Are England's extras just a VAT dodge?
Adil Rashid's peculiar presence in the England team's travel arrangements to India is an innovative new measure by the ECB, writes Barney Ronay in the Guardian .
George Binoy
25-Feb-2013
Adil Rashid's peculiar presence in the England team's travel arrangements to India is an innovative new measure by the ECB, writes Barney Ronay in the Guardian.
What does "*also travelling with squad" mean? England's squad for the current Test match tour of India, announced earlier this week, included the bowler Adil Rashid accompanied by, and asterisked with, the mysterious phrase "*also travelling with squad". This was something new, something thrilling, something pointless involving specialist punctuation. At a stroke the England management had introduced its major innovation of the Peter Moores era.
But what does it mean? So far Rashid's asterisked status has been described as "back-up", "not officially in the reckoning" and, best of all, "also travelling to India" — as though he just happened to be getting on the same plane and then it turned out he was sitting a few seats away so they had no choice but to say, "Oh, wow, it's you," and then make small talk for 11 hours. But they're not together or anything.
George Binoy is an assistant editor at ESPNcricinfo