ICC Greatest Test Team

[slowfinger]

i'll never understand the logic of that one all-rounder rule. I'd take imran and hadlee as purely specialist bowlers over most other specialist atg bowlers anyway.

awta.

 

[Flem274*]

My side would be;

Jack Hobbs
Sunil Gavaskar
Donald Bradman
Walter Hammond
Jacques Kallis
Gary Sobers
Keith Miller
Imran Khan
Alan Knott (wk)
Richard Hadlee
Shane Warne

Lots of allrounders there, purely because all of those bowlers are all time greats and all can stake a claim for the greatest of all time in their disciplines, so picking the likes of McGrath, Waqar or Marshall seemed silly when the difference in bowling, if they are better than the ones above, is negligible and they can't bat.

The same logic goes for the batsmen. Why pick Tendulkar or Lara to bat five when Sobers and Kallis are equal to or better than them with the bat and can bowl also?

The long batting also allowed me to pick the best pure gloveman I could think of.

The hardest decision was picking Gavaskar. I'm not an expert on all time great opening batsmen (hey, I'm a kiwi, our batting starts at four), but he seemed the best unfortunately. I almost picked Sehwag because he's not a **** and it would have trolled you lot to the max.

 

[smash84]

My side would be;

Jack Hobbs
Sunil Gavaskar
Donald Bradman
Walter Hammond
Jacques Kallis
Gary Sobers
Keith Miller
Imran Khan
Alan Knott (wk)
Richard Hadlee
Shane Warne

Lots of allrounders there, purely because all of those bowlers are all time greats and all can stake a claim for the greatest of all time in their disciplines, so picking the likes of McGrath, Waqar or Marshall seemed silly when the difference in bowling, if they are better than the ones above, is negligible and they can't bat.

The same logic goes for the batsmen. Why pick Tendulkar or Lara to bat five when Sobers and Kallis are equal to or better than them with the bat and can bowl also?

The long batting also allowed me to pick the best pure gloveman I could think of.

The hardest decision was picking Gavaskar. I'm not an expert on all time great opening batsmen (hey, I'm a kiwi, our batting starts at four), but he seemed the best unfortunately. I almost picked Sehwag because he's not a **** and it would have trolled you lot to the max.

I like your reasoning for the team

 

[kyear2]

My revised top XI plus a second and third.

Len Hutton
Sunil Gavaskar
Don Bradman
Viv Richards
Sachin Tendulkar
Gary Sobers
Imran Khan
Adam Gilchrist
Malcolm Marshall
Shane Warne
Glen Mcgrath

Jack Hobbs
Virender Sehwag
George Headley
Brian Lara
Greg Chappel
Jacques Kallis
Alan Knott
Wasim Akram
Curtly Ambrose
Denis Lillee
Muttiah Murilitharan

Victor Trumper
Gordon Greenidge
Raahul Dravid
Graeme Pollock
Wally Hammond
Kumar Sangakkara
Keith Miller
Richard Hadlee
Michael Holding
Fred Trueman
Bill O'Reilly

 

[kyear2]

Have nothing else to do, 4th and 5th

Barry Richards
Herbert Sutcliffe
Ricky Ponting
Everton Weekes
Ken Barrington
Ian Botham
Ian Healy
Alan Donald
Anil Kumble
Joel Garner
Waqar Younis

Arthur Morris
Graham Gooch
Javed Miandad
Clyde Walcott
Alan Border
Tony Greig
Les Ames
Ray Lindwall
Andy Roberts
Jim Laker
Syd Barnes

And still left out some great players, Hayden, Hanif, Khanai, Harvey, May, Lindsay, Pollock, Davidson, Grimmett, Hall and Prasanna. Proctor, Marsh, Jayawardene, Rhodes, Walsh, Dev. Just too much to mention.

 

[smash84]

lol @ having nothing better to do

 

[Lillian Thomson]

I always pick the best players without worrying too much about team balance.

Best two openers.
Hobbs
Gavaskar
Best three middle-order batsman
Bradman
Richards
Tendulkar
Best allrounder
Sobers
Best wicketkeeper
Knott
Best two fast bowlers
Marshall
Lillee
Best two spinners
Warne
Murali

 

[JBMAC]

No one has seen fit to consider Neil Harvey. I wonder why?

 

[Days of Grace]

I guess Harvey would be a just below Chappell, Border, Ponting, and Waugh in most people's minds. Still a great batsmen, though.

 

[Days of Grace]

Hobbs
Hutton
Bradman
Tendulkar
Lara
Sobers
Gilchrist (wk)
Hadlee
Marshall
Muralitharan
McGrath/Warne

 

[Lillian Thomson]

I guess Harvey would be a just below Chappell, Border, Ponting, and Waugh in most people's minds. Still a great batsmen, though.

He isn't behind Ponting, Border or Waugh but as there are countries other than Australia to consider he's certainly behind Richards, Lara and Tendulkar.
As only 3 or 4 middle-order batsman can be chosen and no one is stupid enough to omit Bradman it doesn't leave room for Harvey to be seriously considered.

 

[smash84]

awta

 

[archie mac]

My side would be;

Jack Hobbs
Sunil Gavaskar
Donald Bradman
Walter Hammond
Jacques Kallis
Gary Sobers
Keith Miller
Imran Khan
Alan Knott (wk)
Richard Hadlee
Shane Warne

Waqar or Marshall seemed silly when the difference in bowling, if they are better than the ones above, is negligible and they can't bat.

QUOTE]

Marshall was a handy batsman and I imagine if he needed to make more runs he would have. So often he would just hit out so he could bowl. The Windies of his time rarely needed his batting however I remember him playing some decent knocks and always shaped like he could handle the willow

It may be just me, but I don't think the bowling of either Kallis or Sobers but especially Kallis would worry too many greats in the team they would be playing. Mars according to Mailey or at the least another all time XI.

The reason I say Kallis more so than Sobers is the latters ability to bowl different styles

Prepare myself for the statsguru boys to show me that Kallis could dismiss more top order batsman than Marshall based on the amount of mollydookers he bowled at

 

[centurymaker]

My team-

Hobbs
Gavaskar
Don
Viv Richards
Sobers
Gilchrist
Imran
Hadlee
Akram/Garner (to add a bit of variety- left armer or a giant)
Marshall
Warne

my team's got depth in batting and bowling. what a team.

would prefer to play on roads/flat decks.

 

[Flem274*]

Marshall was a handy batsman and I imagine if he needed to make more runs he would have. So often he would just hit out so he could bowl. The Windies of his time rarely needed his batting however I remember him playing some decent knocks and always shaped like he could handle the willow

It may be just me, but I don't think the bowling of either Kallis or Sobers but especially Kallis would worry too many greats in the team they would be playing. Mars according to Mailey or at the least another all time XI.

The reason I say Kallis more so than Sobers is the latters ability to bowl different styles

Prepare myself for the statsguru boys to show me that Kallis could dismiss more top order batsman than Marshall based on the amount of mollydookers he bowled at

Marshall didn't score more runs in the end sadly. The difference in bowling between him and Hadlee/Imran is negligible no matter who comes out on top, but Hadlee and Imran are much much better batsmen when they all hung up the boots.

I might have one too many batting allrounders in there, and it's something I thought about before posting. Overall though Hadlee/Imran/Miller/Warne are all absolutely fantastic bowlers and Kallis/Sobers are decent and good for a wicket or two at least.

 

[archie mac]

Marshall didn't score more runs in the end sadly. The difference in bowling between him and Hadlee/Imran is negligible no matter who comes out on top, but Hadlee and Imran are much much better batsmen when they all hung up the boots.

I might have one too many batting allrounders in there, and it's something I thought about before posting. Overall though Hadlee/Imran/Miller/Warne are all absolutely fantastic bowlers and Kallis/Sobers are decent and good for a wicket or two at least.

Certainly not a bad team

I would personally have Marshall over both Paddles and the Khan but then again I would have Lillee over them all

My team in a time warp see if you can guess when the cut off point was

Grace
Trumper
Hill
Ranji
Jackson
Faulkner
Lohman
Blackham
Barnes
Turner
Spofforth

 

[Flem274*]

Pre second world war I'd say. Exact cut off of the early thirties? 1933?

 

[archie mac]

Pre second world war I'd say. Exact cut off of the early thirties? 1933?

Not a bad guess, 1914 was what I was thinking, don't think any of them carried on after the Great War although I think they asked SF to play for England in 1921

Bowling speeds always makes it hard to work out your attack for these old teams. Perhaps Richardson or Jonah Jones should have been included

 

[Flem274*]

If it's an era eleven then it might not matter too much. Home games will give modern batsmen some new experiences on very different pitches. Would be fascinating to see how they change their games, especially attacking top order batsmen.

 

[archie mac]

If it's an era eleven then it might not matter too much. Home games will give modern batsmen some new experiences on very different pitches. Would be fascinating to see how they change their games, especially attacking top order batsmen.

Yes no protective gear and sticky wickets, plus if they made the modern players use the old bats. I would think the old team would win tbh, but not by as much as the modern team's margin if they played under todays conditions.