blockerdave
ICC Chairman
I was strongly debating between Siddon and someone else. Hope the other one stays available now!
Draft: Best to never play Test cricket | Draft Part 2 underway...
- Thread starter VC the slogger
- Start date
NILAYSHAH60
Dreamcatcher
I have a better draft in my mind though. @Aislabie I would need your help. For the moment a bit busy with my college exams which are on 21 & 22 August.
VC the slogger
PlanetCricket Forever
- Joined
- Aug 23, 2010
And we've still barely scratched the surface as far as non-Test players are considered. I feel like we could still have at least four or five more XIs of them even after this is complete.
Aislabie
Test Cricket is Best Cricket
Drop me a message if you want.
Yeah, I'm having an astonishingly tough time narrowing down my picks at times.
CerealKiller
Staff Member
Jamie Cox is my pick. He partnered with Michael Di Venuto at the top of the order for Tasmania, at a time when the Sheffield Shield was fiercely competitive, with plenty of players of international class. He averaged more than 50 for every season between from 1992 till 2000, ending up as the second leading run scorer in Shield history behind Darren Lehmann, and with the most matches played, 161. He also played for and captained Somerset in county cricket.
CerealKiller's XI
1.
Jamie Cox
2. Bhausaheb Nimbalkar
3. Amol Muzumdar
4. Ryan ten Doeschate
5. David Hussey
6. Franklyn Stephenson
7.
8.
9. Rajinder Goel
10. Tom Pritchard
11. Don Shepherd
@blockerdave
CerealKiller's XI
1.
Jamie Cox 2.
Bhausaheb Nimbalkar 3.
Amol Muzumdar 4.
Ryan ten Doeschate 5.
David Hussey 6.
Franklyn Stephenson 7.
8.
9.
Rajinder Goel 10.
Tom Pritchard 11.
Don Shepherd @blockerdave
blockerdave
ICC Chairman
Ahhh - Cox was going to be my other opener!
I believe I have a double pick now. Will post shortly.
I believe I have a double pick now. Will post shortly.
blockerdave
ICC Chairman
This has taken a bit of thinking, this.
Frederick "Derrick" de Saram
Completing my "Ceylon Triumvirate" is Derrick de Saram. Another Varsity blue, although this time from Oxford. More or less contemporary with Satha (3 years older) he initially wasn't selected for Oxford - Wisden thought it "strange" that he only played one trial in his first 2 years (strange being a euphemism for "racism innit"). But he did play for Hertfordshire in the Minor Counties, scoring 479 runs at an average of 68.42 in 5 games. This got him finally selected for Oxford, and on his debut he scored 176 against Gloucestrshire, and a few weeks later hit 128 against the touring Australians. His average at the end of his first first class season was 50.86, and he was selected by MCC to tour with England to the West Indies, so could have had a test cap. However he turned it down, saying he wanted to play for his country. In the home season that year, playing in Bombay, he was the only player all season to score a century against the "Muslims".
Like many contemporaries he lost his peak years to the war. He played just 40 first class games scoring 2,789 runs at 39.84.
He will bat at 5, giving me a strong "engine room" with Tikolo, Satha, De Saram and Rice all players who can attack when we're on top and play properly when we need to tough it out.
--- trivia fact about De Saram, he was later jailed for his role in initiating a failed military coup.
Sheridan Raynor
Raynor only played one first class match, against New Zealand, and he didn't set the world alight, scoring just 13 runs in 2 inns to average 6.5. However, he was a Bermudan legend, being the first to score 1,000 runs in the Western Counties competition, the first Bermudan to score a century against first-class opposition, and first to score a century on a turf wicket. Gary Sobers wanted to offer him a trial for the West Indies, but was told Bermudans weren't eligible as they weren't affiliated to the West Indian board. Raynor's fame in Bermuda for his exploits was such that he was added to the Bermudan Sporting Hall of Fame, and on his death in 2011 proceedings in the Bermudan parliament were held up so MPs could pay tribute.
He will open alongside Bhave, giving me a right/left and defensive/attacking combo. He also provides a handy left arm orthodox option, giving me a triple spin threat, with Goonasene's leggies, Tikolo's offies and Raynor's left-arm. With genuine pace from Kortright and Le Roux, and Rice's accuracy and seam, I feel I've a very strong attack so far. I'm also very happy with the batting.
Frederick "Derrick" de Saram
Completing my "Ceylon Triumvirate" is Derrick de Saram. Another Varsity blue, although this time from Oxford. More or less contemporary with Satha (3 years older) he initially wasn't selected for Oxford - Wisden thought it "strange" that he only played one trial in his first 2 years (strange being a euphemism for "racism innit"). But he did play for Hertfordshire in the Minor Counties, scoring 479 runs at an average of 68.42 in 5 games. This got him finally selected for Oxford, and on his debut he scored 176 against Gloucestrshire, and a few weeks later hit 128 against the touring Australians. His average at the end of his first first class season was 50.86, and he was selected by MCC to tour with England to the West Indies, so could have had a test cap. However he turned it down, saying he wanted to play for his country. In the home season that year, playing in Bombay, he was the only player all season to score a century against the "Muslims".
Like many contemporaries he lost his peak years to the war. He played just 40 first class games scoring 2,789 runs at 39.84.
He will bat at 5, giving me a strong "engine room" with Tikolo, Satha, De Saram and Rice all players who can attack when we're on top and play properly when we need to tough it out.
--- trivia fact about De Saram, he was later jailed for his role in initiating a failed military coup.
Sheridan Raynor
Raynor only played one first class match, against New Zealand, and he didn't set the world alight, scoring just 13 runs in 2 inns to average 6.5. However, he was a Bermudan legend, being the first to score 1,000 runs in the Western Counties competition, the first Bermudan to score a century against first-class opposition, and first to score a century on a turf wicket. Gary Sobers wanted to offer him a trial for the West Indies, but was told Bermudans weren't eligible as they weren't affiliated to the West Indian board. Raynor's fame in Bermuda for his exploits was such that he was added to the Bermudan Sporting Hall of Fame, and on his death in 2011 proceedings in the Bermudan parliament were held up so MPs could pay tribute.
He will open alongside Bhave, giving me a right/left and defensive/attacking combo. He also provides a handy left arm orthodox option, giving me a triple spin threat, with Goonasene's leggies, Tikolo's offies and Raynor's left-arm. With genuine pace from Kortright and Le Roux, and Rice's accuracy and seam, I feel I've a very strong attack so far. I'm also very happy with the batting.
- Surendra Bhave
- Sheridan Raynor
- Steve Tikolo
- Mahadevan Sathasivam
- Derrick de Saram
- Clive Rice (C)
- Henry Martyn
- Gamini Goonasene
- Garth Le Roux
- Charles Kortright
Aislabie
Test Cricket is Best Cricket
Terrific selection, hats off
Aislabie
Test Cricket is Best Cricket
Overall Pick #39: Yacoob Omar
Profile
Who? Well, that's quite a difficult question to answer in many ways. Like several other players in my team, Yacoob Omar was robbed of an international cricket career because of Apartheid. However, unlike most of the prevailing South African talents for whom this was a result of the decisions of foreign governments to bar South Africa from international competitions, Omar's omission was due to being of Asian heritage in that corrupt world where the only thing worth being was a white man. However, Yacoob Omar was to non-white cricket what Graeme Pollock and Barry Richards were to whites-only cricket: several standard deviations above and beyond his competition. Across the entire history of the Howa Bowl (also known as the Dadabhai Trophy), no batsman scored more runs than Omar's 3,377 (the next-best, Khaya Majola, only 83% of the runs despite playing 50% more matches), no batsman scored more than his eight centuries (indeed it takes the next best three - Neville Francis, Haroon Lorgat and Saait Magiet - to exceed him) and only one other batsman (Neville Francis) sustained an average of over 30 from more than 20 matches. The main reason for this is that the facilities for non-white cricketers were awful, as is reflected by the fact that most specialist bowlers in the four-team competition would accrue bowling averages of fifteen or less.
Omar was consistently excellent, but his very best seasons came in 1977-78 and '78-79. Across both seasons, facilities were so poor that only three batmen managed to score centuries across all 24 matches. Their names were Yacoob Omar, Yacoob Omar and Yacoob Omar.
First-class statistics
3,742 runs @ 34.33 (8 centuries, best 174*) and 101 wickets @ 19.81 (2 5WI, best 5/34) in 67 matchesFinest Performances
After his stellar Howa Bowl performances, he became a notable absentee from the batting averages for some years. The reason for this is that he was playing first-class cricket for Natal. As in the whites-only Natal team. I can find no other examples of coloured cricketers forcing their way into the white establishment through sheer cricketing merit in this period. Just look at how they treated Basil D'Oliveira.
Role in the Team
Although Omar's bowling record is respectable, an average of 19 on Howa Bowl pitches is probably worth about 43 in games played on normal facilities. His role will be to bat to the best of his ability, and his second string will be used only if absolutely necessary.
Aislabie's XI so far:
1.
Karl Schneider (Pick #17)2.
Michael Di Venuto (Pick #22)3.
Jamie Siddons (Pick #34)4.
Shantanu Sugwekar (Pick #9)5.
Yacoob Omar (Pick #39)6.
Frank Tarrant (Pick #6)7.
Bill Alley (Pick #26)8.
Ray Jennings (Pick #31)9.
Vince van der Bijl (Pick #3)10.
Jimmy Boucher (Pick #16)11.
Next pick:
@VC the slogger
blockerdave
ICC Chairman
Overall Pick #39: Yacoob Omar
View attachment 225915
Profile
Who? Well, that's quite a difficult question to answer in many ways. Like several other players in my team, Yacoob Omar was robbed of an international cricket career because of Apartheid. However, unlike most of the prevailing South African talents for whom this was a result of the decisions of foreign governments to bar South Africa from international competitions, Omar's omission was due to being of Asian heritage in that corrupt world where the only thing worth being was a white man. However, Yacoob Omar was to non-white cricket what Graeme Pollock and Barry Richards were to whites-only cricket: several standard deviations above and beyond his competition. Across the entire history of the Howa Bowl (also known as the Dadabhai Trophy), no batsman scored more runs than Omar's 3,377 (the next-best, Khaya Majola, only 83% of the runs despite playing 50% more matches), no batsman scored more than his eight centuries (indeed it takes the next best three - Neville Francis, Haroon Lorgat and Saait Magiet - to exceed him) and only one other batsman (Neville Francis) sustained an average of over 30 from more than 20 matches. The main reason for this is that the facilities for non-white cricketers were awful, as is reflected by the fact that most specialist bowlers in the four-team competition would accrue bowling averages of fifteen or less.
Omar was consistently excellent, but his very best seasons came in 1977-78 and '78-79. Across both seasons, facilities were so poor that only three batmen managed to score centuries across all 24 matches. Their names were Yacoob Omar, Yacoob Omar and Yacoob Omar.
First-class statistics
Finest Performances
After his stellar Howa Bowl performances, he became a notable absentee from the batting averages for some years. The reason for this is that he was playing first-class cricket for Natal. As in the whites-only Natal team. I can find no other examples of coloured cricketers forcing their way into the white establishment through sheer cricketing merit in this period. Just look at how they treated Basil D'Oliveira.
Role in the Team
Although Omar's bowling record is respectable, an average of 19 on Howa Bowl pitches is probably worth about 43 in games played on normal facilities. His role will be to bat to the best of his ability, and his second string will be used only if absolutely necessary.
Aislabie's XI so far:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
Next pick:
@VC the slogger
The reason he'd have been able to play for Natal, was technically by then it wasn't "whites only"... the SACB response to isolation was to introduce "multi-racial" cricket. Lots of non-whites nevertheless boycotted it, but Omar didn't. Obviously the most famous example is Omar Henry, who became only the 2nd non-white Springbok during the Aussie Rebel tours.
Great pick.
Aislabie
Test Cricket is Best Cricket
Excellent knowledge - a very valuable addition. I would assume though that there are few players - maybe only Magiet and Vincent Barnes - who would have broken into sides like that on merit anyhow, especially given the prejudices that wouldn't have just gone away
blockerdave
ICC Chairman
There's a supreme irony that the south african cricket establishment was largely "english" and much more liberal, theplayers led a protest asking for non-racial cricket as early as 1971, and this was introduced. Yet post readmission the south african cricket was effectively year-zeroed, becoming the proteas and the caps restarting from 1... the current team aren't the "successors" of faulkner, richards, pollock etc.
whereas the rugby team was much more "afrikaner" and far more pro-apartheid, but faced nothing like the same isolation (they hosted a lions tour as late as 1980, and almost another in 1986!) and are still the springboks and the current team are the successors of the earlier teams.
go figure.
Aislabie
Test Cricket is Best Cricket
Yeah, it's a very strange one. Feels like pretty much none of that period of history makes sense at all; I feel as though it is in many way a reflection of cricket's past, present and future of being an exclusive rather than inclusive sport that it reacted so severely to Apartheid at the time. At every turn cricket looks to keep people out (see: Minor Counties, Imperial Cricket Conference, the history of eligibility rules in England, everything about the MCC, the ten-team World Cup) so when concerns were raised about Apartheid it must have been pretty much a reflex!
Aislabie
Test Cricket is Best Cricket
Another thought - for a potential LAB idea, how about no Test cricketers allowed?
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