A Leftie's draft

[drainpipe32]

That's because drafts aren't for the insecure who think everything in life is a competition.

Harsh. But fair.

Shocking pick Iridium :laugh A good player but definitely not a second rounder. There have been some fantastically devious left arm spinners, Vettori isn't really someone who strikes fear into a batting line-up.

 

[Iridium]

Harsh. But fair.

Shocking pick Iridium :laugh A good player but definitely not a second rounder. There have been some fantastically devious left arm spinners, Vettori isn't really someone who strikes fear into a batting line-up.

True, but TBH I can't name a lot of left handed players off the top of my head. Enough for a draft yes. I was actually going to pick a certain batsman but I've got a giant list of batsmen. Bowlers not so much. But hey it's just a draft, not like I'm going to be shot for picking Vettori second round. :laugh Or am I?

 

[Cricketman]

I had Vettori in mind for a pick waaaaaaay down the line as a 5th bowler at number 7. No way did I think he would get picked so soon. Not saying it is a bad pick, but unexpected considering what is still out there.

 

[sifter132]

^I think bowlers are probably gonna go quick so if you've got one in mind, you kinda need to take him.

Andy Flower

Averages over 50, plus he can keep wickets. WIN!
Will add a picture and more of a writeup in the morning, gotta hit the sack.

Edit: Most of you will know of Andy Flower and his quality but I thought I'd just add some interesting quirks in his batting record. For starters, he didn't get to pad his stats vs Zimbabwe - except in the nets! Most of his Tests were against NZ, Pak and SL because they were the nations most willing to give Zimbabwe a chance to play. The interesting thing is that despite being the 'lesser' of the cricketing nations, Flower averaged less against those 3 than he did the bigger name countries. He averaged 41 vs NZ, Pak and SL, but against Aus, Eng, SA, WI and Ind he averaged 68.58. I mention Australia, but he only played them ONCE and never went on a Test tour of Aus. He also barely played England, 4 Tests over his career and only 2 in England. So it's a shame Zimbabwe didn't have the international standing to get Andy Flower tested against the best a bit more often because what he did show in limited innings was excellent. Also has a virtually identical home and away record: home 56 innings, 6 100s, 51.81avg, away 56 innings, 6 100s, 51.26 avg. That's often a sign of a balanced player.

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7 Alan Davidson
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Added the draft order for rounds 3 and 4 to the front page. I went for a re-randomisation of the order just to keep things fresh. It's turned out almost the complete opposite of the original order - weird...

 

[Aoun13]

I was planning to pick Andy but you already pick him.He surely is a best left hand wicket keeper batsman ever even ahead of Gilchrist and Sangakara.

 

[shravi]

In all of cricketing history, there have only been 9 keepers who bat left handed and have played more than 10 matches. 3 of them have already been taken, and out of the ones left there are only 2 real candidates. One of them, in my opinion, is significantly better than the other because he didn't spend his career in the shadow of another. Athletic, nimble and very skilled, Rod Marsh is one of the most respected wicket keepers of all time. During a 14 year Test career from 1970 to 1984, he collected a then world-record tally of 355 dismissals. Interestingly enough, Dennis Lillee, his partner in crime, took the same amount of test wickets. This famous partnership yielded a record 95 Test wickets. Wisden stated that “Few partnerships between bowler and wicket-keeper have had so profound an impact on the game”. He wasn't always regarded as the fine keeper he is today. His debut test lead of a lot of criticism and doubt over his keeper abilities. However, "his keeping improved over time and by the end of his career he was regarded as one of the finest in the history of the sport". In 96 tests, he took 343 catches and made 12 stumpings.

He was also a pretty capable batsman. He became the first Australian keeper to hit a century by scoring 118 in the first Test against Pakistan at Adelaide in 1972–73. Marsh scored an unbeaten 110 in the second innings of the Centenary Test against England in 1977, becoming the first Australian wicketkeeper to score a Test century against England. In the same match he passed Wally Grout's Australian wicket-keeping record of 187 Test dismissals. His stubborn figure was often the figure of many Australian lower order performances. In 96 tests (150 innings) he scored 3633 runs at an average of 27 with 3 hundreds and 16 fifties, holding a highest score of 132.

Maybe he wasn't as great a batsman as Sanga, Gilly or Flower, but he could claim to be a better gloveman and I am sure he could strike an invaluable partnership with Wasim Akram, just as he did with Dennis Lillee.

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+ Rodney Marsh
Wasim Akram
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[Aoun13]

Well as it's fever of keepers so I am going to pick Ridley Jacobs.

Ridley Jacobs was one of the most successful West Indies left hand wicket keepers batsman and surely have a place among top 5 left-hand keepers of all time. He started his career back in 1998 against South Africa and played well their.He also featured in an outstanding partnership in the record breaking innings of Brian Lara against England in which Jacobs made a hundred and Lara made 400 not out.his

 

[shravi]

There was a better wicket keeping option left, in my opinion. Ridley Jacobs was a decent batsman, but his keeping skills weren't as good and worsened as his career progressed. BTW, I think that the other left handed Sri Lankan keeper should not be allowed, as he only kept in 11 out of 83 of his matches. That's simply not enough. He can be selected as a batsman, however.

 

[StinkyBoHoon]

possibly no one can give me a name until the drafts over but with loads of players bowling and batting with opposite hands is there any proper all rounders that bowled with one hand and batted with another? Broad is the closest I can think of (I can say him cause he's primarily a right hand bowler and not a very good one that would come up in a draft.)

 

[mattfb]

Allan Border

Allan Border is one of Australia's greatest ever batsmen, and one of our greatest ever captains. At the time of his retirement, Border had played more test matches, more test matches as captain, and more catches than any other player. He also had over 11,000 runs clocked up at an average of 50. Border was a great leader. A very good motivator and he lead from the front. Border has more runs (6,623) when having the captaincy than any other batsmen when captaining their nation. He averaged almost 51 when batting with the captaincy and knocked up 15 tons.

As a batsmen in general Border was one of the best. Brilliant on the off-side, he caned anything that was marginally full. When compared to left handers, not many rank better than AB.

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4. Brian Lara
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I wasn't sure whether to pick another batsmen, but I'm confident with two of the greatest batsmen ever in my middle-order - as well as having a solid skipper.

 

[sifter132]

There was a better wicket keeping option left, in my opinion. Ridley Jacobs was a decent batsman, but his keeping skills weren't as good and worsened as his career progressed. BTW, I think that the other left handed Sri Lankan keeper should not be allowed, as he only kept in 11 out of 83 of his matches. That's simply not enough. He can be selected as a batsman, however.

Better keeping options yeah, maybe better batting options too but I think Ridley was perhaps the best mix of both remaining.

Yeah I agree with you about Tillakaratne - he's to be picked as a batsman only. So that means that matt and gazza you've only got 3 left handed keepers to choose from. So no one else can choose one of those 3 to play as a batsman, just in case you were thinking of it. I was going to mention that concern earlier just in case someone wanted to play Gilly and Sangakkara or Flower on the same teams and we'd start running out of keepers. But everyone's ended up with only one keeper each so it's worked out.

I was planning to pick Andy but you already pick him.He surely is a best left hand wicket keeper batsman ever even ahead of Gilchrist and Sangakara.

Now that I've picked him I agree with you But for pure batting I would probably rate Sanga higher and Gilly last of the 3. Not really a lot between them though.

possibly no one can give me a name until the drafts over but with loads of players bowling and batting with opposite hands is there any proper all rounders that bowled with one hand and batted with another? Broad is the closest I can think of (I can say him cause he's primarily a right hand bowler and not a very good one that would come up in a draft.)

Generally I think you're right - there aren't too many good cross handed guys. The names of the guys in the first post are guys whose right hand was slightly more dominant by the 'wicket=20runs rule' I imposed - so they weren't eligible. Ravi Shastri and Richard Hadlee probably the best, although I believe Charlie Macartney was pretty good too. Looking through the names yet to be picked, I can't really find too many allrounders that mixed their hands and did it well. For this draft it looks like Sobers, daylight, more daylight and then the rest for allrounders.

 

[Aoun13]

Actually Ridley was a good keeper or even more then good until end of 2003 or even mid of 2003. It was just poor form in 2004 due to which we all consider him an average keeper. All other keepers(which was left to pick) were almost as same as he was untill mid 2003 when we talk about keeping wickets and were poor in batting then Ridley was so I choose him before others.

 

[sifter132]

^Well it happens to the best. Gilchrist's keeping was rather hit and miss at the end, and his batting got worse as time went on too.

 

[Cricketman]

Cmon Gazza, I am itching to get my pick in.

Cricketman added 2 Minutes and 46 Seconds later...

Nice picks, but that I had down for down the line.

You really didn't think that these players would go unpicked, did you?

 

[sifter132]

He's probably still hanging with Ravi Ratnayake..