Best all time XI for each country

[smash84]

Jehangir Khan was so so awesome......British open champion for 10 consecutive years IIRC

 

[Flem274*]

Ha i love these rubbish threads

You can all have your players from pre 1970 as they were all rubbish compared to today

picking players of yesteryear is like saying

Fred Perry is better than Federer
Pele is better than Messi
Bobby Jones is better than Tiger
Meads is better than anyone today
Bradman is better than Ponting
Babe Ruth is better than Pujols

ridiculous amateur rubbish from yesteryear arent anywhere like the players of today in all sports....

there you go

It's irrelevant though, because even if your assumption is correct (and considering cricket is heavily biased in favour of skill over general athleticism, especially batting, it's a big call) in other sports, (lets use rugby as an example, since the weight of the average back has gone from the weight of the average joe bloggs male to Ma'a Nonu) all time sides are selected based on how players stacked up in their era.

Why can't we do the same in cricket? Assuming for a moment Sobers or Grace would be a terrible allrounder today, they still dominated their era and are rightly recognised as greats.

Picking sides to play the Martians in 2012 always amuses me because setting aside the irrelevancy of how players would go in 1920 in a shady Paris nightclub against a Sachin Tendulkar mango for one moment, Martians don't exist and away games for Earth would end rather badly because we can't breathe on Mars.

 

[fredfertang]

Jahangir Khan was also a freak, 555 consecutive wins in squash over a period of 5 years. That's the greatest winning streak in the history of sport.

Longevity wise Joe Davis was world snooker champion for over 20 years, although he didn't have to win anything like that number of matches to achieve that - in fact iirc* in the early days it was annual challenge, so it may have involved as few as 15 matches, as I suspect it was suspended during WW2

* and before one of you ****s chirps that's not because I was around at the time

 

[weeman27bob]

Aleksandr Karelin was pretty dominant in his field.

And there's all sorts of facts about Wayne Gretzky, like if he'd never scored a goal, he'd still be the NHL leading points scorer of all time with almost double the points of the next highest. He and his brother have the all time record for NHL points scored by two brothers as well. His brother only has four, where as Wayne has 2857.

 

[ankitj]

It's irrelevant though, because even if your assumption is correct (and considering cricket is heavily biased in favour of skill over general athleticism, especially batting, it's a big call) in other sports, (lets use rugby as an example, since the weight of the average back has gone from the weight of the average joe bloggs male to Ma'a Nonu) all time sides are selected based on how players stacked up in their era.

Why can't we do the same in cricket? Assuming for a moment Sobers or Grace would be a terrible allrounder today, they still dominated their era and are rightly recognised as greats.

Picking sides to play the Martians in 2012 always amuses me because setting aside the irrelevancy of how players would go in 1920 in a shady Paris nightclub against a Sachin Tendulkar mango for one moment, Martians don't exist and away games for Earth would end rather badly because we can't breathe on Mars.

That, and we are all smarter than Newton and Aristotle.

 

[Chubb]

Associate XI

W. Porterfield (Ireland)
J. Davison (Canada)
S. Tikolo (Kenya)
R. ten Doeschate (Holland)
J. Lester (Gentlemen of Philadelphia)
C. Patterson (Gentlemen of Philadelphia)
N O'Brien + (Ireland)
B. King (Gentlemen of Philadelphia)
H. Hasan (Afghanistan)
R. Lefebvre (Holland)
O. Mortensen (Denmark)

Had to pick a couple of The Gentlemen to go alongside Bart King, who needs no introduction. In my amateur journalism days I wrote a piece for this website about the rest of that team.

 

[The Sean]

Jahangir Khan was also a freak, 555 consecutive wins in squash over a period of 5 years. That's the greatest winning streak in the history of sport.

Longevity wise Joe Davis was world snooker champion for over 20 years, although he didn't have to win anything like that number of matches to achieve that - in fact iirc* in the early days it was annual challenge, so it may have involved as few as 15 matches, as I suspect it was suspended during WW2

Aleksandr Karelin was pretty dominant in his field.

And there's all sorts of facts about Wayne Gretzky, like if he'd never scored a goal, he'd still be the NHL leading points scorer of all time with almost double the points of the next highest. He and his brother have the all time record for NHL points scored by two brothers as well. His brother only has four, where as Wayne has 2857.

Heather McKay to take her place at this table as well, perhaps even in the position of honour.

 

[Dan]

Found some more Non-Full Member born players, and ended up with these sides:

1. Will Porterfield (Ireland)
2. John Davison (Canada)
3. Mohammad Shahzad (Afghanistan)
4. David Hemp (Bermuda)
5. Ryan ten Doeschate (Netherlands)
6. Niall O'Brien (Ireland) [+]
7. Steve Tikolo (Kenya) [c]
8. Bart King (USA)
9. Roland Lefebvre (Netherlands)
10. Hamid Hasan (Afghanistan)
11. Ole Mortensen (Denmark)

George Dockrell (Ireland), Boyd Rankin (Ireland), Ashish Bagai (Canada) and Mohammad Nabi (Afghanistan) round out the squad.


Second XI (Played for Test Nations, born/qualified in non-Full Member Countries.)

1. Michael di Venuto (Italy & Australia)
2. Archie Jackson (Scotland & Australia)
3. Ted Dexter (Italy & England)
4. George Headley (Panama & West Indies)
5. Eoin Morgan (Ireland & England)
6. Mike Denness (Scotland & England) [c]
7. Geriant Jones (PNG & England) [+]
8. Gavin Hamilton (Scotland & England)
9. Tim Murtagh (Ireland & England)1
10. Dirk Nannes (Netherlands & Australia)
11. Ian Peebles (Scotland & England)

Joe Scuderi (Italy & Australia)1, Dougie Brown (Scotland & England), Clayton Lambert (USA & West Indies), Hamish Marshall (Ireland & New Zealand), Ed Joyce (Ireland & England) & Tom Cooper (Netherlands & Australia)1 to sit on the bench.

1 Cooper, Scuderi and Murtagh all represented their Full-Member nation at U/19 level.

The second side has turned out pretty well, IMO. That is, if one counts the likes of Jackson, Dexter, Headley and co. as qualifying for the XI.

 

[Dazinho]

Anyone had a crack at a Zimbabwe XI?

David Houghton
Grant Flower
Alistair Campbell
Murray Goodwin
Andy Flower
Tatenda Taibu (wkt)
Heath Streak
Andy Blignaut
Paul Strang
John Traicos
Pommie Mbangwa

 

[Migara]

Anyone had a crack at a Zimbabwe XI?

David Houghton
Grant Flower
Alistair Campbell
Murray Goodwin
Andy Flower
Tatenda Taibu (wkt)
Heath Streak
Andy Blignaut
Paul Strang
John Traicos
Pommie Mbangwa

Alistair Campbell
Neil Johnson
Murray Goodwin
Dave Houghton
Andy Flower
Grant Flower
Tatenda Taibu
Heath Streak
Andy Blignaut
Eddo Brandes
Ray Price

The spin department is a four way battle between Ray Price, Paul Strang, John Traicos and Andrew Whittal. Price and Strang were the most explosive. Pace department, Streak and Brandes are sure picks. Blignaut vs Olonga is the case when it comes to picking up a pacy bowler.

Anyway, the above has amazing batting depth, right up to no 11, and Johnson was a useful fast medium bowler too. Middle order of Goodwin, Houghton and Flower is as good as any test team.

 

[Migara]

OK here goes Minnows XI

I am trying to limit it to post 1980 sides. Qualification is playing at least half of their career in a minnow side. So this will get rid of de Silvas and Jaysuriyas.

Tamim Iqbal (BAN)
Neil Johnson (ZIM)
Asanka Gurusinghe (SL)
Dave Houghton (ZIM)
Andy Flower+ (ZIM)
Arjuna Ranatunga* (SL)
Shakib Al Hasan (BAN)
Heath Streak (ZIM)
Rumesh Ratnayake (SL)
Ravi Ratnayake (SL)
Asantha de el (SL)

I would have liked to add Associates as well in to this, but even Tikolo or Doschate cannot break in to this side. Middle order batsmen are very solid.

Any one who knows about minnow Indian, Saffie, Kiwi, WI sides can add their players too.

 

[Dazinho]

Alistair Campbell
Neil Johnson
Murray Goodwin
Dave Houghton
Andy Flower
Grant Flower
Tatenda Taibu
Heath Streak
Andy Blignaut
Eddo Brandes
Ray Price

The spin department is a four way battle between Ray Price, Paul Strang, John Traicos and Andrew Whittal. Price and Strang were the most explosive. Pace department, Streak and Brandes are sure picks. Blignaut vs Olonga is the case when it comes to picking up a pacy bowler.

Anyway, the above has amazing batting depth, right up to no 11, and Johnson was a useful fast medium bowler too. Middle order of Goodwin, Houghton and Flower is as good as any test team.

Good team - in limited overs, Johnson would be nailed on as the second opener. Tests I'd go for Grant Flower who was more patient.

Houghton could both open or bat at #3 and the need for a good start would nudge me towards sending him out first with him.

A Flower and Goodwin as nos 4 and 5 are a strong partnership - the elephant in the room when discussing great Zimbabwean batsmen of course played for England. How he would have fared for Zimbabwe is one of those great 'what ifs'.

Taibu's batting means he can come in as a specialist keeper, and he has the edge over Andy purely as a gloveman.

Streak is the 100% nailed on bowler/all-rounder. I've gone for two spinners and picked Strang as one of them with batting the clincher over Ray Price. For off-spin, Traicos takes it by a nose ahead of Andrew Whittall.

Blignaut gives real balance to the team, agreed. Olonga was devastating when in the zone, but was inconsistent, expensive and another walking wicket that removes the batting depth of the side.

Brandes I'm not sold on - apart from terrorising England every time he bowled at them I don't remember much. England were pretty useless back then.

Mbangwa was the one I was unsure of, seeing as he's more of a stock bowler and would normally need to offer more than that given his truly atrocious batting.

 

[Migara]

Brandes' best years were before test days of ZIM. He was useful with the ball and the only one who had fire in the belly before Olonga and Blignaut burst in to the scene.

Travis Friend and another player who plays for Enlish counties (whom I could notrecall the name) wer good as well with both bat and ball.

Edit: Sean Ervine that was.

 

[Dazinho]

Brandes' best years were before test days of ZIM. He was useful with the ball and the only one who had fire in the belly before Olonga and Blignaut burst in to the scene.

Travis Friend and another player who plays for Enlish counties (whom I could notrecall the name) wer good as well with both bat and ball.

Edit: Sean Ervine that was.

We all remember Eddo's demolition job on England in the 92 World Cup.

Taking your points on board - Mbangwa out, Brandes in.

Sean Ervine was one with real potential who was ruined by the political situation.

By the way, do you think Kevin Curran or Trevor Penney would have enhanced the Zimbabwe teams of the 1990s?

 

[trapol]

Troll I am assuming. Obviously there is some debate here, but not much at all. Bradman was a freak of nature. The others are more up for debate, except for Pele and Messi. Pele was a magician.

Sorry Pal...im trolling? get a life

Ive given you an opinion thats all. i cant believe how people think players of yesteryear are better than todays

Im a NZer and at last years world cup of rugby Grant Foz (member of our 87 winning team) said that the current team would beat that 87 team by 80 points!!! yet crickt is getting worse is it?

every sport is improving cricket included. so please with your troll rubbish and please with bradman being better than sachin....you are dreaming

 

[Agent Nationaux]

Cricketing standards are going down! In the 90's you had Donald, Pollack, McGrath, Gillespie, Wasim, Waqar, Shoaib, Ambrose, Walsh. Now it's just Anderson, Broad and Steyn.

 

[kyear2]

Sorry Pal...im trolling? get a life

Ive given you an opinion thats all. i cant believe how people think players of yesteryear are better than todays

Im a NZer and at last years world cup of rugby Grant Foz (member of our 87 winning team) said that the current team would beat that 87 team by 80 points!!! yet crickt is getting worse is it?

every sport is improving cricket included. so please with your troll rubbish and please with bradman being better than sachin....you are dreaming

While I dont believe as some do that he would be better than twice as good as everyone else, he is still better.

Sacchin on the other hand isn't even unquestionably better than BC Lara, Ponting and Kallis.

 

[Jager]

Sorry Pal...im trolling? get a life

Ive given you an opinion thats all. i cant believe how people think players of yesteryear are better than todays

Im a NZer and at last years world cup of rugby Grant Foz (member of our 87 winning team) said that the current team would beat that 87 team by 80 points!!! yet crickt is getting worse is it?

every sport is improving cricket included. so please with your troll rubbish and please with bradman being better than sachin....you are dreaming

Heresy, to be honest. I don't see how a rugby example has anything to do with cricket, either. Cricket is a skill-based sport, whereas rugby players rely far more on athleticism. There are very few reasons that could explain some sort of supernatural increase in batting prowess in the space of 41 years (Bradman's last test to Tendulkar's first). Kyear made some excellent points, too.

 

[trapol]

Did he really make some good points?

Vettori was recently (sorry wish i could find it but i cant) quoted as saying the level of batting is of a much greater standard to when he started in the 90s. but he is probably wrong eh

secondly, a lot of bowlers were mentioned and they are all fantastic bowlers but people seem to forget that spin can get you out also...todays players face spinners with Doosras, Caromballs etc. Dont forget the players of the last 20 years have had to deal with comfortably the greatest spinners of all time.

At the end of the day all sport is getting better and improving. cricket is no exception. Hell, its only 30 years ago there were jugs of beer on the tables for lunch here in England for the county matches (yet these guys were so much better) it was amateur with very few good players. easy to stand out.
the standard will keep improving (obviously this cant go on forever) but i personally dont believe we are there yet

 

[smash84]

At the end of the day all sport is getting better and improving. cricket is no exception. Hell, its only 30 years ago there were jugs of beer on the tables for lunch here in England for the county matches (yet these guys were so much better) it was amateur with very few good players. easy to stand out.
the standard will keep improving (obviously this cant go on forever) but i personally dont believe we are there yet

Really now.

The way I see it Shoaib was bowling till 2011. He started his career towards the end of Wasim and Waqar's careers. Wasim in turn started somewhere between Imran's career.

and Imran debuted 40 years ago.

Has there really been so much of a difference in standard?

Is Shoaib better than Wasim or Imran?

Are you gettin my point?