How are you doing in your career?

[Left_Hander]

Dan Cullen, Mick Lewis (although I think he only played ODIs), Quiney and definitely Manou. Would have to go through the caps.

Yep. Mick Lewis only played ODIs. Yet he certainly made an impression!

 

[Crossy333]

The problem for our guys is that the team was too tough to break into. Do exceptionally well at state level and couldn't crack the big time.

Stuart Law a great example. Filled in for an injured Waugh. Scored 50 not out and never got another crack at it.

 

[blockerdave]

what i found word though is that players definitely worse than Law got more opportunity than him.

even langer and hayden when they first got into the side, didn't exactly pull up any trees but got given several opportunities. the likes of greg blewett, martin love, simon katich, arguably even darren lehmann got given plenty of opportunities and Law got nothing. Don't know whether there was more to it or not?

 

[ChinamanSpin]

my memory goes back to the mid-late 80s, so yeah i had a lot of awful players and many one-cap wonders to choose from.

there were plenty of spinners to choose from though sadly to my mind 2 of the worst (chris schofield and peter such) didn't qualify as schofield made a 50 and peter such played more than 10 games, so i have min patel, richard illingworth, gareth batty, ian blackwell. might be another.

My memory only reaches the 90's. I was just used to mediocrity. A bit harsh to have Blackwell as he wasn't too bad a player. Min Patel though...

there were a lot of piss-poor pie-chucking "pace" men to choose from too, igglesden, mccague, mark illot etc. the bits and pieces players like darren maddy and ronnie irani.

Imagine that, to some people, Luke Wright is the worst bits and pieces cricketer that England has had. You could probably make a team full of 90's English cricketers who could neither bat nor bowl at international level, but were selected because they could do a bit of both.

interestingly, the first class figures of these guys were pretty impressive - just shows what a joke our entire system was around that time.

I met Tim Munton at a Unicorns game last season and always remembered him as a decent medium pacer but that was it so was shocked to see he averaged 25 with the ball in first class cricket. He got selected for two ODI's and was hopeless. Compare that to now where Graham Onions averages 26 in first class cricket but is widely regarded as the best non-test bowler.

 

[Crossy333]

That's always possible blocker. Typical bias against Queenslanders. Hayden got dropped a few times. As did Langer etc.

 

[ChinamanSpin]

I just downloaded your CA worst England XI, Blocker. I'm pretty impressed with some of your selections in the team, but I'd just like to point out that Gareth Batty links to Somerset keeper James Regan.

 

[blockerdave]

I just downloaded your CA worst England XI, Blocker. I'm pretty impressed with some of your selections in the team, but I'd just like to point out that Gareth Batty links to Somerset keeper James Regan.

Thanks for the heads up, I will change that. That might need checking because he was definitely linking correctly previously.

Glad you like it. Will probably switch in Khan and Pattinson and take out Benjamin - maybe move him to my Barbarians team.

I think Blackwell more than deserves his place as a non-spinning spinner and general bits and pieces crap merchant.

 

[NoLeName]

Tried to think of an Australian worst XI since 2000 using blocker's criteria. Couldn't get many bastmen at all. Note ODI/T20 performance is not factored in, only test performances.

1. Rob Quiney
2. NA
3. Cameron White
4. Andrew McDonald
5. Glenn Maxwell
6. Graham Manou (wk)
7. John Hastings
8. Dan Cullen
9. Shaun Tait
10. Bryce McGain
11. Peter George

Really struggled to put it together as there are practically no batsmen who haven't in some form performed. Usman Khawaja was the closest put he had hit a couple of fifties, Martin Love had hit a 150 and a few fifties, and Phil Jaques had somehow hit three 100s and six 50s in 11 tests. Ah well, us Aussies are just too good

 

[blockerdave]

Tried to think of an Australian worst XI since 2000 using blocker's criteria. Couldn't get many bastmen at all. Note ODI/T20 performance is not factored in, only test performances.

1. Rob Quiney
2. NA
3. Cameron White
4. Andrew McDonald
5. Glenn Maxwell
6. Graham Manou (wk)
7. John Hastings
8. Dan Cullen
9. Shaun Tait
10. Bryce McGain
11. Peter George

Really struggled to put it together as there are practically no batsmen who haven't in some form performed. Usman Khawaja was the closest put he had hit a couple of fifties, Martin Love had hit a 150 and a few fifties, and Phil Jaques had somehow hit three 100s and six 50s in 11 tests. Ah well, us Aussies are just too good

Sums up the difference - even though my criteria left out some awful players, I still had loads to choose from.

If you change it to 100 rather than 50 does that help?

 

[ChinamanSpin]

I think Blackwell more than deserves his place as a non-spinning spinner and general bits and pieces crap merchant.

Harsh. Although I might be being slightly biased as a ciderman.

Will probably switch in Khan and Pattinson and take out Benjamin - maybe move him to my Barbarians team.

What was the criteria for your Barbarians team? Was it the player's you liked who couldn't get in any other teams?

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4. Andrew McDonald

If you are using Blocker's initial criteria, I'm afraid that McDonald once scored a 68 (shocking, I know).

 

[blockerdave]

Yeah exactly that, and of course making myself captain

I reckon the barbarians would give the England worst xi a good hiding

 

[NoLeName]

If you are using Blocker's initial criteria, I'm afraid that McDonald once scored a 68 (shocking, I know).

Bullocks.

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Sums up the difference - even though my criteria left out some awful players, I still had loads to choose from.

If you change it to 100 rather than 50 does that help?

It would help a little bit, I could put in Usman Khawaja then as I think he is really the only option. It's a shame, I do like Uzzie. He is a little inconsistent, but a really elegant batsman.

 

[ChinamanSpin]

Yeah exactly that, and of course making myself captain

I reckon the barbarians would give the England worst xi a good hiding

I never knew you were a big Kim Hughes or Vince van der Bijl fan... I like the addition of Eddo Brandes. Was that because of his chicken farmer background, his performances against England or his reply to Glenn McGrath? Whatever it was, you've got to love him,

On a different note, I had a look at MattW's debug Ashes video and the player face of Cook was awful, even though he was officially licensed. Compare that to players of past eras such as Phil Tufnell or even Percy Fender in your Barbarians team, and it just shows how poor an effort Trickstar put up, and how great the creating tool is. Maybe Trickstar would have been better off using CA for their player creating?

What about James Ormond for your worst XI team?

 

[blockerdave]

van der bijl i like and obviously he never played a test so i thought i'd chuck him in the barbarians team. i recently read a biography of kim hughes and just chucked him in really... not that i liked him as such.

brandes is in for all of those reasons! and i didn't really want to spend so much time making an all time zimbabwe team to fit him into! (i planned them out so still might do it in the future, but didn't want to make that many players in one go.)

ormond was "this" close to getting in, he was awful. however, his sledge response to mark waugh kept him out as i felt he didn't deserve it for that alone. might put him in the barbarians though!

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and you're right. the quality of the "stars of the show" is embarrassing!

 

[Lebanna]

and you're right. the quality of the "stars of the show" is embarrassing!

We could do a competition on PC. Put up an image from Ashes13 of one of the "Stars", first person to guess the player wins....something

Wonder if we'll get past the first 2?!