Aravinda de Silva, Arjuna Ranatunga or Andy Flower. Flower was the best test batsman, but never was able to get Zim out of minnowhood in any format. Aravinda and Arjuna probably are the best ODI bats to come out of a minnow nation, and most importantly, took the side out of minnow territory.
A serious lack of Mahadevan Sathasivam
Wreck his career? He probably made more money playing for England. And I don't see him suddenly averaging 45 in tests just because he's suddenly playing for Zimbabwe. Would have got dropped a lot less often of course, though that might have only resulted in 10-15 more tests considering how little Zimbabwe played them in the 90s
I potentially do. My memory may be wrong, but I dont think he ever got found out in a technical way in tests, more that he had a case of the yips. Lower pressure environment as a Zim player, particularly without the weight of expectation that came from him destoying county while waiting to qualify. Plus soft home conditions in Zim and typically weaker opponents.
England would become more minnow like for sure. Easily the best English player against Warne and spin.
Did I just miss him or did we collectively forget Murray Goodwin, who definitely deserves to be in this discussion
if starting in a minnow team is the criteria, Aravinda takes the cake easily. Flower may be the better test batsman, but across formats, Aravinda is leaps ahead of Flower. Even Arjuna Ranatunga can be considered ahead of Flower across formats.
Always admired Arjuna and his combative nature - slightly surprised he's not President of the country tbh, or is he just biding his time?
I think players were only eligible based on their pre-Test record - i.e. if you selected Goodwin, you'd only be able to select him as his ~20 year old self. That's why a number of classic Zimbabweans and Sri Lankans weren't selected, but players like Houghton, Fletcher or Rawson were.
