My first pick goes to
Steve Tikolo
Stats|Matches|Runs|HS|
Ave|100s/50s|Wkts|BBM|
Ave|Econ|5w/10w
List-A
|213|6,105|133|33.00|7/40|168|4/18|37.18|4.65|0/0
ODI
|135|3,428|111|29.05|3/24|94|4/41|34.20|4.80|0/0
Here is his bio from cricinfo:
"It is a measure of his ability and standing that in many people's eyes Steve Tikolo has epitomised Kenyan cricket for more than a decade. His whole approach to the game has a Caribbean flavour to it. A middle-order batsman who relies on his eye as much as technique and who can attack or defend as the situation demands, he possesses a wide range of strokes, but when he is in full flow he can be a punishing player at any level. His bowling has gone from being medium-pace to a Chris Gayle-like gentle offspin, seemingly innocuous but deceptively effective in the one-day game. It almost goes without saying that he had led Kenya in the post Maurice Odumbe era, and has done so by example.
Coming from a famous cricketing family (older brother Tom is a former national captain and another brother David played at the 1996 World Cup), he was immediately at home on the international stage, when Kenya made their World Cup debut in 1996. He made 65 in their first game, against India at Cuttack, top-scored with a vital 29 in their sensational low-scoring victory over West Indies at Pune, and contributed 96 against Sri Lanka at Kandy, establishing himself as his country's leading batsman. This was further shown when he made a destructive 147 against Bangladesh in the 1997 ICC Trophy final, taking Kenya to a second successive World Cup, and new ODI status.
He again performed well in the 1999 World Cup, with fifties against India and England, and on taking over the captaincy in 2002 he immediately underlined his class by scoring 93 and 69 in that year's Champions Trophy. While he had a personally disappointing start to the World Cup in 2003, he came good with the bat and his contributions with the ball and astute captaincy helped Kenya to reach the semi-finals.
This performance, aided by Tikolo's burgeoning reputation, led to calls for Kenya to be granted Test status, but those coincided with a rapid disintegration of the game inside the country as the KCA fell out with the stakeholders. After a wretched 2004 Champions Trophy, Tikolo quit as captain, weary from 18 months of battling his own board, and he was at the heart of a players' strike which followed and which, eventually, helped lead to the ousting of the old regime.
Under new management, he returned as captain, showing that his appetite and ability was undiminished. He failed to shine on a bigger stage in the Afro-Asia Cup, although his opportunities were cruelly limited, but continued to weigh in with bat and ball as Kenya returned to the international arena in 2006.
In a much-travelled career, he has played a considerable amount of club cricket in England as well as first-class cricket in South Africa (with Border) and Bangladesh.
Consistent performances led him to be shortlisted for the inaugural ICC Associate ODI Player of the Year in 2007."
My second pick goes to
Sachin Tendulkar, may as well get this one out of the way
Stats|Matches|Runs|HS|
Ave|100s/50s
List-A
|551|21,999|200*|45.54|60/114
ODI
|463|18,426|200*|44.83|49/96
Here is his bio from cricinfo:
"Sachin Tendulkar has been the most complete batsman of his time, the most prolific runmaker of all time, and arguably the biggest cricket icon the game has ever known. His batting was based on the purest principles: perfect balance, economy of movement, precision in stroke-making, and that intangible quality given only to geniuses - anticipation. If he didn't have a signature stroke - the upright, back-foot punch comes close - it's because he was equally proficient at each of the full range of orthodox shots (and plenty of improvised ones as well) and can pull them out at will.
There were no apparent weaknesses in Tendulkar's game. He could score all around the wicket, off both front foot and back, could tune his technique to suit every condition, temper his game to suit every situation, and made runs in all parts of the world in all conditions.
Some of his finest performances came against Australia, the overwhelmingly dominant team of his era. His century as a 19-year-old on a lightning-fast pitch at the WACA is considered one of the best innings ever to have been played in Australia. A few years later he received the ultimate compliment from the ultimate batsman: Don Bradman confided to his wife that Tendulkar reminded him of himself.
Blessed with the keenest of cricket minds, and armed with a loathing for losing, Tendulkar set about doing what it took to become one of the best batsmen in the world. His greatness was established early: he was only 16 when he made his Test debut. He was hit on the mouth by Waqar Younis but continued to bat, in a blood-soaked shirt. His first Test hundred, a match-saving one at Old Trafford, came when he was 17, and he had 16 Test hundreds before he turned 25. In 2000 he became the first batsman to have scored 50 international hundreds, in 2008 he passed Brian Lara as the leading Test run-scorer, and in the years after, he went past 13,000 Test runs 30,000 international runs, and 50 Test hundreds.
He currently holds the record for most hundreds in both Tests and ODIs - remarkable, considering he didn't score his first ODI hundred till his 79th match. Incredibly, he retained a divine enthusiasm for the game till his last match. At 36 years and 306 days he broke a 40-year-old barrier by scoring the first double-century in one-day cricket. In 2012, when just one month short of his 39th birthday, he became the first player to score 100 international centuries, which like Bradman's batting average, could be a mark that lasts for ever. Later that year, though, he announced his retirement from ODIs after a disappointing 18 months in international cricket. And on November 16, 2013, Tendulkar retired from Test cricket after a memorable 200th Test, on his home ground at the Wankhede Stadium against West Indies.
Tendulkar's considerable achievements seem greater still when looked at in the light of the burden of expectations he had to bear from his adoring but somewhat unreasonable followers, who have been prone to regard anything less than a hundred in each innings as a failure. The aura may have dimmed, if only slightly, as the years on the international circuit took their toll on the body, but Tendulkar remains, by a distance, the most worshipped cricketer in the world."
I think I have a pretty good start with my batting line-up with Sachin and Steve. Also, both my players initials are ST... so there's that too
My playing XI:
- ?
- Sachin Tendulkar (cost: 3)
- ?
- Steve Tikolo (cost: 2)
- ?
- ?
- ?
- ?
- ?
- ?
- ?
Budget Used: 5/25
@Bevab you have the next pick
49.04%
