New Zealand in South Africa

[andrew_nixon]

Ooh. A chance to correct Andrew!
'England' or more accurately the MCC is already a combined England, Wales, Scotland and Ireland team. Eligibility is based on whether you are British or have a British relative.
Here are some famous (and not so famous) Scots who have played test cricket for England:

Douglas Jardine - captained England during bodyline
Mike Denness - captained England in 19 tests
Peter Such - 11 tests for England
Gavin Hamilton - 1 test and 5 ODI's for England

Any Irish or Scottish player could thus be called up for the Pakistan tour tomorrow (I recommend Craig Wright).

Regulations changed when Scotland and Ireland became ICC members in the early 90s.

Players from Scotland and Northern Ireland now have to play county cricket for a full season (and be current county players) before being eligible. (The same now applies to players from Jersey, Guernsey and the Isle of Man) So Craig Wright is not eligible.

Players from the Republic of Ireland have always had to fulfil a residential qualification (since the Republic became independent), eg. Ed Joyce. You should have known that Colin!

And the MCC ceased to have anything to do with the England team as of the formation of the ECB.

 

[barmyarmy]

By Ireland I meant the Northern Ireland. Should have made that clearer.
Playing county cricket means that the best Scotland/Ireland players will inevitably go to the English league and thus become eligible for selection. i.e. Gregor Maiden for Lancs and John Blain for Durham.
Ergo the 'England' team is still a British team.

 

[andrew_nixon]

By Ireland I meant the Northern Ireland. Should have made that clearer.
Playing county cricket means that the best Scotland/Ireland players will inevitably go to the English league and thus become eligible for selection. i.e. Gregor Maiden for Lancs and John Blain for Durham.
Ergo the 'England' team is still a British team.

Just seen something on the ECB site that said that if a player is not born within England & Wales they have to fulfil a 4 year residential qualification. The implication there is that Scotland and Northern Ireland players also have to fulfil this residential qualification...... and according to Wisden, John Blain isn't eligible for England, so we could both be wrong! I've sent them a question through their website to settle it!

 

[andrew_nixon]

In the ECBs bit on the Kolpak ruling (http://www.ecb.co.uk/ecb/publications/kolpak-ruling,499,BP.html) is included the qualification criteria for England, as follows.

The main requirement for qualification for England is that the player must be a British or an Irish citizen and, if he was not born within England or Wales, he must complete a four-year residence period.

So I'm going to say that players from Scotland and Northern Ireland definitely have to fulfil the same residential qualification as Ed Joyce or Kevin Pietersen had too.

 

[m_vaughan]

Rain playing spoil sport, otherwise SA were looking good at 79-2. Player of Year Jacques Kallis unbeaten on 24.

 

[Gibbsrules]

I dont think play will continue,it has been raining constantly here.Typical Durban weather,and its been sunny and humid for the whole week basically.Why does it have to rain on the day of the cricket!!

 

[aussie1st]

Play has been called off. NZ need to win the last one to avoid being blanked for this series.

 

[irottev]

Still, nothing decids to go our way. We were in a good position. There was a lot of cricket to be played but of all the games that was perhaps our best start. Toss to South Africa again, guess it never was going to go Flemings way . Its a real shame we won't end with 2-3 loss instead a 1-3 loss seems much worse. Bond found his Rhythm again, not many bowlers can do that half way through a tour. Usually they go poorly for the whole thing so thats 1 positive. Then again this is the first pitch to suit him. And rain came. I still think if we had played a little better and were fortonate to win tosses etc. it could easily be 3-0 or 4-0 if not for rain. SO I am dissapointed. Now I have Australia-NZ to look forward to with some warm ups along the way vs SL.

SA should be pretty dissapointed with some of their batsmen. Pretty much the whole top order has gotten starts without going on to make big scores in all the games. Nor have we either.

 

[satishmania]

Rain ruined the fourth one-day international in Durban, when the Kingsmead ground was saturated by heavy rain which arrived after 20 overs. Once the weather closed in their was no chance of any further action and the match was called off just before 8pm local time. The washout brings an end to South Africa's run of 12 wins in a row.

South Africa were handily placed when the rain, which had been threatening since the start of play, arrived. New Zealand took their obligatory early wickets, but could not make full use of helpful conditions. Jacques Kallis was showing ominous form on his return to the side after illness before the weather intervened.

New Zealand's new-ball bowling was its usual scattergun mix, but Shane Bond managed to remove AB de Villiers to prevent a flying start from South Africa. Graeme Smith has had a tendency in this series to appear in complete command at the crease, but failing to convert into a substantial score. His off-side play was in top working order and this time he can count himself unfortunate to have been given out against James Franklin.

Kallis has struggled for his best form in recent weeks, he was far from his best during the Super Series (although he wasn't the only one) and has been suffering from a mystery illness for the past few days. However, he showed no ill effects after replacing Herschelle Gibbs and located the middle of the bat from the moment to came to the crease. A trademark straight drive signalled his intent and, although he had to be watchful against a ball that was nipping around, he kept the scoreboard ticking over.

A short-arm pull and a fierce square-cut followed as Kallis took advantage of Fleming's decision to use both his Powerplays in succession and Ashwell Prince also threaded the ball through the infield. Franklin caused occasional moments of unease for both players and Scott Styris kept his end tight, but there was a feeling that the batsmen were about to push on when Durban's infamous weather made a lasting impression on the match.

Courtesy:Cricinfo

 

[aussie1st]

Out of interest did you type that up Satish?

Too bad for Kallis this may have been his return to form.

 

[satishmania]

no buddy, i just copied it from Cricinfo and pasted it....

 

[satishmania]

none of the top order batsmen have fired for South Africa. they wouldnt have won this series without Justin Kemp's belligerent batsmanship..

 

[aussie1st]

Defintiely without Kemp SA would have been the ones down 3-0.

 

[Gibbsrules]

The rain had to spoil it.SA were in a good position in that match,I mean,the ball was swinging when New Zealand were bowling and SA have good extractors of swing bowling.eg Pollock and especially Langeveld,so a good score could have easily been defended.

 

[irottev]

The game was actually pretty even. But considering we lost the toss AGAIN chasing would of been hard for us considering the whole evening bowler-fest hour.