“My four years are now up so this is a massive thing for me and I feel as English as anybody else does and I am just happy that is now out of the way, and hopefully people can now concentrate on talking about my cricket rather than my background” – meet Craig Kieswetter, England’s latest South African-born candidate for international glory.
“We have to think long and hard about how we improve the customer experience. When you go to India and sit in a stadium that is full the contrast between that and the way we offer up T20 cricket could hardly be more stark. I’m not saying we need the full Bollywood treatment. That might not be right, but we have to do better than we have so far. In Twenty20 cricket we have been shown a clean pair of heels and we have a lot of work to do to get ourselves back on their level. There is a balance to be struck, but we are moving in the right direction” – Somerset chairman Andy Nash does some first-hand market research.
“Marcus deserves a huge amount of credit, it was a courageous decision for him even to try to go there to play. It’s obviously not worked out but I spoke to him this morning (Friday) and he’s fine. It’s not the first time this has happened but at least he’s given it a go” – Michael Vaughan, one of several cricketing figures to offer Marcus Trescothick their strong public support.