Please, Mr. Inverarity, go watch Middlesex and Sam Robson

The list of Australians contracted to play County cricket this season makes for a motley crew.

There’s the artisan Shield bowlers who migrate north in the winter (Steve Magoffin, Trent Copeland, Michael Hogan).

There’s the quasi-British collection of émigrés who are well-known on the County circuit but couldn’t be picked out of a line-up even by the most hardened Australian fan (Stewart Walters, Jim Allenby, Steven Crook, Michael Johnson, Callum Thorp).

There’s a slew of ageing, slighted openers who still pile up runs by the bundle despite uniformly being poorly treated by Australian selectors (Phil Jaques, Simon Katich, Marcus North).

And there’s a smattering of national team players, fringe or otherwise, for whom the English season is a perfect opportunity to push claims to the Ashes XI (Ed Cowan, Rob Quiney, Chris Rogers, Joe Burns).

And then there’s Sam Robson, the 23-year-old strokemaker who may soon have the Cricket Australia and the ECB engaged in a battle to secure his loyalties.

With each County team only allowed to field one player that doesn’t hold a British passport, sides are left to pick over a selection of foreigners who either hold British citizenship, so as not to waste the ‘overseas player’ slot, or are retired or unlikely to be picked by their national teams in order to maximize game time (such as Ramnaresh Sarwan and Herschelle Gibbs).

Most non-British players are Australians playing via dual citizenship or the Kolpak loophole, such as Nottinghamshire’s Riki Wessels, whose father Kepler played international cricket for both Australian and South Africa.

Robson falls into the former category. The holder of a British passport through his mother, Robson’s career path is similar to other Australians who have never played First Class cricket in Australian but have thrived in England, such as Glamorgan’s Stewart Walters.

As such, Robson is an unfamiliar name to cricket followers in his home country.

Yet this lack of recognition belies a prodigious talent – Robson made his maiden First Class century at the age of twenty, at no less impressive venue than Lords.

Newly partnered with Ashes hopeful Chris Rogers at the top of the Middlesex order, the two made a brilliant start to the season as Middlesex made a mockery of their dark horse status to beat Ed Cowan’s Nottinghamshire by ten wickets.

Both Rogers and Robson impressed hugely, putting on hundred run partnerships for the first wicket in both innings (106 and an unbeaten 110 respectively).

Robson hit 79 and 55* and Rogers made 50 and 51*, sending a clear message to John Inverarity and company that both are potential Ashes bolters.

Middlesex play in Division One, meaning the pair will face the same bowlers who will be playing for England come June, a huge advantage should a call-up come.

Yet it mightn’t be so simple. The positives of having young Australians play in England is that the possibility of the ECB – always with a shrewd eye for players of split loyalty – may try to lure them to the English cause.

Already this season Australia have lost Sam Hain, the talented 17 year-old, to England. Robson may be next.

After his first innings 50, Robson played his cards close to his chest, saying: “I’m not sure what my situation is exactly, but everyone wants to play international cricket.”

By the next English summer he’ll have spent enough time in England to qualify for their national team, a fact that the ECB are surely aware of.

While the right-hander compiled only modest statistics in the 2012 season (814 runs at 30 with a solitary century), his overall record is more promising, with an overall average of 39.

If Robson can continue his excellent form alongside Rogers and pushes his average closer to the mid-forties this season, there’s no reason why Australia should have to enter into a tussle for the Paddington-born player’s loyalty.

With a brittle top order relatively low on experience against the Duke, an in-form Robson looks a promising prospect for the Ashes squad – just make sure it’s the Australian Ashes squad, please Mr. Inverarity.