Draft: The Panesar Draft

[blockerdave]

A lot of people have been taking the Apartheid era South Africans, and why not, there were a number of fine players who will take up little or no caps.

I'm pleased however that STEPHEN JEFFERIES has gone under the radar. Jefferies was a fine bowling all rounder, taking 478 first class wickets at 27.62 and scoring 3,810 runs at 25.06 with 14 half-centuries and a highest of 93. During the Rebel Tours, he took the new ball ahead of Garth Le Roux, AND batted higher than him in the order. He also enjoyed seasons in the county championship with Derbyshire, Lancashire, and Hampshire. He took 10 wickets in a match 4 times, including once taking all 10 wickets in an inns of a Currie cup match.

While 7 might be a place too high, he adds superb balance to my team, and his left-arm fast medium will be a match for most of the picks in the draft, and more than a match for the unlucky dippers.

@DalePlaysCricket[DOUBLEPOST=1588061559][/DOUBLEPOST]My team now is:

1. Barry Richards (4)
2. x
3. Shantanu Sugwekar (0)
4. Eddie Paynter (20)
5. Ollie Pope (7)
6. Roland Pope
7. STEPHEN JEFFERIES (0)
8. Clive Rose
9. Sreesanth
10. Mohammod Khalil
11. George Gladstone Marais

 

[blockerdave]

@DalePlaysCricket is late, so @ahmedleo414 you can take your pick

 

[Ed Smith]

Ah sorry. Just crack on without me for the foreseeable. I'll sort it out later.

 

[blockerdave]

Ah sorry. Just crack on without me for the foreseeable. I'll sort it out later.

Hope all is well mate

 

[ahmedleo414]

My Next pick goes to Steve Rhodes

Stats|Matches|Runs|Top Score|Batting Ave|100s/50s|Catches|Stumps
First-Class |440|14,839|124|32.82|12/72|1,139|124
Test |11|294|65*|24.50|0/1|46|3

A little bio from :

"The son of former Nottinghamshire keeper Billy Rhodes, Steve looks the part. In the wicketkeepers' tradition, he is stocky yet athletic, and a pugnacious batsman. He joined Yorkshire in 1981 and became the youngest keeper to play for the county. But as an understudy to the then Yorkshire captain and keeper David Bairstow, his opportunities were limited and he was released to join Worcestershire in 1985. He gained his county cap a year later and has served the club with great consistency for two decades.

One of Wisden's Five Cricketers of the Year in 1994, Rhodes made his Test debut in the same year against New Zealand at Trent Bridge, hitting 49 and taking six catches. He might have played for England much earlier, having been selected for the tour to India in 1988-89 that was cancelled for political reasons. He caught three of Devon Malcolm's nine victims in the famous Oval Test match of 1994 against South Africa, and went on to tour Australia in 1994-95. But his performances, particularly with the bat, were not considered good enough for him to keep his place."

Sure he may not have had the best Test career, but if you look at his First Class record, he was a decent middle order batsmen and an excellent keeper, having taken over 1100 catches and 100 stumps

Test Caps used: 43/50

My Team:

1. W.G. Grace (22 caps)
2. Charles "Jack" Russell (10 caps)
3. Wally Edwards
5. Nawaz Sharif
6. Steve Rhodes (11 caps)
7. Wilbur Slabber
8. Brian Vitori
9. Ajit de Silva
10. Don Shepherd (0 caps)
11. Allan Jones (0 caps)
    
    @Aislabie , you'd be next then.. hope all is good with @DalePlaysCricket

 

[Ed Smith]

Hope all is well mate

Cheers pal

 

[Master Bates]

My Next pick goes to Steve Rhodes

I had found an even better keeper-batsman than him who would have costed 0 caps. Maybe @Aislabie knows! DM me if you know Aislabie. Hint- He is also English and played for Warwickshire!

 

[Aislabie]

Steve Rhodes (11 caps)

*dislike*

Of all the keepers in the world, this guy...

 

[ahmedleo414]

*dislike*

Of all the keepers in the world, this guy...

EDIT FROM AISLABIE: It's really not; I've dealt with him personally and he is by a distance my least favourite person in cricket. He also tried to cover up the whole Alex Hepburn thing, which is pretty despicable and completely in character.

 

[Aislabie]

My pick is... Alan Melville

Test stats: 894 runs @ 52.58 (4 centuries, best 189) in 11 matches
First-class stats: 10,598 runs @ 37.85 (25 centuries, best 189) and 132 wickets @ 29.99 (7 5WI, best 5/17) in 190 matches

This is the first of the two picks that I'm very confident nobody else has thought of, and I'm exceptionally happy to get him. Described as "the most elegant batsman of his generation", Alan Melville was exceptional for South Africa either side of the Second World War, to which he lost out on what would have been his finest years as a captain. In his time at Sussex, he was a role-model to all of the younger players with all three facets of the game: as a talented and disciplined batsman, as an enterprising off- and leg-spinner and as a hard-working fielder. He was therefore a natural choice as captain from 1934, and one year later he absolutely led from the front, topping both the Sussex batting (44.42) and bowling (13.50) averages in 1935 as only Yorkshire and Derbyshire recorded more wins than Sussex's thirteen.

Upon returning home to his native South Africa to take up a job as a stockbroker, he didn't let his new profession get in the way of captaining Transvaal and South Africa. He was by all accounts an inspiring leader, and was South Africa's captain for the first ten of his eleven Tests; though his South Africans were not blessed with huge reserves of natural talent, they were imbued with his discipline and made themselves hard to beat, losing only four of those matches. Perhaps most remarkably, every game he played in was through considerable pain, owing to a car crash before his first-class career that broke three of his vertibrae, vertibrae that he re-broke during army training for WWII. Despite that, he hit Test centuries on his first three post-War innings to go with his final pre-War innings to make four in a row: a feat that has only happened four times in the entire history of cricket. Uniquely, Melville managed one each in the first, second, third and fourth innings of a Test in that streak.

Melville will be my captain, and will share the role of a second spinner with Labuschagne.

@Aislabie 's XI so far:
1. Alan Melville (11 caps)
2. Frank Tarrant (0 caps)
3. George Headley (22 caps)
4. Marnus Labuschagne (14 caps)
5. Sabbir Rahman (L)
6. Bill Alley (0 caps)
7. George Codrington (L)
8.
9. Susantha Karunaratne (L)
10. Alamgir Kabir (L)
11. Seymour Clark (L)

Cap count: 47/50

Next pick: @deleted member (@DalePlaysCricket to pick when he can)

 

[ahmedleo414]

EDIT FROM AISLABIE: It's really not; I've dealt with him personally and he is by a distance my least favourite person in cricket. He also tried to cover up the whole Alex Hepburn thing, which is pretty despicable and completely in character.

oh.. i had no idea... i've never even heard of the guy except as the coach of Bangladesh.. just saw his stats... damn i just read the thing about Alex Hepburn... can i change my pick?

 

[Aislabie]

oh.. i had no idea... i've never even heard of the guy except as the coach of Bangladesh.. just saw his stats... damn i just read the thing about Alex Hepburn... can i change my pick?

Normally no, but to get rid of Steve Rhodes I'll absolutely allow it. Plus, there are some early years GOATs that you could use those caps on

 

[ahmedleo414]

Before i picked Steve Rhodes, i had actually planned on picking Billy Wade... So that who i'll go with

Stats|Matches|Runs|Top Score|Batting Ave|100s/50s|Catches|Stumps
First-Class |46|2,859|208|48.45|8/13|52|26
Test |11|511|125|28.38|1/3|15|2

A little bio from cricinfo:

"The South Africa wicketkeeper-batsman Billy Wade, who made 11 appearances either side of World War II, died in Durban aged 88. Wade played three Tests in the home series against England in 1938-39 and scored his only Test century at Port Elizabeth in the 1948-49 series against England. After retiring from first-class cricket Wade became an umpire, standing in one Test at Newlands in 1969-70. Wade, whose brother Herby captained South Africa to their first Test and series wins in England in 1935, scored 511 Test runs at 28."

Test Caps used: 43/50

My Team:

1. W.G. Grace (22 caps)
2. Charles "Jack" Russell (10 caps)
3. Wally Edwards
4. ?
5. Billy Wade (11 caps)
6. Nawaz Sharif
7. Wilbur Slabber
8. Brian Vitori
9. Ajit de Silva
10. Don Shepherd (0 caps)
11. Allan Jones (0 caps)

@deleted member is the next pick

 

[Master Bates]

Before i picked Steve Rhodes, i had actually planned on picking Billy Wade... So that who i'll go with

Stats|Matches|Runs|Top Score|Batting Ave|100s/50s|Catches|Stumps
First-Class |46|2,859|208|48.45|8/13|52|26
Test |11|511|125|28.38|1/3|15|2

A little bio from cricinfo:

"The South Africa wicketkeeper-batsman Billy Wade, who made 11 appearances either side of World War II, died in Durban aged 88. Wade played three Tests in the home series against England in 1938-39 and scored his only Test century at Port Elizabeth in the 1948-49 series against England. After retiring from first-class cricket Wade became an umpire, standing in one Test at Newlands in 1969-70. Wade, whose brother Herby captained South Africa to their first Test and series wins in England in 1935, scored 511 Test runs at 28."

Test Caps used: 43/50

My Team:

1. W.G. Grace (22 caps)
2. Charles "Jack" Russell (10 caps)
3. Wally Edwards
4. ?
5. Billy Wade (11 caps)
6. Nawaz Sharif
7. Wilbur Slabber
8. Brian Vitori
9. Ajit de Silva
10. Don Shepherd (0 caps)
11. Allan Jones (0 caps)

@deleted member is the next pick

This was even better than the player I mentioned.

 

[Na Maloom Afraad]

I can NOT wait for my pick.