Will the real Englishman please stand up!

Recently I came across news that Jacques Rudolph, the South African test player has decided to abandon his country and become a Kolpak player for Yorkshire while Saqlain Mushtaq the former Pakistani spinner has joined Sussex. The way things are going I would be surprised to see if England managed to field 5 pure Englishmen for the 2009 Ashes. Pure in a sense that people of Asian origin though are born in England, but I have excluded them for the sake of this post. The people who survived the last ashes and are expected to be included are Flintoff, Bell, Pietersen, Cook, Strauss and Panesar. May be Mahmood, Harmison, Anderson and even Hoggard. But again English fast bowers have a history of injury problems. Look at Simon Jones, no international cricket after the ashes of 2005. Among the lot who are expected to play 2 were born in South Africa (Pietersen and Strauss) and 2 of Asian origin (Panesar and Mahmood). When you look at the next generation of players, well you have guys like Broad, Davies, Jefferson and Onions, but again you have Compton, born in South Africa and Adil Rashid of Asian origin. Add guys like Joyce (Ireland), Amjad Khan (Denmark), Kervezee (Netherlands), Morgan (Ireland), plus you also have guys like Jacques Rudolph and Saqlain Mushtaq. Well this may be the Ashes XI for 2009 – Cook, Rudolph, Bell, Pietersen, Flintoff, Joyce, Davies, Panesar, Amjad Khan, Anderson and Broad. Well they have managed to have 6 pure Englishmen, great going guys; well 2020 will be a different scene all together.