The Curiosity of International Eligibility

International eligibility has often been a source of conversation and debate in sports. The issue has hit the headlines again recently because of news South African born former England international Rugby Union player Hendre Fourie feared he would face deportation from the country he represented 8 times. Happily for Hendre on a personal level, it seems these fears have eased.

I don't really want to get into the politics of UK nationality and deportation rules too much because this is a sports blog, but suffice to say I find it strange that a person can represent a country and all that it stands for on the sporting field of battle when they in fact can't represent the country as a citizen or passport holder. I find it even stranger that the rules vary markedly between different sports.

During the past few years it's been an issue for the England football team, though more because of fears future stars of the game like Danny Welbeck, Carl Jenkinson, Rahim Sterling and Wilfred Zaha might take up offers to play for other nations they were eligible to represent, meaning England would lose out on them for good.

In rugby league, eligibility has been an issue in England with the selection of Rangi Chase in recent international squads and in Australia with James Tamou electing to wear green and gold over all black. A bigger issue and raft of questions are likely to present themselves with a World Cup on the horizon.

And the England cricket team has been filled with South Africans for a long time, as well as the odd Irishman making the switch too.

Rugby League

The Rugby League International Federation (RLIF) are responsible for the laws governing the international game these days. A full break down of the eligibility rules can be found on their website. The headline rules are:

A player is eligible to play an International Match for:-

(a)        the country in which he was born;

(b)        the country in which either of his parents or any of his grandparents was born;

(c)        the country which has been his principal place of residence for a period of three years up to the date of his selection;

(d)        the country that he has represented (irrespective of whether that country continues to be his principal place of residence) provided that he has not subsequently represented any other country.

They seem standard enough - but the real curiosity comes from the rules allowing a player to play for more than one senior international team. This is explained in rule 3.3, which states:

A player who is eligible to play for more than one country shall be entitled to elect for which country he wishes to play.  When a player plays a Senior International Match for a country, he is deemed to have elected to play for that country.  Subject to Rule 3.5, once an election is made the player may not play Senior representative rugby league for any other country until the end of the next World Cup tournament, or the expiry of two years, whichever is earlier (“Election Period”).

This law leads to players playing in consecutive World Cups for different countries. A player could play in a World Cup against the country of his birth, who he may have played for once up on a time, for a country he has been living in for three years, then theoretically play against that country for his first country the next time around.

This may seem absurd, and it certainly seems counterproductive against long term international development, but part of the problem is there are only two full-time domestic leagues comprising of 14 teams in Europe (and some say that is too many) and 16 teams in Australia/New Zealand - there aren't a lot of players playing at a top level of competition to share around and the big three nations want to be able to pick from the best of the best to make themselves as competitive as they can.

Eligibility point (b) has been the source of some controversy in the past with famous examples being Nathan Fien and Chris Morley.

Rugby Union

The International Rugby Board (IRB) are the global governing body which set the sports' international eligibility laws, the main points of which are:

A Player may only play for the senior fifteen-aside National Representative Team, the next senior fifteen-a-side National Representative Team and the senior National Representative Sevens Team of the Union of the country in which:
(a) he was born; or
(b) one parent or grandparent was born; or
(c) he has completed thirty six consecutive months of Residence immediately preceding the time of playing.

Unlike Rugby League, a player is excluded from appearing for another country (or Union as they call it) once they have played at senior level (1st team, 2nd team or Sevens team). The obvious exceptions are the representative teams that aren't part of a 'Union' - The Barbarians pulled from all over the world, and the British & Irish Lions are examples.

Controversy over point (b), specifically the grandparent aspect, has been even more notable in the 15-a-side code than in league. 'Grannygate' in 2000 concerned ineligible players turning out for Wales and Scotland - Wales also having question marks over other players' eligibility around that time. With the scandals and the potential of players being eligible to represent up to 10 nations if birth, residency and 8 grandparents all lead to different nations claiming a stake, question marks have been raised over the continued use of the grandparent rules.

There have been attempts from New Zealand to introduce a law similar the that in league allowing players to represent more than one nation during their career, but these have been quashed, largely due to the fears that wealthier unions like England and France would look to poach players from smaller nations like Scotland and Wales - the countries that benefit most from the current set up.

Another issue that has recently come more into focus is the 'next senior representative team'. For England that is clearly the Saxons, Ireland have the Wolfhounds, and other countries have the various 'A' teams - but not all countries do have a team at this level. For Wales, their next team could be seen as their Under 20s team. This has thrown up some question marks when players later in their career have looked to play for other countries, though maybe the word 'senior' in the eligibility rules has now put this to bed - I'm not sure.

Football
FIFA controls football's eligibility rules, although they aren't set out in as simple and straightforward a way as the sports already discussed:

Article 5

1. Any person holding a permanent nationality that is not dependent on residence in a certain country is eligible to play for the representative teams of the Association of that country.
2. With the exception of the conditions specified in article 8 below, any player who has already participated in a match (either in full or in part) in an official competition of any category or any type of football for one Association may not play an international match for a representative team of another Association.

Article 6

1. A Player who is eligible to represent more than one Association on account of his nationality, may play in an international match for one of these Associations only if, in addition to having the relevant
nationality, he fulfils at least one of the following conditions:
a) He was born on the territory of the relevant Association;
b) His biological mother or biological father was born on the territory of the relevant Association;
c) His grandmother or grandfather was born on the territory of the relevant Association;
d) He has lived continuously on the territory of the relevant Association for at least two years.

One curiosity immediately jumps out that applies to England - Associations (i.e. countries) sharing a common nationality (e.g. those in the UK) can amend part (d) of the above - just to complicate things!

Part (d) is also confused by the caveat of Article 7 that to acquire a new nationality, (a), (b) and (c) remain unchanged, but (d) becomes "He has lived continuously for at least five years after reaching the age of 18 on the territory of the relevant Association."

Providing all of the above is satisfied, a player can change which 'association' he plays for, but only in the following circumstances:

Article 8

1. If a Player has more than one nationality, or if a Player acquires a new nationality, or if a Player is eligible to play for several representative teams due to nationality, he may, only once, request to change the Association for which he is eligible to play international matches to the Association of another country of which he holds nationality, subject to the following conditions:
a) He has not played a match (either in full or in part) in an official competition at “A” international level for his current Association, and at the time of his first full or partial appearance in an international match in an official competition for his current Association, he already had the nationality of the representative team for which he wishes to play.
b) He is not permitted to play for his new Association in any competition in which he has already played for his previous Association.

2. If a Player who has been fielded by his Association in an international match in accordance with art. 5 par. 2 permanently loses the nationality of that country without his consent or against his will due to a decision by a government authority, he may request permission to play for another
Association whose nationality he already has or has acquired.
3. Any Player who has the right to change Associations in accordance with par. 1 and 2 above shall submit a written, substantiated request to the FIFA general secretariat. The Players’ Status Committee shall decide on the request. The procedure will be in accordance with the Rules Governing the Procedures of the Players’ Status Committee and the Dispute Resolution Chamber. Once the Player has filed his request, he is not eligible to play for any representative team until his request has been processed.

All very clear and not at all bureaucratic! One strength is it refers to a nations own laws of nationality - although this has brought about controversy with players previously becoming naturalised in a short space of time to a new country, that lead to the introduction of stronger five year rules in article 7, plus the written request rules of article 8.

As with other sports, the grandparent ruling, as well as the residency and naturalisation issues, has raised questions and controversy in football. I think the issue with football isn't necessarily a player getting a 'better offer' like in Rugby League, or lying about their eligibility like in Rugby Union. The issue for people is that so many national teams now are filled with players who weren't born in the country they play for, and these national teams are doing well - France in the late 90s, Germany since, for example. 

Cricket
The International Cricket Council (ICC) make the rules for cricket. I've left possibly the most complicated for last, so for a full picture follow the link, whilst I'll try and simplify things. The ICC, to their credit, cover both the male and female game specifically in their. I, to my undoubted discredit, will focus solely on the rules as they apply to men.

The parent / grandparent rule isn't included by the ICC in the rules, although a lot of countries allow someone born abroad take their parents nationality, which explains how Dirk Nannes played for Netherlands for example. The rules stipulate birth, nationality (possesses a passport. or through residency (residing in the country for 183 days in at least the four preceding years). There are additional development criteria for players looking to qualify through residency. 

A player can switch nations, but only if they satisfy all the qualificaiton criteria and haven't played in an intenrational match for another nation in the previous four years, unless they are moving up from an associate member (e.g. Ireland) to a full member (e.g. England). Players can only switch once, unless they revert back to the first nation they represented.

All this means no restrictions applied when Eoin Morgan moved from Ireland to England, but Kevin Pietersen had to satisfy further rules when he chose to play for England instead of South Africa.

The benefit of this system is the long term nature of what is required to represent another country. A serious commitment is undertaken. The drawback, as in other sports like Rugby League, is minor nations face difficulty in advancing - as soon as an Irish player shows good form in an ICC event or has a good county season, they most likely will get picked up by England.

The main controversy other eligibility in cricket has come from the amount of non-English born players representing England. For example, four of England's top five in the 2010 ICC World T20 final were born outside England and had qualified for the team, including player of the match and player of the tournament. The reliance of one nation on players who've chosen to play in their colours rather than been born to them could be criticised. 

Different countries earn different revenues and can offer different contracts to the players that represent them. Financial incentives can be a big draw in cricket. The West Indies Cricket Board have been in dispute with some of its players over the money they are paid, and not all national boards pay the same.

Summary
Team sports aren't the only area of sports where nationality, and switching of nationality, have been news worthy - athletics has a few stories to tell for example, but lets stick to what I know!

To gain British nationality, as well as passing other entrance criteria, if you aren't married to or in a civil partnership with a British citizen you need to have had five years legal residence in the UK. So, you can represent a British sports team before you can become a British citizen. Similar situations exist in other countries.

It seems strange to me that this is the case. Although the world is a more cosmopolitan and multinational place than in years gone by, surely pulling on a national shirt should mean something more than eligibility and a paycheck. We as fans don't want to see our sporting heroes as mercenaries switching allegiance to the highest bidder. To some extent we accept it with the club teams we support, but it's harder to do that with the national team.

So should the nationality rules of a country play a part? The problem with this is not all countries have the same rules or follow the same processes. It may mean those looking to represent a foreign country to their own will group to the same countries with the most lax nationality rules. This could create unfair situations.

Sports could group together. They could come up with a consistent set of rules that follow the same principles. I would like to see the additional qualification requirements seen in cricket be more widely applied. I think a true four or five year commitment to the sport in the country you want to represent shows dedication necessary. I would like to see a system where a player has to formally state that he is looking to qualify for a different nation than one he already qualifies for, rather than the national coach go looking for players who qualify for selection themselves. I would like to see limits on the amount of times players can switch nationality - the options in rugby league are too unrestricted that it could make a sham of international representative games, but football gives too little flexibility. Grandparentage also offers far too wide a choice and a chance of rule breaches. 

If all sports could take any one of the options presented, I'd say choose cricket's approach.

2012 - This Sporting Year

I'm happy to take an unashamedly UK biased view on the many exciting sporting triumphs of 2012 - that means Phelps and Bolt won't be dwelt upon, Messi's record year isn't focused on and Vettel's three in a row is only getting a mention because his Red Bull team is led by a British brain trust.

The first notable British success was the Leeds Rhinos regaining the Rugby League World Club Challenge title, beating the Manly-Warringah Sea Eagles 26-12 at Headingley in February. Ryan Hall was the star of the show and solidified his reputation as the game's leading winger to an international audience. He went on to retain his International Winger of the Year title in 2012, helped no doubt by this early season 2-try performance.

The late winter and early spring belonged to the Welsh as they brought home their 11th Grand Slam by sweeping through the Six Nations Tournament. They did so with an impressive points difference, over a England team that managed four largely uninspiring victories and an inconsistent if (relatively) exciting Ireland team.

As the spring turned into early summer, two great sporting dramas unfolded in football. Manchester City won, lost, then won again the Premier League title. The league run in was dramatic and suspense-filled. It was expected that the 'unmissable' derby at the end of April would be the most dramatic night, but a poor United performance meant the occasion was a little flat, even if it changed the league leadership. What the 1-0 City win did was set up the last day, when the drama really came to life. City led then trailed. Joey Barton blew a fuse that prompted his Franglish lessons. United finished their season as title holders, before City proved themselves as Champions with the 94th minute Aguero strike meant some really noisy neighbours could sound off and celebrate.

If the domestic season belonged to City, in Europe the stars aligned for Chelsea to finally (surely??) satisfy their owner with a Champions League victory. Love them or hate them, you couldn't really help but support Chelsea on their journey, especially as party crasher extraordinaire JT was missing from the final. Charmed existence and Petr Cech penalty saves saw Chelsea roll on from the desperate February night in Napoli to dump out Barcelona and disappoint Bayern Munich in their own back yard to lift the Champion League title. I can't imagine watching Chelsea again with such enthusiasm for them to win. It was a special campaign and 19 May 2012 special night...and then a few months later they sack the coach that won the prize! Classic Ambramovic eh!?

19 May 2012 wasn't just a special night for Chelsea FC - Leinster Rugby were also celebrating a European Cup triumph of their own. They retained their title against national counterparts Ulster at a sold out Twickenham stadium. It represented 3 wins in four years and a record winning total and margin in the final of the northern hemisphere's premier club competition. This has really created a dynasty in club rugby for the boys in blue and cemented this teams place in history.

The early summer saw some more Rugby Union, but none of the home nations really excelled themselves during their respective summer tours, although Scotland earned a notable win in Australia...but this is about glory and exciting, so not much can be said about the summer international series really.

Similarly worth skimming over is Euro 2012. Ireland were probably the worst team involved, trying to play like a relegation battling Premier League team in a cup tie against a bunch of guys who actually bothered to learn the techniques required to perform with a football. England weren't much better and scratched their way to an unimpressive quarter final penalty defeat to Italy.

We also had a bit of British success at Wimbledon for the first time in 76 years - but it wasn't Andy Murray, who valiantly reached the final but just fell short against Roger Federer after giving everything he had physically and emotionally. It was Jonny Marray in the men's doubles with his Danish partner Freddie Neilsen. Coming all the way from late wildcard entry to Wimbledon champion is the stuff great stories are made from...and dodgy Kirsten Dunst vehicles too.

But all that was OK, and football didn't really matter anymore anyway, the summer was in full swing and we all saddled up to the great ride towards the home Olympics, and the man peddling us there was Bradley Wiggins. He became the first Brit to win the Tour de France and set the country on an upwards path. Leading the race from stage 7 onwards, he really sealed the win with his second stage win dominating the time trail on the penultimate day, but not one to rest on his laurels, he went all out the next day to help team-mate Mark Cavendish win the race down the Champs-Élysées for the fourth successive year. It was the great tour for Britain, with British riders picking up seven stage wins and 1st and 2nd positions on the final podium. Allez Wiggo and welcome to summer!!

Froome, Cav and Wiggo were just the warm up act to the real star event of 2012 - the London Olympic Games. And boy what a games these were. Great Britain landed third place in the medal table with an overall haul of 65, made up of 29 glorious golds, 17 scintillating silvers and 19 brilliant bronzes. There were so many brilliant individual performances its impossible to list them all so I'll just pick out some of  my personal highlights. Team GB got off to a slow start with Lizzie Armistead picking up the first medal with silver in the women's road race on the Day 2 proper of the games. Day 3 provided an unexpected but incredibly tense and enjoyable bronze from the mens gymnastic team - I found a new respect for the athletes of this very demanding sport. We had to wait until Day 5 to taste gold for the first time. Almost inevitably, rowing and cycling came good and started the gold rush, with Bradley Wiggins backing up his Tour victory with a gold medal in the Time Trail only days later. A Gold-Silver combo in the mens C-2 canoe slalom was another personal highlight of week 1, as well as roaring wins in the velodrome for the men's team sprint and pursuit squads and 'Queen' Victoria Pendleton. Then came 'Super Saturday', although you could argue that title doesn't even do it justice. It started with the thrilling and powerful display from the men's coxless fours, with the women's double skull following suit at Eton Dorney. The women's team pursuit raised the flag in the velodrome before all eyes turned on to the Stadium and the athletics. Jess Ennis had carried her tag as the face of the games extremely well as she romped to personal bests through day one of the heptathlon before crowning it with an equally brilliant day two of competition. And just as she finished celebrating a roar went up from the long jump where Greg Rutherford leaped to a slightly less expected gold. There wasn't much time to celebrate that before the starters gun went to start the men's 10,000m and Mo Farah cruised round the track in total control before making that epic kick for the line to take gold and bring the Mobot to the international audience. The Sunday was pretty super too - Ben Ainslie's fourth gold in four games painted the Dorset coastline gold before Andy Murray showed incredible resilience to finally win something big at Wimbledon and finally stop being that Scottish tennis player and became that British tennis hero. He had to beat Djokovic in the semi and Federer in the final to take a well earned gold, and followed that up after a very short break to win silver with Laura Robson in the mixed doubles. The men's pommel horse final fitted in and around the tennis with my red button switching and Louis Smith came as close to victory as he could in picking up silver, with Max Whitlock taking a surprise bronze. The equestrian team then stepped up to gold winning action with the jumping more enjoyable to watch than the dressage, but massive credit to both. Laura Trott showed there was someone to take the flame from Pendleton in women's cycling and Sir Chris Hoy cemented his place as Britain's Greatest Olympian with a tearful victory in the keirin. The Brownlee's brought home gold and bronze in the triathlon and Mo Farah backed up the 10km with the 5km gold on the final Saturday, before boxing brought the games home for Team GB. Nicola Adams had already made history as the first woman to take boxing gold, then the men took over with four more medals including golds for Luke Campbell and then on the final day for Anthony Joshua. Jade Jones, Beth Tweddle and the women's hockey team also gave some special moments.

Some British eyes could have been forgiven for switching away from the Olympics on those last few nights to watch coverage from over the pond of the US PGA Championships at Kiawah Island. Anyone doing so would have seen Rory McIlroy seal his place at the top of the golfing world in winning his second major at the age of only 23, and doing so by a tournament record margin. This was part of a stand out year for Rory in which he lead both the US and European money lists and picked up number player of the year awards.

Next up were the Paralympic Games. I'm not going to lie - I barely watched these games. A combination of big Wigan Warriors fixtures, the start of the NFL season and a late summer holiday to Barcelona where coverage was hard to come by meant I missed much of the excitement of what has been called the greatest ever Paralympics, and certainly the biggest and best attended Paralympics in history. Paralympics GB also landed third place in the medals table, with 34 golds, 43 silvers and 43 bronzes making an incredible total of 120 medals for the GB athletes. Athletics, cycling and swimming were the headline events, with the most notable performers being David Weir, Sarah Storey and Ellie Simmonds in the respective sports - all three have seen their performances recognised with nominations for the BBC Sports Personality of the Year.

Another distraction from the Paralympic Games was one of our Olympic heroes gunning for personal glory. British tennis hero Andy Murray was back on his crusade to win a major and justify his place amongst the sports elite. The weather delays and the elongation of the tournament to the Monday night just helped build the tension as Murray made it to his second grand slam final in a row. Djokovic was the defending champion and the favourite going in to the final, but Murray has always been known for his tenacity and battling qualities. Murray started well, as he had done in the Wimbledon final, and here he got two sets up, before a Djokovic fightback left all Brits feeling the same sense of inevitability that Andy just couldn't get over the line. The first set tiebreaker felt endless, running on for 22 points. Some of the rallies were incredible, one getting up to 54 shots. The match equalled the record for duration at 4 hours and 54 minutes. Every time Andy broke, you felt Novak would come back, but when Novak broke you didn't feel like Andy would wane like he had in big matches before. He carried the fight and eventually sealed it with a 6-2 final set...and we could go to bed! Another late finish for UK viewers!

Autumn started to roll in, and after the summer of cycling, Olympics and tennis, you wouldn't think it could get much better - but 2012 had more to come, and the end of September saw one of the greatest sporting comebacks ever. I nearly had to miss watching the Ryder Cup because I was supposed to be cycling coast to coast across England, but circumstances cancelled that trip and I'm happy they did. It's been nicknamed the 'Miracle at Medinah' after Team Europe battled back from a 10-6 deficit at the start of the final day to overcome their shaky singles reputation to emerge victorious at 14.5-13.5. I always say about the Ryder Cup that its when golf becomes sport. Sure individual sports can have their merits and can be enjoyable to watch, but they never quite match the drama and passion of team sports for me - golf does this once every two years and is far more enjoyable for it. The Europeans had barely turned up on the first three and a half sessions and analysts everywhere were predicting a blow out win for the Americans. But then Mr Ryder Cup Ian Poulter turned things around with some inspired play in the last group on the course as the Saturday play drew in. Some momentum was picked up, but experts were still predicting a clear win by as much as eight points for the Americans. In a remarkable day the scoreboard kept getter bluer and bluer as the points stacked up. In the penultimate pairing, Martin Kaymer had some wayward work on the greens to thank Steve Stricker for as he came home to tie the scores up and ensure the Ryder Cup was retained and Molinari took the final game from Woods for the icing on the cake as the cup was won. The spirit of Seve was lauded as a massive factor in the win, but it was a man on the fairways that truly inspired the win - Ian Poulter, Ryder Cup legend.

October saw the end of a glorious career of another sporting hero. Some say Frankel is the greatest racehorse of all time. The British thoroughbred retired as the highest ranked horse in the world, with a record of 14 wins from 14 starts, 10 group one wins and nearly £3million in prize money. The 2012 Champion Stakes saw Frankel take on some unusually soft ground that put his place in the race in doubt up to the morning of the race. A poor start put Frankel on the back foot early but he fought back to take the race by 1.75 lengths. Horse racing isn't my thing but you have to give credit to this remarkable sporting icon.

October also saw the end of Warrington Wolves' Paul Wood having two testicles. The main storyline coming out of the Leeds Rhinos second consecutive Grand Final victory wasn't Kevin Sinfield's man of the match display, it was the pain defying stint Wood put in with a ruptured testicle in the second half. Despite defeat and losing a ball, Wood took it in good humour, tweeting that he was sure he had left something behind when he left the hospital the following day. His teammates credited him for playing his b*ll*cks off and he became an uncomfortable media must have, with his story reported all over the world.

The rugby league year ended with an emphatic but uninspiring international series which England dominated against the Welsh and the French. It looked like the end of a long season for France's high quality forward pack as they couldn't keep pace with England, and the depleted largely part-time Welsh were never at it. Things looked good for England with them being able to try out a lot of backs combinations and give a number of players their debut, but the competition wasn't really tough enough to give us much indication of the strength of the squad we'll have to take on the Aussies and Kiwis on 2013. A total of 172 points scored over three games suggests the opposition wasn't up to much.

When the autumn series in once code finished, the rugby union autumn internationals started. This England faced a much sterner test playing the best the southern hemisphere has to offer, after a big win against Fiji to start the series. Narrow losses to Australia and South Africa raised questions about the on field decision making of captain Chris Robshaw with choices on when to kick a goal and the time taken to make such decisions being seen as critical to England's defeats. However, the series ended with possibly England's biggest win against a southern hemisphere since the 2003 World Cup final. England defeated New Zealand 38-21 and ended their 20 match losing sequence against the Kiwis in the process. A strong start and a well disciplined almost error free performance helped England get well on top in the first half before a second half try-fest saw New Zealand threaten to power England out of the game, until England put up three tries of their own to record their record winning margin in their seventh triumph over the All Blacks.
 
2012 had one more great sporting achievement in store for British fans. India welcomed England for a four match test series. England hadn't won a series in India for 24 years and things couldn't have started much worse at the end of what had been a dismal year of test cricket. England's abject failure to play spin bowling looked set to continue after the 1st test nine wicket defeat in Ahmedabad. The only bright note was the 176 scored by captain Alistair Cook in the follow on second innings. Changes were made to the bowling line up with Monty Panesar coming in for Tim Bresnan to take 11 wickets in the match. Cook and Kevin Pietersen showed the Indians how to bat on their own wickets, both contributing centuries to a 413 1st innings that gave Panesar and Swann the platfom the work from. A ten wicket victory levelled the series. The 3rd test saw Steve Finn come in for injured Stuart Broad, but Monty and Cook both picked up where they left off in Mumbai to give England a big 1st innings advantage. In the 2nd innings the seamers led from the front, taking three wickets each and restricting India to only a small lead before the batsmen knocked off the runs needed in quick time. England left Kolkata with a 2-1 lead. The fourth test wasn't very exciting. The slow low wicket saw runs scored at only 2.27 runs per over through the whole test. India were able to get Cook, but Pietersen, Joe Root and Matt Prior fought hard to give England a strong starting point. James Anderson bowled his arm off to take four wickets and restrict India to a small 1st innings deficit. Jonathan Trott and Ian Bell batted out over after over to put the match in a position where India couldn't win and the historic 2-1 series victory was sealed with a draw in Nagpur. It was Cook's first series as permanent test captain and he demonstrated his ability to lead from the front and carry his team. During the series he became the highest test run scorer for England in India, the first captain in world cricket to score a century in each of his first five tests in the job, the Englishman with the most test centuries and the youngest batsman to reach 7000 in world cricket. He cemented himself in English cricketing history and made himself the final hero of my 2012 run down. 

What a year for British sport. Forget the bad stuff a few days and remember how great thsi year was. I know one thing I'll be doing this Christmas peiod, I'll be watching the DVD of the Olympics once or twice!