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ShareLondon: The England cricket team, which already has a long list of foreign players, has drafted yet another South African into their performance squad, raising criticism that there will soon be more South African accents in the dressing room than English.
Four of England's Test squad--Jonathan Trott, Kevin Pietersen, Matt Prior and Andrew Strauss--were born in South Africa, while another, Surrey bowler Jade Dernbach, is from Johannesburg.
Sidelined England wicketkeeper Phil Mustard's agent raised the point after Craig Kieswetter, a South Africa-born wicket-keeper batsman, was fast-tracked into England's performance squad ahead of Mustard, who had played against Sri Lanka and New Zealand two winters ago.
"Soon there will be a danger of more South African accents in the England dressing room than English ones. Phil does not have a divine right to play for England, but when he is overlooked for a place in the development squad by a guy who is not even qualified to play for England yet, he has been marginalised too far," The Mirror quoted Danny Garcia, Mustard's agent, as saying.
"This is an issue which affects every cricketer who wants to play for England and every England fan - what next, test tube cricketers? Mark Ramprakash was right when he said in the Daily Mirror that English fans want to see English players wearing the England cap," he added.
