Keith Miller? Sobers?

It is a bit difficult for players from other countries to be associated with the North and to some degree the class thing as well.

Arguably, it’s the cricket module that needs to be added to that particular degree.

There’s another thing about these three as well, somewhat in reverse. Each of the three has at points in their career been the single most significant cricketer in the world. I can’t think of another English player that has achieved such heights, even if only for a short time. KP comes closest, but each of the three has a match / series named after them, something deeply embedded not just into the cricket fan’s memory, but into the wider consciousness as well.

It seems that to be head-and-shoulders the stand-out cricketer in the world, an Englishman cannot ever have been near a public school, and needs to enjoy a pint or twelve. It also seems that this approach does not work in any other country. This is our thing, our USP, our edge. The beery northerner with a taste for a pie floater is what makes English cricket great, often single-handedly. Where is the elite programme focussing on these aspects for our kids?

What about Lance Klusener?

I think Kallis was as far from the English Holy Trinity in character as a seam bowling all rounder could be.

The tired, but not altogether untrue trope that Botham-Stokes-Flintoff “make things happen” is reversed in Kallis. His entire purpose seemed to be to prevent things happening.

He is definitely in my Disinvested XI.

Mind you, he was the guy to turn to if you ever needed to bury a sheep.

Kallis went to Wynberg school, which is about as posh as it gets in Safferland. He wasn’t especially known for swilling beer, either. Which leaves “world class all-rounder who bowled swing”.

I’m with Bert on this one – it is a quintessentially English thing occasionally to produce a northern, working class, beer swilling, world class, all-round cricketer.

Botham, Flintoff & Stokes have all massively enhanced my enjoyment of cricket. The promise, the disappointments, the off-field antics, the match winning performances. I feel privileged to have been born at the right time to get full value from all three of those careers.

I agree with all you say, Bail-out. I am also reminded of history seminars, where some intense individual would always frown, look wise and say “Aren’t we in danger of being teleological here?”

He seems closest.

His batting was only bludgeoning when circumstances absolutely demanded it.

Kallis doesn’t have an association with the north, but otherwise fits the bill