There are times when it's not a good idea to put out your B-team, writes Emma John in the New Statesman. John cites the disappointment of British women's 4x200m freestyle team at the Olympics, where the B-team failed to make it past the heats. However, she points out that some sports take it to an extreme, as in cricket, where several countries are nervous about the upcoming Champions Trophy in Pakistan.

If forced to send a team to the tournament, England will likely send a bunch of second stringers. Clearly, Andrew Flintoff and Kevin Pietersen are irreplaceable, but I think that if I were one of those getting on the plane, I would be a little disheartened to know that I was, well, so much more expendable than the other players.

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And if England's wannabes were to win the Champions Trophy in September, how many would be invited to play against the billionaire Texan Allen Stanford's West Indies all-star team the following month, and possibly pick up a $1m winner's cheque? Very few, I suspect.

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