Nintendo
Cricketer Of The Year
Based.
Based.
True, didn’t think of it that way.What’s the thinking behind ‘when you pick an ATG team you will have enough batting, so you don’t need your keeper to be a good batsman’ compared to ‘when you pick an ATG team, your attack will always be able to take wickets, so you don’t need the best possible wicketkeeper’?
Even assuming that keeping and batting are shared evenly among the options, it’s the same difference either way. You have just as much reason to pick the best balanced side you can regardless of whether it’s for an ATG exercise or park cricket.
Spot OnI don't really judge Tallon much for that drop tbh
1) It's a single ball of his career
2) I've been saying for ages cricket is one of those rare sports that pretends everything has declined over time. Fans of any winter code know if you transport someone from as recently as 1987 to today, they're going to die. Sports improve their general play over time as they professionalize and collective knowledge can be passed down. Some areas might dramatically decline if the rules change (sticky wickets for cricket, and imo give tackle winter codes 20 years and standing chest tackles will be a thing of the past as concussion laws get harsher) but overall sports refine themselves.
It doesn't really matter though. We don't consider Glenn McGrath or Don Tallon aces in their fields because of what cricket might be like in 2050. It appears to be consensus that Tallon was one of the very first guys you'd pick to keep wicket during his time, and he compared very well with those who came before him, so yeah absolutely if you want to talk specialist stumpers he is in the conversation.
Billy Wade IMOKeeper I struggled with the most.
I'd have Ironmonger over IversonPlayers who played tests, but don’t meet the minimum statistical average requirements. (20 innings batted/2000 balls bowled)
Barry Richards 508@72.57
Stewie Dempster 723@65.72
Sid Barnes 1072@63.05
Kumar Duleepsinhji 995@58.52
Jack Russell 910@56.87
Ashraf Ali+ 17 catches, 5 stumpings
Mike Procter 41@15.02
Zulfiqar Ahmed 20@18.30
Goofy Lawrence 28@18.28
Bob Appleyard 31@17.87
Jack Iverson 21@15.23
Keeper I struggled with the most. Excluded all current players, and didn’t really look at most pre war bowlers tbh.
Reasons for their short careers:
Richards - Apartheid
Dempster - Played for NZ in the 30’s.
Barnes - Being an idiot.
Duleep - Recurring illness
Russell - WW1 kept him from debuting til 33
Ashraf - Wasim Bari and Saleem Yousuf were better keepers.
Procter - Apartheid
Zufilqar - Dunno
Goofy - One series, smashed it, averaged under 20 in his FC career. Next series was 2 years later (32 then, maybe they thought he was too old?)
Appleyard - Chronic shoulder injury
Iverson - Ankle injury
J.HobbsLen Hutton
Sunil Gavaskar
Don Bradman
Brian Lara
Steve Smith
Garry Sobers
Adam Gilchrist
Richard Hadlee
Malcom Marshall
Shane Warne
Dale Steyn
As far as these teams go, think this one is pretty complete. There aren't that many open slots left for this team with, at least for me, 5 players being automatic selections and with Warne, possibly 6. The team bats deep, with no rabbits with the bat, good mixture of technique and aggression in the batting, variety in the bowling and a great cordon.Len Hutton
Sunil Gavaskar
Don Bradman
Brian Lara
Steve Smith
Garry Sobers
Adam Gilchrist
Richard Hadlee
Malcom Marshall
Shane Warne
Dale Steyn
He doesn’t meet the criteria though.I'd have Ironmonger over Iverson
Jadeja for Laxman in sc.. This team is fine overseas.Indian ATG XI
Gavaskar
Sehwag
Dravid
Tendulkar
Kohli
Laxman
Dhoni+
Kapil*
Ashwin
Shami
Bumrah
Barbados XI
Gordon Greenidge
Conrad Hunte
Frank Worrell
Everton Weekes
Garry Sobers
Clyde Walcott
Seymour Nurse
Malcolm Marshall
Joel Garner
Wes Hall
Sylvester Clarke
Barbados
G. Greenidge
C. Hunte
F. Worrell *
E. Weekes
C. Walcott
G. Sobers
D. Murray +
M. Marshall
C. Griffith
W. Hall
J. Garner
12th- D. Haynes
Has been done before. Reckon Holder does make it. Without actually doing much of my own research:Barbados
Gordon Greenidge
Conrad Hunte
Frank Worrell
Everton Weekes
Clyde Walcott
Garry Sobers
David Murray
Malcolm Marshall
Joel Garner
Wes Hall
Sylvester Clarke
That's a handy XI for a country that size.
Engineer should be in as keeper and open with Gavaskar and all the others drop down one place in orderIndian ATG XI
Gavaskar
Sehwag
Dravid
Tendulkar
Kohli
Laxman
Dhoni+
Kapil*
Ashwin
Shami
Bumrah