Best to never play Test cricket | Draft Part 2 underway...

[VC the slogger]

The island nation of Barbados with a population of barely 300,000 has over the years produced a long assembly line of fast bowlers that have gone on to become some of the world’s best, starting from George Francis, Manny Martindale, Wesley Hall, Charlie Griffith, Keith Boyce, Vanburn Holder, Joel Garner, Malcolm Marshall, Wayne Daniel, Sylvester Clarke, all the way up to the likes of Kemar Roach and Jason Holder in the current era. Many of the West Indies’ successes at Test level over the years can be attributed to these players, including their two distinct eras of greatness in the early to mid-1960s with Frank Worrell and Garry Sobers at the helm, and then with Clive Lloyd and Viv Richards’ world beating sides from the mid-1970s to early-1990s that crushed all comers, including a 15-year unbeaten run in Test series between 1980 and 1995. All of these players however can be traced back to one man, the very first of his kind, and the one that began this proud tradition that has gone on to define West Indies cricket itself - Float Woods.

Though originally from Barbados, Joseph Woods, nicknamed “Float” after a local delicacy, had at some point moved to island of Trinidad, for whom he would make his first-class debut in 1893/94 claiming just 1 wicket. He did not appear in another first-class match for another three years until 1896/97, with his status as a professional coming in the way of his selection for the West Indies’ domestic Inter-Colonial Tournament which allowed only amateurs to partake, something which would become pretty much the theme of his career. When he did finally return however, he claimed match figures of 6 for 70, 11 for 115, 9 for 98, and 10 for 67 against the touring XIs brought over to the Caribbean by Arthur Priestley and Lord Hawke, who stood little chance against a Trinidad bowling lineup that had Woods bowling in tandem with the equally ferocious Archie Cumberbatch, despite having in their ranks Test players of repute such as Andrew Stoddart and Sammy Woods. Stoddart in particular was given a torrid time by Woods, who claimed his wicket cheaply thrice in four innings on tour. Trinidad won every single one of their matches, and by more comprehensive margins than even the full West Indies side managed to do.

Woods did not play again for another two years until 1898/99, and missed the 1899/00 season, but was nevertheless selected for West Indies’ maiden tour to England in 1900 - making him one of only five colored players to make the squad alongside Cumberbatch, Lebrun Constantine (father of Learie), Tommie Burton, Fitz Hinds and Charles Ollivierre. There were some who remained doubtful he could recreate the same kind of form as in the Caribbean on good English wickets. He did initially struggle in his first few games due to a lack of match practice in the two years leading up the the tour, including a match against Gloucestershire where he was taken for 0 for 141, his worst ever bowling figures in any level of cricket as the Gloucs piled on a massive 619 on the back of Gilbert Jessop’s 157 coming in just 60 minutes - including him being smashed for a then record 23 runs (444443) in an over by Jessop, causing him to go beside himself with laughter at his dubious performance. But he recovered from the setback to bowl West Indies to victories over Leicestershire with 5 for 39, Hampshire with 6 for 93 and 4 for 55, and Surrey against whom he bowled his best all tour with 7 for 43 and 5 for 68 at times proving nearly as unplayable as back in the Caribbean - including a spell where he claimed 5 wickets to reduce them to pitiable 30 for 6.

Woods finished the tour with 72 wickets at 21.54 with 6 five-fers and 2 match 10-fers from 17 non first-class matches, finishing second in terms of wickets to fellow professional Tommie Burton, who finished with 78 at 21.55 after a ridiculous haul of 8 for 9 in West Indies’ final tour match against a weak Norfolk XI, but still ended with a marginally superior average. It was also during this tour that his pace was being compared to that of the legendary Tom Richardson, a bowler widely regarded as the fastest in history. According to some observers, Woods was considered to be the faster of the two at this stage, although it should be noted that Richardson by 1900 was not the same bowler of yesteryears as a result of prodigious drinking and maintained nowhere near the same fitness standards as he did during his peak years in the early to mid-1890s. Nevertheless, to even be compared to a player of the latter’s quality was no small achievement for a black man at a time when racism was quite prevalent across the Western world.

Upon his return to the Caribbean, Woods averaged an astonishing 7.78 with the ball during the 1900/01 season, his last for his adopted home Trinidad as he would move to British Guiana, where he would play out the remainder of his career. He turned out for the West Indies one final time in 1901/02 against a team brought over by Richard Bennett, that included Sir Plum Warner and Bernard Bosanquet among others - claiming 14 wickets at 14.57 from 3 matches, including a first-class career best haul of 7 for 38. He also claimed 15 wickets at 15.53 for his new country British Guiana, bowling in tandem with his West Indies bowling partner Tommie Burton, seeing his team record two crushing victories in the process. These would once again be the last first-class matches he would play until 1904/05, when he returned one final time and signed off his career with a match haul of 2 for 38 and 7 for 61 against Lord Brackley’s XI, nearly finishing with 10 wickets in his last game which saw him claim a wicket with his final ball in first-class cricket.

Overall, he claimed 117 wickets at an awe-inspiring bowling average of 11.57 with 10 five-fers and 2 match ten-fers with an astonishing strike rate of a wicket every 31 balls from 17 matches. Although he never did score a fifty with the bat, his 155 runs at 11.07 was a none too shabby return considering the kind of pitches he played on which would classify him as a plucky tailender at the very least. His bowling average of 11.57 stands 16th best overall among bowlers with a minimum of 100 wickets at first-class level, another impressive feat considering most of the players ahead of him are from eras before Test cricket came into being, when batting would often prove an absolute nightmare for most. There are no records of his death anywhere, but given that he would be in his 148th year it is perhaps safe to assume he is no longer alive. Regardless of any opinions, Float Woods remains to my mind the greatest player to have never played a Test match for the West Indies and is the one true ‘godfather’ of Caribbean fast bowling that we’ve all come to respect and admire over the years.

VC’s XI

1)
2)
3)
4)
5)
6)
7)
8)
9)
10) Carst Posthuma
11) Float Woods


If Posthuma doesn’t get you, Woods must.. Now to find me some decent batsmen..

@blockerdave

 

[blockerdave]

The island nation of Barbados with a population of barely 300,000 has over the years produced a long assembly line of fast bowlers that have gone on to become some of the world’s best, starting from George Francis, Manny Martindale, Wesley Hall, Charlie Griffith, Keith Boyce, Vanburn Holder, Joel Garner, Malcolm Marshall, Wayne Daniel, Sylvester Clarke, all the way up to the likes of Kemar Roach and Jason Holder in the current era. Many of the West Indies’ successes at Test level over the years can be attributed to these players, including their two distinct eras of greatness in the early to mid-1960s with Frank Worrell and Garry Sobers at the helm, and then with Clive Lloyd and Viv Richards’ world beating sides from the mid-1970s to early-1990s that crushed all comers, including a 15-year unbeaten run in Test series between 1980 and 1995. All of these players however can be traced back to one man, the very first of his kind, and the one that began this proud tradition that has gone on to define West Indies cricket itself - Float Woods.

Though originally from Barbados, Joseph Woods, nicknamed “Float” after a local delicacy, had at some point moved to island of Trinidad, for whom he would make his first-class debut in 1893/94 claiming just 1 wicket. He did not appear in another first-class match for another three years until 1896/97, with his status as a professional coming in the way of his selection for the West Indies’ domestic Inter-Colonial Tournament which allowed only amateurs to partake, something which would become pretty much the theme of his career. When he did finally return however, he claimed match figures of 6 for 70, 11 for 115, 9 for 98, and 10 for 67 against the touring XIs brought over to the Caribbean by Arthur Priestley and Lord Hawke, who stood little chance against a Trinidad bowling lineup that had Woods bowling in tandem with the equally ferocious Archie Cumberbatch, despite having in their ranks Test players of repute such as Andrew Stoddart and Sammy Woods. Stoddart in particular was given a torrid time by Woods, who claimed his wicket cheaply thrice in four innings on tour. Trinidad won every single one of their matches, and by more comprehensive margins than even the full West Indies side managed to do.

Woods did not play again for another two years until 1898/99, and missed the 1899/00 season, but was nevertheless selected for West Indies’ maiden tour to England in 1900 - making him one of only five colored players to make the squad alongside Cumberbatch, Lebrun Constantine (father of Learie), Tommie Burton, Fitz Hinds and Charles Ollivierre. There were some who remained doubtful he could recreate the same kind of form as in the Caribbean on good English wickets. He did initially struggle in his first few games due to a lack of match practice in the two years leading up the the tour, including a match against Gloucestershire where he was taken for 0 for 141, his worst ever bowling figures in any level of cricket as the Gloucs piled on a massive 619 on the back of Gilbert Jessop’s 157 coming in just 60 minutes - including him being smashed for a then record 23 runs (444443) in an over by Jessop, causing him to go beside himself with laughter at his dubious performance. But he recovered from the setback to bowl West Indies to victories over Leicestershire with 5 for 39, Hampshire with 6 for 93 and 4 for 55, and Surrey against whom he bowled his best all tour with 7 for 43 and 5 for 68 at times proving nearly as unplayable as back in the Caribbean - including a spell where he claimed 5 wickets to reduce them to pitiable 30 for 6.

Woods finished the tour with 72 wickets at 21.54 with 6 five-fers and 2 match 10-fers from 17 non first-class matches, finishing second in terms of wickets to fellow professional Tommie Burton, who finished with 78 at 21.55 after a ridiculous haul of 8 for 9 in West Indies’ final tour match against a weak Norfolk XI, but still ended with a marginally superior average. It was also during this tour that his pace was being compared to that of the legendary Tom Richardson, a bowler widely regarded as the fastest in history. According to some observers, Woods was considered to be the faster of the two at this stage, although it should be noted that Richardson by 1900 was not the same bowler of yesteryears as as result of prodigious drinking and maintained nowhere near the same fitness standards as he did during his peak years in the early to mid-1890s. Nevertheless, to even be compared to a player of the latter’s quality was no small achievement for a black man at a time when racism was quite prevalent across the Western world.

Upon his return to the Caribbean, Woods averaged an astonishing 7.78 with the ball during the 1900/01 season, his last for his adopted home Trinidad as he would move to British Guiana, where he would play out the remainder of his career. He turned out for the West Indies one final time in 1901/02 against a team brought over by Richard Bennett, that included Sir Plum Warner and Bernard Bosanquet among others - claiming 14 wickets at 14.57 from 3 matches, including a first-class career best haul of 7 for 38. He also claimed 15 wickets at 15.53 for his new country British Guiana, bowling in tandem with his West Indies bowling partner Tommie Burton, seeing his team record two crushing victories in the process. These would once again be the last first-class matches he would play until 1904/05, when he returned one final time and signed off his career with a match haul of 2 for 38 and 7 for 61 against Lord Brackley’s XI, nearly finishing with 10 wickets in his last game which saw him claim a wicket with his final ball in first-class cricket.

Overall, he claimed 117 wickets at an awe-inspiring bowling average of 11.57 with 10 five-fers and 2 match ten-fers with an astonishing strike rate of a wicket every 31 balls. Although he never did score a fifty with the bat, his 155 runs at 11.07 was a none too shabby return considering the kind of pitches he played on which would classify him as a plucky tailender at the very least. His bowling average of 11.57 stands 16th best overall among bowlers with a minimum of 100 wickets at first-class level, also another impressive feat considering most of the players ahead of him are from eras before Test cricket came into being, when batting would often prove an absolute nightmare for most. There are no records of his death anywhere, but given that he would be in his 148th year it is perhaps safe to assume he is no longer alive. Regardless of any opinions, Float Woods remains to my mind the greatest player to have never played a Test match for the West Indies and is the one true ‘godfather’ of Caribbean fast bowling that we’ve all come to respect and admire over the years.

VC’s XI

1)
2)
3)
4)
5)
6)
7)
8)
9)
10) Carst Posthuma
11) Float Woods


If Posthuma doesn’t get you, Woods must.. Now to find me some decent batsmen..

@blockerdave

Thanks for this - a great write up of someone I wasn't aware of.

Oddly, I'm going for one of the other players mentioned in that post, Charles Ollivierre. He scored over 900 runs on that tour, and was offered a chance to qualify and play for Derbyshire, thus becoming the first black West Indian to play county cricket. A genuine trail blazer, and an elegant batsman.

Over to @Asham

 

[Aislabie]

16th best overall

It frustrates me how nobody has come along to correct Fuller Pilch's stats. I mean, his bowling average is obviously inaccurate because nobody could average 1.35, even if it was Jimmy Anderson turning out for some local Burnley fourth XI, but Cricinfo just accepts it rather than fact-checking it and finding that sure enough, those 192 recorded runs came in spells where he took a total of nine wickets. Even if you consider that to be too small a sample size to put even an asterisked bowling average, just leave his entry blank or something - don't have him listed as the most effective bowler in first-class history when most of the time he wasn't even a bowler.

 

[Asham]

​

My third pick features a very consistent batsman, Paras Dogra(King of Daddy Hundreds), who is still playing in Ranji Trophy. Paras Dogra has been among the heaviest run-scorers in Indian domestic cricket through the mid-2000s up until 2016, but most of his runs were made away from the spotlight, in the lower tier of the Ranji Trophy. Dogra's best season came in 2012-13, when he scored five hundred in eight matches for Himachal Pradesh, three of them coming in successive innings. The best Dogra could reach was in 2013's India A squad. Dogra has continued to pile on the runs since then. In the 2015-16 season, he made the sixth and seventh double-hundreds of his career, in successive innings, against Tripura and Services, and ended the season with 703 runs at an average of 78.11. Nowadays, he plays for Puducherry but he still can't stop scoring. He scored 2 double hundreds in 2 years, taking his tally to 9. Aged 35, now the chances of Dogra breaking into the Indian team is bleak, but he would obviously be counted as one of the finest batsmen whoever played Ranji Trophy, (missed 1 more double century by just 6 runs).


Asham's XI

1)
2)
3)
4) Ali Brown
5) Paras Dogra
6)
7)
8)
9)
10)
11) Palwankar Baloo

@Yash. to pick his man.

 

[ahmedleo414]

It's been almost 48 hours since the last pick @Yash. seemed to have missed it, @VC the slogger you have the next pick I believe

 

[Yash.]

I'll go for Saait Magiet

 

[VC the slogger]

In recent times we’ve witnessed the rise of Ireland from an associate nation to a Test nation in 2018, thanks to the efforts of a generation of players including the likes of Ed Joyce, Kevin O’Brien, Niall O’Brien, William Porterfield, Tim Murtagh, Boyd Rankin, Paul Stirling, Trent Johnston and George Dockrell to name a few. But were they in fact the best to ever emerge from the Emerald Isle? Because Ireland did produce a similar group of very talented players over a century ago during cricket’s ‘Golden Age’ from the mid 1890s to early 1900s, such as Tim O’Brien, Bob Lambert, Bill Harrington, Frank Browning, Tom Ross that helped them remain competitive in matches against the MCC and other county sides, even recording victories on their official first-class debut against WG Grace’s London County in 1902, and against the South African Test lineup in 1904. Only, these guys weren’t as fortunate as their 21st century counterparts to have their efforts recognized by the relevant authorities, and as a result their feats have largely been forgotten to the pages of history. Arguably the best player to emerge during this period was Lucius Gwynn.

Gwynn was born into a prominent sporting and academic family that produced three other cricketers in his brothers Arthur, Robin and Jack - who would all go on to captain their university teams and play first-class cricket. In fact, such was their prominence at university level that the cricket team of Dublin University or Trinity which they all attended together was nicknamed ‘Gwynnity’ with the brothers often playing a big part in the team being of first-class standard during the 1890s. Gwynn initially made his debut in 1891 as a right-arm seam bowler in the XI, claiming 33 wickets at 13.00 but scoring only 112 runs at 8.62, with his batting still in it’s infancy at this stage. But over the next couple of years, through sheer hard work and determination he would improve it to the point where he could be classified as a genuine all-rounder, and would eclipse that of his brother Arthur who was originally considered the far superior batsman when they both started out. From averaging a mere 8 with the bat in his debut season, he would go on to score 3195 runs at 32.94 with 8 centuries and claim 311 wickets at 11.33 over the course of a 106-match career for his university between 1891 and 1897.

By 1895, his batting had developed into nothing short of world class standard with his back foot play being compared to that of the great Ranjitsinhji who was also making his initial strides in first-class cricket at the time. He starred with the ball on first-class debut for Dublin University, claiming 3 for 29 and 2 for 49 with the ball in a stunning 56-run victory over an MCC side that contained Test players Sir Tim O’Brien and Jack Hearne among others. This was followed by 63 and 106 along with figures of 4 for 93 against Cambridge University, and his finest first-class performance which saw him carry his bat for a masterful 153* and claim 7 wickets against Leicestershire, although both efforts came in losing causes. He finished with a total of 455 runs at 56.87 for the 1895 season, thereby giving him the best batting average of the season among batsmen with a minimum of 400 runs ahead of Archie MacLaren (51.20) and the legendary WG Grace (51.00), who was having an ‘Indian summer’ with the bat. He was duly selected for the Gentlemen against the Players on Grace’s recommendation, where he scored a very impressive 80 against a bowling attack consisting of George Lohmann, Tom Richardson and Johnny Briggs - leading to Grace describing him as “one of the most finished bats I’ve ever played against.”

He continued his form into the 1896 season where he scored over 1000 runs and claimed 93 wickets in all matches, leading to him being given an invitation to represent England in the 2nd Test against Australia in the 1896 Ashes. But him being a scholar first and foremost had to decline as it coincided with his college examinations; instead KS Ranjitsinhji would go on to make a stunning debut scoring 62 and 154*. In fact, cricket took a backseat during this time in his life with his academic career taking full precedence until 1900. In that time, he achieved a double first in his degree finals and was elected a Fellow of Trinity College in 1899 - his academic brilliance outshining even his sporting achievements which apart from playing cricket saw him also earn 7 international caps for the Ireland rugby team as a centre back, winning the 1894 Triple Crown as a player and later in 1899 as a selector. He would play cricket seriously again only in 1901 after getting married.

Gwynn pretty much picked up from where he had left off on his return, scoring 34 and 68 against the South African Test team. The following year in 1902, he toured England with an Ireland cricket team led by Sir Tim O’Brien which recorded a very impressive 238-run victory on official first-class debut against WG Grace’s London County, where Gwynn himself starred with an unbeaten 81 - arguably the best innings he ever played in the handful of matches where he was able to represent his country in cricket. He was batting better than ever before in 1902, with more than 2000 runs at above 50 with 6 centuries, including 4 in a row for the Phoenix Cricket Club. But under all those runs and centuries, his health was rapidly deteriorating and he was having great trouble sleeping - he was eventually diagnosed with an advanced onset of tuberculosis. Despite a move to Davos Platz’s sanitorium in Switzerland to improve his health, he would not live out the year. At the time of his death on December 23 1902, Lucius Gwynn was only 29 years and 232 days old.

Overall, he played just 8 first-class matches scoring 577 runs at 44.38 with a best of 153*, and claimed 18 wickets at 22.77 with a best of 4 for 81 between 1895 and 1902. Gwynn also appeared in a total of 11 matches for his country Ireland of which only 2 were given first-class status, scoring 499 runs at 38.38 with a best of 81* and claiming 14 wickets at an average of 18.00 from 11 matches spread over a decade between 1892 and 1902. He achieved these numbers despite cricket being little more than a hobby for him, with him being an academic first and foremost. Still, he remains to this day one of Ireland’s best all-round sportsmen in addition to all his academic accomplishments. It is hard to fathom what all he could have achieved in not just cricket, but on the world stage had he but lived longer.


VC’s XI

1)
2) Lucius Gwynn
3)
4)
5)
6)
7)
8)
9)
10) Carst Posthuma
11) Float Woods


Gwynn shall open the batting for us like he often did when he was at his best. Honestly, I’m surprised he even made it to this 2nd XI draft in the first place. What a player to completely miss..

@blockerdave

 

[blockerdave]

South Africa hasn't been much known for spinners arguably since the days Aubrey Faulkner popularised googly bowling. But during the isolation years they harboured an at least test standard and possibly world class spinner in the form of DENYS HOBSON.

In what was an extremely high-standard and intense Currie Cup competition, Hobson played 105 First Class matches taking 374 wickets at 27.52 with 22 5-fers. He was considered an attacking spinner, yet his career economy rate of 2.79 suggests he didn't give much away either.

His career best 9-54 against Eastern Province came in 1977-78, perfectly timed to have him signed up by Packer for World Series Cricket. Unfortunately for Hobson however, some of the West Indian governments, particularly led by Michael Manley, PM of Jamaica, would only sanction involvement of their cricketers in a competition involving South African cricketers if those cricketers had already played outside South Africa - e.g. in County Cricket. Hobson never had (and never would), and so he couldn't play. Graeme Pollock would fall foul of the same rule, which was why he never played in WSC either.

@Aislabie it's your turn now

 

[Aislabie]

Duncan Spencer

First class stats: 36 wickets @ 39.22 (best 4/31) in 16 matches

My next pick is the fastest bowler ever to play the game, but don't take my word for it - take Viv Richards' word for it. Sir Viv, who has faced more West Indian and Australian fast bowlers than it's worth even thinking about, picked out the Anglo-Australian Spencer as the fastest he ever faced. So why didn't Duncan Spencer have a longer career? Well, remember that bit about fastest of all time? Well he wasn't built like the fastest of all-time. He was build like a pretty normal bloke really; under six feet tall and not unreasonably broad. And yet he got the absolute maximum out of his body with a clean, efficient action that had the unfortunate side-effect of trying to snap his back in half.

Once it did, he was never the same again, although not for lack of trying - comebacks with both Western Australia and Sussex promised much, but were to end unhappily. But if you do one thing today, watch ten minutes of him at the peak of his powers.

@Aislabie 's Second XI so far:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5. Norman Callaway (Pick #7)
6.
7.
8.
9.
10. Duncan Spencer (Pick #17)
11. Albert Moss (Pick #6)

@ahmedleo414

 

[ahmedleo414]

My first pick goes to Nic Pothas

Stats|Matches|Runs|Top Score|Batting Ave|100s/50s|Catches|Stumps
First-Class |218|11,438|165|40.85|24/61|614|45

His bio from cricinfo:

"A versatile wicketkeeper-batsman, who has became a more accomplished batsman as his career progressed to the extent he opened the batting at times for Transvaal in the Castle Cup in the absence of a genuine opening batsman. He is, however, better suited to the middle order where he can play his shots freely and without pressure. He joined Hampshire in 2002 and quickly became a consistent performer in front and behind the stumps. He also appeared for the Indian Cricket League's Delhi Giants team in March 2008. Although he never crossed 1000 runs he was close on a few occasions. Returns started to slip, due to injury, in 2010 and he suffered appendicitis part-way through the 2011 campaign which was the beginning of the end for his Hampshire career. He was released at the conclusion of the season having scored more than 10,000 runs in all cricket and taken more than 500 catches."

My second pick goes to Iqbal Sikander

​

Stats|Matches|Wickets|Ave|Econ|BBI|BBM|5w/10w
First-Class |189|658|23.32|2.81|9/81|?|44/8

Couldn't find too much information on him except what was on his wiki

"Mohammad Iqbal Sikander (born December 19, 1958 in Karachi, Sindh is a former Pakistani cricketer who played four One Day Internationals (ODI), all of them in the 1992 Cricket World Cup and was part of the Pakistan squad that won it, but he was never selected again for Pakistan in either Tests or ODIs. Formerly, he was a coach for the Afghanistan national cricket team.

In January 1991, playing for Karachi Whites against Peshawar in a one-day match, he recorded the extraordinary bowling analysis of 6.2–3–7–7; no other cricketer has ever taken seven wickets in a List A game for the cost of fewer runs.

Iqbal spent a lot of time in English league cricket. In 2001, he took over 100 league wickets for Leigh Cricket Club in the Liverpool Competition."

My Team so far:

1. Alan Jones
2.
3. James Aitchison
4.
5.
6. Nic Pothas
7.
8. Iqbal Sikander
9.
10.
11.

@Aislabie you have the next pick

 

[Aislabie]

John Barclay

First class stats: 9,677 runs @ 24.81 (9 centuries, best 119) and 324 wickets @ 30.66 (9 5WI, best 6/61) in 274 matches

My first XI might have been all about statistical monsters, but my second XI is all about stories and building a team. And the most important player in it for that latter reason is Sussex's John Barclay. His stats may have ended up being pretty unremarkable - he would be the first to admit, as he does in his book The Appeal of the Championship, that he was not a remarkable batsman - but his captaincy, and his ability to bring the best out of a team, absolutely was. He was rather unlucky that his career so neatly overlapped that of Mike Brearley, for if it hadn't he would undoubtedly have been an England captain.

The German-born all-rounder's path to get there was an intriguing one - in 1972, he was named captain of the England Young Cricketers (now Under-19s) and seemed to be on the path that led to an international career. Mere months later, it had proven to be the case... sort of. For while still a teenager, Barclay opened the batting for Hong Kong against Singapore. In a different cricketing landscape, he could easily have ended up representing them at a World Cup or something similar. Instead, he was to end up captain of Sussex: still in his 20s and far from a totemic playing presence, he was appointed captain of a side with names like Wessels, Le Roux, Imran, Parker, Mendis, Arnold and Gould. Despite that abundance of talent, Sussex had won only four of their 22 matches in 1980 and Barclay's job was to try to win the Championship.

He damn nearly did. His first act as captain was to request the release of Kepler Wessels from his contract: a county was allowed to play two overseas players at a time, so why pay three? In a season where the points available for a win were increased to sixteen, Barclay's Sussex won eleven times. They also only lost thrice: their 11-3 record was the best in the country, and they were a single wicket away from making it Sussex's first County Championship win. It may have been fifteen years before I was born, but I desperately wish they had done: through his writing in The Appeal of the Championship, Barclay helps the reader to fall in love with his Sussex side and to will them to win in the same way that he did. That he was a composed opening batsman and capable off-spinner is at best secondary to all that.

@Aislabie 's Second XI so far:
1.
2. John Barclay (Pick #20)
3.
4.
5. Norman Callaway (Pick #7)
6.
7.
8.
9.
10. Duncan Spencer (Pick #17)
11. Albert Moss (Pick #6)

@blockerdave

 

[ahmedleo414]

Damn, he was on my list

 

[VC the slogger]

A couple of players I had never really considered.

Pothas is a damn good one IMO, someone who could have had a long international career in a country that wasn’t South Africa or Australia in the 2000s. At least he got to play regularly for Greece towards the end..

(Now I wish we had a Greek flag on the forums )

 

[VC the slogger]

After going through the index, I believe it’s @Yash. who has the next pick

 

[Yash.]

My pick would be Thomas Wass

He bowled Nottinghamshire to the county championship in 1907, and was the mainstay of the side with his fast medium bowling and occasional leg breaks. A constant feature for a long time in Trent Bridge with his characteristic run-up and incisive deliveries, he took 1666 wickets at 20.47.[DOUBLEPOST=1588431176][/DOUBLEPOST]@VC the slogger