Richie Benaud XI Draft

[shravi]

Disappointed that noone went for Garner or Holding either. I mean, even Walsh was picked!

Only thing with Barnes is that he is said to have swung the ball a mile which suggests that he relied on some pretty helpful pitches. Also, he's not very fast so we don't know how well he would have performed in another era. However, whatever I've heard has been only good. Nobody has a bad thing to say about him.

 

[cricket_icon]

I was very close to picking Holding, but I wanted someone to compliment Younis and Pollock and Holding just did not seem like the right guy. Great bowler though.

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and how about doing a draft of players from 1990 onwards?? guys we can all have witnessed with our own eyes and remember very very well.

 

[ZoraxDoom]

My final pick is Kumar Sangakkara
A bit of an odd pick as a number 3, but diving into the statistics brings up an interesting find - as a pure number 3 (not keeping, just batting), Sanga has 4939 runs in 74 innings at an average of 73.71. 17 centuries and 21 fifties. He also averages above 50 against every test playing nation

Batting records | Test matches | Cricinfo Statsguru | ESPN Cricinfo

Quite a phenomenal record. A terrifically talented batsman, easy on the eye, and an excellent skipper and speaker, Sanga is a true modern legend. Highly underrated.

Zorax's XI

1. Virender Sehwag
2. Arthur Morris
3. Kumar Sangakkara
4. Sachin Tendulkar
5. Steve Waugh (*)
6. Andy Flower (+)
7. Vinoo Mankad
8. Kapil Dev
9. Shane Warne
10. Curtly Ambrose
11. Glenn McGrath

 

[sifter132]

I was very close to picking Holding, but I wanted someone to compliment Younis and Pollock and Holding just did not seem like the right guy. Great bowler though.

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and how about doing a draft of players from 1990 onwards?? guys we can all have witnessed with our own eyes and remember very very well.

Well if it's players who debuted from 1990 onwards at least we'd get rid of that pesky Tendulkar

And for my 2 cents, Walsh is a good pick. I had him only a smidge behind Holding on the shortlist I made. Holding gets romanticised a fair bit which I think overrates him a little. Not much, but a little. Walsh on the other hand is pretty underrated. Anyway, it's a bit difficult to know how good some of the Windies guys really were. They seemed to always have at least 2, sometimes 3 or 4 of Marshall, Ambrose, Holding, Garner, Roberts and Walsh. Bishop and Croft were very good too. Even Wayne Daniel and Winston Benjamin were better than what most of the other teams had in that period. Hard to say that it wasn't talent because they clearly had a lot, but when even your reserves come in and bowl well there must have been something there that produced success.

 

[AbhishekS]

and how about doing a draft of players from 1990 onwards?? guys we can all have witnessed with our own eyes and remember very very well.

And I'll make sure that I don't miss out on it if it is conducted.

 

[cricket_icon]

Well if it's players who debuted from 1990 onwards at least we'd get rid of that pesky Tendulkar

And for my 2 cents, Walsh is a good pick. I had him only a smidge behind Holding on the shortlist I made. Holding gets romanticised a fair bit which I think overrates him a little. Not much, but a little. Walsh on the other hand is pretty underrated. Anyway, it's a bit difficult to know how good some of the Windies guys really were. They seemed to always have at least 2, sometimes 3 or 4 of Marshall, Ambrose, Holding, Garner, Roberts and Walsh. Bishop and Croft were very good too. Even Wayne Daniel and Winston Benjamin were better than what most of the other teams had in that period. Hard to say that it wasn't talent because they clearly had a lot, but when even your reserves come in and bowl well there must have been something there that produced success.

Yes I have always found Walsh to be a tad underrated too. And that generation of Windies quicks was just amazing.

And making a darft of guys who debuted after 1990 would be very very interesting. I was thinking more along the likes of players of have played from 1990 onwards, but excluding debutants pre 1990 would exclude all the obvious choices of Tendulkar and Akram....I like the idea.

 

[sifter132]

Well lets do it then hey? User and Zorax were in right? Yudi and cricket icon are keen. I'll have another go. Shravi you keen too?

Only question is whether you want to do it right now, or wait til the India-England series is over. Probably ideal to wait until there is nothing else happening in the cricket world, but then again, if everyone's got the draft bug, we might as well go for it.

 

[ZoraxDoom]

I'm fine to start whenever.

 

[cricket_icon]

Yeah I don't mind starting now either.

 

[Gaurav_7]

I might want to wait till at least the first test gets over.

 

[sifter132]

OK so first Test is over... Anyone still keen? So a 'debuted from 1990 onwards' draft? If it's under 40s there's a few extra legends that won't qualify.

If there's a few people keen, I'll start a new thread and we can lay out the rules and stuff from there.

I was thinking of one idea that might be cool to try is a bid type system (but maybe only for the 1st round of picks). Something that assigns some cost for getting the best players and a system that might get you the star you value more than other drafters. You'd just make a short wishlist ie. your top 6-8 players in order and next to each note how much you'd be willing to pay to get each player. You would then 'pay' for a player by giving up a pick in a certain round eg. you might (if you were insane...) list Parthiv Patel as #1 on your wishlist and next to that you might put '2nd round', meaning that you would be willing to miss your pick in the 2nd round just to get Parthiv. 2nd round would be the highest price you can pay, 10th round the lowest. That pick you 'pay' would get added onto the last round of the draft (the 11th round) so that you can finish your XI. Not sure how it would work though, maybe PM me the list, but then I'd have to not cheat...

Anyway, lets hear from anyone who's keen to go round again.

 

[cricket_icon]

Yep first match over. i wouldn't mind joining in now.

 

[Gaurav_7]

I'm up for it now.

 

[ZoraxDoom]

I'll probably stay out of this one, have stuff to do.

 

[AbhishekS]

I'll be in for Zorax.