Peter Roebuck is the rather pompous and self important cricket connoisseur, soulmate of Cecil Rhodes and Rudyard Kipling, ex-county cricketer, Afrophile, advocate and practitioner of corporal punishment, professional "good chap of the old school,"  and part time resident of Sydney (alternating with Pietermaritzburg, according to wiki.) He copped a serve from Tim Blair the other day over his rather dubious views on the significance of Usman Khawaja's selection in the Australian squad.

Roebuck and Tony Greig have a few things in common not least of which is that both of them seem to be able to make a fairly comfortable living in Australia.

They also harbour a, scarcely disguised, resentment towards Australian successes. Any Australian shortcomings see a quiet satisfaction oozing to the surface.

The latest pontification from the world of Tom Brown's School Days reaches us today via the pages of The Herald (or The Age.) 

Michael Clarke's reshaped side includes three sparky young batsmen from NSW, still the nation's cricketing stronghold due to its size and limited exposure to AFL,

I have a question that maybe some of the members from the more southerly states could answer.

What is this debilitating effect that AFL - rather than, say, Rugby, Soccer or Patagonian Pony Polo - has on the production of talented cricketers?

How did players such as Boonie, Lawry, the Chappel brothers, Lillee, Marsh, Hughes, Ponting and others escape this plague?

The future of our national summer sport depends on the answers.