glory of that single moment, but he did win Test recognition as an England player on a tour to South Africa. This brings us back to the current Trott, a distant relative of the tragedy struck Albert.
So we really shouldn’t be questioning every man who is born outside of England as he prepares to make his debut for England. The only question should be about how ready and how willing each player is to sweat blood for the English cause. Every player, no matter where he is born, should be desperate to represent the country. If he is not, then he should not be playing. It has nothing to do with where he is born – and it never has.
By Miles Reucroft
