'Citizen of the world' speech sets nation against nation in race for Spedding

The announcement that Great Britain will play France in a Test match in June and the subsequent discussion over Justin Murphy's potential availability for France is something that Richie Spedding is very familiar with. A guest speaker at the inauguration of Ban Ki-moon as Secretary General of the UN, Spedding said that he considered himself "a citizen of the world" and very shortly afterwards, his phone was ringing off the hook. "It was crazy", said Spedding in an exclusive interview. "I made the comment about feeling part of a global community, but a lot of people took it literally." Agents and governing bodies from a variety of sports and a whole multitude of countries contacted Spedding with an eye on representing them. "I could be opening for Sri Lanka in the cricket World Cup right now, or playing ice hockey for Sweden."

But for all the furore, there is a serious point. "There's a lot made of people from one country representing another, such as Nathan Fien. I think that whole 'grannygate' saga was just unnecessary. He wanted to represent New Zealand, lives and works in New Zealand, so let him. The same with Murphy. He lives in France, works in France, has really taken to the French way of life. Get him on board. It's switching from one nation to another that's a problem", said Spedding with a cough that sounded like 'Tonie Carroll'.