Over 30s Draft

[Aislabie]

Overall Pick #13: Saeed Ajmal

Profile
Pakistan is a country known for picking its players at an often fraudulently young age. So when in 2009, they plucked a 31-year-old journeyman off-spinner, a whole bunch of cricketing fans and pundits collectively shrugged and carried on with their days. However, that journeyman off-spinner had discovered that if he wore long sleeves and kinked his elbow a bit, then he could spin the ball both ways with impunity - and so he did.

So effective was Saeed Ajmal that he rose to number two in the world in Tests, while simultaneously being number one in One-Day Internaitonals and number one in Twenty20 Internationals. He was an utter monster. In a 30-month peak of devastation between early 2011 and late 2013 he claimed an impressive 114 wickets at just 23.03 apiece. By the time he was finally made to remodel his action, he was into his late thirties and it would have been asking a great deal of him to return to the standards he had previously attained.

Statistics
TESTS - 451 runs @ 11.00 (best 50) and 178 wickets @ 28.10 (10 5WI, best 7/55) in 35 matches
FIRST CLASS - 2007 runs @ 13.11 (best 53*) and 578 wickets @ 26.87 (39 5WI, best 7/19) in 148 matches

Role in the Team
Saeed Ajmal, bent-armed and long-sleeved, will be seeking to strike fear into opposition batting orders by spinning the ball both towards and away from the bat at will.

Fields on Wheels so far:
1. WG Grace (Pick #3)
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10. Stuart Clark (Pick #8)
11. Saeed Ajmal (Pick #13)

Next pick:
@Villain

 

[Willoughby63]

@Villain, if you fail to make your picks by 10:17 pm I will have to remove you from the draft.

 

[Willoughby63]

@Dutch Is Up

 

[Dutch]

@Dutch Is Up

Already? Okay but it will be tomorrow: 24 hour timeframe right?

 

[Aislabie]

Already? Okay but it will be tomorrow: 24 hour timeframe right?

It's your pick as of ten-ish last night; use it wisely on Mahela Udawatte

 

[Willoughby63]

Already? Okay but it will be tomorrow: 24 hour timeframe right?

Yes

 

[Bevab]

Loving this draft so far.

 

[Dutch]

My second pick from the Australian side of life is a wicket keeper and batsman who after the age of thirty played 66 tests for Australia. Having grown up in the shadow of Adam Gilchrist it is no wonder that he had to wait until Gilchrist called it a day before stepping up to the stumps.

Gritty, uncompromising and ready for some chat behind the wicket, he embodied everything you come to expect from competitive Aussie sportsmen and women.

A high score of 169 and four centuries and no less than 18 50's in his 66 matches shows that he could bat and often brought a much needed impetus in the Australian tail.

He was also for a time Michael Clarke's vice-captain and Clarke has often described how valuable he was to his captaincy. In the 2013-14 distreous Ashes campaign for England he proved an utter pain in the backside scoring 493 runs in the five matches at an average of nearly 62 and his reliable wicketkeeping to a rampant Mitchell Johnston was a valuable contribution to the Aussies trouncing England and leaving a number of English career in utter tatters.

With his stubborn and abrasive attitude he takes up his position behind the stumps albeit with a little more groaning and creaking than in his glory years he is a valuable gem in the Lumbagos rich array of jewels!

The Creaking Lumbagos:
1. Chris Rogers
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8. Brad Haddin
9.
10. Rockley Wilson
11.


@El Loco

 

[Aislabie]

8. Brad Haddin

Very much someone who was on my list, so props for getting there first. Also, if he's going to bat at eight then you've got some all-rounders in mind, which will be interesting

 

[Dutch]

Very much someone who was on my list, so props for getting there first. Also, if he's going to bat at eight then you've got some all-rounders in mind, which will be interesting

His place in the lineup isn’t nailed down yet as it depends on how the draft unfolds; he will probably end up at at least seven: I have a couple options up
My sleeve but who knows how it will go!

 

[El Loco]

Ken MacKay

Da Team:
1.
2.
3.
4. Patsy Hendren
5. Ken MacKay
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11. Dainty Ironmonger

@CerealKiller

 

[CerealKiller]

My pick is Basil D'Oliveira, the South African all-rounder who played 44 Tests for England after leaving apartheid-era South Africa. In addition to being a fantastic all-rounder for Worcestershire, he averaged 40 with the bat in Tests, and his bowling average of 39 belied the metronomical accuracy of his medium pacers and his economy rate of under 2. Had he been spotted at 19 rather than 29, he'd be an all-time great.

Undisputed Era
1.
2.
3.
4.
5. Mike Hussey
6. Basil D'Oliveira
7.
8.
9.
10. Clarrie Grimmett
11.

@Aalay

 

[Dutch]

Yup Basil was on my list too! Nice pick.

 

[Aalay]

My next pick is Mike Brearley. He was arguably the best English captain to have played the game. He played a total of 39 test matches and was captain for 31 matches. His record was quite brilliant as well with winning 17 and losing only 4 matches. Brearley was also an excellent wicket-keeper during his time with Middlesex. Even though he was a decent bat at the first class level with batting average of almost 38, he never looked that comfortable at international level. I however don't give a flying kite about his batting because I want him in the line-up for his captaincy and wicket-keeping.

Dad's Army

1. Vijay Hazare
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7. Mike Brearley
8. Ryan Harris
9.
10.
11.

@Dutch

 

[Dutch]

Surely I am not up again already?