Best Test XI from each nation (that you have seen)

[Spikey]

Worst Australian XI I have had the misfortune of seeing

Hughes
Marsh
Khawaja
North
Smith
White
Wade
McKay
Cullen
Doherty
Williams

Don't like this, you've got White and Smith as batsman, whereas in the teams they were picked in, they were sorta...just there. And Marsh and North didn't bat that high. And two spinners. and you forgot manou

Mind you, it's not easy picking a worst XI from 2005 onwards. So here's one to do with players in god awful form, like "they're playing like they don't even know what an off-stump is, let alone knowing where it is"

Aus Bad Form XI

1. Hayden (all the tests he played in england bar the ones played on the oval, + the end)
2. Hughes (v kiwi ****s)
3. Marsh (v India 11-12)
4. Hussey (2008-9, popped up again in 2011 for a couple of tests)
5. ????
6. North
7. Manou
8. Johnson (Lord's/Brisbane)
9. Gillespie (2005 ashes)
10. Doherty (well duh)
11. Hilf (2011 ashes)

Couldn't think of a number 5. if you're an aussie batsman in bad form, just go bat at 5. it has the magic touch. Don't believe me? Even Nathan Hauritz averages 75 at number 5! Batting records | Test matches | Cricinfo Statsguru | ESPN Cricinfo

Looking at that, I guess you could say Katich, but one match was in India, and then the next match was in England months later, and the match afterwards in Aus months later. So that doesn't really count

 

[Spikey]

obv i didn't see mark taylor (y'know) and mark waugh (sl)

I guess it could be a bit unfair to include Manou on one game, so Gilly (05 Ashes) or Haddin (the end) could come in

 

[cricket100%]

SOUTH AFRICA

Gary Kirsten
Herschelle Gibbs
Jacques Kallis
AB de Villiers
Graeme Pollock
Jonty Rhodes
Mark Boucher
Shaun Pollock
Hugh Tayfield
Peter Pollock
Allan Donald

Was a bit difficult leaving out the likes of Barry Richards, Eddie Barlow, Dave Richardson and Hansie Cronje. Also a little controversy in having 3 Pollocks but I think their careers justify their selections.

Shaun Pollock would probably be captain. He is the only one there with lengthy captaincy experience. Kallis, Boucher and Kirsten all were vice-captains and SA's current ODI captain AB de Villiers would also be a good bet.

 

[Jager]

G Pollock needs to be at 4 and AB at 5.

 

[Agent Nationaux]

Best Pak XI I have seen

Saeed Anwar
Amir Sohail
Younis Khan
Inzamam ul Haq
Misbah ul Haq (really tough to find a good no 5)
Mohammad Yousuf
Rashid Lateef
Wasim Akram (c)
Saqlain Mushtaq
Waqar Younis
Shoaib Akhtar

 

[Migara]

Worst Lankan XI

Jehan Mubarak
Mithra Wettamuni
Chamara Silva
Chamara Kapugedara
Duleep Mendis
Naweed Nawas
Ashley de Silva
Ranjith Madurasinghe
Suresh Perera
Pramodaya Wickremasinghe
Chamila Gamage

 

[Migara]

SOUTH AFRICA

Gary Kirsten
Herschelle Gibbs
Jacques Kallis
AB de Villiers
Graeme Pollock
Jonty Rhodes
Mark Boucher
Shaun Pollock
Hugh Tayfield
Peter Pollock
Allan Donald

Was a bit difficult leaving out the likes of Barry Richards, Eddie Barlow, Dave Richardson and Hansie Cronje. Also a little controversy in having 3 Pollocks but I think their careers justify their selections.

Shaun Pollock would probably be captain. He is the only one there with lengthy captaincy experience. Kallis, Boucher and Kirsten all were vice-captains and SA's current ODI captain AB de Villiers would also be a good bet.

Cullinan will be a better choice IMO. And Steyn has done a lot to be over Tayfield as well.

 

[harsh.ag]

I have been watching cricket since the middle to late 70s, just before the time Botham became a sensation. Can't say I really followed it very closely when it came to all teams, but I did keep me eyes and ears open. From all I know, I would pick the following teams :

England

Geoff Boycott
Alastair Cook
Graham Gooch
David Gower
Kevin Pietersen
Ian Botham
Andrew Flintoff
Alan Knott (w)
James Anderson/ Angus Fraser
Derek Underwood
Bob Willis


Australia

Matthew Hayden
Mark Taylor (c)
Greg Chappell
Ricky Ponting
Allan Border
Steve Waugh
Adam Gilchrist (w)
Shane Warne
Dennis Lillee
Jeff Thomson
Glen McGrath

West Indies

Gordon Greenidge
Desmond Haynes
Viv Richards
Brian Lara
Alvin Kallicharran
Clive Lloyd
Jeffrey Dujon (w)
Malcolm Marshall
Joel Garner
Michael Holding
Curtly Ambrose

India

Sunil Gavaskar
Virender Sehwag
Rahul Dravid
Sachin Tendulkar
VVS Laxman
M S Dhoni (w)
Kapil Dev
Zaheer Khan
Anil Kumble
Bishan Singh Bedi
Javagal Srinath

Pakistan

Saeed Anwar
Mushtaq Mohammad (Only saw him play 2 tests, but I am counting those)
Javed Miandad
Zaheer Abbas
Inzamam ul-Haq
Mohammad Yousuf
Imran Khan
Rashid Latif (w)
Wasim Akram
Waqar Younis
Abdul Qadir

South Africa

Barry Richards (Just saw him in domestic matches, but how do you leave him out?)
Graeme Smith
Jacques Kallis
Graeme Pollock (See Barry Richards)
A B De Villiers
Hashim Amla
Mike Procter (See Graeme Pollock)
Mark Boucher (w)
Shaun Pollock
Dale Steyn
Allan Donald

New Zealand

Glen Turner
John Wright
Mark Richardson
Martin Crowe
Stephen Fleming
Nathan Astle
Ian Smith (w)
Richard Hadlee
Daniel Vettori
Dion Nash
Shane Bond

Will not post Sri Lanka and Zimbabwe because I don't anything about them pre-1996.
Also want to ask: How old are SJS and JBMAC?

 

[Agent Nationaux]

JBMAC has seen Bradman play, so pretty old.

 

[kyear2]

A test team of players from all countries that I have seen.

Gordon Greenidge
Matthew Hayden
Viv Richards
Sachin Tendulkar
Brian Lara
Jacques Kallis
Adam Gilchrist
Malcolm Marshall
Shane Warne
Curtly Ambrose
Glenn Mcgrath

Ponting, Dravid, Richardson, Waqar, Bishop just missed out and Robin Smith and Dean Jones were also pensonal fav's of mine to watch as well.

 

[Burgey]

Worst combined Aus XI I have seen:

G Wood
R Darling
J Weiner
D Wellham (c)
G Cosier
S Smith
T Zoehrer (wk)
T Dodemaide
S Davis
C Matthews
G Beard

12th man: D Gilbert

High percentage of 80s players, for the obvious reasons.

 

[Red]

Been watching cricket from the mid 80s onwards...

Best Aust XI I have seen (tests)

Mark Taylor (c)
David Boon
Ricky Ponting
Allan Border
Steve Waugh
Adam Gilchrist
Ian Healy (k)
Shane Warne
Jason Gillespie
Craig McDermott
Glenn McGrath
12th- Mark Waugh

Best English XI I have seen (tests)

Alec Stewart
Graham Gooch (c)
Michael Vaughan
Kevin Pieterson
David Gower
Ian Botham
Andrew Flintoff
Jack Russell (k)
Graham Swann
Darren Gough
Andy Caddick

Best WIs XI I have seen (tests)

Gordon Greenidge
Desmond Haynes
Richie Richardson
Viv Richards
Brian Lara
Shiv Chanderpaul
Jeff Dujon
Malcolm Marshall
Joel Garner
Curtly Ambrose
Ian Bishop

Best Indian XI I have seen (tests)

Sehwag
Sidhu
Dravid
Tendulkar
Laxman
Ganguly
Dhoni
Kapil Dev
Kumble
Srinath
Harbhajan

 

[Dan]

Best XI - Australia (Post 2000)
S Katich | M Slater | R Ponting | M Waugh | S Waugh | M Clarke | A Gilchrist | S Warne | J Gillespie | S Clark | G McGrath
Harsh leaving out Hussey and Martyn.

Worst XI - Australia (Post 2000)
P Hughes | G Blewett | U Khawaja | S Marsh | M North | S Smith | G Manou | C White | M Johnson | D Cullen | B Williams
As much as I love Blewett as a player, he was useless when I started watching in 2000.

Best XI - England (Post 2000)
M Trescothick | A Cook | I Bell | K Pietersen | G Thorpe | A Flintoff | M Prior | S Broad | G Swann | S Jones | J Anderson
Didn't see much of Stewart live (and by all accounts he was better off opening without the gloves), so I'll go with Prior.

Worst XI - England (Post 2000)
D Maddy | N Knight | I Ward | U Afzaal | A McGrath | R Clarke | G Jones | C Schofield | I Salisbury | A Khan | E Giddins
Some serious competition for that XI..

 

[The Sean]

Worst combined Aus XI I have seen:

G Wood
R Darling
J Weiner
D Wellham (c)
G Cosier
S Smith
T Zoehrer (wk)
T Dodemaide
S Davis
C Matthews
G Beard

12th man: D Gilbert

High percentage of 80s players, for the obvious reasons.

Stunning effort, this. I was going to criticise the lack of Rod McCurdy before I realised he never played a Test - I thought he'd managed a couple in amongst his consistently underwhelming ODI performances.

I reckon Graham Wood was too good for this team, I might argue for John Dyson or Andrew Hilditch as more worthy of a spot.

Possibly a little harsh on Dodemaide too - could potentially replace him with Ricky's uncle? That would downgrade both the batting and bowling strength nicely from merely laughable to almost beyond parody.

 

[Spark]

Don't like this, you've got White and Smith as batsman, whereas in the teams they were picked in, they were sorta...just there. And Marsh and North didn't bat that high. And two spinners. and you forgot manou

Mind you, it's not easy picking a worst XI from 2005 onwards. So here's one to do with players in god awful form, like "they're playing like they don't even know what an off-stump is, let alone knowing where it is"

Aus Bad Form XI

1. Hayden (all the tests he played in england bar the ones played on the oval, + the end)
2. Hughes (v kiwi ****s)
3. Marsh (v India 11-12)
4. Hussey (2008-9, popped up again in 2011 for a couple of tests)
5. ????
6. North
7. Manou
8. Johnson (Lord's/Brisbane)
9. Gillespie (2005 ashes)
10. Doherty (well duh)
11. Hilf (2011 ashes)

Couldn't think of a number 5. if you're an aussie batsman in bad form, just go bat at 5. it has the magic touch. Don't believe me? Even Nathan Hauritz averages 75 at number 5! Batting records | Test matches | Cricinfo Statsguru | ESPN Cricinfo

Looking at that, I guess you could say Katich, but one match was in India, and then the next match was in England months later, and the match afterwards in Aus months later. So that doesn't really count

ponting between india series, clarke?

 

[Burgey]

Stunning effort, this. I was going to criticise the lack of Rod McCurdy before I realised he never played a Test - I thought he'd managed a couple in amongst his consistently underwhelming ODI performances.

I reckon Graham Wood was too good for this team, I might argue for John Dyson or Andrew Hilditch as more worthy of a spot.

Possibly a little harsh on Dodemaide too - could potentially replace him with Ricky's uncle? That would downgrade both the batting and bowling strength nicely from merely laughable to almost beyond parody.

These are all good points. I fear I've tended towards those who played in rank sides, rather than those who were themselves woeful. Hence I went for Dodemaide over Campbell and omitted Dyson.

Wrt McCurdy, he provided me with one of my happier childhood memories when I went to an ODI with my grandfather and a few mates of mine at the SCG. It was around the time both Rackemann and McCurdy were just starting off and I think one or both were in the team that night. We all went for a wander up the back of the Bradman and Noble Stands and bumped into Alan McGilvray between stints on the ABC. He was a legend and had a good chat to us kids for a good while about he he thought both Rackemann and McCurdy would probably end up decent test bowlers.

McGilvray is also a legend as he caused Gordon Bray to get run over, when the latter was part of one of Mac's famous benders and fell asleep in Mac's drive way. Keith Miller came over to Mac's place after he'd been out to help finish off the bottle of scotch and ran over Bray, not seeing him comatose in the drive way because he was pretty well oiled himself, apparently.

 

[The Sean]

These are all good points. I fear I've tended towards those who played in rank sides, rather than those who were themselves woeful. Hence I went for Dodemaide over Campbell and omitted Dyson.

Wrt McCurdy, he provided me with one of my happier childhood memories when I went to an ODI with my grandfather and a few mates of mine at the SCG. It was around the time both Rackemann and McCurdy were just starting off and I think one or both were in the team that night. We all went for a wander up the back of the Bradman and Noble Stands and bumped into Alan McGilvray between stints on the ABC. He was a legend and had a good chat to us kids for a good while about he he thought both Rackemann and McCurdy would probably end up decent test bowlers.

McGilvray is also a legend as he caused Gordon Bray to get run over, when the latter was part of one of Mac's famous benders and fell asleep in Mac's drive way. Keith Miller came over to Mac's place after he'd been out to help finish off the bottle of scotch and ran over Bray, not seeing him comatose in the drive way because he was pretty well oiled himself, apparently.

That's fantastic, gem of a story. WAG.

 

[cricket100%]

G Pollock needs to be at 4 and AB at 5.

That would be justified. I also thought of playing G Pollock at three and Kallis at 4 because that is the place Kallis bats currently.

 

[cricket100%]

SOUTH AFRICA

Gary Kirsten
Herschelle Gibbs
Jacques Kallis
AB de Villiers
Graeme Pollock
Jonty Rhodes
Mark Boucher
Shaun Pollock
Hugh Tayfield
Peter Pollock
Allan Donald

Was a bit difficult leaving out the likes of Barry Richards, Eddie Barlow, Dave Richardson and Hansie Cronje. Also a little controversy in having 3 Pollocks but I think their careers justify their selections.

Shaun Pollock would probably be captain. He is the only one there with lengthy captaincy experience. Kallis, Boucher and Kirsten all were vice-captains and SA's current ODI captain AB de Villiers would also be a good bet.

Cullinan will be a better choice IMO(than Jonty Rhodes). And Steyn has done a lot to be over Tayfield as well.

Cullinan - Jonty is a tough call and I pondered about it for a while. However Jonty's goood fielding abbilities just gave the edge.

As far as Steyn/Tayfield goes, I think one would need a spinner on most modern day pitches so therefore Tayfield was included above Steyn.

 

[flibbertyjibber]

ENGLAND

Trescothick
Cook
Gower
Thorpe
Pietersen
Botham
Prior
Swann
Gough
Anderson
Fraser

AUSTRALIA

Hayden
Langer
Ponting
Waugh
Waugh
Border
Gilchrist
Warne
McDermott
Gillespie
McGrath

WEST INDIES

Greenidge
Haynes
Lara
Richards
Chanderpaul
Logie
Dujon
Marshall
Holding
Ambrose
Garner

INDIA

Gavaskar
Sehwag
Dravid
Tendulkar
Azharuddin
Vengsarkar
Dhoni
Kapil Dev
Kumble
Zaheer
Srinath


PAKISTAN

Saeed Anwar
Aamir Sohail
Younis Khan
Javed Miandad
Inzamam
MOYO
Imran
Rashid Latif
Wasim
Waqar
Saqlain Mushtaq


SA

Smith
Kirsten
Amla
Kallis
de Villiers
Cullinan
Boucher
Pollock
Steyn
Donald
Ntini


WORST ENGLAND

John Stephenson
Hugh Morris
Alan Wells
Matthew Maynard
Jason Gallian
Ronnie Irani
Steve Rhodes
Ian Salisbury
Ed Giddins
Joey Benjamin
Martin McCague

Could make about 5 teams of our duffers from over the years. How can I have left out Ilott, Fairbrother, Capel, Lewis and Amjad Khan?