But the plucky islanders ripped up the form book in their opening match, drawing with hosts South Africa after creating the better chances.
It had to compete with the inaugural Political Book Awards and a football match or two, but MPs spent 30 minutes last night debating how members of the National Assembly for Wales are elected.
One break was also all that was required in the third set to seal a success that was Britain's first since September 2007 when they beat Croatia, in Tim Henman's final match, to book a place in the World Group.
Before him came Mr Blagojevich, who is now writing a book that, many hope, will match the eloquence of his telephone conversations.
However, Amazon has also managed to match the big chains, book for book, in three crucial areas not thought of as niche skills: convenience, range and price.
While the new euro-market will, initially, allow trading only during specific hours, there is no reason, in principle, why the networked computers that match buyers and sellers cannot book orders around the clock.
The old, general-interest book clubs are never going to be able to match big online retailers on range, or on discounted bestsellers.
The publishers resisted, for instance, a provision of the contracts that said if another retailer were selling a book at a lower price, the publisher would have to match the lower price in Apple's bookstore.
WSJ: Prosecutors Accuse Apple of Helping to Drive Up E-Book Prices
Declan Hill, author of "The Fix, " a book that saw him spend time with Asian betting syndicates and match fixers, believes that the proliferation of football and technology means that match fixing is now both incredibly easy and virtually untraceable.
Much brain-power has been expended trying to match up real-life Long Island locations with those in Fitzgerald's book.
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