The Pre-Twenty20 Draft
- Thread starter Aislabie
- Start date
CerealKiller
Staff Member
Yes, but the way he batted, it's better if he stays at 9
Aislabie
Test Cricket is Best Cricket
@Rebel2k19 - Bevab's late so feel free
Bevab
Staff Member
Was torn between three all-rounders who all scored very quickly for their times and have left their mark on the game in one way or another with a rich legacy. In the end though, it is the player who was best with the ball and arguably also the most consistent batsman amongst the trio that gets to be a part of my team. Step forward, Maurice Tate.
Will post the write-up later along with Laker’s and a team overview, struggled with illness over this entire week which hasn’t helped at all. To say a few points about him for now, he was the founder of the art of modern seam bowling, was primarily a slow bowler who mixed it up with a quicker delivery whenever he felt like, arguably the quickest scorer in test history and averaged a six nearly every third innings in his times. A 1920s version of Dwayne Bravo would the perfect way to describe him.
Will post the write-up later along with Laker’s and a team overview, struggled with illness over this entire week which hasn’t helped at all. To say a few points about him for now, he was the founder of the art of modern seam bowling, was primarily a slow bowler who mixed it up with a quicker delivery whenever he felt like, arguably the quickest scorer in test history and averaged a six nearly every third innings in his times. A 1920s version of Dwayne Bravo would the perfect way to describe him.
Aislabie
Test Cricket is Best Cricket
Then this definitely isn't the priority - look after yourself
blockerdave
ICC Chairman
Aislabie
Test Cricket is Best Cricket
ODI strike rate of over 80 in the 1970s say what?Yes, but the way he batted, it's better if he stays at 9
CerealKiller
Staff Member
i only looked at his Wikipedia article and it didn't have a strike rate, and the writeup made it sound like he was a "firefighter" type player. Admittedly i've rushed a few picks lately
Aislabie
Test Cricket is Best Cricket
Makes me happy to see the term I coined a little while ago for that role having caught on. But he'd be very good as a firefighter; he just should probably bat above Marshall and Davidson
Aislabie
Test Cricket is Best Cricket
Overall Pick #75: Lance Cairns
Profile
I cannot believe that Lance Cairns wasn't one of the very first players to disappear from this draft, if for no other reason than his most famous and most replayed innings at the MCG, but somehow he has remained unpicked to the very end and at this point it would be rude not to take him. An uncomplicated approach to batting led to him finishing with a career strike rate of 104.88, gained partly by hitting a six every 22 balls in the 1970s an 80s. He's a complete statistical freak, and his scoring rate would be the equivalent of a one-day international batsman scoring at 135 runs per hundred balls today. Of course his batting average was unremarkable, but in a late-order Twenty20 hitter you don't look for a high batting average. There's also the small matter of Cairns' bowling. Like Procter, he bowled big inswingers off the wrong foot, although unlike Procter they weren't express, and tended to be bowled from over the wicket. Perhaps that's a bit samey, but it doesn't matter if it works.
Comparable T20 Player
With the bat, Cairns was comparable to peak Darren Sammy. With the ball I'm not really sure - perhaps Thisara Perera?
Finest Performances
The finest batting effort was the most famous: 52 runs in 25 balls at the Melbourne Cricket Ground including no fewer than six sixes, each hoisted high into the distant stands of the world's biggest cricket grounds.
Role in the Team
Cairns probably gets to bowl with the new ball while it still swings. He also is our go-to guy with the bat inside the last five overs.
A Word About My Team
Very many participants in this draft seem to have taken the approach of picking the greatest players they can on the basis that players of such quality would have adapted to the Twenty20 format. I approached things differently - I sought out players whose skills would be in most demand in the modern Twenty20 game - players like Milburn, Zaheer, Procter, Fender, Cairns, Barnes and Appleyard. Some of them are seen as all-time greats and some merely as very good, but the one thing they all have in common is that they would have become IPL millionaires if they'd been born in 1985. In an ideal world, I would have liked a left-arm seamer, but Mike Procter does that job for me from around the wicket. That leaves me a very good bowling attack of Procter's faux left-arm-over thunderbolts, Cairns' hooping in-swingers, Spencer's deadly missiles, Barnes' quick-medium cutters, Appleyard's finger spin and Fender's wrist spin. With that bowling attack to defend the runs scored by four of the game's greatest ever hitters, all batting around Don Bradman, and I feel confident in the team I've selected.
Aislabie's XI so far:
1.
Colin Milburn (Pick #35)2.
Don Bradman (Pick #3)3.
Zaheer Abbas (Pick #12)4.
Vinod Kambli (Pick #62)5.
Leslie Ames (Pick #36)6.
Mike Procter (Pick #27)7.
Percy Fender (Pick #56)8.
Lance Cairns (Pick #75)9.
Duncan Spencer (Pick #65)10.
Sydney Barnes (Pick #16)11.
Bob Appleyard (Pick #43)Next pick:
@Rebel2k19 (24 hour rule) and @Villain
blockerdave
ICC Chairman
Overall Pick #75: Lance Cairns
Profile
I cannot believe that Lance Cairns wasn't one of the very first players to disappear from this draft, if for no other reason than his most famous and most replayed innings at the MCG, but somehow he has remained unpicked to the very end and at this point it would be rude not to take him. An uncomplicated approach to batting led to him finishing with a career strike rate of 104.88, gained partly by hitting a six every 22 balls in the 1970s an 80s. He's a complete statistical freak, and his scoring rate would be the equivalent of a one-day international batsman scoring at 135 runs per hundred balls today. Of course his batting average was unremarkable, but in a late-order Twenty20 hitter you don't look for a high batting average. There's also the small matter of Cairns' bowling. Like Procter, he bowled big inswingers off the wrong foot, although unlike Procter they weren't express, and tended to be bowled from over the wicket. Perhaps that's a bit samey, but it doesn't matter if it works.
Comparable T20 Player
With the bat, Cairns was comparable to peak Darren Sammy. With the ball I'm not really sure - perhaps Thisara Perera?
Finest Performances
The finest batting effort was the most famous: 52 runs in 25 balls at the Melbourne Cricket Ground including no fewer than six sixes, each hoisted high into the distant stands of the world's biggest cricket grounds.
Role in the Team
Cairns probably gets to bowl with the new ball while it still swings. He also is our go-to guy with the bat inside the last five overs.
A Word About My Team
Very many participants in this draft seem to have taken the approach of picking the greatest players they can on the basis that players of such quality would have adapted to the Twenty20 format. I approached things differently - I sought out players whose skills would be in most demand in the modern Twenty20 game - players like Milburn, Zaheer, Procter, Fender, Cairns, Barnes and Appleyard. Some of them are seen as all-time greats and some merely as very good, but the one thing they all have in common is that they would have become IPL millionaires if they'd been born in 1985. In an ideal world, I would have liked a left-arm seamer, but Mike Procter does that job for me from around the wicket. That leaves me a very good bowling attack of Procter's faux left-arm-over thunderbolts, Cairns' hooping in-swingers, Spencer's deadly missiles, Barnes' quick-medium cutters, Appleyard's finger spin and Fender's wrist spin. With that bowling attack to defend the runs scored by four of the game's greatest ever hitters, all batting around Don Bradman, and I feel confident in the team I've selected.
Aislabie's XI so far:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
Next pick:
@Rebel2k19 (24 hour rule) and @Villain
Cairns was in my list very early, for a silly reason I felt that as wasn't picked early, he might be sailing under the radar. A fine fine pick.
Aislabie
Test Cricket is Best Cricket
Yeah, I genuinely couldn't believe he wasn't gone - for a long time I just assumed he wasn't going to get picked, then when I saw he hadn't been, I decided that I'd pick him at number eight if he was still available. The whole way through I'd decided to go with either Gary Gilmour or Keith Boyce in that spot, but it had to be Cairns.
blockerdave
ICC Chairman
Yes. I have the number 7 slot still open... Benaud, King and Cairns were all very much in my mind.
CerealKiller
Staff Member
Considered him for my number 6Overall Pick #75: Lance Cairns
Profile
I cannot believe that Lance Cairns wasn't one of the very first players to disappear from this draft, if for no other reason than his most famous and most replayed innings at the MCG, but somehow he has remained unpicked to the very end and at this point it would be rude not to take him. An uncomplicated approach to batting led to him finishing with a career strike rate of 104.88, gained partly by hitting a six every 22 balls in the 1970s an 80s. He's a complete statistical freak, and his scoring rate would be the equivalent of a one-day international batsman scoring at 135 runs per hundred balls today. Of course his batting average was unremarkable, but in a late-order Twenty20 hitter you don't look for a high batting average. There's also the small matter of Cairns' bowling. Like Procter, he bowled big inswingers off the wrong foot, although unlike Procter they weren't express, and tended to be bowled from over the wicket. Perhaps that's a bit samey, but it doesn't matter if it works.
Comparable T20 Player
With the bat, Cairns was comparable to peak Darren Sammy. With the ball I'm not really sure - perhaps Thisara Perera?
Finest Performances
The finest batting effort was the most famous: 52 runs in 25 balls at the Melbourne Cricket Ground including no fewer than six sixes, each hoisted high into the distant stands of the world's biggest cricket grounds.
Role in the Team
Cairns probably gets to bowl with the new ball while it still swings. He also is our go-to guy with the bat inside the last five overs.
A Word About My Team
Very many participants in this draft seem to have taken the approach of picking the greatest players they can on the basis that players of such quality would have adapted to the Twenty20 format. I approached things differently - I sought out players whose skills would be in most demand in the modern Twenty20 game - players like Milburn, Zaheer, Procter, Fender, Cairns, Barnes and Appleyard. Some of them are seen as all-time greats and some merely as very good, but the one thing they all have in common is that they would have become IPL millionaires if they'd been born in 1985. In an ideal world, I would have liked a left-arm seamer, but Mike Procter does that job for me from around the wicket. That leaves me a very good bowling attack of Procter's faux left-arm-over thunderbolts, Cairns' hooping in-swingers, Spencer's deadly missiles, Barnes' quick-medium cutters, Appleyard's finger spin and Fender's wrist spin. With that bowling attack to defend the runs scored by four of the game's greatest ever hitters, all batting around Don Bradman, and I feel confident in the team I've selected.
Aislabie's XI so far:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
Next pick:
@Rebel2k19 (24 hour rule) and @Villain
Bevab
Staff Member
Finally, Cairns gets picked! Was one of the other two players that I was considering instead of Tate. He scored sixes for fun without boundary ropes and superbats to aid him and he was also profoundly deaf since the age of 17. Would have been a very fine hitter comparable to Dre Russ himself had he been playing today.
Also, his bat was named ‘Excalibur’. How can you not like a player like him?
Also, his bat was named ‘Excalibur’. How can you not like a player like him?
