Ben Stokes (left) and Mark Wood (right) are among the six Nordics to be on the England side for the fourth Ashes test: Getty Images/Richard Heathcote
Never since the 1880s have there been so few southerners in an English Test team as at Old Trafford, assuming Ollie Robinson – after yet another back spasm in the third Test – falls to James Anderson or Josh. Language.
It depends on where you draw the geographic lines: to say that England is simply divided into North and South is a bit trite. If we separate the three categories, including the Midlands, then the England team for the fourth test will have only one southerner, Zach Crowley.
It also depends on how certain people in this age of social mobility are categorized. Sir Alastair Cooke was born in Gloucester, but that doesn't make him a western wurzel with straw sticking out of his helmet. He lived there for only a few weeks before moving to Bedford.
It is difficult to single out Ben Duckett in this England team. Like Crowley, he was born in Kent but went to school in Stowe, near Buckingham, and played for Northamptonshire until the age of 11 before moving to Nottinghamshire. For that purpose, he's a Midland resident.
England opener Ben Duckett was born in the South but plays cricket in the Midlands . Photo: Reuters/Peter Ciborra
England Test team historian Simon Wilde, who wrote the acclaimed book England a Biography, is unaware of analyzing all Test players on a geographic basis, but he is certain that a bias like the one we see that the coming week has never happened to 1880s.
There was a good reason for the late Victorian bias towards the North. The England touring team was not then selected by the MCC. The squad for the 1884–1885 season was chosen by two Nottinghamshire cricketers, Alfred Shaw and Arthur Shrewsbury, who selected their players exclusively from Notts and Yorkshire, with the exception of Johnny Briggs from Lancashire and Maurice Reed, a batsman from Surrey. They were all professionals; and what's more, going 2-2 to the fifth test 1884-5 (the first of all five tests) they won the decider.
England 1507 at Old Trafford
“A better side than this, both for defense and attack, could not then, and I am sure, could not be chosen now from the ranks of English cricketers,” wrote one expert in 1902, who turned out to be Shaw himself. And there must have been some advantage in almost all the players being of the same origin as they came together and beat Australia in the fifth Test by serve difference.
With the current team, our geographic breakdown looks like in the following way. North: Johnny Barstow, Harry Brooke, Joe Ruth, Ben Stokes and Mark Wood, and James Anderson if selected. Midlands: Moin Ali, Stuart Broad, Ben Duckett and Chris Wookes, plus Josh Tong if selected. South: Zach Crowley.
England No. 1 Zach Crowley will be England's only Southerner at Old Trafford Credit. : AFP/Jeff Caddick
The nearest example of a deviation from the South between 1884 and 1885 to the present was under Douglas Jardine, a Scot. For the purposes of the 1932–1933 Bodyline series, he ended up, like Shrewsbury, relying heavily on men from Nottinghamshire and Yorkshire. Only Les Ames and Gabby Allen were from the South.
However, when it comes to appointing England captains, Wilde found a marked bias towards the South. Of England's 81 test captains, “42 have played for the six south east counties of Essex, Hampshire, Kent, Middlesex, Surrey and Sussex. As early as 1988, Ray Illingworth accused the selection committee of not watching cricket north of Watford Gap enough.
Does it matter if there is a geographic bias in the selection of England players and captains, i.e. is there any evidence that England win more games in the North and the Midlands: do they feel at home and play better? No.
In the game against Australia, the most successful field for England is the Oval, and the least successful field is the Lord's field. But the accepted explanation is that the Aussies are already past their peak by the time they reach the fifth Test at the Oval, having been away from home for several months while they are peaking at the second Test at Lords. Four other major testing grounds (which have done more than two tests) are clustered between Lord and The Oval for England's success.
Ben Stokes ( left) scored a superb 155 runs in the Lords tournament, but it wasn't enough to beat Australia. Of the last 18 Ashes Tests England have had at home in the past decade, they have only won two in the South (Lord's in 2013, Oval in 2019) against three in the Midlands (Edgbaston 2015, Trent Bridge 2013 and 2015). ) and three in the North (Chester-le-Street 2013, Headingley 2019 and 2023) with one win at Cardiff in 2015. Again, England haven't won at Old Trafford since 1981.
Or maybe there's a southern slant after all – a slant towards the South Island in New Zealand. Because that's where England captain and manager Ben Stokes and Brandon McCallum were born and, at least initially, raised.
Recent Comments