The ATG World XI's game

[watson]

Just an aside for the last side, selecting Stewart as a keeper lower down is bad, bad, bad. He was a below average glovesman, whose batting strengths were his opening ability. Poor pick for that role IMO.

I'd go Boucher for the keeper slot.

82 matches keeping with an average of 34.92. This isn't bad.

Plus, if he were below average then he wouldn't have lasted 82 matches. Also, name me one occasion where he had a shocker (I'm probably setting myself up here).


Batting records | Test matches | Cricinfo Statsguru | ESPN Cricinfo

 

[NasserFan207]

82 matches keeping with an average of 34.92. This isn't bad.

Plus, if he were below average then he wouldn't have lasted 82 matches. Also, name me one occasion where he had a shocker (I'm probably setting myself up here).


Batting records | Test matches | Cricinfo Statsguru | ESPN Cricinfo

I'm mainly talking about his batting here, correct me if I'm wrong but his average was pretty bad batting low down from what I recall. No better than Russell really

Basically with his average keeping ability you'd be better of with someone else. Things would be different if he was opening, class opener.

 

[marc71178]

Basically with his average keeping ability you'd be better of with someone else. Things would be different if he was opening, class opener.

One of the big failures of that era. Instead of a potentially world class opener and a world class keeper who was more than capable of batting 7 at the time we ended up with an average keeper with not that much better batting and no world class opener.

 

[Jager]

Are there any experimental teams that someone might want to try next round? I was thinking two or three frontline spinners.

 

[Jarquis]

Nah, no point forcing selection. If you want some different makeups to sides then maybe pick the keeper and numbers 6 and 8 first.

 

[Jager]

Nah, no point forcing selection. If you want some different makeups to sides then maybe pick the keeper and numbers 6 and 8 first.

Fair point, everyone can continue to select who they want and it will undoubtedly give us mixed formats.

 

[NUFAN]

Votes

keeper
Stewart 6
Latif 1
Russell 3
Oldfield 1
Marsh 1
Boucher 1
Blackham 3

final spot
Jardine 3
Gillespie 1
Armstrong 1
Mohammed 1
Yousuf 1
Cairns 4
Richardson 1
Jackson 1
Mankad 1


World K XI
1. Desmond Haynes
2. Bill Woodfull
3. Clem Hill
4. Mahela Jayawardene
5. Archie Jackson
6. Alec Stewart+
7. Chris Cairns
8. Andrew Flintoff
9. Wilfred Rhodes
10. Fazal Mahmood
11. Bob Willis

It's on the previous page, but I'll copy and paste it again:

Teams compiled so far

World XI (1)
1. J Hobbs 2. L Hutton 3. D Bradman 4. V Richards 5. S Tendulkar 6. G Sobers 7. A Gilchrist+ 8. I Khan 9 S. Warne 10. M Marshall 11. G McGrath

World A XI (2)
1. S Gavaskar 2. H Sutcliffe 3. G Headley 4. B Lara 5. W Hammond 6. J Kallis 7. A Knott+ 8. R Hadlee 9. W Akram 10. C Ambrose 11. M Muralitharan

World B XI (3)
1. B Richards 2. V Trumper 3. G Chappell 4. G Pollock 5. A Border 6. K Miller 7. L Ames+ 8. D Lillee 9. F Trueman 10. B O'Reilly 11. S Barnes

World C XI (4)
1. G Boycott 2. W.G Grace 3. R Ponting 4. K Barrington 5. S Waugh 6. C Walcott+ 7. I Botham 8. A Davidson 9. M Holding 10. J Laker 11. A Donald

World D XI (5)
1. G Greenidge 2. M Hayden 3. R Dravid 4. D Compton 5. E Weekes 6. F Worrell 7. D Lindsay+ 8. S Pollock 9. R Lindwall 10. J Garner 11. C Grimmett

World E XI (6)
1. G Gooch 2. A Morris 3. N Harvey 4. J Miandad 5. D Nourse 6. A Flower+ 7. M Procter 8. R Benaud 9. D Steyn 10. A Roberts 11. W Younis

World F XI (7)
1. B Mitchell 2. B Simpson 3. K Sangakkara 4. K Ranjitsinhji 5. C Macartney 6. C Lloyd 7. K Dev 8. D Tallon+ 9. H Verity 10. H Larwood 11. C Walsh

World G XI (8)
1. V Merchant 2. H Mohammad 3. S McCabe 4. K Pietersen 5. S Chanderpaul 6. A Faulkner 7. F Engineer+ 8. H Tayfield 9. A Bedser 10. I Bishop 11. C Croft

World H XI (9)
1. G Smith 2. V Sehwag 3. R Kanhai 4. M Crowe 5. Inzamam ul-Haq 6. D Walters 7. I Healy+ 8. M Tate 9. A Kumble 10. W Hall 11. J Snow

World I XI (10)
1. W Ponsford 2. W Lawry 3. T Dexter 4. P May 5. D Gower 6. A Greig 7. J Dujon+ 8. P Pollock 9. C Turner 10. B Statham 11. L Gibbs

World J XI (11)
1. T Goddard 2. E Barlow 3. I Chappell 4. E Paynter 5. AB de Villiers 6. VVS Laxman 7. J Waite+ 8. George Lohmann 9. D Underwood 10. F Tyson 11. Neil Adcock

Now we are onto the 13th team.

 

[watson]

I'm mainly talking about his batting here, correct me if I'm wrong but his average was pretty bad batting low down from what I recall. No better than Russell really

Basically with his average keeping ability you'd be better of with someone else. Things would be different if he was opening, class opener.

Sorry, I should have been clearer

Stewart kept wicket for 82 Test matches and had an average of 34.92 (6 centuries) while keeping. This is pretty good for a wicketkeeper in my opinion.

Stewart played 52 matches as a non-keeping batmen and averaged 46.70 (9 centuries). So yes, he had more success accumilating runs while standing in the slip cordon rather than behind the stumps.

But I'd still rather have Stewart in my side as a keeper.

Incidently, Jack Russell's batting average was 27.1 with 2 centuries. However, it does get tricky when choosing between Stewart and Knott for an ATG England side because Knott averaged 32.75 (5 centuries) over 95 Tests.

 

[Jager]

Stewart shouldn't even be mentioned in the same sentence as Knott or Ames. If you want a far superior wicketkeeper with outstanding batting, choose Ames, but if you want arguably the finest wicketkeeper ever with slightly less talent with the bat, it's Knott. Hoping that doesn't sound rude, it's not intended to be! Also, NUFAN, want me to continue now?

 

[ankitj]

If you had to choose one player from each team in order to make a squad, who would you pick to make the strongest side? (Bradman and Sobers excluded)

That's how I always make my all time XI. This is how it looks...

Hobbs, Gavaskar, Bradman, G. Pollock, Sobers, Gilchrist, I Khan, Hadlee, Marshall, Muralitharan, Barnes.

 

[vic_orthdox]

That's how I always make my all time XI. This is how it looks...

Hobbs, Gavaskar, Bradman, G. Pollock, Sobers, Gilchrist, I Khan, Hadlee, Marshall, Muralitharan, Barnes.

He means one player from each team that we've made so far in this exercise, I believe.

 

[Jager]

I'll try a new method of selection, might as well be adventurous. P.S I am putting my money on the World E XI to upset the World XI in the final.

1. Select four bowlers to form our attack.

Suggested pace bowlers
Shoaib Akhtar, Terry Alderman, James Anderson, Shane Bond, Bill Bowes, Stuart Broad, Andy Caddick, Jack Cowie, Wayne Daniel, Fanie de Villiers, Jason Gillespie, Darren Gough, Charlie Griffith, Ken Higgs, Merv Hughes, Bill Johnston, Zaheer Khan, Craig McDermott, Garth McKenzie, Sarfraz Nawaz, Makhaya Ntini, Vernon Philander, Bruce Reid, Tom Richardson, Fred Spofforth, Javagal Srinath, Heath Streak, Jeff Thomson, Ernie Toshack, Chaminda Vaas

Suggested Spinners
Saeed Ajmal, Shakib Al Hasan, Bishan Bedi, Charlie Blythe, Johnny Briggs, Bhajwath Chandrasekhar, Subhash Gupte, Tony Lock, Stuart MacGill, Vinoo Mankad, Saqlain Mushtaq, Bobby Peel, Erapalli Prasanna, Abdul Qadir, Iqbal Qasim, Sonny Ramadhin, Harbajhan Singh, Graeme Swann, Hugh Trumble, Alf Valentine, Daniel Vettori, Johnny Wardle

Feel free to suggest players for the shortlists, I will happily add them in.

 

[Jager]

He means one player from each team that we've made so far in this exercise, I believe.

Yeah, as in one player from A, one from B, one from C etc.

I asked the question because I was stunned to see Ponsford so low. He got chosen in 3 of the 5 teams people posted, so that could show that he was slightly undervalued or hard-done by in the voting.

 

[vic_orthdox]

Can see us ending up with four quicks by this voting method.

Shane Bond
Craig McDermott
Fred Spofforth
Erapalli Prasanna

 

[NUFAN]

Jeff Thomson
Shane Bond
Jason Gillespie
Bhajwath Chandrasekhar

 

[Jager]

Can see us ending up with four quicks by this voting method.

Are there different types of pitches in ITC? If there are and we end up with four, the team could be devastating on a seamer's wicket and maybe pull off a surprise victory or two.

 

[Dan]

Heath Streak - Underrated by CW IMO, he's easily Zimbabwe's best pace bowler of the Test period. Swings the ball away at pace, can bowl all day and was more than useful with the bat. Should be a good number 8.
Shane Bond
Tom Richardson
Johnny Wardle

 

[watson]

Shoaib Akhtar
Jeff Thomson

(Suddenly liked the idea of the 2 fastest bowlers of all time opening the attack)

Tom Richardson
Erapalli Prasanna

 

[marc71178]

However, it does get tricky when choosing between Stewart and Knott for an ATG England side because Knott averaged 32.75 (5 centuries) over 95 Tests.

No, it doesn't.

 

[marc71178]

And Thomson, Broad, Bond, Bedi