FIVE YEARS AGO: Another new star is about to light up the international scene for England but, unfortunately, he is another South African.

It appears that every outstanding talent to come to the fore recently was not brought up playing cricket on these shores.

They only qualify for England because they have spent a few summers here, but their careers have been moulded in South Africa.

While I have no doubt Craig Kieswetter, who smashed 81 from 66 balls for England Lions against the senior team yesterday, will prove a fabulous cricketer, it is a pity England find it difficult to produce such quality players of their own.

Players such as Kevin Pietersen and Jonathan Trott have produced several fantastic and entertaining innings for England and will continue to do so, but the line has to be drawn somewhere.

With Andrew Strauss and Matt Prior also born in South Africa, the addition of Kieswetter would mean almost 50 per cent of the national team was born abroad. International cricket is in danger of following county cricket where countries can identify foreign talent and grant them citizenship after a number of years.

Why is our system not producing players of the ilk of Pietersen, Trott and Kieswetter?

There are a number of good British-born prospects in the Lions squad but it always seems the outstanding players are of South African descent. It would be wrong to speculate about the patriotism of these players but even if I spent four years living in another country, I would always feel English first and foremost.

Maybe it is a combination of the South African coaching, society and climate that produces such dynamic stars. We need to look at our system at grassroots level and find out why we are having to fast-track this type of player into the international team ahead of players who have had years of coaching and resources spent on them in this country.

Only then will we have a pool of players as good as South Africa’s stream of talented stars.

15 YEARS AGO: The sound of half the Burnden Terrace whistling for time while the other half sang “We are top of the league” summed up the anxiety and the ecstacy of being a Bolton Wanderers fan in the winter of 1995.

Early goals from Alan Thompson and Richard Sneekes put Wanderers in control of proceedings against Barnsley, but they almost surrendered their hard-earned advantage by failing to kill off the Tykes. And when Andy Liddell pulled a goal back 18 minutes from time the nerves really did start jangling.

Nails were bitten to the quick but they survived and the message to the rest of the promotion-chasing pack was that Wanderers were capable of securing big wins without playing at their best.

“We’ve probably played 10 times better than that in some other games,” was the assessment of Simon Coleman, who was outstanding at the heart of the defence.

Wanderers — one game from Wembley as they prepared to face Swindon in the second leg of the Coca-Cola Cup — were riding the crest of a wave.

Elsewhere, Arsenal wasted no time in sacking George Graham following the official announcement of the findings of the FA’s “bung” inquiry.

Horwich RMI’s long-awaited move to Leigh was confirmed with the announcement that the Grundy Hill club would play its next home fixture against Boston United at the town’s rugby league ground.

Britain’s sprint star Linford Christie made light of his 35 years when he set a world indoor 200metres record of 20.25secs in France.

40 YEARS AGO: Alarm bells were ringing at Burnden Park after Wanderers went down 2-0 at home to promotion-chasing Blackpool.

Late goals from John Craven and Fred Pickering left Nat Lofthouse’s men just three places above the Second Division relegation zone.

Lofthouse reacted by dropping outside-right Terry Wharton and calling up Walkden-born Ronnie Phillips for the next game at Birmingham. “It was a big disappointment to me in view of the 14,000 crowd,” the manager said. “They turned up to support us on a bad day and we let them down.”

The chance of a classic FA Cup final was scuppered when the semi-final draw came out the way nobody wanted.

If Manchester United beat Middlesbrough at Old Trafford in their sixth round replay, they would meet Don Revie’s Leeds United in the semis.

A North-South final was guaranteed, though, with Second Division Watford paired with Chelsea in the other semi-final.

John Spencer’s reign as world professional snooker champion came to an end when the Radcliffe star lost his semi-final against Stoke’s Ray Reardon 39-34 at the Co-Op Hall in Bridge Street.

Boxing had a new world heavyweight champion after Joe Frazier destroyed Jimmy Ellis in four rounds at New York’s Madison Square Garden.