I Don't Like Cricket - I Love it (if it is South African)

Jade Dernbach has replaced the injured Ajmal Shahzad in England's World Cup side.

Dernbach is the latest in a list of South African-born cricketers the ECB have had to turn to - a list that goes back way further than the flurry of imports over the last decade.

The more that list grows, the more the question gets asked: are we ruining the essence of English cricket?

The answer is no. Unfortunately it's only those that really know cricket that can be so sure. Because these are the ones that know what the "essence of English cricket" really means: a commitment to English cricket and a commitment to winning. I've made up that definition, but I hope the cricket-savvy would subscribe to it.

I share my name with the South African captain so I'm hardly impartial on this topic. But that matters little when I say I that I welcomed the Pakistan-born Shahzad into the side even though my name is not Shahid Afridi. After all, Shahzad fits the mould of my definiton - he wants to play for England and he wants to win. As will Dernbach.

Only an idiot would turn down foreign-born cricketers - especially when we're using them to beat the country that sent them!