Draft League Season 3: Voting Thread

[Jager]

Rules
1. Please vote for who you think are the three best teams.
2. Please do not vote for your own team (even if you do think it is the strongest!)
3. Any writeups can be posted below.
4. If you want me to add a captain to your team should you not have nominated one, you have 24 hours to tell me.
5. 24 hours for any team edits.

Cevno
1. Marcus Trescothick
2. Stephen Fleming
3. Mathew Hayden
4. Ricky Ponting
5. Shivnarine Chanderpaul
6. Aubrey Faulkner
7. Mark Boucher+
8. Richard Hadlee
9. Alec Bedser
10. Dale Steyn
11. Frank Tyson

12. Belinda Clarke

watson
1. Len Hutton
2. Mark Taylor*
3. Justin Langer
4. Walter Hammond
5. Dudley Nourse
6. VVS Laxman
7. John Waite+
8. Andy Roberts
9. Dennis Lillee
10. Erapalli Prasanna
11. Courtney Walsh

12. Claire Taylor

Monk
1. Gordon Greenidge
2. Ian Redpath
3. Ian Chappell
4. Vijay Hazare
5. Frank Worrell*
6. AB. De Villiers+
7. Jack Gregory
8. Richie Benaud
9. Hugh Trumble
10. Fred Trueman
11. Waqar Younis

12. Enid Bakewell

kyear2
1. Arthur Morris
2. Bill Lawry*
3. Greg Chappel
4. Brian Lara
5. Inzamam Ul-Haq
6. Mustaq Mohammad
7. Jock Cameron+
8. Malcolm Marshall
9. Bill O'Reilly
10. Colin Croft
11. Ken Farnes

12. Rachel Heyhoe-Flint

kingkallis
1. Jack Hobbs
2. Barry Richards
3. David Boon
4. Herbie Taylor
5. Clive Lloyd*
6. Alec Stewart+
7. Trevor Goddard
8. Alan Davidson
9. Hugh Tayfield
10. Curtly Ambrose
11. Herman Griffith

12. Jan Brittin

Himannv
1. Geoffrey Boycott
2. Alastair Cook
3. Viv Richards
4. Allan Border
5. Lindsay Hassett*
6. Graham Thorpe
7. Les Ames+
8. Shaun Pollock
9. Harold Larwood
10. Fred Spofforth
11. Muttiah Muralitharan

12. Ellyse Perry

Eds
1. Archie Jackson
2. Saeed Anwar
3. Jacques Kallis
4. Kevin Pietersen
5. Douglas Jardine*
6. Clyde Walcott+
7. Keith Miller
8. Kapil Dev
9. Walter Robins
10. Michael Holding
11. Sydney Barnes

12. Myrtle Maclagan

Michaelf7777777
1. WG Grace
2. Sunil Gavaskar
3. Bill Edrich
4. Sourav Ganguly*
5. Garfield Sobers
6. Doug Walters
7. Ian Botham
8. Bert Oldfield+
9. Shane Bond
10. Clarrie Grimmett
11. Fazal Mahmood

12. Debbie Hockley

Blakus
1. Bert Sutcliffe (NZ)
2. Graeme Smith*
3. Rahul Dravid
4. Denis Compton
5. Everton Weekes
6. Michael Hussey
7. Alan Knott+
8. Ray Lindwall
9. Hedley Verity
10. Joel Garner
11. Neil Adcock

12. Karen Rolton

AndyZaltzHair
1. Virender Sehwag
2. Stewie Dempster
3. George Headley
4. Javed Miandad
5. Steve Waugh*
6. Stanley Jackson
7. Denis Lindsay+
8. Mike Procter
9. Gubby Allen
10. Jim Laker
11. Glenn McGrath

Cathryn Fitzpatrick

Marcuss
1. Herbert Sutcliffe (ENG)
2. Gary Kirsten
3. Clem Hill
4. Graham Pollock
5. Colin Cowdrey
6. David Gower
7. Adam Gilchrist+
8. Wasim Akram
9. Shane Warne
10. Ian Bishop
11. Bill Bowes

12. Betty Wilson

Jager
1. Victor Trumper
2. Bruce Mitchell
3. Charlie Macartney
4. Sachin Tendulkar
5. Martin Crowe
6. Mohammad Yousuf
7. Imran Khan*
8. Maurice Tate
9. Bob Taylor+
10. Stuart MacGill
11. Allan Donald

12. Charlotte Edwards

 

[Eds]

Are we enforcing a 'must vote' rule?

 

[Jager]

Yeah, must vote and I believe I made the scores private to keep things honest!

 

[Eds]

Well how will we know who has voted?

(I went for Michaelf7777777, Himannv, and Blakus, btw).

 

[Howe_zat]

Voted for Monk for his ace bowling attack and Watson for having the best female cricketer.

Last was tricky. Nearly went for Blakus but disqualified him for picking Graeme Smith. AZH ran it very close but went for Marcuss in the end.

 

[Jager]

Well how will we know who has voted?

(I went for Michaelf7777777, Himannv, and Blakus, btw).

Well I was under the impression that it would mean that only I could see the results. Instead it means I have NFI who's voted and everyone can see them regardless

 

[AndyZaltzHair]

Voted

Really tough choice; went with Eds, Himannv and Blakus

 

[Red]

Himmanv, Blakus and Michael.

 

[Eds]

I'd actually like to change my vote from Blakus to watson. Mistook Bert Sutcliffe for the Bert Sutcliffe.

 

[watson]

WATSON's XI: Strong, stubborn, and dour but animated by the charisma of Dennis Lillee and energised by the exceptional leadership skills of Mark Taylor.

With NO weak link this is a side that would be exceptionally difficult to beat on any wicket and in any circumstance. A cracking team on the offensive and unbreakable on the defensive. A pragmatists dream come true


PLAYER HIGHLIGHTS

No.1 Len Hutton

62 V Australia, Brisbane 1950
1st Test: Australia v England at Brisbane, Dec 1-5, 1950 | Cricket Scorecard | ESPN Cricinfo

Australia batted first and scored 228. But then the wicket turned into a quagmire. England were bowled out for 68 and Australia then replied with 7/32 declared. Hutton and Compton batted at No.8 and No.9 respectively in an effort to let the wicket dry out. In the end Hutton made 62 out of a team score of 122 in what has been described as one of the greatest exhibitions of defensive batting seen.


No.2 Mark Taylor

144 V West Indies, Antigua 1991
5th Test: West Indies v Australia at St John's, Apr 27-May 1, 1991 | Cricket Scorecard | ESPN Cricinfo

This Test match contained two cracking knocks. First, Mark Waugh’s 139 runs off only 188 balls in the first innings, then Mark Taylor’s 144 runs out of team total of 265 in the second innings. Australia finally ran out winners by 157 runs. The West Indian bowlers were none other than Malcolm Marshall, Curtly Ambrose, Courtney Walsh, Patrick Patterson, and Carl Hooper.


No.3 Justin Langer

127 V West Indies, St Johns 1999
4th Test: West Indies v Australia at St John's, Apr 3-7, 1999 | Cricket Scorecard | ESPN Cricinfo

Langer’s best innings under pressure before he became an opener. Scored 127 out of 306 in Australia second innings against the bowling of Curtly Ambrose and Courtney Walsh. Australia won the Test match by 176 runs.


No.4 Walter Hammond

240 V Australia, Lords 1938
2nd Test: England v Australia at Lord's, Jun 24-28, 1938 | Cricket Scorecard | ESPN Cricinfo

Took charge on the first morning of the match after Hutton and Edrich had been dismissed for not much by McCormick. A commanding innings with a Strike Rate of 60.91 despite the fact that O’Reilly bowled 37 overs.


No.5 Dudley Nourse

230 V Australia, Old Wanderers 1935
2nd Test: South Africa v Australia at Johannesburg, Dec 24-28, 1935 | Cricket Scorecard | ESPN Cricinfo

Made a duck in the first innings but more than made up for it as South Africa amassed 491 in their second innings to achieve a rare draw against the bowling of McCormick, O’Reilly, and Grimmett.


No.6 VVS Laxman

167 V Australia, Sydney 2000
3rd Test: Australia v India at Sydney, Jan 2-4, 2000 | Cricket Scorecard | ESPN Cricinfo

A fighting innings in a lost cause. Almost carried his bat during India’s second innings total of 261 as the rest of the Indian batsman were over-whelmed by the bowling of McGrath, Lee, Fleming, and Warne.


No.7 John Waite

113 V England, Old Trafford 1955
3rd Test: England v South Africa at Manchester, Jul 7-12, 1955 | Cricket Scorecard | ESPN Cricinfo

Helped South Africa to a first innings total of 521 against the pace and spin of Tyson, Bedser, Bailey, Lock, and Titmus. In the end the South Africans won by 3 wickets in a hard fought Test match.
Still holds the South African record with Mark Boucher for the most dismissals in a five-Test series - 26.


No.8 Andy Roberts

7/54 (9/119) V Australia, Perth 1975
2nd Test: Australia v West Indies at Perth, Dec 12-16, 1975 | Cricket Scorecard | ESPN Cricinfo

A rare success for the West Indies against the might of Greg Chappell’s batting and Lillee n’ Thomson’s bowling during the 1975/76 series. Roy Fredericks set up the West Indian victory by smashing 169 off only 145 balls during their only innings, and then Andy Roberts steam-rolled the Australian batsman in their second innings, all-out for 169.


No.9 Dennis Lillee

7/83 (10/127) V West Indies, Melbourne 1981
1st Test: Australia v West Indies at Melbourne, Dec 26-30, 1981 | Cricket Scorecard | ESPN Cricinfo

This Test match really belonged to Kim Hughes for his 100 Not Out in the first innings as Australia collapsed to 5/59 on the first morning. However, Lillee captured the wicket of Viv Richards on the last ball of the day to swing the momentum back to Australia who eventually won by 58 runs.


No.10 Erapalli Prassana

5/70 (9/111) V West Indies 1975
4th Test: India v West Indies at Chennai, Jan 11-15, 1975 | Cricket Scorecard | ESPN Cricinfo

At his very best during the 1967/68 tour of Australia but in this match Prasanna outshone both Bedi and Chandra to dismiss Viv Richards and Clive Lloyd in both innings as India claimed an excellent victory by 100 runs in a low scoring match. Viswanath starred with the bat.


No.11 Courtney Walsh

6/54 (9/146) V Australia, Antigua1995
2nd Test: West Indies v Australia at St John's, Apr 8-13, 1995 | Cricket Scorecard | ESPN Cricinfo

The West Indies finally lost a series at home in 1995, 3-1. But in the second Test match the Australian batsman were still locked in an arm wrestle with the West Indian bowlers as each team fought for domination. Walsh kept his team alive yet again with excellent figures against a strong and determined batting line-up.


12th Claire Taylor

116 V Australia, Taunton 2005
4th ODI: England Women v Australia Women at Taunton, Aug 30, 2005 | Cricket Scorecard | ESPN Cricinfo

A classically cool knock of 116 runs off 133 balls as she guides England to a 4 wicket win with 9 balls remaining.

 

[Dan]

Himanvv, Jager, Eds.

AZH and Blakus so, so close.

 

[kyear2]

This draft was so close it was near impossible to decide. Good effort from everyone.

 

[watson]

All fabulous teams.

But the standouts for me were;

Blakus
kyear2

And the third, no idea yet.

 

[watson]

Jager

 

[Hurricane]

I'd actually like to change my vote from Blakus to watson. Mistook Bert Sutcliffe for the Bert Sutcliffe.

Yeah why write Herbert Sutcliffe as Bert when there is a famous Bert Sutcliffe... I thought it was Bert as well.
anyway - didn't vote for Blakus because of the issue. Strangely I am the only one to vote for Cev.

 

[Eds]

Few things I'm amazed at, thus far:
- really thought this was the best team I'd drafted in this competition, ah well.
- Himannv > Blakus, surely? In fact, Himannv really should be head and shoulders in front IMO, but okay.
- AZH is surely worth more than one vote? I had him very close to getting one, and thought he'd challenge for the title overall. Very odd.

Gun writeup btw, watson.

 

[fredfertang]

I always like to make the effort top vote in these as its always an interesting exercise and not usually too difficult but I have to say that this time I seriously considered each and every one of the sides and there was no stand out although, ultimately, I am happy that the three I've gone for are, by the narrowest of margins, the best three

 

[Himannv]

It took me quite a while to look through some of these teams and analyse them. Very interesting looking lineups on the whole but went with Jager, AZH and watson after quite a bit of thought. It's one of those instances where I would probably vote differently on a different day.

 

[watson]

Few things I'm amazed at, thus far:
- really thought this was the best team I'd drafted in this competition, ah well.
- Himannv > Blakus, surely? In fact, Himannv really should be head and shoulders in front IMO, but okay.
- AZH is surely worth more than one vote? I had him very close to getting one, and thought he'd challenge for the title overall. Very odd.

Gun writeup btw, watson.

Cheers, Eds.

I'm not sure how Himannv could be 'head and shoulders in front' because a new ball attack consisting of Larwood, S.Pollock, and Spoffoth is one of the weaker attacks on show (No offense to Himannv). Batting is awesome though.

By any measure, Lindwall-Adcock-Garner, Marshall-Croft-Farnes, and Imran-Donald-Tate (the 3 new ball attacks I voted for) are all significantly stronger and more likely to roll a top-order.

Incidently, I rate Farnes very highly despite his non-profile. A kind of 1930s Joel Garner with a smooth action and stat's to match. A Test SR of 65, and First Class SR of 46 are excellent. He complements Marshall perfectly.

http://www.espncricinfo.com/magazine/content/story/240634.html

(BTW: Like Hedley Verity, Farnes was killed in action during the War as a pilot. Apparently during a night-raid, 1941)

 

[Eds]

I meant Himannv head and shoulders above Blakus tbh. Not necessarily the whole group.

On that topic, I'd like to think my new ball bowlers of Holding-Miller-Dev-Barnes is probably the best.