England Team Announcement
Firstly, I would like to say that this decision has been so much harder than I possibly imagined. When I made my interest in captaining the England team, I was not prepared for was the deluge of applications that I would receive from players that I have tremendous respect for, both as players and as people (from those I know personally).
With no insincerity whatsoever, I would happily have put the names in a hat and the first 4 out would have made a team that would have done England proud. I can't even lie and say that there was a Screaming Lord Sutch type application that would give me LOLs before ending up in the bin.
Secondly, I would like to submit the team that will be representing England
Stu Ward
Rupinder Bedi
James Barber
The final player will be myself, Rob Swindells, who will be the playing captain.
Whilst I am aware of the talent that I left out and subsequent disappointments, I am delighted with the quality and balance of this side and am sure they will do England proud.
I know I said that I would reply to everyone personally, but reading my (now deleted) replies, any platitudes or words of consolidation in a rejection email just seem patronising. All I can do is thank you for your interest and if anyone has issues or wishes to offer any advice, then please PM me and I'll get back to you by phone, if necessary.
For now, let's get behind the team and....
Come on England!!