Overwhelmed by the massive racial (and cultural) changes in English Cricket. Oh, No, I am not a racist, nor averse to cultural changes!
If one looks at the England cricket (men) teams specially the late1980-early1990’s, it’s for sure, one can see some black bowlers, mainly. May be the WI , I mean the then ferocious, fiery WI bowling attack, inspired the English think tank to pick or retain some black bowlers. But over the years, they have gone on to experiment a few things to make up even average enough team. They picked cricketers of Asian origin, I mean origin strictly look wise.
And now, they have gone back to the old formula of all whites method, as the current team composition rightly suggests. It makes no difference if the whites are from the neighbourhood, or the distant continental pick ups!
Ignore the occasional variation, hybrid looks, or different origin but the same old White or whitish look, e.g., Nasser Hussain; and if blackish, then Mascarenhas … Freddie Flintoff must have been one of the most reluctant English cricketers in the modern cricket to have played with those who these may have better kept as colonial slaves!
Add-ons:
SA cricket has not possessed the exact pattern, but they have the goal of mix and quick fix!
WI cricket teams have been traditionally of Indo-Black naturally as the islands’ population, so it has not reflected any drastic changes.
~ Prabeen Kumar Pati
Prabeen Pati 