AUSTRALIAN CRICKET tends to look with disdain at pseudo-Englishmen who turn their backs on Australian origins or upbringing to take the field for the Old Enemy.

The Hollioakes, for all the Aussie timbrein their forthright speech, seem to have escaped such censure: `Regardless of how hesounds, Adam Hollioake and brother Benare, in cricket terms, true Englishmen,' wrote Malcolm Conn, The Australian newspaper's correspondent on tour.

`Too many expedient Australians before them used the fluke of their English birthright to migrate after gaining their cricket education in Australia. The Hollioakes have done it the other way, moving to England as children, and being brought up in England's cricket system.'

The family's roots go back five generations in the goldmining city of Ballarat, which in 1862 entertained the first English team to visit Australia (and WG played there twice). A major local sports centre is the Hollioake Park Sporting Complex, named after the brothers' great-uncle Rex.

 Rex Hollioake played against MCC for Victorian Country in 1955– and had Len Hutton dropped off his second ball, before dismissing Tom Graveney and Yorkshire's Vic Wilson. Hutton said Hollioake was the fastest bowler he faced in Australia outside the Tests: he also played against touring West Indians and South Africans– and did his share of coaching the young Hollioakes.

  THE ROOTS MURRAY HEDGCOCK

Adam and Ben's father John, born in 1946, played for Ballarat in the Victorian Country Week competition, and for Victoria in the national country championships. Later he played Melbourne grade cricket with Fitzroy (the club which produced the brilliant left-hander Neil Harvey), and had a successful stint as an opener in Hong Kong, though Uncle Rex reckons John was a little lazy in his cricket. `But he was a brilliant coach – and he worked very hard to give his boys the best possible opportunities, perhaps to make up for not making the most of his own talents,' he suggests.

 John Hollioake's career as an engineer took the family to England in 1982, with spells in Oslo, Hong Kong, Sydney, London again, Libya and finally back in Perth, wherethe Hollioake parents now live.

Adam's schooling began in Sydney at St Joseph's College (which had produced the dashing Stan McCabe before transferring to St Patrick's College in Ballarat – best known for its Australian Rules footballers.

The English dimension was introduced in 1983 when Adam was 12 and Ben six, as the family settled at Weybridge in Surrey. John Hollioake played for Guildford, and then for village club Send.

Adam went to St George's, Weybridge, moving on to the Surrey Tutorial College at Guildford. Ben began at Edgarley Hall in Surrey before going at 13 for three years to Millfield, the sporty public school which has produced notable athletes like Mary Randand and Daley Thompson.

Sport had played a big part in the boys' lives. Ben was barely out of his pram when his father began introducing him to basic games – helped by an elder brother already hooked. `They were always naturals – when they were kids they loved ball sports, says John. `At first it was Australian Rules football. But then I gave them a cricket ball, and they've never looked back.'

Back in Australia, Ben had a brief spell at Wesley College in Perth: `A lot of WA Test players went to Wesley, where the cricket is very strong. I wasn't a terribly big fan ofacademic work.'

But if the cricket basics were acquired in Australia, the polish was applied in England. `Everything we have learned about cricket has

derived from the English system.' says Adam. `My blood might not be English, but I feel a great pride when I represent this country.'

In 1989 Adam was taken on the Surrey staff, having been spotted aged 12 by Mike Edwards, who is now Surrey's director of cricket development. He toured Australia that year with Surrey Young Cricketers, and a year later visited New Zealand with England YC. He applied for UK citizenship,and it is widely believed that Surrey supporter John Major ensured that the application was not delayed.

Adam first played for Surrey in a one-day match in 1992; he marked his first-class debut in 1993 with a century against Derbyshire, and arrived on the international map with his successful stint as captain of England`A' in Australia last winter.

Ben began in representative cricket in 1990 with the England Under-14 team: the next year he made the Under-15s, but in 1993 he returned to Australia with his parents, while Adam stayed with Surrey.

In 1994 Ben was invited back by Surrey, and two years later he became the youngest player to take five wickets in a Sunday League match. He made his first-class debut later in 1996, and was also the leading run-getter and wicket-taker for England Under-19 in their home series against New Zealand and on tour in Pakistan.  

Ask the family: Adam and Ben are joined by their parents Daria and John and Adam's girlfriend Judy Lee at the end of their grand day out at Lord's

Daria Hollioake, an Australian born in Bali, does not hesitate when asked whose side she is on now. `We're both Australian, but there's no question of divided loyalties when my sons are playing cricket. I had no hesitation in shouting for England.'

Murray Hedgcock was born in Melbourne like the Hollioakes, and also the family connections with Ballarat – his father was the postmaster there. He has spent half his 66 years in England, and half in Australia. Somewhat to his surprise, he has not been invited to play for either country.

YOU READ IT HERE FIRST

Quite conceivably, they could become the first pair of brothers to play together for England in a one-day international.

In January, we did a cover story on England's shortage of superstars,and named 11 young players who might rectify the situation. The first three of them ( THE MEN MOST LIKELY) included Adam Hollioake:

He should be first reserve to England's top six this summer,and a fixture in the one-day side.

Under another heading, THE METEORS, who should pop up but brother Ben:

A bowler who bats rather than the other way round,. He has nonetheless been likened to David Gower and Mark Waugh… pencil him in now for the World Cup side in 1999, possibly under the leadership of his brother.

We had seen the future, and it worked.

© Wisden CricInfo Ltd