I am sure you guys know this thread is part of the on-going team selection for the post packer era and not a stand-alone thread. for this whole team selection process I proposed in the very beginning that we ignored records against ban/zim and the match between aus and ICC World XI. And I didn't see anyone objecting to it; so stuck to the decision. I wanted to leave out the match because it was not between regular international teams (that represent a nation except the west indies team) and looked more like an exhibition match. Even if someone has a different point of view, I am sure that one game's stat wont make much of a difference in our selections.
Sorry, I didn't read your original post clearly. I knew you were making a team and I thought I got the gist of it and voted.
Good arguments overall but I have to disagree with the core suggestion.
Cohesion is indeed an important step in how a player motivates himself. And especially in a team sport like that of Test cricket, which is considered to be the pinnacle form, motivation and mental preparations are much more important than just physical training. The most important motivation at this level comes from the pride playing for one's nation (or nations, in Windies' case). The pride of wearing the team;s cap and the need to live upto the expectations of followers back home is what drives many great players more than money or anything.
This is exactly what the RoW players lacked. As far as they were concerned it was nothing more than a charity match, and a team assembled seemingly at random with zilch time for preparation and bonding. And worse, the playing conditions were hardly level. By playing conditions, I just don't mean grounds or pitches, but the motivation. Australians were wearing baggy greens and were seemingly a bonded unit because they had the biggest motivation of them all, playing for a single nation, running through them. While the RoWs couldn't even converse properly with each other due to linguistic and other barriers.
For whatever argument you might put, it was never test cricket.
Sorry, that's your take on it, but again I just don't accept that argument to explain away the write-off.
In football (soccer) which is completely grounded in being a team...a sport where a good unit can beat 11 good individuals... language barriers are not something to stifle them completely.
They say sport is the universal language, and I believe that a lot. There is not much that they would need to communicate to each other that couldn't have been settled with simple hand gestures, to be honest.
This is all, though, disregarding the fact that every member of that squad was fluent in English - maybe not Inzamum.
They had a enough motivation...it was a rare chance to beat a team that continuously beat the same players in their own sides and at home.
Again, this team was probably better than all the sides in the world bar Australia herself. If test matches against West Indies/New Zealand (
) can be counted in this, yet this test can't...then it's simply a joke.
Anyway, bagapath has already put down the criteria so this debate is a digression.