The worst selections and non-selections in Test history

[Xuhaib]

Pringle was argubly the best player of the 92 World Cup final for that I always seemed to hold him in the highest regard even if his record is crap.

 

[Daemon]

India flew RP Singh over to England in 2011 to play the final Test because he did well there 4 years ago.

He hadn't played a single Test since 2008 or an ODI since 2009 before that (hint: because he sucked). It may not be the worst decision but it was definitely one of the more desperate ones I've seen.

 

[honestbharani]

He was actually on a holiday in Florida when called up too... It is one of the saddest funny things as a fan of Indian cricket.

 

[GIMH]

England’s selection of Tremlett for the 13-14 Ashes was a more pre-planned version of the same

 

[Blenkinsop]

Pringle is a fascinating case, but in the end he was pretty dominant in county Cricket so you can understand in a poor time for england that he was picked again and again.

There were a few things about him that generated a bit too much hate for me. Being a Posho with an earring, who jumped from his University Team by fellow Posho May to England. being always compared to Botham who shadowed most of his career, and really never being anything like as good as him.

Yet I think the thing that was so annoying was he was pretty tall for a seamer themadays, yet his preferred way of bowling was to run in with the general rush of a Pensioner queing at the Co_op and delivering medium pace trundles, that were hugely effective in County Cricket, but unless it was on exactly the right pitch utterly ineffective in tests.

His batting too, when he played for Essex he seemed to attack use his strength to bully bowlers, in Test he just occupied, waiting for the good ball to get him out, again in such contrast to Botham, it was torturous. A player seemingly designed to stick in the craw of most English cricket fans.

Yet was he that bad a selection, compared to the horrors of 80s/90s cricket, Chris cowdrey, David Capel, Ian Greig, Ronnie Irani, Dermot Reeve of terrible Beefy imitators he wasn't the worse.

Agreed he was no worse than Irani and co, but Pringle played 30 test matches! Greig played two, Irani three, Cowdrey six. You'd think the selectors might have figured out a bit sooner that Pringle wasn't going to be a world-beater.

A groundsman at one of the college grounds in Cambridge told me once that Pringle had played a friendly match there sometime in later life. He kept bowling full tosses and complained at great length that the pitch must have been marked out too short, because he was Derek Pringle and he never bowled full tosses don't you know? So the groundsman went out at the tea interval with a measure and it was 22 yards to the inch.

 

[grecian]

Agreed he was no worse than Irani and co, but Pringle played 30 test matches! Greig played two, Irani three, Cowdrey six. You'd think the selectors might have figured out a bit sooner that Pringle wasn't going to be a world-beater.

A groundsman at one of the college grounds in Cambridge told me once that Pringle had played a friendly match there sometime in later life. He kept bowling full tosses and complained at great length that the pitch must have been marked out too short, because he was Derek Pringle and he never bowled full tosses don't you know? So the groundsman went out at the tea interval with a measure and it was 22 yards to the inch.

Oh don't get me wrong, couldn't stand him, but just think the bile is perhaps mainly because of his character. Again he was pretty good in a very successful Essex side, which I guess caused those many recalls, 30 Tests in a decade wasn't it? Zak has almost played that many despite being average in County Cricket too.

Often brought back for Headingly it seemed which probably makes his figures better than they could have been.

I was going to use Chris Lewis, a guy that played 50 Tests as another example, but I probably rated Lewis higher, but they maybe about equal as bloody frustrating. At times Lewis did genuinely look brilliant with bat and ball, yet somehow rarely put it together. Another interesting character.

 

[wpdavid]

SA omitting Jansen last time isn't looking any better now than it did at the time.

 

[RootingforEngland]

It wasn't really talked about as such at the time but playing Rohit Sharma for a test series ahead of actual Test batsman Pujara owing to him being more of a 'game changer' is the worst selection I can remember.

This looks fairly harsh!

 

[RootingforEngland]

Dave Gilbert for Glenn Trimble was a selection masterstroke

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Don't think Geoff Marsh would get too many ODI caps these days.

Some classic names in that line up though.