All of which was a surprise to Sir Clyde, who has told The Sunday Telegraph that the teenage Arsenal star is not related to him at all.  "He may be a very good player, as people say, but he's not family or anything like that," said Sir Clyde.  "He's definitely not a relative. In fact, I don't even know who he is. As far as I know, he has no family connection to me whatsoever. If I was his great-uncle then his grandfather would have to be my brother. I have a brother, Keith, but he doesn't have any kids.  "We are a small family and the only people carrying on the Walcott name are my two grandsons.  "I don't have any first or second cousins with the Walcott name. I think the name Walcott has just hit a lot of people, but it's a very common name in Barbados."  Sir Clyde, 80, was one of the so-called "three Ws", along with fellow Barbados-born cricketers Everton Weekes and Frank Worrell, who earned fame for their batting prowess in the all-conquering West Indies team of the 1940s and 1950s.  The first batsman to score five centuries in a single Test series, he was later elected president of the International Cricket Council and was knighted for his services to cricket in 1994.  Since then, he has led a quiet life with his wife, Muriel, in Bridgetown, but last week he found himself back in the media spotlight when it was widely reported that he was either the great-uncle of Theo Walcott or, in a different version of the story, that he was a first cousin of Theo's father, a gas fitter from Berkshire.  Theo, who joined Arsenal from Southampton in a £12 million deal in the January transfer window earlier, was taking his driving theory test when the World Cup squad was announced and celebrated with a game of Monopoly at the family home in Compton, Berkshire.  He had been picked despite the fact that Eriksson had never seen him in person playing a match, but only in training and on video.  Theo and his father live part of the time in a flat in north London, to be closer to Arsenal.  Max Clifford, the publicist, last week said the teenager could earn up to £100 million during the next decade as advertisers scramble to secure his signature.  Theo - who has yet to play a Premiership game - now stands at odds of 6/4 to score a goal during the World Cup.  Sir Clyde, who used to watch Chelsea when he played Test cricket in England and regularly tunes into Premiership matches on television, will be supporting England during the tournament.  He said: "I'll be looking out for Theo Walcott. It will be interesting to watch him if he gets picked. England play well, but I don't think they are going to win. There are too many good teams."  Theo and his family could not be contacted yesterday.
When he was unveiled as Sven-Goran Eriksson's surprise, unseen, choice for the World Cup, one thing never in doubt about Theo Walcott was his sporting pedigree.