Generation Draft - COMPLETED!!

[sifter132]

Ricky Ponting
Tests: 157
Runs: 12635
Avg: 52.64
HS: 257 v India, MCG, 2003/04
100s: 39

I picked Ricky Ponting in the Richie Benaud draft that Shravi started not so long ago, so I have borrowed shamelessly from what I wrote there and with a new link to an article which helps show why I rate Ponting so highly:

From 1999-2008, Ponting was the #1 batsmen in the world, scoring more runs than anyone else in that time, and at a higher average than his peers. That 9 year stretch netted 8722 runs at an average of 63.66, with 32 100s. This article at Cricinfo summarised how dominant Ponting was. Only one man has scored more runs at a higher average over a 52 Test span (yes, the incomparable Don): The List: Who is closest to Don Bradman, George Lohmann and Joel Garner? | Regulars | Cricinfo Magazine | ESPN Cricinfo

During the 2006/07 Ashes he attained a rating on the ICC player rating of 942, a rating that hadn't been seen since Len Hutton in 1954 and no one has topped 942 since then either. Every attack that came to Australia got hammered by Ponting, from India to South Africa to England. He also made plenty of runs away from home in that time too, the only real blip came during the 2001 tour of India where he couldn't get going against Harbhajan.

Of course, since then he's been shown to be a bit more human, tainting one of the great records of the modern day. After the 2006/07 whitewash of England, Ricky Ponting's career average stood at almost 60: 59.29. Now it's down to 52.64. I'd love to see him recapture that form of a few years back because it's the best sustained batting period that I've ever seen. It leads to the age old question about greatness - how long do you need to excel for to be a 'great'? Just because Ponting can't sustain his quality of play for 15 years, should we discount his 9 or 10 years of absolute dominance?

As a bonus, even if you don't think Ponting's batting is as great historically as I do, then at the very least he should break the tie with his competition due to his fielding. I would argue that Ponting is one of the finest all-round fieldsman to play the game. He's quick over the ground, dives and stops shots with the best, has a strong arm, knocks down the stumps a lot, and has a fantastic pair of catching hands. At almost 37 he's still the #1 fielder in the Aussie team, no matter how much the Nine commentators hype Dave Warner

1 Victor Trumper
2
3 Prince Ranji
4 Ricky Ponting
5
6 Keith Miller
7 Sir Ian Botham
8
9
10
11

 

[StinkyBoHoon]

yep, ponting is an awesome choice, the guy everyone loves to hate. funnily enough shares that distinction in this era with muralitharan. weird isn't it? couldn't be anything to do with them consistently demolishing teams over the last 10 years?

I think it's a bit of a shame the way his twilight years are being played out, perhaps again similar to murali, who's spin and trademark stamina began to desert him in the last two or three seasons.

 

[Gaurav_7]

Must have been my pick of Flower in the last 90s and onwards draft that convinced you huh User?

Absolutely!

 

[sifter132]

yep, ponting is an awesome choice, the guy everyone loves to hate. funnily enough shares that distinction in this era with muralitharan. weird isn't it? couldn't be anything to do with them consistently demolishing teams over the last 10 years?

I think it's a bit of a shame the way his twilight years are being played out, perhaps again similar to murali, who's spin and trademark stamina began to desert him in the last two or three seasons.

Yeah Murali has unfortunately played in the same era as Warne, just like Ponting, Lara and Steve Waugh were unfortunate to play in the same era as Tendulkar. So any lapses in their careers are magnified by being compared with their more classical competitors. If Warne never existed then Murali's quiet last couple of years wouldn't have been so obvious. And agree with the constantly demolishing part. Both Murali and Ponting were so dominant in those early 2000s that people were straining to humanise them and looking for every little chink in their record to discredit them. For Murali it was his record in Australia, for Ponting in India - maybe England too. Oh well, at least some of us appreciate their efforts

And Angry Pixel, sorry mate but your time's elapsed and I'm jumping in - we need to keep moving.

With a lot of bowlers picked in the earlier rounds that means I can pick up some really good value while most of you guys hunt down batsmen. Here's 2 guys that were both the leading wicket takers in Test cricket history when they retired. So that makes 3 for my XI as Botham held the record for a while too.

Hugh Trumble

Tests: 32
Wkts: 141
Ave: 21.78
BB: 8/65 vs England, The Oval, 1902

He's pretty close to being able to fit into the 1900-1927 group, but Trumble played 19 of his 32 Tests before 1900 so I see no problem picking him here.

Trumble was a tall off-spinner who bowled almost at medium pace. Trumble took 2 Test hat tricks, a feat matched by only 2 others since then. Played all but one of his 32 Tests against England, and he is still the 4th highest Aussie wicket taker in Ashes Tests, behind only Warne, McGrath and Lillee (not bad company).

Good all-round player too: Trumble could also bat, averaging almost 20 in both Tests and first-class cricket, and given the lower averages of the era, that is very handy. Apparently, his batting ability improved so much over his career that he opened the innings a couple of times on his last tour of England. Wisden also says he was a "fine slips fieldsman" adding to his all-round value.



Sir Alec Bedser

Tests: 51
Wkts: 236
Ave: 24.89
BB: 7/44

Again I've picked a guy that straddles 2 sections. Bedser played 28 of his 51 Tests in 1950 or earlier, so I think he's fine to pick here.

Bedser is a guy seems to get overlooked now in many of the all-time greats arguments. Probably because he's not an express fast bowler, which pundits seem to love. In days gone by though that wasn't such a priority. All my older cricket books speak glowingly about Bedser when compared to his faster teammates like Larwood or Tyson. But nowadays, all-time XIs seem to want the faster bowlers.

Anyway...Bedser was merely fast medium, but was at the batsmen all the time. He had a relatively short run-up which allowed him to bowl long spells. He was a big man and was able to extract the maximum bounce from the pitch as well. Bedser's main ball was the inswinger and he got a lot of wickets caught at short leg. But he also had a dangerous leg cutter which was particularly lethal on wet pitches - batsmen describing it as moving like a leg break.

Famously, Bedser got Bradman out 6 times in the 10 Tests they opposed each other. Bradman described one ball that Bedser got him with as the best ball he'd ever faced. I guess it's no surprise then that Bedser made Don Bradman's all-time XI - a great tribute for one of his opponents. Don picked quite a few Aussies, so being one of the few Englishmen picked makes it an even higher honour.

1 Victor Trumper
2
3 Prince Ranji
4 Ricky Ponting
5
6 Keith Miller
7 Sir Ian Botham
8 Hugh Trumble
9
10 Sir Alec Bedser
11

 

[Papa_Smurf]

Right, first of all sorry for being so inactive over the last few days. Been extremely crazy with uni work. Just came online to update the first post, so I'll have a more thorough read of the last few pages in the morning.

Since AP's missed his window, it's User2010's turn. AP will just have to make his picks whenever he's back online.

 

[Gaurav_7]

My picks:

Joey Palmer | Cricket Players and Officials | ESPN Cricinfo

Dudley Nourse | Cricket Players and Officials | ESPN Cricinfo

All the writeups to be done very soon.

This is how my team stands atm -

1
2
3
4. Dudley Nourse
5. Andy Flower (wk)
6. Clyde Walcott
7. Imran Khan
8
9. Joey Palmer
10. George Lohmann
11. Charlie Blythe

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It's going to be tough for me now to pick top 3.

 

[Gaurav_7]

Charlie Blythe

A great slow left-armer, possessing a classical delivery and looping flight. His action was elegant and smooth, a few strides leading into a perfect upright sideways-on delivery. He pitched the ball up to encourage the drive into a strong off-side field, and with sufficient spin to trap any batsman unwise enough to try and hit against it. He varied his pace well, and was deceptive through the air, with more pace than most batsmen realized until too late. On the uncovered wickets before World War One, he was almost unplayable after rain, or when the pitch started to crumble. He relished the challenge of bowling to hard-hitting batsman, bringing to his art the virtue of considerable imagination - he seemed always to have something more up his sleeve.

Courtesy: Cricinfo

Sir Clyde Walcott

Powerfully built, weighing 15 stone and 6"2' tall, he was an accomplished strokeplayer. From a crouched stance, he was particularly strong off the back foot, and quick to cut, drive or pull. Despite his height, Walcott also kept wicket for his country in his first 15 Tests, his versatility enabling to retain his position in the side despite some poor batting performances in his first few matches. By the time a back injury forced him to relinquish the gloves, his batting had improved sufficiently to enable him to keep his place. He became a good slip fielder, and was an occasional fast-medium bowler.

In 1950, his unbeaten 168 in the second innings of the 2nd Test at Lord's helped the team to its first Test victory, and ultimately first series win in England, assisted by the spin bowling of Sonny Ramadhin and Alf Valentine. He scored a century in both innings of two Tests in the series against Australia in 1955, when he became the first batsman to score five centuries in a single Test series, totalling 827 runs from 10 innings. He was dismissed for a duck only once in Tests!

Courtesy: Wikipedia

Andy Flower

Andy Flower was for a long time Zimbabwe's only batsman of true Test quality in all conditions. For a period of about two years from the start of 2000 he was so phenomenally consistent that he has no rival as the best player in Zimbabwe's history.

An assured player of fast bowling since his early days as an opener, Flower matured into one of the best players of spin in the world, and on the Indian tour early in 2001 he made 540 runs for twice out.

He was the only Zimbabwean in the ICC's Top 100 All-time Test Batting rankings at Number 28, putting him in the company of Brian Lara (ranked 19), Sachin Tendulkar (20), Steve Waugh (23) and Rahul Dravid (25 in September 2006).

His aggregate score of 341 in the first Test against South Africa in 2001, is the highest ever by a batsman on the losing side. It broke Herbert Sutcliffe's match tally of 303 in January 1925, in a losing cause for England against Australia in a Timeless Test.

Courtesy: Cricinfo & Wikipedia

Joey Palmer​

A right-arm medium-pace spinner, with exceptional control, Joey Palmer was considered a must-have on pitches which favoured batsmen and almost unplayable on ones which favoured bowlers.

He toured England four times - 1880, 1882, 1884 and 1886 - almost achieving the double on his last visit, ending with 972 runs and 106 wickets. His best series was against England in 1881-82 where he took 24 wickets at 21.75, including 11 for 165 and 9 for 90, both at Sydney.

Courtesy: Cricinfo

Dudley Nourse

Nourse played 34 Test matches in a long career of sixteen years. At the time of his retirement, he held the highest batting average of any South African batsman (currently surpassed only by Jacques Kallis and Graeme Pollock).

His most renowned innings was 208 in the Nottingham Test of 1951. Coming into the match (at the age of 40) with his broken right thumb pinned, he batted for nine hours, gritting his teeth against the pain, and not only registering South Africa's first double-century against England, but captaining South Africa to their first Test victory for 16 years.

And yet his finest innings from a technical point of view was his 115 at Old Trafford four years earlier, on his second tour of England, when he was vice-captain. On a spiteful pitch, with the ball rearing from a length, he hit 13 fours and two sixes before being yorked by Edrich.

Courtesy: Cricinfo & Wikipedia

User's XI:

1
2
3
4. Dudley Nourse
5. Andy Flower (wk)
6. Sir Clyde Walcott
7. Imran Khan
8
9. Joey Palmer
10. George Lohmann
11. Charlie Blythe

 

[Aditya]

Round 3 : Glenn McGrath​

His pace might not have been the most lethal but one will surely agree that his line and length was absolutely spot on. He didn't overdo things, he kept it simple and tried to bowl in the right areas and get purchase from the pitch rather than trying to bowl quick and getting smacked all around the ground. How often did we see McGrath getting smashed for fours and sixes? Not often indeed. Any team would love to have such bowler in their side but in this case, Australian team was the lucky one.

No matter how much you say about this man, it isn't enough. Although you can argue about who between him and Martin is better, batting wise but no comparison in who is better in bowling, isn't it?

 

[Sedition]

Lol who are the people that argue about McGrath vs. Martin in batting?

Speaking of Martin, caught this video the other day

 

[AngryPixel]

my two picks are Neil Harvey and Billy Barnes... Writeup later...

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My lineup is shaping up well.

1.Herbert Sutcliffe
2.
3. Neil Harvey
4. Sachin Tendulkar
5.
6. Ritchie Benaud
7. Kapil Dev
8. Billy Barnes
9. Bobby Peel
10.
11.

 

[swacker]

Maurice Tate and Joey Palmer, writing will be up soon.

 

[AngryPixel]

Turner has been picked up already by someone else i think.

 

[swacker]

Nope, No one has picked him as far as I know.

 

[AngryPixel]

Papa Smurf did in the 1st round. Ctrl + F works

 

[Sedition]

Yeah, Papa Smurf has Charlie Turner.