Posted Thu 02 Jun 2011 17:47
Obviously, there is a danger of flogging a dead horse, but the country of birth is not relevant in this, it is the nationality alone. This is obvious when you look at the socceroos for example.
There are not 5 saffers, they all that UK citizenship. 3 of the "saffers" never even played cricket in SA. Strauss's parents moved to England when Andrew was 7. Prior's parents moved to england when Matt was 11. I don't know when Jade Dernbach came ot England, but he learned his cricket at the Surrey academy, beduted for the county in 2003 and is quoted as saying: "I owe nothing to South Africa. I learnt my cricket in England".
All three players seem to have arrived in the early-mid nineties in the UK, a time when there was all kind of civil violence breaking out in South Africa. As a result, there was a lot of migration from South Africa to the UK.
For the record, the discussion is one worth having but not under the banner "5 Saffers in the england team" because it is simply not true. IMO, Trott and Morgan should not be allowed to play for England becasue they have already represented another country at international level. The other ones, no problem.
Funny though when you conider that Mickey trumpeted in 2009 to the world press that they had looked at Trott but thought that he is simply not good enough to play test-cricket....
