Sydney-born batsman picks Lions over Blues In the runs: Sam Robson averaged 47.2 in the County Championship for Middlesex. Sam Robson, the Sydney-born batsman who has been at the centre of an Ashes arm wrestle for his services, has confirmed he will not be taking up an offer with NSW this summer but instead will be playing for the England's development squad, the Lions. The 24-year-old Middlesex opener had been in the sights of the Blues since Cricket Australia, with him chiefly in mind, altered the eligibility rules last month for players with dual passports in domestic competitions. The amendment would have allowed Robson to continue playing as a local in England's County Championship, where he scored 1180 runs at an average of 47.2 to be the second highest scorer in Division One, while also appearing in the Sheffield Shield as an "overseas" player and from there possibly challenging for Australian selection. However, his inclusion in an England Lions performance squad to tour Australia during the Ashes this summer has put a line through any chance of him beginning the season with NSW. "I won't be playing for NSW," Robson told Fairfax Media from London. I've been here for six years now and love the set-up and I've loved life in London. Initially I just came to improve as a cricketer but now I love life here. I'm very honoured and chuffed to be selected in the performance programme for the tour of Australia and I'm looking forward to it. Cricket NSW have always been really good to me; they were always really good to me when I was younger and they've always been supportive. I've just sort of ended up here. I took an opportunity when I was young and I've been here for a long time now and I'm sort of settled now. Having won the Ashes 3-0 England played Australia off a break in terms of Robson as well. As CA made contact with the four-day specialist about a return home, England last month fast-tracked the player's England qualification to make him eligible for his adopted country a year earlier than had been expected. He has been careful not to outright declare it but the indications all along have been that the preference of the former Australian under-19s representative has been to continue in England, where he was granted a chance as a teenager in first-class cricket after being caught behind the likes of Phillip Hughes and Usman Khawaja at NSW. Playing for the England Lions does not technically rule Robson out of a Test career with Australia - only if and when he makes a full international debut for England is that the case - but that ship now appears to have sailed. "It's always been a matter for Sam to choose what he wants to do and where he wants to play," said NSW chief executive Andrew Jones. Obviously he was born and raised in Sydney and learned his cricket at UNSW and Easts but has also over the last six years found a home and a professional career in England. Obviously we'd like to have him here if he's keen to play here but if he's keen to play in England that's certainly his decision and we wish him well.