England test selectors back on top form

Here are the names of the current England eleven:

Cook
Lyth(e)
Balance
Bell
Root
Ali
Buttler
Stokes
Broad
Anderson
Wood

For good measure, the ECB chairman is called Graves.

As I pointed out five years ago, nearly all those names are everyday nouns, verbs, adjectives or job descriptions. Which is probably why they got rid of Pietersen. That's not just clearly a 'name' but a foreign one, and Anderson and Ali ought to go next.

(Footballers on the other hand tend to have names which are clearly just names, and more unusual or exotic names at that, even the English ones.)