by daniel
6. November 2009 14:24
As the South Africa tour looms into view we on the sofa spend more time than usual taking account of our “rivals’” opinions in the more established broadcast media. The current hot topic is the number of South African born players in the England team; Strauss, Pieterson, Trott and Prior making up the quartet. Firstly let’s deal with Strauss and Prior. They’re English. They were born in South Africa. Ted Dexter was born in Italy, Phil Edmonds was born it what was then Rhodesia. Strauss and Prior are irrelevances to the debate. So we come to Trott and Pieterson. Trott is probably a little dodgy. After all, he did cavort with the Saffies at Edgbaston and this is poor form. But his mother is British. He had a straight choice. South Africa, who weren’t picking him or England who did.
Pieterson is the most controversial. Most journalists writing about the great man have implied that he jumped ship, escaping South Africa’s quota system whereby so many players of colour must be picked, and that this in turn implies he is politically untrustworthy; a refugee from social justice if you like. But let’s be clear, he’s one of the top five batsmen in test cricket and top three in ODI’s in the world. Cricket isn’t football. If Man Utd don’t want you, you can get exposure at a host of other high profile clubs. In cricket, if your country, in this case South Africa, shows you no interest, the world of cricket is denied your skills to a wide TV audience. His mother is also British. We have as much right to him as the Saffies do.
I prefer to see Pieterson’s decision to throw in his lot with the England cricket team as an endorsement of the free thinking liberal people of these fine islands. Horrified by the stigma rightly attached to many South Africans for years of fascistic barbarity under apartheid, he had a straight choice between good (England) and evil (South Africa). And what with him being such a cultured type (he has married a singer after all) his heart would always be in the land of Shakespeare, Dickens, Austen, The Beatles and Elgar rather than the home of…..erm…..hang on a minute….there must be someone…..oh yes, J.M. Coetzee I suppose, but let’s face it, that’s about it.
What is more baffling is our journos forever bigging up that non tax paying popinjay and all round self publicist Andrew Flintoff, the Phil Collins of cricket. He wants to pull on the three lions but when he is making the most money (his IPL contract is astronomical) and at a time of financial crisis when the people he purports to want to play for are all broke, he takes his cash away and considers setting home in Dubai so he can keep all the dosh to himself. This is preposterous behaviour and I propose now that qualification for playing for England must entail actually paying your taxes to us. I don’t care if he was born in Preston, he may as well play for the United Arab Emirates for all I care.