At first glance there would seem little in common between last week’s third Ashes Test at Edgbaston and the fourth Test between England and the West Indies at St John’s in April 2004.
But in fact last week was the first time since that Test in the Caribbean that England took the field with an XI which didn’t have a player born under the African sun.
Andrew Strauss debuted at Lord’s on May 20 2004, with a 100 and 80, and so begin a continuous African presence in the side for over 10 years.
Immensely talented, ostentatious and ultimately polarising, Kevin Pietersen entered the team in 2005. Matt Prior and Jonathan Trott followed, making a quartet of South Africans in the one side for nearly two years. Pietersen’s last Test, in Sydney 2014, was Zimbabwean born and raised Gary Ballance’s debut and he with brief support from Trott has carried the era until being dropped for the Birmingham Test.
While they all had different journeys to England and into English cricket, heritage is still a fundamental makeup of one’s character.
African-born players playing in an England side are not unusual, with Kenyan-born Derek Pringle, Zambian Phil Edmonds, Zimbabwean Graeme Hick and South Africans Tony Greig and Basil D’Oliveira just a few coming to mind.
However it is the sheer extent of the modern Afro-England era which is extraordinary. The era lasted a consecutive 139 Tests spanning 11 years, doubling the Tests of Greig and D’Oliveira, and easily eclipsing the time of Pringle, Allan Lamb, Robin Smith and Hick.
The Strauss-Ballance era contributed over 24,300 runs, 469 catches and a handful of wickets. Strauss, Pietersen, Prior and Trott were such an integral and dominant part of the side, which lost only 28 per cent of 140 Tests. Strauss and Pietersen also captained England.
It is probably worthy to note Zimbabwean Andy Flower was coach for around half of the era as well, although coaching is an international game these days.
While they have made a huge contribution to English cricket, it hasn’t all been rosy. Apart from young Ballance, all have had their share of controversy, with Pietersen central. He was a walking headline for most of his career, and Prior and particularly Strauss were involved in public spats with Pietersen near their exits.
Although the sun may have set on what will probably be the most influential African era of English cricket, it doesn’t mean the current England XI were all born in England. All rounder Ben Stokes was born in New Zealand.
Some things never change.
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