Our stats guru puts English noses out of joint

ANDREW Samson does not have Kevin Pietersen’s tattoos, Allan Lamb’s naughtiness or Basil d’Oliveira’s silky strokes, but like them, he is a South African made good in English cricket.

The Cape Town-educated, Johannesburg-based Samson has been appointed to the most covetable position in the subculture of cricket geeks: statistician-in-residence on Test Match Special, the BBC radio programme that, after 57 years on air, remains the benchmark for all broadcasting on the game.

There will be no surprise that Samson has landed the job. In May, the Association of Cricket Statisticians and Historians named him cricket statistician of the year for 2013 — the Nobel prize of cricket number-crunching.

But the circumstances of his BBC appointment have rocked the beancounters’ boat. He has replaced

Samson has no intention of having the three lions tattooed anywhere soon

Malcolm Ashton, who has worked for the programme for the past five years, apparently because the BBC is no longer willing to foot the bill for a statistician’s travel and accommodation on non-match days when England are on tour.

Sources say Samson has signed up on the understanding that he will pay his own way.

The BBC has also secured Samson’s services for England’s home test series against Sri Lanka and India. Ashton has been relegated to the one-day internationals.

The English press is not amused. The Daily Telegraph bemoaned the “familiarity” of “a much-loved member of the [England] team [finding] himself dropped down the batting order in favour of a South African with a big reputation”.

A precedent for the current commentary-box kerfuffle was set when Samson replaced Ashton during England’s 2010-11 series in Australia because the latter baulked at picking up his own tab on tour.

The South African did himself and his country proud and has since been used by the BBC again.

Samson, 50, has been Cricket South Africa’s official statistician for 20 years and maintains his own database of statistics drawn from more than 100 000 matches played at all levels of cricket.

Unlike Pietersen, D’Oliveira, Lamb and a host of other South Africans, Samson will return home to continue his work here in the summer.

He confirmed yesterday from Nottingham, where he is working on the first test between England and India at Trent Bridge, that he had “no intention of having the three lions tattooed anywhere any time soon”, but declined to comment further owing to the sensitivity of the situation.