Boyd Rankin quits Irish cricket for Test dream

[VC the slogger]

Boyd Rankin, the 6'8" Irish fast bowler has announced that he will retire from Irish cricket in order to play Test cricket for England. He becomes the third cricketer from Ireland to quit in order to play for England following the footsteps of Ed Joyce and Eoin Morgan.
Rankin has taken a total of 110 wickets for Ireland in all cricket matches and was impressive in the Cricket World Cups of 2007 & 2011 spearheading the Irish bowling attack.

 

[Owzat]

Posted in another thread, but as it is about Rankin

Tremlett 6' 7" - Test ave 26.75
Finn 6' 7" - Test ave 29.46
Rankin 6' 7" - n/a
Broad 6' 5" - Test ave 30.66
Onions 6' 2" - Test ave 29.90
Anderson 6' 2" - Test ave 30.41
Bresnan 6' 0" - Test ave 30.05

So we already have three quicks over 6' 4", is there a call for another? He'd be behind Finn surely? Probably Tremlett too, of the 7 inchers

FCC

Tremlett 391 wkts @ 27.63 (SR 52.8, ER 3.13)
Finn 277 wkts @ 27.81 (SR 48.6, ER 3.43)
Rankin 161 wkts @ 28.55 (SR 45.8, ER 3.73)

It's not even like he's a spring chicken, turned 28 last month. If he were knocking them over at a much lower average then maybes, or a better bat. I think he's every chance of joining the one cap wonder club or being the next Khan, Pattinson etc...............

 

[RPHKR]

England XI or World XI??

Boyd Rankin to join England too?
Scotland and Ireland produce world class players, but ECB just grab them?

 

[puddleduck]

When people start trying to claim Ravi Bopara isn't English, is the moment the joke actually turns racist

 

[RPHKR]

Atleast, KOB is patriotic. He is not willing to play for England. Link

 

[puddleduck]

So why isn't Ravi English? Is it the colour of his skin? Must people be white to be English?

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Oh and of course KOB isn't willing... he's not actually good enough Would never get in ahead of Prior and Ireland already play the short-form.

 

[puneet28]

Ravi's Parents moved to England a long ago.. He actually belongs to Punjab in India. His real name is Ravinder Singh Bopara.

 

[SaiSrini]

Its not racist. The guy looks an Indian (a Punjabi). And as puneet points out above, his parents are immigrants and he is of the Indian descent who plays for England.

 

[puddleduck]

I didn't realise Forest Gate was in India

Born in England. Educated in England. Has an English passport. Again, your judging someone on the colour of their skin

 

[War]

I didn't realise Forest Gate was in India

Born in England. Educated in England. Has an English passport. Again, your judging someone on the colour of their skin

Haha ye, this is beyond ridiculous and is certainly racist. People/outsiders who want to mock England for the foreign imports in fine and its all good banter. But don't cross the line like this, SMFH

 

[puddleduck]

Same applies to Samit by the way. Born in Leicestershire and English schooled and raised. It's fair enough that the likes of KP, Strauss, Trott etc were all born in South Africa, Morgan in Ireland and so on, but to chuck two guys in who are quite clearly English just because their skin colour isn't white is basically racist You'd probably get on really well with the EDL... except they wouldn't like you because of the colour of your skin

 

[War]

Strauss and Prior born in S Africa to English parents. Just like Colin Cowdrey and Nasser Hussain were born in India to English parents, Ted Dexter in Italy to English parents and Geraint Jones in Papa New Guinea to English parents.

So people need to cut the crap by calling Strauss and Prior S African also like KP, Trott and Kieswetter.

 

[puddleduck]

Yeah the joke kind of works with Strauss though, especially since Strauss is about as posh an English schoolboy as they come

 

[Auwais]

Asians have a strange mentality around this sort of thing, remember Sajid Mahmood getting called a "traitor" by the Pakistan fans?

 

[puddleduck]

Some kind of leftover resentment from colonial times I'm sure. Indians who worked with their conquerers were quite rightly considered traitors. Still, chips on shoulders are particularly bitter.