Sam Robson picked for England Performance Programme

its not borrowing the other teams players, its the players permanently moving to another place to play for them.

It absolutely is not the same. Ifind your argument preposterous. Parents have a huge influence on their children, and denying that and equating it to a fascination with a foreign country is ludicrous. I don't know about Robson, haven't made any claims about him, and for you or anyone else to second guess his reasons is neither reasonable nor appropriate.

ChrisUK Sure you can have an emotional tie with a country because your parents are from there. But as I say, it can also be a country with which you have no legal or family connection. I have always loved Russia. By that token, I can argue I have as much of an emotional tie with Russia as Robson has with England. I didn't live in Russia as a kid, and Robson didn't live in England as a kid. As regards actual experience with those two countries, neither of us has any more than the other. The point is that, while it's fine for Robson to live in England, play cricket there and be a British citizen, or likewise while it's fine for me to live and work in Russian, learn Russian and become a citizen of the country, my definitive experiences were not Russian and Robson's definitive experiences were not English. Our definitive experiences were Australian. Therefore, in international sport, we are most attached to Australia. As for your Man City/Arsenal example. It's completely different. It's club sport, not international sport. In any event, the majority of players from each Premier League side were not brought up in the city/town the play for. Some are. But most aren't. In fact, a fairly high percentage of Premier League players aren't even British. It's a false analogy. If the Australian cricket team had guys (even just one guy) who had been brought up entirely in another country, I would regard any victory in which those guys were significant as nullified. It doesn't count if you win by borrowing the other team's players.

International Cricket is a mess. It's impossible to take seriously anymore. It's no wonder Cricket is dying here when it's top level is such a joke.

GS, it's far easier to coach a player to move the ball than it is to get them bowl at 95mph.

Prior and Compton also had British parents, as I believe does Robson. I do think you are grossly underestimating this. I am a Manchester City fan. Why? Because my Dad took me there when I was 8 years old, and because he's a Manchester City fan. My whole family is from Manchester, but I have spent most of my life in the south. So by your lights my location should have driven me to support someone like Arsenal. But I don't. My parents' influence is the most important thing.

I think you're underestimating the emotional pull that parentage creates. Not with everyone of course, but with some. Kids quite often do this, and from the outside it always looks a bit odd. I have absolutely no idea if this is true of Robson, but it does happen with plenty of people. You only have to see England play Pakistan or Australia play India or Sri Lanka to see this. You have children born and brought up in England or Australia supporting the opposition. It is their children who tend to make the break and support their native country. It's not a matter of right or wrong, it's a matter of emotion and a sense of belonging. You may not agree with it or like it, but it is there and it happens. It's undeniable. As for my friend, if he felt Irish or Italian then that's the end of it. Irrespective of where he grew up.

James Prior and Compton came to the UK when or before they started high school, or so I gather. I think Prior wasn't even a teenager when he came to the UK. That means they can lay fairly equal claim to being British as they can South African. Whereas Sam Robson had already completed all his high school education in Australia when he came to the UK (he was 18). Additionally, even when he came to England, he still spent at least one-third of the year in Australia, playing grade cricket in Sydney. So he certainly hasn't spent almost one-third of his life in England. The majority of psychologists believe that the years before you turn 18 or thereabouts are far more significant in defining you than the years that follow. I daresay you developed significantly after turning 21 or so. But nevertheless if you were psychoanalysed now, when you were about 21 and when you were even younger, experts in psychology would probably still tell you that the most significant periods for you were before you turned 18 or so. It's just normal human development.

ChrisUK "Sometimes children grow up feeling the affinity with their parent’s country, even if they haven’t been there." Sure. But by that token, we might as well say some children grow up with an affinity with a country that has nothing to do with them. I've always been obsessed with Russia, since I was very small. I have no legal or family connection with Russia. But that is that same affinity, you speak of. But, while it's wonderful if I visit Russia, learn Russian, maybe even visit Russia and become a citizen of that country, my definitive childhood experiences occurred in Australia (and a couple of other countries, but not Russia). You can't live through your parents. You're perfectly free to be attached to other countries and to leave your previous life behind. But you shouldn't be able to claim allegiance (in sport) to a country you haven't grown up in at all. Otherwise international sport might as well be club sport. As for your friend, it's fair enough for him to disassociate himself from the UK/England. That's his prerogative. He needn't support England or even be loyal to the UK. But, assuming he only grew up in the UK, that doesn't make him more Irish or Italian or anything else that he is English/British.

but Bertie, Robson is in his early 20s and has spent 6 years in england which is almost 1/3rd of his life, of that at least the first 1/3rd no one really remembers anything about anyways. so he has spent probably about the same amount of time growing as a man in australia as he did in england. i know i evolved much after i was able to start drinking than i did in primary school and early highschool. you are ok with prior compton so are ok with people being somewhere else for the first 10-15 years or so of their life but draw the line a couple of years later? my point is that he has been over in england almost a 1/3rd of his life and that part was easily the most important years of his life.

" On an emotional level, that makes him more Australian than he is British ..." Well, the only thing that's clear from any of that is that it's clear on your emotional level. How the hell you can determine the emotions of someone you know with any certainty, let alone someone you don't know at all, is frankly beyond me.

It's not poaching when the deer decides to leave the estate, wander thousands of miles up the road, knock on the poachers door, flick the kettle on and put his hooves up my friend .....

Topley's another one, yes. And Mills is very raw, no question.

I saw him play in that warmup match. He is definitely quick, but also gun barrel straight and didn't get any movement in the air or off the deck. Looks like the next Saj Mahmood to me. If I was looking for a left armer, Reece Topley looks like the real thing to me. Plus he's 50 feet tall which seems to be a selection guarantee these days.

It doesn't always work that way. Craig White was brought up in Australia too, but there's that photo of him at an Ashes Test at the SCG as a kid, wrapped in the Union Flag. Sometimes children grow up feeling the affinity with their parent's country, even if they haven't been there. Robson may (only may) have regarded himself as British growing up, irrespective of accent or upbringing. A close friend of mine had an Irish mother, Italian father, and grww up well and truly in England. British passport throughout too, but the one thing he never saw himself as was either English or British. So it isn't just about where you're from or where you grew up. It's very complex and very emotional.

I think you saw how interested England were in Mills when they got Essex to play him in the warm up match this summer. Left arm genuine quicks are like gold dust. And he's definitely quick.

It's hard to argue with that summation Bertie, however national identity in sporting terms is more fluid than ever. We might not like it, but it's just the way it is.

James "isnt choice of who you want to play for more important than where your parents were when you were born?" It's not about where you were born. You don't remember your birthing process. It (hopefully) doesn't decide the course of how you grow up (i.e. you can be born in one place and grow up in another). What counts is where you grow up. Your national identity (in the emotional but non-legal sense) is, principally, defined by where you are brought up. The country you have your earliest memories in, the country you went to school in, the country you made friends in, the country you spent those very important teenage years in, the country you learnt to play sport in. That's the country that defines your national identity. Now, obviously some people have grown up in multiple countries and so can lay claim to having multiple primary national identities. But this isn't the case for Sam Robson. In terms of primary national identity, where your parents were born, or where they grew up, is subordinated to where you were brought up. You can't live through your parents. Just because your parents may be South African, if they came to Canada and brought up you in Canada, you are far more Canadian than you are South African. I'm not saying you can't have connections (legal and emotional) with your parents' country. I certainly do. I think it's great for people to visit and even emigrate to their parents' country, or a country that they have no prior connection to. The migrant experience can be the best way to live. I love it when people who weren't born in Australia come here and live here, work here, study here and ultimately become Australian citizens. It's the fabric of our nation. Similarly I have no problem with Sam Robson playing County Cricket in England or being a British national. But Sam Robson was brought up in Australia. On an emotional level, that makes him more Australian than he is British. Therefore he should not be representing England in sport, particularly in contest against Australia. International sport is not club sport. To think otherwise means that one is labouring under a misapprehension and may well have some insecurity issues. Just accept you are who you are. There are South Africans who regard England victories against South Africa (where KP and Trott do well) as invalidated. This isn't the case for Strauss, Prior or Compton, all of whom spent their teenage years (and in Strauss' case childhood) in England. But as for KP and Trott... It doesn't come across as a proper victory, because it's done with South African players.

It's an interesting squad, very much picked with development in mind. I'm very pleased to see Tymal Mills there as he seems a real prospect. I am wondering though if Meaker has dropped of the radar for now. Surrey now appears a bit of a graveyard for young talent, where once you were almost guaranteed to play for England.

isnt choice of who you want to play for more important than where your parents were when you were born? who you play for for should be much more like the state of origin. you get to choose a little who you actually prefer and who you want to play for. you have to fulfill certain criteria but if you have that then decide away. i gave no thought to being australian at any point in primary school or highschool and really only ever thought about it after i turned 20. let people choose more. we are meant to live in a multi cultural society, act like it.