Losing Procter makes my next choice easy - the only player on my long list that I would be equally (perhaps more) gutted to lose out on.
Step forward Franklyn DaCosta Stephenson.
Not to give people ideas for the “no test cap” draft, but Franklyn is easily one of the greatest players never to play international cricket.
As
@T.J.Hooker told me in another thread - in the 1981 Lancashire League Stephenson outperformed Michael Holding to top the bowler list of wickets taken and bowling average.
He had it all - a fine bowler who was just short of genuine pace but who’s height gave him difficult bounce (you wouldn’t want to face him and van der Bijl at the other end - who do you attack?) as well as possessing a lethal slower ball - perfect for T20. He took 448 List A wickets at 19.91 with an economy rate of 3.74 and a strike rate of 31.9 (he took 5 wickets in an inns 9 times in list A plus 4 wickets a further 17 times.)
He was genuine all rounder as a hard hitting batsman with 12 FC and 2 list A hundreds (as well as 43 FC and 16 list A 50s). In T20 he’d be able to bat almost anywhere, and be hard to contain. He remains the last man to do the County Championship double of 1000 runs and a 100 wickets, which he achieved by scoring tons in each inns of the last match of the 1988 season (he also took 11 wickets in the match, but was already well past 100 wickets - somehow Notts still lost!).
He was also a fine fielder, agile “for a big man”, with a strong throw and good hands.
Oh, and while he’s more famous for his feats with Notts, he also played for Gloucestershire!
Due to the circumstances of his being banned by West Indies after going on the Rebel tour to South Africa, he played most of his career knowing he’d never have international cricket to aspire to. If he had perhaps his numbers would have been even better.
If you think the great West Indies side of 1984 that beat England 5-0 had the likes of Eldine Baptiste and Milton Small as 4th bowler, you see the Stephenson-sized hole that would have made one of the greatest teams of all time even better. Its self-inflicted of course, that he went on the Rebel tour as a 23 year old rather than await the call up that was surely imminent, but what a waste of talent.
As it is he remains one of the most chronically underrated players of all time.
But with over 4,717 List A runs alongside his 448 wickets, I am certain he'd have been a God of T20
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@Sinister One - your turn
