Establishing the best decade for cricket: Finding the ATG XI from 12 decades of test cricket - then having a KO tourney to decide the best

[AndrewB]

Ha, it seems a lot more of us want a fifth bowling option than a sixth specialist batsman, but everyone who wants a batsman is voting for the same player whereas those of us who want the bowling balance are splitting our vote several different ways!

This is why you should use STV ?

 

[Gob]

Obviously want Botham but the team is ****ed up with no front line spinner so quadir with Imran at six

Anyway this would have been much better balanced

Gavaskar
Greenidge
Richards
Crowe
Border
Botham
Dujon
Imran
Hadlee
Marshall
Quadir

 

[The Sean]

Obviously want Botham but the team is ****ed up with no front line spinner so quadir with Imran at six

Anyway this would have been much better balanced

Gavaskar
Greenidge
Richards
Crowe
Border
Botham
Dujon
Imran
Hadlee
Marshall
Quadir

So you reckon Garner was the mistake? I missed voting for that one - and to be honest, I couldn't really decide who it should be anyway.

 

[Gob]

So you reckon Garner was the mistake? I missed voting for that one - and to be honest, I couldn't really decide who it should be anyway.

Yeah he is. He is a great bowler no doubt but Marshall, Hadlee and Imran were better. You can argue his modus operandi is different and bring bit of extra B to the table so you could push Imran to six but I feel Imran was bit out of his depth as a number six (compared to Botham and lesser extent Kapil despite both having inferior stats). Anyway I'm shocked by the number of people willing to go in without a front line spinner I mean seriously its forgivable in certain extreme conditions here and there but shouldn't be a persistent thing

 

[_00_deathscar]

Yeah he is. He is a great bowler no doubt but Marshall, Hadlee and Imran were better. You can argue his modus operandi is different and bring bit of extra B to the table so you could push Imran to six but I feel Imran was bit out of his depth as a number six (compared to Botham and lesser extent Kapil despite both having inferior stats). Anyway I'm shocked by the number of people willing to go in without a front line spinner I mean seriously its forgivable in certain extreme conditions here and there but shouldn't be a persistent thing

Virat Kohli just got a boner.

 

[sunilz]

Yeah he is. He is a great bowler no doubt but Marshall, Hadlee and Imran were better. You can argue his modus operandi is different and bring bit of extra B to the table so you could push Imran to six but I feel Imran was bit out of his depth as a number six (compared to Botham and lesser extent Kapil despite both having inferior stats). Anyway I'm shocked by the number of people willing to go in without a front line spinner I mean seriously its forgivable in certain extreme conditions here and there but shouldn't be a persistent thing

Because Imran + Kapil could do mare damage in Asian conditions than any spinner of 80s.
If you compare Imran + Kapil with Murali/Saqlain + Kumble then that is another matter. You really don't need spinner outside Asia if you have 3 ATG pace bowler.

 

[honestbharani]

mare damage

u thinking of Salman Khan?

 

[Engle]

The 80's were known for a few things :
- W.Indian pace battery
- 4 Ace Allrounders
- Qadir as the lone spinner holding aloft the art

I'm going for Qadir. If Imran is picked as captain or even v.captain, he'll insist on Qadir regardless of what we say

 

[srbhkshk]

I don't understand why Qadir should be selected here, the argument of a must have spinner in your side is far more valid for a team with only 4 viable bowling options, this team is going to have 5 and once that element is removed Kapil (and Botham) is just a better batsman, bowler, fielder, captain and everything else.
On the same token I would not select Crowe, because just 4 frontline bowlers with all of them being pacers is always risky regardless of whether or not Windies managed to make that work.
The team really really should have gone for a batsman instead of Garner and then selected Qadir - as things stand Kapil or Botham seem like the only viable options to me and I will go with Kapil due to my bias.

 

[Lillian Thomson]

With this sort of exercise there's always the possibility of a team forming that no one would ever choose or that doesn't make sense.
There'll probably be a Warne/Murali split later and neither will get in.

 

[Gob]

Because Imran + Kapil could do mare damage in Asian conditions than any spinner of 80s.
If you compare Imran + Kapil with Murali/Saqlain + Kumble then that is another matter. You really don't need spinner outside Asia if you have 3 ATG pace bowler.

Maybe I'm still pissed of with Oval 09 but there comes a stage in most normal cricket wickets towards the end of day 4 where the dust explodes and ball turns and you don't need Warne or Murali to exploit that but you also shouldn't be relying on a part time to get the wickets either. A regular Nathan Lyon would suffice

Anyway you are also overlooking a huge aspect of over rates. I've heard hear and there how appalling over rates of WI quarter was and I don't know for how far back the modern over rate laws strech but anyway I don't think its plausible to maintain the 15 overs per hour mark will all pace attacks

 

[Slifer]

The 80's were known for a few things :
- W.Indian pace battery
- 4 Ace Allrounders
- Qadir as the lone spinner holding aloft the art

I'm going for Qadir. If Imran is picked as captain or even v.captain, he'll insist on Qadir regardless of what we say

Qadir didn't hold anything aloft by himself. There was Qasim as well.

 

[Engle]

CMJ writing the Editorial of ' The Cricketer ' magazine Dec. 1986 :

 

[Slifer]

Ok so he kept leg spin alive i suppose. But he wasn't the only decent spinner around. Nope.

That's akin to the same writers saying Warne revived leg spin, even though Anil Kumble debuted 2 years before him. To say Warne single handedly revived leg spin and spinning in general is an exaggeration and an insult to guys like Kumble.

 

[Gob]

Ok so he kept leg spin alive i suppose. But he wasn't the only decent spinner around. Nope.

That's akin to the same writers saying Warne revived leg spin, even though Anil Kumble debuted 2 years before him. To say Warne single handedly revived leg spin and spinning in general is an exaggeration and an insult to guys like Kumble.

Think by reviewing they mean inspiring young people to take up legspin bowling/making it stylish blah blah. Anil was a fine fine bowler but I doubt he was doing much in that front

 

[Gob]

I mean I don't want to sound like those blokes who manage cricinfo social media pages there is so much over the top hype with Warne probably coming from people who didn't even see much of him but nevertheless do it to make it sound cool but now I think about it, watching him work his way around was pretty special. He didn't have a bowl that turns the other way without any hint so its classic variations in side spin, over spin, drift etc with precise control and was pretty amazing viewing

 

[a massive zebra]

Think by reviewing they mean inspiring young people to take up legspin bowling/making it stylish blah blah. Anil was a fine fine bowler but I doubt he was doing much in that front

I think that was just a fanboyish, hyperbolic myth. How many top class leg spinners have SENA countries had in the three decades since Warne made his name? Like 0. Certainly no more than in the three decades prior to his emergence. MacGill doesn't count as he was already on the verge of making the Western Australia side before Warne established his reputation.

 

[Gob]

I think that was just a fanboyish, hyperbolic myth. How many top class leg spinners have SENA countries had in the three decades since Warne made his name? Like 0. Certainly no more than in the three decades prior to his emergence. MacGill doesn't count as he was already on the verge of making the Western Australia side before Warne established his reputation.

Inspiring people to take up legspin bowling and actually becoming good at it is two different things though. Best example for that is...well me

 

[mr_mister]

With this sort of exercise there's always the possibility of a team forming that no one would ever choose or that doesn't make sense.
There'll probably be a Warne/Murali split later and neither will get in.

nah, normally i always ask for people to pick a frontline spinner.

for the 30s i let people just pick the 3rd and 4th bowler with no requirements due to Verity, O'Reilly and Grimmett all being better than the second best quick of the era.

and for this decade i felt like doing the inverse as Garner is a clearly better bowler to Qadir


but yeah, for balance reasons maybe it wasnt great

 

[mr_mister]

crowe 4
kapil 6
qadir 4

currently