Draft: Best to Never Play ODIs

[ddrap14]

I'll take the other great turn of the century bowler- George Lohmann. Average of 10.76? Get in the team.4
@Aislabie

 

[Aislabie]

SF Barnes please.

I will edit in my write-up later

@Parth D

 

[ddrap14]

SF Barnes please.

I will edit in my write-up later

@Parth D

I could be getting my Sid Barnes' confused (in which case I want to die as that was my preferred pick for the pick before this) but didn't Ahmed already take him?

 

[Sherlock Holmes]

Keith Miller

@ahmedleo414

 

[ahmedleo414]

So my pick will go to Denis Lindsay

1. Sid Barnes
2. W.G. Grace
3. ?
4. ?
5. ?
6. Denis Lindsay
7. ?
8. ?
9. ?
10. ?
11. ?

@ddrap14 you're next

 

[VC the slogger]

I could be getting my Sid Barnes' confused (in which case I want to die as that was my preferred pick for the pick before this) but didn't Ahmed already take him?

Sid Barnes

No, there's a Sid Barnes who was a frankly brilliant opener for Australia and there's Sydney aka SF, the legendary English bowler.. If you spell it as 'Sid' for whatever reason and put an Australia flag beside his name in a draft like this you get the former, not the latter.

 

[icyman]

Missed out on this one! A very interesting draft this tbh...Expect a lot of South Africans to be a part here.

 

[ahmedleo414]

No, there's a Sid Barnes who was a frankly brilliant opener for Australia and there's Sydney aka SF, the legendary English bowler.. If you spell it as 'Sid' for whatever reason and put an Australia flag beside his name in a draft like this you get the former, not the latter.

that is the Sid i picked... I was working on something else at the same time and mixed stuff up... i've updated my lineup

 

[ddrap14]

No, there's a Sid Barnes who was a frankly brilliant opener for Australia and there's Sydney aka SF, the legendary English bowler.. If you spell it as 'Sid' for whatever reason and put an Australia flag beside his name in a draft like this you get the former, not the latter.

Ah, for some reason the flag wasn't showing up on my end. That was where the confusion came from.

I'm going to take an Aussie whose career didn't quite intersect with Aussie Sid Barnes, in Keith Miller. He batted, he bowled, he fielded, and he partied. All at the highest level.

@VC the slogger you're up next!

 

[Sherlock Holmes]

Ah, for some reason the flag wasn't showing up on my end. That was where the confusion came from.

I'm going to take an Aussie whose career didn't quite intersect with Aussie Sid Barnes, in Keith Miller. He batted, he bowled, he fielded, and he partied. All at the highest level.

@VC the slogger you're up next!

Keith Miller

@ahmedleo414

 

[NILAYSHAH60]

I felt my Tare pick was a little too hasty one considering there are better Wicket-Keeper batsman around the world who did not get to play.

Anyways I can't do anything much about it now so will probably try and pick better players now.

 

[VC the slogger]

A lot of you must have guessed it beforehand and you guessed it right - my next pick shall be Bart King, an absolute behemoth of a player at first-class level and certainly the best to never play either a Test or an ODI in my opinion. What's more is that his meagre 65-match first-class career lasting 19 years between 1893 and 1912, played mostly on English pitches which greatly suited his style of bowling but not so much his batting still doesn't give a full picture of what a complete freak of a player he really was. He was a pioneer in the art of swing bowling, influencing many great bowlers of the early 20th century including the legendary Sydney Barnes with his ability to swing both the old and new ball, and arguably possessed the best inswinging yorker in the game which he called the "angler" that routinely bamboozled the greatest batsmen of the day such as KS Ranjitsinhji and Clem Hill among others. So good was his bowling that his presence in the Gentlemen of Philadelphia's lineup had along with the help of just a few decent players put their level of play on par with some of the Test nations of the day - humiliating the Australian Test side no less than three times during his career in 1893, 1896 and 1912, whilst also getting the better of several Test quality county sides during their tours to the British Isles in 1897, 1903 and 1908. The last of which he wrote himself into the record books by recording 87 wickets at just 11.01 apiece - the lowest bowling average recorded during an English season that would only be eclipsed a good 50 years later! He is also perhaps the only bowler ever to get all eleven batsmen out bowled during an innings in a top flight cricket match which included one off a no-ball, and claimed the perfect ten i.e all 10 wickets in an innings for 53 runs on one occasion. No less a judge than Sir Pelham Warner, who spent his entire life playing, administrating and studying cricket regarded him as "equal of the greatest of them all" as a bowler.

And what about his batting? One look at a first-class batting average of 20.51 with just 1 century from 65 matches is hardly befitting of a top bracket all-rounder, but King was far better than those statistics suggest. Having started his career as a genuine plucky No 11 batsman in his maiden first-class match in which Philadelphia humbled Australia, his batting would improve slowly but steadily to the point where he rarely ever batted anywhere outside of the top four towards the middle and closing stages of his career, and that too as a hard hitting opening batsman most of the time. Its a shame even several old CricketArchive scorecards have no records of boundaries especially sixes hit in an innings from those times or he would be right up there as his game was based mainly on power. The one time they actually recorded such a thing in a low-key match during Philadelphia's 1903 first-class tour, he smashed 178 with 6 sixes whereas nobody else even struck one - this at a time when you had to actually hit the ball out of the ground for it to be recorded as six. So it's not that difficult to picture quite how many he might have hit during his two monstrous knocks of 315 and 344* not out in 1905 and 1906 respectively in America's Halifax Cup competition, which back then was on par with the 2nd Eleven Championships in English county cricket in terms of player quality. In all cricket matches over a 27-year career between 1889 and 1916, he scored 19808 runs at 36.47 with 39 centuries - easily the most ever by an American, and claimed 2088 wickets at only 10.47 apiece. In first-class cricket, it translated to a still super impressive 415 wickets at 15.66 apiece, especially considering the first-class bowling averages of some of the leading Test wicket-takers of his day such as Wilfred Rhodes (16.72), Colin Blythe (16.81), Sydney Barnes (17.09), Aubrey Faulkner (17.42), Reggie Schwarz (17.58), "Old" Jack Hearne (17.75), Tom Richardson (18.43), Hugh Trumble (18.44) and Monty Noble (23.14)..


VC's XI

1. Barry Richards
2.
3.
4. Graeme Pollock
5.
6.
7.
8. Bart King
9.
10.
11.


@NILAYSHAH60 double pick

 

[ddrap14]

View attachment 259395

Well that's a f**k-up - I suspect Edge is playing up on my end as this is the third time I've failed to do a correct search of the index in three days. Sorry.

Would have loved Bart King, but I do suspect that Billy Barnes is a nice replacement (hey, I got a Barnes!) His average of 23 with the bat is likely lower than it should have been due to the pitches of the time, and he'd definitely be a great six or seven in the modern game. As for his bowling... third in history by average (and he gets to partner first in history in Lohmann). Lethal opening pair, except if all goes well, one won't even open...

I won't tag Nilay here as VC already did so.

Provisional lineup:
3. Don Bradman
7. Billy Barnes
10. George Lohmann

 

[NILAYSHAH60]

Okay now I'll be making a couple of picks that both @VC the slogger & @Aislabie might be eyeing at some point in this draft.

The first player that comes to my mind being picked in one of the drafts was.........

Garth Le Roux

One of those Cricketers barred from International Cricket during South Africa's apartheid era, Garth le Roux was a genuine fast bowler and not to forget his special abilities with the bat low down the order. He played for Sussex & the Western Province between 1975 & 1989. He managed to pick 378 wickets in 250 List-A games at an incredible average of just 19.97 and an good economy rate of 3.71, I say good because the run-rates during that period did not used to be such high as we see it today. He had best figures of 6/21 as he picked 4 wickets in an innings 16 times while 5 times he took 5 wickets in an innings. He was equally well capable with the bat as he managed to score 3151 runs @23.34 and a highest score of 88 with 9 half-centuries to his name.
​

The next player I am going to pick is......... It took me a while to find this one............

Franklyn Stephenson

That bowling action actually says it all!!! Stephenson was a right arm fast medium bowler from the West Indies who went to the rebel tours of South Africa. He played his Cricket between 1981 & 1997 but unfortunately due to his ban from International Cricket he never got to play any ODIs. He got 448 wickets in 282 List-A games with best of 6/9!! His average of 19.91 & economy rate of 3.74 was very similar to that of Garth Le Roux but he played in an era where the scoring had slightly improved so perhaps he had something that was just very good to have as a fast bowler. He was known for his height and the pace with which he bowled which helped him extract a lot of bounce. He had an equally lethal change up of a slower delivery in his armoury. However, he had a low point to his career when he looked ineffective on the day he had to defend 322 against Warwickshire playing for Surrey in the 1993 NatWest Final on a flat pitch at Lord's as he finished with figures of 2/51 that day. His 4717 List-A runs also gives an impression that he was quite handy batting down the order.
​

Nilay's XI

1. Michael Klinger ​
2. ​
3. ​
4. ​
5. ​
6. Aditya Tare ​
7. Franklyn Stephenson ​
8. 
   
9. Garth Le Roux ​
10. ​
11. ​

Back to you @VC the slogger

 

[VC the slogger]

Franklyn Stephenson

That bowling action actually says it all!!! Stephenson was a right arm fast medium bowler from the West Indies who went to the rebel tours of South Africa. He played his Cricket between 1981 & 1997 but unfortunately due to his ban from International Cricket he never got to play any ODIs. He got 448 wickets in 282 List-A games with best of 6/9!! His average of 19.91 & economy rate of 3.74 was very similar to that of Garth Le Roux but he played in an era where the scoring had slightly improved so perhaps he had something that was just very good to have as a fast bowler. He was known for his height and the pace with which he bowled which helped him extract a lot of bounce. He had an equally lethal change up of a slower delivery in his armoury. However, he had a low point to his career when he looked ineffective on the day he had to defend 322 against Warwickshire playing for Surrey in the 1993 NatWest Final on a flat pitch at Lord's as he finished with figures of 2/51 that day. His 4717 List-A runs also gives an impression that he was quite handy batting down the order.

Oh dear.. That was meant to be my next pick!