I could understand the headline reader thinking this team is Test or first-class descendants of Test players.
Nope, although that’s a future possibility, this batch came to mind as I renewed my Ancestry membership and read the short descriptor on patronymic surnames; names derived from the father.
While Richardson no longer means son of Richard, nor O’Neill means son of Neill, I was curious whether an international XI was possible. Prefixes such as O’, Mc, Mac, Gil, Kil and Fitz are English and Gaelic for ‘son of’. Di is Italian, while bin in an Arabic name denotes ‘son of’.
The obvious suffixes is son, sson and sen from English, Scandinavian, Nordic languages, while es and ez derive from Portuguese and Spanish.
Many might have read the last paragraph and automatically thought well Adam Gilchrist is a monte, but Gil can mean son of, servant or devotee and it seems Dave Gilbert is more likely as son of Bert, while Gilchrist is more a devotee. Up to you though if you think his talent was god-given.
I expected a Fitzpatrick or Fitzgerald but as Ireland plays more internationals I guess we’ll improve our quota. I also found it difficult to find Indian players. I’ll stand corrected but my study suggests that middle names are given to denote father or descendant (much like the West does today) while surnames denote caste, or the location a family came from.
It was difficult to find openers, although I may have missed someone obvious and will no doubt be advised, but I’ve played O’Neill way out of position as we have better 3s and 4s.
So in rough batting order:
1. Michael di Venuto (Aus)
2. Norm O’Neill (Aus)
3. Richie Richardson (WI)
4. Kevin Pietersen (Eng)
5. Kane Williamson (NZ)
6. Brian McMillan (SA)
7. Alan Davidson (Aus)
8. John McLean (w-k) (Aus)
9. Bill O’Reilly (Aus)
10. Jimmy Anderson (Eng)
11. Glenn McGrath (Aus)
While it was hard to find an actual opener, there were notable omissions in Craig McDermott, Stuart MacGill and Mitchell Johnson, as well as Aussie all-rounders Simon O’Donnell and Moises Henriques, West Indian medium-pacer Nixon McLean and Irish thrashing machine Kevin O’Brien.
Saeed bin Nadir misses out too, as his 190 first-class games have only got him as far as Pakistan A so far.
Tigerbill44
Roar Guru
Mashrafe-Bin-Mortoza? the former captain of Bangladesh. He is an MP of course now. Sadly has been suffering from COVID19 since last week.
Rowdy
Roar Rookie
Yorshire and Borders should join together. Interestingly people named Kerr, from the region, have 3 times the incidence of left-handedness!
Jon Richardson
Roar Pro
They’d not be happy to hear you say that across in the Scottish Borders where my lot came from Rowdy. Possibly originally from the Vikings too though, according to some accounts.
JGK
Roar Guru
I could only choose one Jackson and went with The Honourable FS...
matth
Roar Guru
I'd throw in Archie Jackson for McMillan as well.
Rowdy
Roar Rookie
You weave a good yarn.
matth
Roar Guru
I reckon you could have snuck yourself in as twelfth man.
matth
Roar Guru
He had a reputation for ripping into 'em. He was a very deceptive bowler as well. It would often take a few overs for the batsmen to cotton on to what he was doing as he pulled the wool over their eyes.
matth
Roar Guru
The General Charlie MacArtney once hit a century before lunch in an international match, so i think he'd be fine as your opener. He averaged 35 in tests as an opener and a whopping 59 as a number 3. He once hit three test centuries on the trot, away against England no less. He was a gem.
JGK
Roar Guru
He also thinks he's a Singer.
Rowdy
Roar Rookie
I was threading you were gonna say that.
Paul
Roar Guru
I think you might have spent too much time alone Rowdy. That was pretty bad :happy: :happy:
JGK
Roar Guru
OK, I couldn't resist. Here is my team to play the one listed above (with no double ups on surnames): Bobby Simpson Jackie McGlew Charlie Macartney Stan McCabe FS Jackson Craig McMillan Brendon McCullum (wk) Mitchell Johnson Frank Tyson Stuart MacGill Jeff Thomson Some serious firepower both sides of the ball in that lot! Still missing quality bowlers like McKenzie, McDermott, Pattinson, Tom Richardson etc! Sadly, the des and dus and vans for South Africa don't qualify. I did wonder if "-Paul" means "son of" - eg Chanderpaul, Rampaul but couldn't find any support for it.
Rowdy
Roar Rookie
Richardson is from Yorkshire. Yorkshire has much Viking heritage. No wonder Yorkshire produced so many feisty players. ---- So every team either needs a Croatian or a Yorkshireman (or 4 if ya need a laugh)
Rowdy
Roar Rookie
If he was a so-so bowler he must've had em in stitches.
Insult_2_Injury
Roar Rookie
I'm sure you got by, unless of course you played like Miranda, I don't believe her cricket ability rivaled her acting!
Jon Richardson
Roar Pro
If there were any, sadly I didn’t inherit enough of the genes.
Insult_2_Injury
Roar Rookie
Of course
Insult_2_Injury
Roar Rookie
Good call
Insult_2_Injury
Roar Rookie
How many in your family tree?