A few Saffers, an Irishman and an Aussie in reserve - we give you the England cricket team

ICC Champions Trophy / Frank Gregan / 28 September 2009 /

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England celebrate after yet another South African wicket but do all the players even know all the words to the national anthem?

"There's nothing wrong with the concept of a player representing a country other than that of his birth. It's common in most occupations. For centuries the British Army have employed soldiers from other shores to fight our battles."

Frank Gregan shows serious respect for England's achievements so far in the ICC Champions Trophy before going on to discuss the question of non-England born players representing the Three Lions.

England are at it again. Andrew Strauss's team are about as predictable as the lottery numbers. Humiliated earlier this month at home by Australia in the one day series they packed up their troubles in their old kit bags and are making the English cricketing public smile, smile, smile!

It has been a amazing turnaround in form and has come at exactly the right time, coinciding with a major international tournament. Granted, it has only been two wins but they were great wins and achieved against quality opposition. Sri Lanka are a very good outfit and the South Africans were officially the best one day side in the world going into the tournament. Both victories were a very welcome surprise and let's hope they can kick on from here and make the nation proud.

But just what nation is that? Aha, this is where we come a bit of a cropper! Is this really an English side, born and bred? Is Bangers and Mash on the menu in the English team's hotel? Or are the players munching away on Boerewors and Isidudu which is the South African version - Sausages and Pumpkin Pap!

Four of England's players are South African. Skipper Andrew Strauss is a Protea by birthright along with Matt Prior, Jonathan Trott and the injured but mercurial Kevin Pietersen. All four hail not from the Land of Hope and Glory but from the Land of the Free(d)!

In addition to our four South Africans, one of yesterday's heroes with the bat, Eoin Morgan, is as his name suggests, about as English as the River Liffey! He's Irish, not exactly a nation synonymous with the sound of leather upon willow but he is playing the game at the very highest level courtesy of the qualification rules unique to cricket.

It is all to do with where the player is domiciled and playing his cricket and for how long. Incredibly, as is the case with Morgan who played international cricket for Ireland, a player can represent one nation and then switch allegiance to another country. This is not seen as a betrayal of one's country of birth, it is considered to be nothing more than a career move.

There's nothing wrong with the concept of a player representing a country other than that of his birth. It's common in most occupations. For centuries the British Army have employed soldiers from other shores to fight our battles. The Gurkhas are currently topical but we have recruited from all over the globe, my old infantry regiment has always had a contingent from Fiji. It matters not one jot if your skin is black or white, brown or yellow or how daft your accent is when push comes to shove and you're stood shoulder to shoulder.

What is fundamentally wrong is this business of swapping sides. "Yeah, I used play for Australia but then I lost my place and couldn't get back in so I thought I'd give you guys a go," Nope, that's not right. Can you imagine being next to a guy in a fire trench who says "Yeah, I used to fight for the Germans but we weren't much good so I decided to join you guys!"

If you've made your decision and represented a country that's your lot! Eoin Morgan should have taken a leaf out of Ryan Giggs's book and learned how to handle international disappointment with dignity!

The win market is certainly hotting up and England are now [5.5 ] having been backed as big as [29]. Andrew Strauss has not performed as well as expected with the bat so far but he is a player for the big occasion. He hopefully has three innings left and a match in the region of [60.0] should be available on him to be the tournament's top batsman. He is [8.2] to be England's top man because he has given others (notably Paul Collingwood and Eoin Morgan) a head start but is still worth considering at that price. The hosts and pre-season tournament favourites South Africa are out and having taken stock, it's time to nail the colours to the mast. England's price is now too skinny, the value has gone and the recommendation is to back Australia at [3.6 ]. England have done well but let's not lose sight of how superior the Aussies were a couple of weeks ago.

To return to the subject of stock , England's South African born wicket keeper Matt Prior was suffering from a virus yesterday and missed the game against his birth country. Irishman Morgan was the stop gap replacement behind the stumps. If Prior suffers a long term injury England have a quality second string wicket keeper in Tim Ambrose. He is of course - an Australian!

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