It is oft stated by those of us who are not fans of the English cricket team that it is, at times, akin to playing a United Nations XI given that a number of English players over the years have been born, and in some cases played significant cricket, in countries other than England.  As a result of a discussion on this very issue this morning, off the back of an Irishman and Zimbabwean making their debuts for England today, I was set the challenge of naming a “best” English XI made up from those who were born somewhere other than England.

Let me get this out of the way now: I am abundantly aware that some of these players moved to England to play cricket because of political (apartheid), opportunity (their country was not in test cricket) or, indeed, they moved there with their families as children.  I am also not in any way seeking to be racist.  All I am pointing out is that a large quotient of England’s best players, for better or for worse, have been born elsewhere.

The method for picking this XI has been simple: I reviewed the records of the English players who have played the game filtered by from the most tests played to the least and then I looked at the place of birth of players I knew to have been born other than in England.  I may have missed a couple along the way but I reckon this XI is pretty spot on.  Finally: Wales, Scotland and Ireland and NOT part of England for the purpose of this exercise.

Here is the United Nations (English) XI (with country of birth in parenthesis) along with their test records:

Andrew Strauss (South Africa)

Matches	Runs	HS	Ave	Wkts	BBI	Ave	Catches
100	7037	177	40.91	–	–	–	121

Mike Denness (Scotland)

Matches	Runs	HS	Ave	Wkts	BBI	Ave	Catches
28	1667	188	39.69	–	–	–	28

Allan Lamb (South Africa)

Matches	Runs	HS	Ave	Wkts	BBI	Ave	Catches
79	4656	142	36.09	1	1/6	23	75

Kevin Pietersen (South Africa)

Matches	Runs	HS	Ave	Wkts	BBI	Ave	Catches
104	8172	227	47.78	10	3/52	86.9	62

Graeme Hick (Zimbabwe)

Matches	Runs	HS	Ave	Wkts	BBI	Ave	Catches
65	3383	178	31.32	23	4/126	56.78	90

Basil D’Oliviera (South Africa)

Matches	Runs	HS	Ave	Wkts	BBI	Ave	Catches
44	2484	158	40.06	47	3/46	39.55	29

Matt Prior (South Africa)

Matches	Runs	HS	Ave	Wkts	BBI	Ave	Catches
75	3920	131	40.83	–	–	–	217

Tony Greig (South Africa)

Matches	Runs	HS	Ave	Wkts	BBI	Ave	Catches
58	3599	148	40.43	141	8/86	32.2	87

Chris Lewis (Guyana)

Matches	Runs	HS	Ave	Wkts	BBI	Ave	Catches
32	1105	117	23.02	93	6/111	37.52	25

Robert Croft (Wales)

Matches	Runs	HS	Ave	Wkts	BBI	Ave	Catches
21	421	37	16.19	49	5/95′	37.24	10

Norman Cowans (Jamiaca)

Matches	Runs	HS	Ave	Wkts	BBI	Ave	Catches
19	175	36	7.95	51	6/77′	39.27	9

That is a pretty fair XI I am sure you will agree.  It would be remiss of me though to not mention one of the most hated English players to grace these shores (not Stuart Broad for those of you who jumped to that conclusion), Douglas Jardine.  The captain of the Bodyline series and noted anglophile who was almost overt in his dislike for Australians was born in India.