England Cricket / Ralph Ellis / 29 October 2009 /

Ralph Ellis believes that doubts about England's South African-born players' committment could inspire Andrew Strauss and co. to victory in the Rainbow Nation this winter...

It was the middle of the night after the Oval Test when I got a grudging text off my Australian mate. "Congratulations to South Africa for winning the Ashes," it said.

And it was pretty hard to think of a decent comeback, other than the normal one which begins and ends with the same letter. After all it had been Kevin Pietersen who laid some of the groundwork early in the series, and then Jonathan Trott, whose sparkling century in the last Test turned the tide back in England's favour. Throw in Andrew Strauss and Matt Prior, both born in Johannesburg, and you could see his point.

But if I wasn't surprised at my pal's view of our cricket team's attempt to learn from Jack Charlton's great Irish football side, when the FAI was thought to stand for 'Find Another Irishman', it does come as a worry to learn this morning that former skipper Michael Vaughan has similar worries about the pedigree of some of England's top cricketers.

Vaughan is launching his new autobiography, so a little controversy never does any harm. But he's gone for a lot of controversy instead by picking on Oval hero Trott. In fact he's accused the Warwickshire batsman of "celebrating with South Africa" when they had just clinched the series win in 2008 which effectively brought Vaughan's time in charge to a close.

"It was a sad day for English cricket that on my last day against South Africa I saw Jonathan Trott celebrating with South Africa, when the week before he had been our twelfth man at Headingley," are the exact damning words.

Trott has found himself having to rebut the accusation this morning, explaining that he was with Warwickshire's South African bowling coach Allan Donald when members of the victorious touring party came over to greet them. But it still highlights an issue that won't go away when England set off to South Africa next week for the winter tour. And it might be one that works in England's favour.

Pietersen, of course, has already run the gauntlet of a return to his homeland when he whipped up the controversy even more ahead of the 2005 one day series by underlining his opposition to their quota policy. Having put himself under pressure, he delivered big style by averaging more than 150. Trott is less flamboyant in his public statements, but does seem to have the same stubborn streak when he gets to the wicket.

Both of them are capable of scoring big runs and scoring them quickly, an asset both in the Tests and the One Day Internationals - as India's captain MS Dhoni proved yesterday, incidentally, by hammering 124 off 107 deliveries to set up a 99-run win to level their series against Australia.

England are [3.85] to win the one-day series that starts on November 20, while Trott is a tempting [4] in the early market to be the top batsman. I'm not sure about the first bet, but Trott does have chances, although it's worth waiting for nearer the time and trying to get something matched at [6] or higher. (Pietersen, predictably, is [3.5] favourite)

Either way, if Strauss is going to add another success to his Ashes triumph, any one or all four of his South African born batsmen will be needed to hit top form. I could be getting another midnight text from my mate in Sydney!

Five things you might not know about Mahendra Singh Dhoni

1. Born in 1981 in Ranchi in the South East of India, he played district level football as a promising goalkeeper while at school

2. He'd never played cricket until a teacher suggested taking up wicket keeping would improve his goalkeeping skills

3. He ended up as the most expensive player in the first season of the IPL after Chennai Super Kings paid £900,000 for him, and endorsements take his total annual earnings to more than £6million to make him the world's highest paid cricketer.

4. It was thought that he and Bollywood actress Deepika Padukone would be the Indian Posh and Becks when they began a fling in 2007 but it didn't last. His latest girlfriend is a 21-year-old hotel management student who persuaded him to cut his trademark long hair.

5. Yesterday's knock was quick enough, but it still pales behind the 183 not out he scored off 145 balls in a One Day International against Sri Lanka in 2005

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