Shady ECB Tactics

[Trundler27]

I find it disturbing that the ECB indulges in shady tactics to keep certain International 'potential' players from becoming regulars and getting more opportunities in their countries of birth or origin by just giving them 1 international game for England for the sake of making them count as English players. I don't know if they really intend to develop them as England prospects and I don't know if English boards from other sports use similar tactics but this is not right imho. E.g., Gary Ballance getting 1 game against Ireland and now Jordan getting one game against Australia. Are these guys really going to figure even in the England Lions side on a regular basis? I don't think so. In the same manner I wouldn't be surprised to see guys like Sam Robson getting just 1 international game for England in order to rule him out for potential selection to the Aussie side There is probably nothing that can be done as all these guys prefer to play for England anyways but the thing that irks me about the ECB even more is this policy of just getting guys 'stamped' as English players in order to take them out of the picture for other countries. I'm sure there are different opinions on this topic and so let's hear them! Interesting link on this topic: http://www.espncricinfo.com/county-cricket-2013/content/story/658449.html

[indiaregulator]

Ballance and Robson will both form the backbones of our test team, it's hardly monopolizing talent so others can't get them, we genuinely need them. As for Jordan he went to a famous British public school since 11 so he hardly counts. Rankin I feel is indeed a bit dodgy. He's not going to feature in many of our test teams. We've got Finn and Broad who are still young, topley and Roland-jones to come in who are both superior bowlers at a much younger age.

[rahulrulezz]

I am with ECB on this. I wud blame the players not ECB. Why did we all we NRI moved out of India. Would you blame America, Canada or UK for it. No right! We all moved out for better future even though we had the opportunity to make it big in India. Similarly Peterson,Rankin, Joseph and others opted to play for UK. We're first to play the race card when we don't equal opportunities in the field of Engineering, medicine in west but if a sportsman gets n equal opportunity, it's called Poaching.

[Pagalpanti]

You can't blame ECB if players choose to represent England.

[rkt.india]

Gary Ballance will. He is considered one of the top young prospect. He had played U19 WC for Zim and was their best player. He averages 50 plus in FC and List A both.

[rkt.india]

Rankin I feel is indeed a bit dodgy. He's not going to feature in many of our test teams. We've got Finn and Broad who are still young, topley and Roland-jones to come in who are both superior bowlers at a much younger age.

Ranking is going to play coming Ashes. He has been the best bowler in this ODI series and Aussie just could not get him away.

[Trundler27]

I am with ECB on this. I wud blame the players not ECB. Why did we all we NRI moved out of India. Would you blame America, Canada or UK for it. No right! We all moved out for better future even though we had the opportunity to make it big in India. Similarly Peterson,Rankin, Joseph and others opted to play for UK. We're first to play the race card when we don't equal opportunities in the field of Engineering, medicine in west but if a sportsman gets n equal opportunity, it's called Poaching.

I wish I could agree completely with you on this. But there are 2 things: 1) I did state that probably all players wanted to play for England in the first place so that is in line with your point, and 2) Immigration is exactly the problem here. More precisely the double standards and hypocrisy in immigration stands when it comes to sports and other fields like you mentioned (engineering, med, etc.). Why do foreign trained engineers, docs, teachers, etc have to work at mcdonalds, drive cabs, work fork-lifts while it takes them many years to pass stringent exams to even begin practising their in their field after migrating to most of the countries that you mention? On the other hand, an ultra talented cricketer can make it to the national team with much more ease. IMHO, it is not the same when it comes to sports and other professional fields. My main point of concern was related to the ECB giving these guys 1 game in such a hurry just to 'tag' them as English players so the other board cannot even think of selecting them any longer.

[CoverDrive]

agree on rankin. he is definitely going to play lot more.