Geoffrey Boycott: ICC's Dream XI is a joke - it has no credibility

[Z-Man]

The greatest team of all time? You must be joking. It is so biased it has no credibility. It takes no account of the history of the game and the great players of the past.

Geoffrey Boycott: ICC's Dream XI is a joke - it has no credibility - Telegraph

Geoffrey Boycott's Dream XI

Jack Hobbs

Len Hutton

Donald Bradman

George Headley

Viv Richards

Garry Sobers

Alan Knott

Sydney Barnes

Malcolm Marshall

Shane Warne

Dennis Lillee



ICC Dream XI

Virender Sehwag

Sunil Gavaskar

Donald Bradman

Sachin Tendulkar

Brian Lara

Kapil Dev

Adam Gilchrist

Shane Warne

Wasim Akram

Curtly Ambrose

Glenn McGrath

 

[Andre]

Dare I say, Boycs is right.

Only suprise in his XI is that he didn't pick himself.

 

[Z-Man]

Dare I say, Boycs is right.

Only suprise in his XI is that he didn't pick himself.

nor his mum

 

[Prince EWS]

Dare I say, Boycs is right.

Only suprise in his XI is that he didn't pick himself.

Haha yeah AWTA.

I don't fully agree with Boycott's XI at all either but I prefer it to the ICC one. If you assume the team is going to be playing at a level far beyond Test cricket against an opposition roughly as strong as itself, though, Boycott sure has picked a bloody long tail.

 

[Jarquis]

Hmm, I appreciate Knott's far from the best batsman ever. But one of Marshall/Warne are pretty reasonable as 8/9 come.

 

[Anku31]

Boycott's XI doesn't even have Tendulkar.What a joke.

 

[Anku31]

And he must not forget that this XI was selected by the fans.So it was obvious that some players from the long past would be excluded.

 

[Bun]

no 10dulkar? ****ing joke

 

[Prince EWS]

Hmm, I appreciate Knott's far from the best batsman ever. But one of Marshall/Warne are pretty reasonable as 8/9 come.

A 7/8/9 of Knott, Marshall and Warne would probably only be par at best even in a regular Test match. An All-Time World XI is two whole levels above that (Era World XIs being the step in between, or All-Time National XIs if you want to look at the other way). It'd essentially be the equivalent of calling up three blokes averaging 32, 19 and 17 in weekend club cricket to bat 7, 8 and 9 in a Test. I reckon they'd all be at least one spot too high at this level, if not two in whoever-bats-eight's case.

It's a pretty common gripe I have with ATWXIs though - that they just automatically assume a position of great strength and do away with proper balancing options. It's nothing compared to the gripe I have with picking Sehwag and Kapil so thumbs up to Sir Geoffrey.

 

[GotSpin]

Boycotts isn't perfect but its much better than the fan picked one

 

[GotSpin]

I look (hopefully) forward to this thread spiralling out of control soon

 

[Jarquis]

A 7/8/9 of Knott, Marshall and Warne would probably only be par at best even in a regular Test match. An All-Time World XI is two whole levels above that (Era World XIs being the step in between, or All-Time National XIs if you want to look at the other way). It'd essentially be the equivalent of calling up three blokes averaging 32, 19 and 17 in weekend club cricket to bat 7, 8 and 9 in a Test. I reckon they'd all be at least one spot too high at this level, if not two in whoever-bats-eight's case.

It's a pretty common gripe I have with ATWXIs though - that they just automatically assume a position of great strength and do away with proper balancing options. It's nothing compared to the gripe I have with picking Sehwag and Kapil so thumbs up to Sir Geoffrey.

Nah, I appreciate where you're coming from but a lot of people don't consider it like that.
The point I was making was from the perspective of Boycott choosing that team, he wouldn't have considered it a weak tail. It's not like he picked Knott, Murali, McGrath, Lillee and Barnes for example.

 

[hang on]

Boycott's XI doesn't even have Tendulkar.What a joke.

it would help if u read the article. he says that he does not want to pick someone still playing. but that tendulkar would make it into his team once he retires. the question is...at whose expense? headley or richards?

 

[Lillian Thomson]

Boycott's XI doesn't even have Tendulkar.What a joke.

no 10dulkar? ****ing joke

Boycott clearly states that he hasn't picked anyone who is still playing, so the joke is on you.

Anyway besides that he should just have said ICC is a joke - it has no credibility.

 

[Prince EWS]

Nah, I appreciate where you're coming from but a lot of people don't consider it like that.
The point I was making was from the perspective of Boycott choosing that team, he wouldn't have considered it a weak tail. It's not like he picked Knott, Murali, McGrath, Lillee and Barnes for example.

Yeah, as I said, it's extremely common gripe I have with a lot of all-time teams, but it's nothing compared to some of the WTF fan choices.

 

[weeman27bob]

Boycott's XI doesn't even have Tendulkar.What a joke.

no 10dulkar? ****ing joke

I'm expecting to be berated a bit for this, but I don't see why Tendulkar should be an automatic pick.

I'm not saying Boycott is right or wrong not to pick him, I'm just saying that, in my view, it's perfectly acceptable for people not to pick him.

Other than Bradman, I don't think anybody is far enough ahead of their peers that it merits calling someone wrong for not putting that player in their team.

 

[Cevno]

Boycott's eleven has just as much credibility as the ICC one, tbh.

And i would say, It's just as biased as the ICC one hypothetically.

 

[Prince EWS]

I'm expecting to be berated a bit for this, but I don't see why Tendulkar should be an automatic pick.

I'm not saying Boycott is right or wrong not to pick him, I'm just saying that, in my view, it's perfectly acceptable for people not to pick him.

Other than Bradman, I don't think anybody is far enough ahead of their peers that it merits calling someone wrong for not putting that player in their team.

Yeah AWTA. The last time I did an ATWXI, it didn't contain Tendulkar. I've since admired his longevity a lot more than I had previously and started to value that commodity a bit more as I rate players in general, so I may include him now, but he's definitely not an automatic pick.

 

[hang on]

I'm expecting to be berated a bit for this, but I don't see why Tendulkar should be an automatic pick.

I'm not saying Boycott is right or wrong not to pick him, I'm just saying that, in my view, it's perfectly acceptable for people not to pick him.

Other than Bradman, I don't think anybody is far enough ahead of their peers that it merits calling someone wrong for not putting that player in their team.

sobers.

 

[BlazeDragon]

He didn't pick Mcgrath is his squad? His list ain't so great either.