A NUMBER of people have been incredibly generous with their time and insights in helping this project get off the ground. What follows is a list of those who have helped by chapter. But before, we would like to say particular thanks for their help in the entire project to Gideon Haigh, for his generosity and support and a superb foreword; Barry Chambers, for so kindly giving free access to his superb collection of photographs; Fay Lomas, Richard Wigmore, Brian Miller, Jonathan Lindsell, James Fitzgerald, S.B. Tang, Andrew Nixon, Nicholas Sharland, Tom Moore, Ross Lawson, Lindsay du Plessis, Jack Sheldon and Vithushan Ehantharajah for their proofreading and ideas; and Jarrod Kimber for suggesting that we approach Pitch Publishing with the idea.
In no particular order, we would particularly like to thank the following names, in addition to a small number of people who spoke only on the condition of anonymity.
While we have only included portraits of ten countries, we stuck with the name of The Second XI: like all good second elevens, we have turned up with ten.
Afghanistan
Dr Noor Mohammad, Kabir Khan, Raaes Ahmadzai, Taj Malik, Paul Radley, Diana Barakzai, Mohammad Nabi, John Stephenson, Leslie Knott, Peter Oborne and Timothy Albone.
China
Jessie Levene, Matt Smith, Jon Newton, Aminul Islam, Shariah Khan, Zhang Tian, Jiang Shuyao, Kevin Styles, Scott Brown, Song Ying Chun, Mike Gatting, Mei Chun Hua, Ge Tao, John Cribbin, Morgan Buckley and Graham Earnshaw.
Ireland
Adrian Birrell, Barry Chambers, Will Porterfield, Warren Deutrom, Ed Joyce, Kevin O’Brien, Niall O’Brien, Eoin Morgan, Ger Siggins, Paul Rouse, Douglas Goodwin, Alec O’Riordan, Kyle McCallan, John Mooney, Tim Murtagh, Simranjit Singh, Brían O’Rourke, Alan Lewis, Andre Botha, George Dockrell, Nick Royle, James Fitzgerald, Richard Gillis, Ryan Bailey and Justin Smyth.
Kenya
Steve Tikolo, Aasif Karim, Jackie Janmohamed, David Waters, Sharad Ghai, Martin Suji, Collins Obuya, Tanmay Mishra, Maurice Odumbe, Martin Williamson and Rakep Patel.
Nepal
Basant Regmi, Binod Das, Roy Dias, Shahriar Khan, Pubudu Dassanayake, Birat Raya, Surya Thapilya, Raees Ahmadzai, Devendra Subedi, Sharad Vesawkar and Barry Chambers.
Netherlands
Richard Cox, Peter Borren, Pieter Seelaar, Andre van Troost, Roland Lefebvre, Jacob-Jan Esmeijer, Bertus de Jong, Ole Mortensen, Harry Oltheten, Izzy Westbury, Tom Cooper and Nolan Clarke.
Scotland
Dougie Brown, Paul Collingwood, Roddy Smith, Bruce Patterson, Gordon Drummond, Jonathan Coates, Mike Stanger, Ben Fox, Majid Haq, Ryan Watson, Gavin Hamilton, Allan Massie, Alex Massie, Craig Wright, Andy Tennant, Calum MacLeod, Rob Taylor and Sai Majeed.
UAE
David East, Aaqib Javed, Will Kitchen, Alawi al Braik, Sultan Mohammad Zarawani, Kabir Khan, Khurram Khan and Paul Radley.
USA
Peter Della Penna, Jamie Harrison, Darren Beazley, Devanshu Mehta, Usman Shuja, Dr Tim Lockley and Subash Jayaraman.