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It has been announced this week that Traeger Park, Alice Springs, set against the backdrop of the iconic MacDonnell Ranges, is to host an Ashes tour match in November this year.
Presently in England, batting for Middlesex, it was left to another rugged Australian, Chris Rogers, to stake a claim for inclusion in the eagerly awaited contest. Yet intriguingly, alongside him was a more unfamiliar name that may one day feature in the white heat of an Ashes contest.
The only question is which country will Sam Robson eventually opt for – Australia or England?
The 23-year-old Sydney born right handed opener has played cricket for New South Wales Under-17s, Under-19s, the Australian Under-19 team, the University of New South Wales, and Eastern Suburbs.
He has also played First Class cricket for Middlesex since June 2009 and currently averages a fraction under 40. In addition, he has five First Class centuries to his name in that time, which includes one of the wettest summers in UK history.
Robson has also secured a historical footnote (and one for inclusion in pub quizzes) by making the earliest First Class hundred ever seen in Great Britain – which he achieved before March was out last year for Middlesex against Durham University.
In August 2011 I watched a young Robson hitting a century alongside three-time Ashes winner and England legend Andrew Strauss (who scored a career best 241* in the same innings), for Middlesex against Leicestershire.
The Paddington-born right handed opener also showed his bravery that day by reluctantly retiring hurt on 101 after suffering double vision after being hit on the helmet by a bouncer from Wayne White.
An outstanding fielder as well, he finished the 2011 season with an impressive 885 runs at a First Class average of 59.
Last season, in miserable weather, he suffered a dip, but still managed 814 First Class runs at an average of 30.14. He then went back and played grade cricket in Sydney for Eastern suburbs over the winter.
It appears to have helped him. Robson has started this season well, scoring 131 in the match in a Middlesex victory at Trent Bridge, the field of the first Ashes battle of 2013.
He has also just passed 3,000 career First Class runs with his century in the London derby between Middlesex and Surrey, in the 263rd instalment of this ancient fixture first played in 1850.
To put the length of this long standing contest into context it was to be another ten years before the ranges, named after Sir Richard MacDonnell, the Governor of South Australia at the time by explorer John McDouall Stuart, had even been located by white settlers, whose 1860 expedition reached them in April of that year (Disappointingly for a Middlesex man Surrey lead the way in the overall head-to-head with 93 wins to 75).
After being skittled by Surrey for a disappointing 166 in their first innings, including a fluent if abridged 21 by Rogers, and a battling 36 by Robson, Middlesex were asked to follow on by new Surrey captain – if not a new South African one – Graeme Smith.
Even as the pitch became far more benign, it was Rogers and Robson early seizing of the initiative in the second innings that saw them set a new record for the highest ever first wicket partnership for the ‘Middle’ against their arch South London rivals, the ‘Re’.
This surpassed the previous record of 232 set by ‘Plum’ Warner and James Douglas five years before the Titanic sank.
Rogers seems to think Robson will side with England, being reported as saying that his partner at the top of the Middlesex batting line-up has already made up his mind, and that it is Australia’s loss. However, Middlesex literature lists him as “not qualified for England,” even if he is well on the way to finishing his qualifying period to play for England if he choses.
Robson is a little more equivocal on the matter, not yet declaring his preference for either side. He is quoted as saying he merely wants to “contribute to some Middlesex success.”
But a Paddington born Aussie with an English mother and a British passport will always have options open to him in both hemispheres if he plays well.
What’s it to be Sam?
Incidentally Rogers looked in great nick too it has to be said in scoring his 29th century in county cricket (one for Leicester, five for Northamptonshire, 15 for Derbyshire and now eight for Middlesex).
In his first match since being recalled to the Australian cricket team after a gap of five years, as Robson’s partner in the trenches, he hit 214 in the same innings as Robson scored his 129. It was his ninth First Class double century.
With the second Test of the eagerly awaited Ashes to be played at his home ground of Lords, Rogers’ timing couldn’t have been better. The vagaries of the St John’s Wood slope can be difficult to read, as many an uninitiated player has found to their cost.
While we’re on the subject, Ashes fever is growing over here. The Guardian online has already started a ’20 great Ashes moments’ (no prizes for guessing that a certain SK Warne is at number one for his ball of the century).
Despite the race for fourth place in the Premier League, Sky Sports are trailing the contest already, and as for tickets, forget it! They all went long ago, with Trent Bridge and Old Trafford selling out their first four days one cold morning last winter.
Wise heads are rare in counselling everyone to concentrate on the two Test series against New Zealand starting a week Thursday at Lords before looking towards Australia.
The English players, of course, are keen to stress at the moment that the Kiwi series takes precedence. A few may even believe it.
Not that they’d toe anything other than the party line. They even affected a mild bemusement at the gang of four miscreants being ‘sacked’ by Mickey Arthur for breaches of team protocol prior to the Mohali Test in your 4-0 loss to India.
In my experience it’s always best to be wary when teams say they only concentrate on themselves and don’t pay attention to what’s happening elsewhere – as it’s simply not true.
You know for a fact Andy Flower and Alistair Cook et al will have studied recent Aussie travails in minute detail. They will also have taken great satisfaction (behind the scenes at least) in what happened to you guys in India.
Many think it will be walkover.
But what do they know of the Ashes who Ashes only know?
Everyone else understands it’s going to be a far closer series than a lot of people believe, as Australian born cricketers and Australian people in general simply don’t do capitulation.
Just ask Chris Rogers and Sam Robson.
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