Cricinfo's All-time XI's

[drainpipe32]

Just realised this is still going on :/ Followed the Australian one, and then lost interest. The XI's picked so far are:

Australia
Victor Trumper
Arthur Morris
Don Bradman
Greg Chappell
Allan Border
Keith Miller
Adam Gilchrist+
Shane Warne
Bill O'Reilly
Dennis Lillee
Glenn McGrath

England
Jack Hobbs
Len Hutton
Wally Hammond
Ken Barrington
Kevin Pietersen
Ian Botham
Alan Knott+
Harold Larwood
Derek Underwood
Fred Trueman
Sydney Barnes

New Zealand
Glenn Turner
Stewie Dempster
Bert Sutcliffe
Martin Crowe
Martin Donnelly
John R Reid
Richard Hadlee
Daniel Vettori
Ian Smith+
Shane Bond
Jack Cowie

South Africa
Barry Richards
Graeme Smith
Jacques Kallis
Graeme Pollock
Dudley Nourse
Aubrey Faulkner
Shaun Pollock
Mike Procter
John Waite+
Hugh Tayfield
Allan Donald

Sri Lanka
Marvan Atapattu
Sanath Jayasuriya
Kumar Sangakkara+
Aravinda de Silva
Mahela Jayawardene
Arjuna Ranatunga
Chaminda Vaas
Rumesh Ratnayake
Ashantha de Mel
Muttiah Muralitharan
Somachandra de Silva

 

[Bublu Bhuyan]

India, Pakistan and the West Indies are left among the major Test playing nations.

 

[Iridium]

Yea, I kinda drifted off after they finished the New Zealand one. I was actually quite surprised they did the NZ XI so early in the piece.

 

[War]

I disagree with all the cricinfo panel selections so far for each team in some way.

 

[Dare]

Will be interesting to see who they take from the West Indies.

 

[drainpipe32]

Agreed with War.

 

[pcfan123]

So you agree to disagree? :laugh

Of course people will disagree with the cricinfo XIs, sort of goes without saying

 

[Iridium]

There's never ever going to be a Nation XI that everyone agrees with. People use different criteria to pick players and you can never please everyone.

 

[StinkyBoHoon]

Pietersen in the english one is kinda an insult to english cricket. there is no way in hell he's achieved enough to be thought of that highly.

 

[kirby]

I disagree with all the cricinfo panel selections so far for each team in some way.

They're not going to find a universally accepted selection...

Pietersen in the english one is kinda an insult to english cricket. there is no way in hell he's achieved enough to be thought of that highly.

He's not even English!

I'll be really interested to see how they go about cutting the West Indian middle order bats (Richards, Weekes, Walcott, Worrell, Lara, Lloyd, Kanhai, Headley, etc) and the fast bowlers (Holding, Marshall, Ambrose, Walsh, Garner, Roberts etc.) down to only a couple of spots.

 

[shravi]

Matthew Hayden should be there as far as I'm concerned. He's got a terrific record and is very highly regarded by all his peers who have said that he is Australia's best ever opener.

 

[King Pietersen]

He's not a better player than Trumper, Morris or Simpson though tbh. He'd probably make it into my Australia 2nd XI, but there's no chance I'd take him ahead of Trumper, Morris or Simpson.

 

[War]

He's not a better player than Trumper, Morris or Simpson though tbh. He'd probably make it into my Australia 2nd XI, but there's no chance I'd take him ahead of Trumper, Morris or Simpson.

Agreed on Simpson. He averaged 55 as an opener scoring quality runs againts the likes Hall/Griffith, Trueman/Statham, Pollock etc...all very good bowlers. This is very convincing case of why he should open in the AUS ATXI.


But i have never understoo how people could put Morris & Trumper ahead of Hayden TBH.

Arthur Morris indeed has fair case to open in AUS ATXI over one Hayden if i'm being fair. Alot of the people who saw him bat rate him highly. But he scored alot of runs againts poor attacks in his career - just as many as Hayden. IIRC only one of Morris's hundreds was againts a quality attack - which was @ Brisbane 1954/55. So for me personally he has always been 3rd choice to Simpson/Hayden.



Trumper was clearly better than his 39 averages suggest & i respect him as indeed one of games greats. But i always have a problem rating early generation players like him. He never faced real pace in his career. So i worry in hypotetical all-time XI matchups vs bowlers like Marshall, Donald, Hadlee, Imran, Trueman he would struggle. So i'm reluctant to start in the best AUS ATXI. Simpson/Hayden have the best cases to be the main AUS ATXI opening fair based on all read up & seen.

War added 3 Minutes and 4 Seconds later...

Pietersen in the english one is kinda an insult to english cricket. there is no way in hell he's achieved enough to be thought of that highly.

Indeed that was one of worst selections by the cricinfo panel to date. Compton HAS to be in that team.

 

[King Pietersen]

You worry about Trumper against world class seam bowling, but not for Hayden? =/ Hayden was a flat-trick bully against seam bowling. He was a very good player of spin, but his performances against high quality seam in decks with anything in it for the bowler leave a lot to be desired (but let's not get into that, as it's a dire over-played argument). Trumper and Morris put up some seriously impressive numbers on uncovered wickets against some seriously good bowling in their respective times. From guys like SF Barnes, W Rhodes, GL Jessop, C Blythe, GA Faulkner, AEE Vogler and GH Hirst of Trumpers era to Bedser, Tayfield, Valentine, Laker, Tyson, Ramadhin, Statham and Bailey of Morris's. Both magnificent players, that guys that played with them, or saw them bat rate incredibly highly. One other thing to point out about Arthur Morris is his record under Bradman, which clearly inspired him. Under The Don's leadership Morris averages 74.10, with 7 centuries in 14 Tests; even outscoring Bradman in the '48 Ashes, in a series performance only beaten in terms of run getting by Bradman and Mark Taylor. Trumper > Morris = Simpson > Hayden for me; based on what I've read, heard and seen.

 

[ZoraxDoom]

I don't agree with Underwood and KP in England's lineup. Surely one of Laker or Verity were better picks for spinner?

Also, I would have had Simpson as opener too. I think I voted for him as opener as well, with Trumper ()