Hi,
     When I get bored instead of advancing my g pawn 1 square I move it 2  a la Basman so 1.c4 g5?!

Regards

I've played the English opening for years on and off as primarily a way to avoid the plethora of opening preparation needed to play 1.E4(time a factor for me).  I also have found it very useful to transpose into 1.D4 openings while avoiding others.  For me personally I've experimented for opening with Black and found the French, Slav/Semi-Slav to be a good fit.

Hmm ... well, the Sicilian can obviously have a lot of similarities to the 1...e5 lines of the English, but in the Open Sicilian with 2.Nf3 and 3.d4 the main lines for Black are really not very similar to the English - the extra tempo makes a big difference to the flavour of the play!

I suppose there are exceptions though - the hedgehog-type positions you get in the Kan or Taimanov variations, and if you want to fianchetto your king's bishop the Accelerated Dragon is probably a good bet (although the 'normal' Dragon is a very different matter, I think).

Personally, I don't really try to make my Black and White openings 'fit together' like that - I play the Pirc mostly, with the odd Alekhine thrown in for variety's sake.  I suppose these are both 'hypermodern' openings, but I would not say they have much in common with the English in terms of the types of position that tend to emerge.