Darren who?

For a country whose cricket team have gladly welcomed legions of foreign-born players into their ranks over the years, the horrified response of the English media and public to the selection of a player born in the country were somewhat amusing.

When the England selectors named Darren Pattinson as a replacement for Ryan Sidebottom in the team to play South Africa in the second Test last week, it was a case of "Darren who?" for even his new England team-mates.

At the toss, a bemused England captain Michael Vaughan was asked what he knew about the fast bowler and replied: "I think he was meant to go to Alton Towers [an amusement park in Britain] with his kids today."

Although the 29-year-old was born in the east coast English port town of Grimsby, Pattinson grew up in Melbourne and his Australian-born younger brother, James, has represented the Australia Under-19 team. His dad has described him as a "fair-dinkum Aussie", and Pattinson himself has admitted he never harboured any dreams of playing for England.

Even more surprising was the fact that the fast-bowler, who plied a career as a roof tiler in Australia before this year moving to England to join county side Nottinghamshire, has just 11-first class (professional) games under his belt – barely enough to be known inside his club's dressing room.

It was not as if England were short of options in the bowling department either: 2005 Ashes heroes Steve Harmison, Matthew Hoggard and Simon Jones were all topping the county circuits' wicket-lists and the controversial decision to overlook them – as well as a crop of young promising fast bowlers – caught the cricket public by surprise.

Harmison, for one, was not pleased, saying: "The amount of money the ECB [England and Wales Cricket Board] have pushed into young bowlers, taking them to Chennai and the Academy – are we saying the young bowlers aren't good enough?

"I haven't seen him [Pattinson] bowl – I was asleep when we played them. But good luck to him, he has taken his chance. If he deserves it, I'm not sure, but good luck to him."

Former England captain Graham Gooch was even more cut-throat on his blog: "I've got no problem with Darren but we've got to look at the bigger picture. The international game is in danger of being devalued if we have many more selections like this. I captained England 34 times and many of the players under me were born overseas. They were passionate about playing for the three Lions, but Pattinson's father says he's a proud Aussie – and his brother plays for their Under-19 side. Can you switch from being a proud Australian to a passionate Englishman overnight? Representing England is more than just cricket, more than just a game or a pay packet. It's a tremendous honour, and it should be treated as such by players and the selectors."

However, once the dust had settled the funny side of the situation was seen by others, like commentator David Lloyd who announced on air: "If you've had your roof done by Pattinson, give us a call."

A joke sprung up that the Headingly ground (venue of the second Test) needed to have it's roof revamped and the selection of Pattinson was a bid to get it done on the cheap.

Leading cricket website, cricinfo, admitted on their online commentary that they had Pattinson down as an Australian on his statistics page up until he was named in the team.

Meanwhile, cricket officials from his home state Victoria also admitted surprise that Pattinson, who is contracted with Cricket Victoria, was not an Australian citizen and eligible to play for England.

"We didn't realise he wasn't an Australian citizen and didn't have an Australian passport," said Victorian general manager of cricket operations Shaun Graf.

In the week leading up to the second Test, all-rounder Andrew Flintoff, who was playing his first Test after an 18-month injury lay-off, dominated the headlines. At the start of the match when it was announced that Pattinson would play, England's most popular player faded away into the background as the new-boy grabbed the spotlight.

Unfortunately for Pattinson, a ruthless South Africa team didn't make life any easier for him on the field by crushing England by 10 wickets with a day to spare. Pattinson did take two-wickets though and ended up with figures of 2-95, while coming in at No11 he can take pride from the fact he lasted seven times the number of balls than Kevin Pietersen.

However, through no fault of his own, this is likely to be the end of the road for the big right-arm seamer as he joins a list of one-test wonders.

England skipper Vaughan, slightly more knowledgeable on Pattinson after the game, surmised the situation: "Darren has been given a lot of criticism, but it is not his fault. He got selected, turned up and tried his guts out for us. He bowled some good spells. I felt sorry for him. He didn't know anyone and we didn't know him, so it was very difficult. Whether it affected anybody in the dressing-room... I have not heard that."

That though is not the end of the story with no one yet taking responsibility for the selection. England national selector Geoff Miller said that their job was to forward a list of names and the captain and coach selected the final team. Coach, Peter Moores claimed it was Vaughan's call, but the England captain distanced himself from the decision as well.

More is sure to emerge as England ponder their selection for the third Test in Birmingham starting Friday.