How is it possible that not one of our teams are the same.Without looking at Kyear's...
Australia: Mark Taylor---Archie Jackson---Don Bradman---Greg Chappell---Keith Miller---Allan Border---Adam Gilchrist---Ray Lindwall---Shane Warne---Dennis Lillee---Glenn McGrath
England: Jack Hobbs---Len Hutton---Wally Hammond---Peter May---Dennis Compton---Ian Botham---Godfrey Evans---Fred Trueman---Jim Laker---SF Barnes---Brian Statham
South Africa: Barry Richards---Graeme Smith---Jaques Kallis---Graham Pollock---AB DeVilliers----Dudley Nourse---John Waite---Mike Procter---Hugh Tayfield---Dale Steyn---Allan Donald
West Indies: Gordon Greenidge---Desmond Haynes---George Headley---Brian Lara---Viv Richards---Garry Sobers---Gerry Alexander---Malcolm Marshall---Curtly Ambrose---Joel Garner---Lance Gibbs
..ATG XI from each country
Australia ATG XI
Simpson^ | Hayden | Bradman | Chappell^ | Ponting | Border* | Gilchrist[SUP]+[/SUP] | Davidson[SUP]3[/SUP] | Warne[SUP]4[/SUP]^ | Lillee[SUP]1[/SUP] | McGrath[SUP]2[/SUP]
West Indies ATG XI
Greenidge | Hunte | Richards^ | Headley | Lara^ | Sobers[SUP]5[/SUP]^ | Walcott[SUP]+[/SUP] | Marshall[SUP]1[/SUP] | Ambrose[SUP]2[/SUP] | Holding[SUP]3[/SUP] | Garner[SUP]4[/SUP]
South Africa ATG XI
Richards^ | Smith*^ | Amla | Pollock | Kallis[SUP]5[/SUP]^ | Nourse | Waite[SUP]+[/SUP] | Procter[SUP]3[/SUP] | Steyn[SUP]1[/SUP] | Tayfield[SUP]4[/SUP] | Donald[SUP]2[/SUP]
England ATG XI
Hobbs | Hutton*^ | Hammond^ | Barrington | Compton | Botham[SUP]5[/SUP]^ | | Knott[SUP]+[/SUP] | Larwood[SUP]2[/SUP] | Laker[SUP]4[/SUP] | Trueman[SUP]1[/SUP] | Barnes[SUP]3[/SUP]
Pakistan ATG XI
Anwar | Mohammad | Khan^ | Miandad^ | ul- Haq^ |Mohammad[SUP]5[/SUP] | Latif | Imran[SUP]2[/SUP] | Akram[SUP]3[/SUP] | Mahmood[SUP]4[/SUP] | Younis[SUP]1 [/SUP]
India ATG XI
Gavaskar^ | Sehwag^ | Dravid^ | Tendulkar | Hazare | Mankad[SUP]5[/SUP] | Engineer[SUP]+[/SUP] | Dev[SUP]1[/SUP] | Kumble[SUP]3[/SUP] | Srinath[SUP]2[/SUP] | Prasanna[SUP]4[/SUP]
New Zealand ATG XI
Turner | Dempster | Sutcliffe | Crowe^ | Taylor^ | Reid[SUP]5[/SUP] | Hadlee[SUP]1[/SUP] | Vettori[SUP]4[/SUP] | Smith | Bond[SUP]2[/SUP] | Cowie[SUP]3[/SUP]
I prefer AB as well, just wanted a specialist No. 3 and so Amla over him. But A.B was also ridiculous at 5. Can't loose either way.I try to have 5 bowling options in my sides. Miller is a definite for me, especially with Bradman and Gilly at 3 and 7 respectively. Neil Harvey is someone I really rate, but Border was so good during an era of amazing bowling.
Amla and AB are pretty similar for mine. I just prefer AB.
I figure the WIs might as well have a full time spinner considering they already have three quicks plus Sobers.
Larwood is a good option. I think it was Fred who said once how highly he rated Statham though (I know he rates Larwood too)
Would rather chuck in Waqar over Kumble but thats just me.Throw in Sri Lanka
Gavaskar | Sehwag | Dravid | Tendulkar | Miandad | Sangakkara | Imran | Hadlee | Akram | Kumble | Muralitharan
Miller doesn't have to bat top 6, could have him in place of Davidson.ATG XI from each country
Australia ATG XI
Simpson^ | Hayden | Bradman | Chappell^ | Ponting | Border* | Gilchrist[SUP]+[/SUP] | Davidson[SUP]3[/SUP] | Warne[SUP]4[/SUP]^ | Lillee[SUP]1[/SUP] | McGrath[SUP]2[/SUP]
West Indies ATG XI
Greenidge | Hunte | Richards^ | Headley | Lara^ | Sobers[SUP]5[/SUP]^ | Walcott[SUP]+[/SUP] | Marshall[SUP]1[/SUP] | Ambrose[SUP]2[/SUP] | Holding[SUP]3[/SUP] | Garner[SUP]4[/SUP]
South Africa ATG XI
Richards^ | Smith*^ | Kallis[SUP]5[/SUP]^ | Pollock | de Villiers | Nourse | Waite[SUP]+[/SUP] | Procter[SUP]3[/SUP] | Steyn[SUP]1[/SUP] | Tayfield[SUP]4[/SUP] | Donald[SUP]2[/SUP]
England ATG XI
Hobbs | Hutton*^ | Hammond^ | Barrington | Compton | Botham[SUP]5[/SUP]^ | | Knott[SUP]+[/SUP] | Larwood[SUP]2[/SUP] | Laker[SUP]4[/SUP] | Trueman[SUP]1[/SUP] | Barnes[SUP]3[/SUP]
Pakistan ATG XI
Anwar | Mohammad | Khan^ | Miandad^ | ul- Haq^ |Mohammad[SUP]5[/SUP] | Latif | Imran[SUP]2[/SUP] | Akram[SUP]3[/SUP] | Mahmood[SUP]4[/SUP] | Younis[SUP]1 [/SUP]
India ATG XI
Gavaskar^ | Sehwag^ | Dravid^ | Tendulkar | Hazare | Mankad[SUP]5[/SUP] | Engineer[SUP]+[/SUP] | Dev[SUP]1[/SUP] | Kumble[SUP]3[/SUP] | Srinath[SUP]2[/SUP] | Prasanna[SUP]4[/SUP]
New Zealand ATG XI
Turner | Dempster | Sutcliffe | Crowe^ | Taylor^ | Reid[SUP]5[/SUP] | Hadlee[SUP]1[/SUP] | Vettori[SUP]4[/SUP] | Smith | Bond[SUP]2[/SUP] | Cowie[SUP]3[/SUP]
Replaced Amla with A.B, kept Australia as is though. This Aussie lineup is the best team of them all by a tiny margin (over W.I and S.A.), with Miller in for Ponting at best they are equal to the others, realistically for me they fall between the W.I and S.A.
Just my opinion of course.
Love that side, and not a long way from the team I'd pick.Wow, I'd have a radically different South African side:
1. B Mitchell
2. GC Smith
3. JH Kallis
4. HW Taylor
5. RG Pollock
6. AD Nourse
7. JH Waite
8. MJ Proctor
9. SM Pollock
10. HJ Tayfield
11. DW Steyn
Hoping that 10-15 more tests from AB will lead me to replacing Waite.
Ha ha fair enough, I knew that Taylor was a lock for you and I was pretty sure you were a big Mitchell fan too, so I suppose Smith was the only one I was curious about! Personally, I think both Richards and Procter were among the eleven best cricketers ever produced by South Africa, so if I’m simply picking a South African All Time XI I tend to pick both. If, however, it’s an All Time Test XI, their combined Test career of 11 matches means that I pick neither.Sean,
I'm not completely black or white on the test performance thing. The general rule I follow is that if I believe players of identical quality then I'll take the batsman with the established test record. Here, Proctor fits better into that No.8 spot than pretty much any SAfrican, test or otherwise so it was a pretty easy call to put him there.
I think B Mitchell is one of the most underrated cricketers ever and he averaged near 50 over two full decades without missing a test against on average, pretty tough opposition. I'd honestly take 3-4 openers across history over him. His name was inked in as opener No. 1 before I began the exercise.
The second opener was the hardest part of the exercise. I was split between playing Taylor, who has considerable opening experience, there and picking a modern gun late in the order (ABDv) or playing B Richards or G. Smith. I wanted my man Taylor to play in position at 4 though and just instinctively went with Graeme Smith, I think he's a very unique batsman who fulfills a role that is not traditionally the role of the opener, leading fourth innings chases and he's the first opener I'd pick in a post-1990 side.
I can't answer if I consider him to be a better batsman than Richards because there's not much I can compare them with. It was pretty much the only spot that confused me. Maybe I just have modern cricket bias.