Middlesex opener Sam Robson and Warwickshire's Sam Hain are set to turn their backs on Australia and play for England
Call it a cruel twist. At a time when Ian Chappell has just described the current Australian team as the "worst batting side ever to leave Australia's shores", the best batsman in the County Championship just happens to have been born and raised in Sydney. Middlesex opener Sam Robson is the leading run-scorer in the County Championship, just 14 shy of 1,000 for the season. He is averaging over 70 in the first division. The only problem for the Australian selectors is that Robson has decided he would rather play in, and probably for, England.
Robson, 24, has an English mother and moved to the UK in 2008, after he played the last of his nine matches for Australia's Under-19s. He is not the only talented young Australian player who has committed to qualifying for the England team. Earlier this year Warwickshire signed 18-year-old Sam Hain to a two-year contract.
Last year Hain was playing for Australian Under-19s against England, alongside Ashton Agar. He was born in Hong Kong and grew up on the Gold Coast, but both his parents are English. Hain, who played a second XI match for Warwickshire when he was only 14, got picked for Australia's Under-19s just two years later. When he signed for Warwickshire he said: "As to who I want to play for, now that I'm playing at Warwickshire, the answer is England."
The Australian press has mourned the loss of both men. Robson was described as the "star opener we may have lost" in The Australian last week, and last year The Courier Mail ran a piece on the battle to keep Hain, "the most talented 16-year-old batsman in the country" playing in Australia. They were a lot less cut-up in the 1990s, when a succession of Australian raised players ended up in England's senior team.
Alan Mullally, Jason Gallian, and Craig White all appeared for Australia's youth teams. Martin McCague had played for Western Australia, the Hollioake brothers were both born and brought up Down Under. All of them went on to play Test cricket for England. The difference is, of course, that back then Australian cricket had such rich resources they could afford to see those players go, and even scorn the English for picking them.
As Angus Fraser, Middlesex's director of cricket, says: "There has always been a line to playing in Britain for a lot of Australians, because there are so many who have English connections, whether that's a grandparent, or one parent, or a dual passport."
Robson has been reluctant to speak out himself, because he is wary of making headlines for the wrong reasons.Perhaps he has seen that infamous snap of McCague punching a toy kangaroo that appeared in the English tabloids before he made his own Ashes debut. But Robson has said: "if I got a call up [for England] down the line I would love to play."
He will qualify to play for England next year, but could be included in the Lions side before then.
It is worth asking exactly why the likes of Robson and Hain have chosen to make the switch. Fraser points out that "for many players the structure here is more attractive than Shield cricket in Australia."
Robson is not part of Middlesex's T20 team at the moment. He is almost a throwback, in that his particular gift is for playing long innings. At the start of May he took 129 off 223 balls against a Surrey attack including Christ Tremlett and Jade Dernbach. In his next innings he added 215 off 307 balls against Warwickshire. Over those two knocks he spent almost 11 hours at the crease. In short, he is exactly the kind of player the Australian Test side are sorely in need of this summer. If Robson was playing in Australia, he would only get 10 first-class matches a season, rather than the 16 he plays in the County Championship. State budgets for Shield cricket were slashed by a third in 2011 so that more money could be put into the Big Bash, a competition that dominates the season's schedules.
A player like Robson has more first- class opportunities in England, and will be better paid for his time and effort too. Plus, as Fraser points out, in England a player will have "a full-time job. Players are contracted in Shield and they don't necessarily work with their teams for 12 months of the year."
All of which explains why Robson says his one major concern right now is not who he plays international cricket for, but just making sure that he "doesn't do anything to put playing for Middlesex in jeopardy."
Robson's father, Jim, runs the indoor nets at New South Wales. He used to be a selector for the state too. He has described his son's situation as "complicated", but the fact is that Sam has spurned the chance to play for NSW because doing so would compromise his qualification to play for Middlesex.
Instead he spends his winters playing for the Eastern Suburbs club in Sydney. His younger brother Angus is over in England too, and has just won a one-year contract with Leicestershire after a spell playing in their Second XI.
Fraser is convinced that Robson will go on to play international cricket because "you don't score the runs he has scored, in the way that he has scored them, against the bowlers he has scored them off, without having the ability to step up."
Fraser describes him as "pretty phlegmatic. He doesn't seem to get overawed about situations, or by opponents. He doesn't lack confidence, he is good fun, he works hard, and he is tenacious and committed in what he does." Robson is, Fraser says, "a typical young Aussie bloke, really." In every respect but one, that is. Reported by guardian.co.uk 2 days ago.
Call it a cruel twist. At a time when Ian Chappell has just described the current Australian team as the "worst batting side ever to leave Australia's shores", the best batsman in the County Championship just happens to have been born and raised in Sydney. Middlesex opener Sam Robson is the leading run-scorer in the County Championship, just 14 shy of 1,000 for the season. He is averaging over 70 in the first division. The only problem for the Australian selectors is that Robson has decided he would rather play in, and probably for, England.
Robson, 24, has an English mother and moved to the UK in 2008, after he played the last of his nine matches for Australia's Under-19s. He is not the only talented young Australian player who has committed to qualifying for the England team. Earlier this year Warwickshire signed 18-year-old Sam Hain to a two-year contract.
Last year Hain was playing for Australian Under-19s against England, alongside Ashton Agar. He was born in Hong Kong and grew up on the Gold Coast, but both his parents are English. Hain, who played a second XI match for Warwickshire when he was only 14, got picked for Australia's Under-19s just two years later. When he signed for Warwickshire he said: "As to who I want to play for, now that I'm playing at Warwickshire, the answer is England."
The Australian press has mourned the loss of both men. Robson was described as the "star opener we may have lost" in The Australian last week, and last year The Courier Mail ran a piece on the battle to keep Hain, "the most talented 16-year-old batsman in the country" playing in Australia. They were a lot less cut-up in the 1990s, when a succession of Australian raised players ended up in England's senior team.
Alan Mullally, Jason Gallian, and Craig White all appeared for Australia's youth teams. Martin McCague had played for Western Australia, the Hollioake brothers were both born and brought up Down Under. All of them went on to play Test cricket for England. The difference is, of course, that back then Australian cricket had such rich resources they could afford to see those players go, and even scorn the English for picking them.
As Angus Fraser, Middlesex's director of cricket, says: "There has always been a line to playing in Britain for a lot of Australians, because there are so many who have English connections, whether that's a grandparent, or one parent, or a dual passport."
Robson has been reluctant to speak out himself, because he is wary of making headlines for the wrong reasons.Perhaps he has seen that infamous snap of McCague punching a toy kangaroo that appeared in the English tabloids before he made his own Ashes debut. But Robson has said: "if I got a call up [for England] down the line I would love to play."
He will qualify to play for England next year, but could be included in the Lions side before then.
It is worth asking exactly why the likes of Robson and Hain have chosen to make the switch. Fraser points out that "for many players the structure here is more attractive than Shield cricket in Australia."
Robson is not part of Middlesex's T20 team at the moment. He is almost a throwback, in that his particular gift is for playing long innings. At the start of May he took 129 off 223 balls against a Surrey attack including Christ Tremlett and Jade Dernbach. In his next innings he added 215 off 307 balls against Warwickshire. Over those two knocks he spent almost 11 hours at the crease. In short, he is exactly the kind of player the Australian Test side are sorely in need of this summer. If Robson was playing in Australia, he would only get 10 first-class matches a season, rather than the 16 he plays in the County Championship. State budgets for Shield cricket were slashed by a third in 2011 so that more money could be put into the Big Bash, a competition that dominates the season's schedules.
A player like Robson has more first- class opportunities in England, and will be better paid for his time and effort too. Plus, as Fraser points out, in England a player will have "a full-time job. Players are contracted in Shield and they don't necessarily work with their teams for 12 months of the year."
All of which explains why Robson says his one major concern right now is not who he plays international cricket for, but just making sure that he "doesn't do anything to put playing for Middlesex in jeopardy."
Robson's father, Jim, runs the indoor nets at New South Wales. He used to be a selector for the state too. He has described his son's situation as "complicated", but the fact is that Sam has spurned the chance to play for NSW because doing so would compromise his qualification to play for Middlesex.
Instead he spends his winters playing for the Eastern Suburbs club in Sydney. His younger brother Angus is over in England too, and has just won a one-year contract with Leicestershire after a spell playing in their Second XI.
Fraser is convinced that Robson will go on to play international cricket because "you don't score the runs he has scored, in the way that he has scored them, against the bowlers he has scored them off, without having the ability to step up."
Fraser describes him as "pretty phlegmatic. He doesn't seem to get overawed about situations, or by opponents. He doesn't lack confidence, he is good fun, he works hard, and he is tenacious and committed in what he does." Robson is, Fraser says, "a typical young Aussie bloke, really." In every respect but one, that is. Reported by guardian.co.uk 2 days ago.