Top 5 England cricketers who were born in South Africa

Over generations and several years, the England cricket team has seen faces which have not grown up in their own country play their guts out for the Three Lions. There have been players who have gone on to represent the England team even though they have been brought up in other countries and had only switched to England after they could not get into their native country’s national team.

The Kolpak ruling which came into force in 2003 allows these players to represent the English team as the European Court of Justice had ruled that anyone with a work permit from a country which has an associate trading agreement with the European Union (EU) had the same rights as a European worker. This meant that the counties could sign cricketers from around 100 countries, including South Africa and Zimbabwe, without having to designate them as overseas players as long as they had not represented their country in the past year.

Kolpak players then only needed a working holiday visa to play. However, now that England has withdrawn from the EU, this can no longer be applied with the same effect. But there are some cricketers who benefitted from the ruling and went on to represent England at the highest level. We look at the top five cricketers who were born in South Africa but went on to represent England:

#1 Tony Greig

Tony Greig made his debut for England in 1972 after having shifted to England from South Africa

The legendary Tony Greig was born in Queenstown in South Africa and travelled to England in 1965 at the age of 19 where he had a successful trial at Sussex. Greig’s only motive of changing nations was that he wanted to play Test cricket, and he achieved his dream seven years later. The man who was later known for his subtle commentary was never known for his sound technique but still managed to score six hundreds in the 58 Tests he played for England.

The South Africa-born legend was also known for his bowling as he picked up a total of 141 wickets, getting ten wickets in a match twice. He is also known for his captaincy skills which led to him being adored as a player in India. However, after he retired from the game in 1977, the cricketer went on to become the man who brought fellow cricketers into the World Series Championships for Kerry Packer.

Greig was also famous for his commentary skills and was considered as one of the best commentators in history but he died at the age of just 66 because of heart attack on December 29, 2012 in Sydney, Australia. He is remembered for his contribution to English cricket with both the bat and the ball.

#2 Kevin Pietersen

Kevin Pietersen is the most famous South African to turn up for the English team

Kevin Pietersen was born in 1980 in Pietermaritzburg, South Africa where he played three years of domestic cricket from the year 1997 to 2000. However, as the cricketer did not get his opportunities at the highest level, Kevin decided to shift to England to pursue a career in the game. Pietersen has an English mother, therefore it was easy for him to get a place in the English domestic cricket but had to serve a period of four years in the domestic league before he could represent the national team.

As soon as the 36-year old completed the four-year period, he was drafted into the English national team at the age of 24. Pietersen went on to become the most exciting English batsman in a couple of years and did not disappoint his adopted nation as he scored a total of more than 12,500 runs in international cricket for England.

However, controversies always surrounded the South African-born cricketer as he was dropped from the national side for an indefinite period after he was found guilty of sending derogatory messages about his captain Andrew Strauss and coach Andy Flower to some of the South African cricketers.

Even with 23 Test centuries to his name, Pietersen is still not considered as an English great because of the controversies that have surrounded his career since the start. The star batsman continues to play for different domestic T-20 sides in Australia, South Africa, England, India, West Indies, Bangladesh, and Pakistan.

#3 Andrew Strauss

Andrew Strauss went on to lead England in what was an important phase in their cricketing history

Former England captain Andrew Strauss made his England debut in the year 2004 against Sri Lanka. The former England opener was born in Johannesburg, South Africa in 1977 and went on to represent England in a total of 100 Test matches and 127 ODIs. The player did lack fanfare in his career but was very successful as a batsman as well as a captain.

The former left-hander went on to make 21 centuries en route to more than 7,000 runs in Tests. The batsman had formed a great partnership with current skipper Alistair Cook and the two shepherded England to the number one ranking in Test cricket.

Strauss went on to become one of the safest slip catchers in the world and played a vital role in bringing England to summit of world cricket as he teamed up with then coach Andy Flower. Strauss currently serves as the Director of Cricket for the English cricket team.

#4 Robin Smith

Robin Smith came to England and went on to play 62 Tests for the national team

Robin Smith is one of the South African-born English players who went on to become on of the mainstays in the English team. Smith made his debut for England in the year 1988 and went on to play 62 Test matches for the country after being born in Durban, South Africa. The former batsman could not qualify to play for the South African team due to the apartheid regime in the nation and hence moved to England as he had an English father.

The player was known for his tirade of shots against fast bowling and was one of the first South African-born cricketers to have emerged as England’s national team players in international cricket. Smith was known for his hook and cut but is also known to have lost much of his aplomb when the bowling became slow.

Smith went on to play his final series in South Africa, after which he was dropped from the team even though he did not have the worst series. The cricketer went on to make 4236 runs from the 62 Tests he featured in at an average of just above 43.

#5 Jonathan Trott

Jonathan Trott was one of the finest batsmen to have played for England but retired early

Jonathan Trott made his debut for England in 2009 where he scored a hundred against Australia in what was a very impressive debut for the 35-year old. Trott went on to become one of the finest batsmen in the world in a couple of years and consequently won the 2011 ICC and ECB Cricketer of the Year awards. However, Trott had previously represented South Africa at the highest level in the Under-15 and Under-19 World Cups.

The cricketer went on to establish himself in the pivotal number three position for the English team and was dubbed to becoming one of the greatest ever English batsmen. However, stress and psychological problems led to Trott withdrawing himself from the England’s Ashes tour of Australia in 2013 and his consequent attempts of making a comeback were not successful as he ended up with the same symptoms.

Hence, the cricketer retired from all forms of the game on May 4, 2015 after playing 52 Tests and 68 ODIs for England where he scored a combined 6500 runs at an average of more than 47.