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CW All-Time XI

Jager

International Debutant
But you may have a different take when you get around to reading Brearley's book. It really is worth buying Jager.
So I have heard, it sounds great and I will be keeping my eye open for it. Thanks for the insight, too. I am happy that Richie gets such high reviews as a captain.
 

smash84

The Tiger King
Richie Benaud: 'One of the great captains.'
Peter May: 'One of England's best captains'.
Ray Illingsworth, Ian Chappell, Greg Chappell and Tony Greig: 'Four of the best captains of my time, all strong characters and determined to win.'
Frank Worrell: 'Worrell was a fine captain.'

Mike Brearley didn't rank captains in any particular order of preference like Dickie Bird did in his biography. However, he does make pointed remarks about many different individuals. Richie Benaud seems to be his favourite while Cowdrey seems to be his least favourite; 'Cowdrey's problem was himself; he lacked decisiveness, and was too concerned about how things (and he) looked.'

But you may have a different take when you get around to reading Brearley's book. It really is worth buying Jager.
what order does dickie bird rate captains in?
 

watson

Banned
what order does dickie bird rate captains in?
Of all the captains I have seen play, if I had to pick out four of the best, they would be Raymond Illingsworth and Michael Brearley of England, and Ian Chappell and Richie Benaud of Australia.

'Dickie Bird, My Autobiography' p340.
Not unsurprisingly the relevant chapter is entitled 'Top Test Captains.'

Incidently, Dickie Bird's 'World Squad' (made up of players he has umpired) is;

Barry Richards
Sunil Gavaskar
Viv Richards
Greg Chappell
Graeme Pollock
Garfield Sobers
Alan Knott
Richard Hadlee
Michael Holding
Dennis Lillee
Lance Gibbs

Reserves: Andy Roberts and Abdul Qadir (I assume, because they are at the end of his list)

Interestingly, Lara, Tendulkar, and Warne all appear to miss out (deliberately). His book was published in 1997.
 

watson

Banned
interesting quotes from his book.

Any good books you recommend Watson?
I haven't read too many cricket books smalishah84. I tend to read popular science, religion V atheism, and modern history when I 'm not tied up at my work bench fiddling with red blood cells and plasma. However, I do recommend 'The Picador Book of Cricket'. It's edited by Ramachandra Guhu and contains dozens of stories by different authors. My favourites are 'Barnes V Constantine' by CLR James and 'The Brilliance of Left-Handers' by JH Fingleton.

'The Joy of Cricket' (Edited by John Bright-Holmes) is a similar sort of book but slightly better. 'Majid Khan' by Peter Walker is a gem. However, I''d be surprised if its still in print.

But just to get back to Brearley's book for a second. His critical analysis of that 1981 Headingly Test is a facinating read and a window into the psychology of a captain under pressure.
 
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Jager

International Debutant
Just got my hands on 'Bradman's Best Ashes Teams'. Some interesting choices actually.

Australia
1. Bill Ponsford
2. Arthur Morris
3. Donald Bradman
4. Neil Harvey
5. Charles Macartney
6. Keith Miller
7. Don Tallon
8. Ray Lindwall
9. Dennis Lillee
10. Bill O'Reilly
11. Clarrie Grimmett
12. Richie Benaud

England
1. Jack Hobbs
2. Len Hutton
3. Denis Compton
4. Peter May
5. Walter Hammond
6. W.G Grace
7. Godfrey Evans
8. Fred Trueman
9. Alec Bedser
10. S.F Barnes
11. Hedley Verity
12. Ian Botham
 

watson

Banned
Just got my hands on 'Bradman's Best Ashes Teams'. Some interesting choices actually.

Australia
1. Bill Ponsford
2. Arthur Morris
3. Donald Bradman
4. Neil Harvey
5. Charles Macartney
6. Keith Miller
7. Don Tallon
8. Ray Lindwall
9. Dennis Lillee
10. Bill O'Reilly
11. Clarrie Grimmett
12. Richie Benaud

England
1. Jack Hobbs
2. Len Hutton
3. Denis Compton
4. Peter May
5. Walter Hammond
6. W.G Grace
7. Godfrey Evans
8. Fred Trueman
9. Alec Bedser
10. S.F Barnes
11. Hedley Verity
12. Ian Botham
Macartney at 5 is a surprise. I'm not sure why Hammond is batting so far down the order either. He is a natural number 3.
 

watson

Banned
Just dug out Geoff Armstrong's 'The 100 Greatest Cricketers'. He uses 99 of them to create 9 teams with Doug Walters being the odd man out. In a way it's Armstrongs version of what CW is doing in the 'ATG World XIs game' thread.

First XI:
Grace
Hobbs
Bradman
Tendulkar
G.Pollock
Sobers
Gilchrist
Imran
Marshall
Warne
Barnes

My own favourites though are the Fifth and Sixth XIs:

Fifth XI:
B.Richards
Shrewsbury
Ponting
KS Ranjitsinhji
Compton
Woolley
Benaud
Kirmani
Lindwall
Trueman
Bedser

Sixth XI:
Sehwag
Boycott
Dravid
Macartney
Miandad
Proctor
Ames
Larwood
Garner
Bedi
Chandrasekhar
 

Sowester

Cricket Spectator
Sunil Gavaskar
Len Hutton
Viv Richards
Sachin Tendulkar
Jacques Kallis
Garfield Sobers
Adam Gilchrist
Shane Warne
Jeff Thompson
Glen McGrath
Curtly Ambrose
 

Jager

International Debutant
Bradman had a very specific structure to his perfect XI, does anyone else have one?
 

vic_orthdox

Global Moderator
Just dug out Geoff Armstrong's 'The 100 Greatest Cricketers'. He uses 99 of them to create 9 teams with Doug Walters being the odd man out. In a way it's Armstrongs version of what CW is doing in the 'ATG World XIs game' thread.

*snip*
When were these teams concocted?
 

Jager

International Debutant
Benuad's. What structure did Bradman have?
Bradman's ideal team was...
Two recognised opening batsmen of whom one is a left-hander
The middle order batsmen of whom one is a left-hander
One all-rounder
One wicket-keeper who is also a good bat
One fast bowler to open with the wind
One fast or medium-pace bowler to open into the wind
One right-hand off-spinner, or a right-hand leg-spinner
One left-hand orthodox first-finger spinner

Bradman stood true to is wishes with his team, except that he insisted on playing the greatest spin-duo of all-time in Grimmett and O'Reilly. He also said that he ranked Warne as the only equal to those two spinners, but those two bowling in tandem was too good to split up.
 

zaremba

Cricketer Of The Year
Bradman's ideal team was...
Two recognised opening batsmen of whom one is a left-hander
The middle order batsmen of whom one is a left-hander
One all-rounder
One wicket-keeper who is also a good bat
One fast bowler to open with the wind
One fast or medium-pace bowler to open into the wind
One right-hand off-spinner, or a right-hand leg-spinner
One left-hand orthodox first-finger spinner

Bradman stood true to is wishes with his team, except that he insisted on playing the greatest spin-duo of all-time in Grimmett and O'Reilly. He also said that he ranked Warne as the only equal to those two spinners, but those two bowling in tandem was too good to split up.
But he didn't stay true to his wishes at all though. Sobers complicates things because if you count him as a batsman, there was no all-rounder, and if you count him as an all-rounder, he's only picked 2 middle order batsman. He's also failed to pick a keeper who was also a good bat - Tallon averaged 17 in Tests and is way out of his depth at 6. Then you have Lindwall forced to bat 2 places too high at 7, Bedser an unnecessary extra seamer, and, as you've mentioned, no left arm spinner.

The essence of his selection is "I am such a great player at 3 that I can afford to have a batting line-up which ends at 5, and all my favourite contemporaries can get to play".
 

kyear2

International Coach
+1

But I guess most players tend to rate the players they play with higher. What most people though was a shocker was that he left out Hammond
 

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