The Quiz Draft - Redux

[qpeedore]

Really sorry about being late. These 24 hour shifts are taking a toll on me. I'm not as young as I used to be, but anyways, I'm fresh off of work so let's do this while my brain is still active.

1. @ddrap14 - Mohammed Siraj - 26th December 2020 vs. Australia
Injuries to an Indian team who had been practically steamrolled by the Aussies in the first Test saw this guy get his chance. And he grabbed onto that chance and did quite well on debut. Was it stunning? Looking at the stats you'd probably say no. But those who just look at stats and haven't actually seen the match itself don't understand the significance of his contributions.

2. @Neptune - Keegan Petersen - 10th June 2021 vs. West Indies
Hasn't had the sort of start to his Test career that he'd have liked, especially playing against a West Indies team that is still trying to find its best combination of players. But his First Class record doesn't lie - an average of 40 with 26 fifties and 16 tons and a best of 225. I think perhaps Neptune was trying to find someone that nobody else picked, or maybe it's part of a grand strategy. Time will tell.

3. @ahmedleo414 - Devon Conway - 2nd June 2021 vs. England
Yep, can't say too much about this one. Absolutely brilliant debut, and he's showed in further matches that he can bat, and bat long. Hasn't really failed thus far, except maybe once. Great start to a very promising career.

4. @CerealKiller - Shubman Gill - 26th December 2020 vs. Australia
With India's injury crisis worsening the further the series progressed, Gill got his first cap. A promising batsman and a decent debut. He has yet to have that one big innings that really defines him as a top player, but the guy averages 58 in FC cricket - he'll get there before long.

5. @Aislabie - no pick
Probably just forgot. Better for all of us in the Draft, though.

6. @Yash. - Pathum Nissanka - 21st March 2021 vs. West Indies
The West Indies have a habit of making players look better than they are. Ajay Ratra, anyone? But that being said, Nissanka is an extremely good player. I saw him bat against us and he is very solid. Plus, his FC average in the 60s doesn't seem half bad either. It's so good that you weren't the only person to have picked him.

7. @sanchitgarg - Pathum Nissanka
This is tough luck, because Nissanka is really a good player. Yash hoped that everyone would forget about him, but you came around to steal the thunder from both of you.

8. @Mittal2002 - Kyle Verreynne - 10th June 2021 vs. West Indies
One of the couple of picks in this Round where it's based off of potential more than what he's done thus far. Looking at his FC stats, you'd expect him to do much better in the future than what has happened in his two Tests so far. If he lives up to that potential, he'll be one to look forward to.

9. @qpeedore - Washington Sundar - 15th January 2021 vs. Australia
If not for this man, I don't know that India would have won the series. While he's supposed to be in the team more for his bowling than his batting, it's the batting that has captured the attention of many.

Notable misses: Kyle Mayers, Axar Patel, Nauman Ali

I do apologise if there was a lack of clarity in the question. It really should have explicitly stated Test debuts, and not just overall debuts. Don't know if anyone was confused by that and made their choice accordingly. Only ddrap really sort of alluded to it in his response though.

I'll edit in the update of the teams and unavailable players later on. (DONE)

The teams thus far

Spoiler

@ddrap14
Mahela Jayawardene
Richard Hadlee
Adam Gilchrist
Mohammed Siraj

@Neptune
Len Hutton
Fred "the Demon" Spofforth
George Headley
Keegan Petersen

@ahmedleo414
Shane Warne
Kapil Dev
Donald Bradman
Devon Conway

@CerealKiller
Wasim Akram
Shubman Gill

@Aislabie
Kumar Sangakarra
George Lohmann

@Yash.
Wally Hammond
Graeme Pollock

@sanchitgarg
Mark Taylor
Shaun Pollock
Joel Garner

@Mittal2002
Graham Gooch
Imran Khan
Barry Richards
Kyle Verreynne

@qpeedore's extra team
Chris Gayle
Stuart Broad
Malcolm Marshall
Washington Sundar

Unavailable players

Spoiler

Mahela Jayawardene
Len Hutton
Kumar Sangakarra
Wally Hammond
Mark Taylor
Graham Gooch
Chris Gayle
Shane Warne
Fred Spofforth
Richard Hadlee
Kapil Dev
Wasim Akram
Shaun Pollock
Imran Khan
Stuart Broad
Adam Gilchrist
George Headley
George Lohmann
Don Bradman
Graeme Pollock
Joel Garner
Barry Richards
Malcolm Marshall
Mohammed Siraj
Keegan Petersen
Devon Conway
Shubman Gill
Kyle Verreynne
Washington Sundar

Deadline for the next round is Friday 9th June at 12.01am GMT (Thursday night into Friday).

Round 6

Pick a player who has played Tests and then went on to umpire Tests. Any era is valid, once they have both played and umpired Tests specifically. (So, no ODI umpires...or FC players who haven't played a Test.)

 

[ahmedleo414]

Here is my team so far:

1. ?
2. Devon Conway
3. Sir Don Bradman
4. ?
5. ?
6. ?
7. Kapil Dev
8. Shane Warne
9. ?
10. ?
11. ?

 

[qpeedore]

I'll tell you something, even if you get totally nonsense players for the rest of this one, you've still got one hell of a backbone there.

 

[qpeedore]

This was in an interesting round - I expected one or two multiple picks, but in no way was the question limited. I used this list when I came up with it, and while I didn't check every single entry, there were a few good players who missed out on being picked.

Mot Test umpires haven't played Test cricket, though. You'd quicker see them play First Class cricket before making the transition, if they played professional cricket at all. A couple of you alluded to Frank Tarrant in your replies but correctly noted that he was unfortunately ineligible. Also, most umpires weren't all that successful as players in Tests, but they do have great FC records despite this.

1. @ddrap14 - Kumar Dharmasena, player 1993-2004, umpire 2010-present
He was a regular feature in the Sri Lankan ODI team in the latter part of the nineties to the early 2000s, but his Test career never really took off despite an FC bowling average of just 20. Batting was better than you'd expect from a guy initially picked just for his bowling. A little hard done by? I would say so. But when the "other" offspinner in your team is Murali...well...eh.

2. @Neptune - Charles Bannerman, player 1877-1879, umpire 1887-1902
The old record books got dusted off with this one. Bannerman goes back...way back. To the very first official Test match, in fact. Bannerman has a lot of firsts behind him - the first ever Test century, first highest Test score (by some distance and could have gotten more but for breaking a finger), first ball faced ever in Test cricket, among others. But Neptune wasn't alone in thinking about ye olden days of yore with this pick.

3. @ahmedleo414 - Paul Reiffel, player 1992-1998, umpire 2012-present
Arguably one of the better options available, it's no wonder that you'll see him crossed out quite often as we move on. An excellent bowler, who could bowl line and length with just enough movement to keep batsmen honest. And handy with the bat too, without you really thinking of him as a genuine all-rounder. He was a guy who knew his job in the team, and he did that job admirably. Seeing him umpiring, you can sometimes tell that he seems to recall his playing days, especially if a bowler sends something really good down to the other end. Ahmed, your brave lucky streak has come to an end.

4. @CerealKiller - Okay, let's try to get this right the first time...Srinivasaraghavan Venkataragavhan, player 1965-1983, umpire 1993-2004
I thought Venkat was going to be another of the obvious picks in this Round, and yet CerealKiller has the lone pick of him. As a player, he was sporadic - moments of brilliance interspersed with lengthy times on the bench. As an umpire (EDIT: not me, him), I daresay that when I began to really follow cricket, he was one of my favourites. Biased? Hell yes he was. But just something of a cool factor to him that I just loved. Plus, the guy has one of the best names ever.

5. @Aislabie - Jack Cowie, player 1937-1949, umpire 1956-1959
As tends to be the pattern in Drafts, Aislabie comes along with a player that nobody would have chosen, and yet no less effective as a pick. The list of batsmen that Cowie has dismissed, most of them extremely early on in his bowling spells, reads like an all-star lineup. The guy once had Bradman caught off of his (Cowie's) very first ball, in fact. He said Len Hutton was the best batsman he'd ever bowled to, and got him out for 0 and 1 away from home once. Can't wield a bat to save his life, but when you bowl like that to some of the greatest, you don't need to bat.

6. @Yash. - Paul Reiffel
Still say that Reiffel was incredibly underrated as a bowler.

7. @sanchitgarg - Charles Bannerman
A couple rounds in a row where Sanchit has managed to make both himself and another participant ineligible. Somehow I'm thinking it's a strategy here. Tough luck though. I really do feel it, losing two great picks a couple rounds in a row now.

8. @Mittal2002 - Paul Reiffel
Reiffel was pretty much the obvious pick here, wasn't he? But the whole psychology/reverse/double bluff only works sometimes.

9. @qpeedore - Gerry Gomez, player 1939-1954, umpire 1965
He didn't exactly have a career in umpiring - in fact the single Test that he stood in was due to some nasty West Indian politics, but he did umpire in Tests and is valid. It was his first and only FC match umpired (he had the credentials and was qualified to do so though). An excellent all-rounder, he'd probably be your first or second change bowler, and will give you runs in the lower middle order too. I was stuck on Venkat right up until I skimmed through that Wikipedia list just before posting the question. Sort of was praying that nobody noticed this one, and someone up there was listening to me.

Notable misses: Mark Benson, Richard Illingworth, Peter Willey

I think that this was a pretty fun round, to be honest. Not to those that missed out of course, but I expected more people to pick Venkat and Dharmasena. Didn't expect Bannerman to be double-picked. Sort of figured Reiffel would have been. Aislabie picking Cowie was just out of the blue (then again, it's Aislabie), and yet a very good pick.

The teams thus far

Spoiler

@ddrap14
Mahela Jayawardene
Richard Hadlee
Adam Gilchrist
Mohammed Siraj
Kumar Dharmasena

@Neptune
Len Hutton
Fred "the Demon" Spofforth
George Headley
Keegan Petersen

@ahmedleo414
Shane Warne
Kapil Dev
Donald Bradman
Devon Conway

@CerealKiller
Wasim Akram
Shubman Gill
Srinivas Venkat

@Aislabie
Kumar Sangakarra
George Lohmann
Jack Cowie

@Yash.
Wally Hammond
Graeme Pollock

@sanchitgarg
Mark Taylor
Shaun Pollock
Joel Garner

@Mittal2002
Graham Gooch
Imran Khan
Barry Richards
Kyle Verreynne

@qpeedore's extra team
Chris Gayle
Stuart Broad
Malcolm Marshall
Washington Sundar
Gerry Gomez

Unavailable players

Spoiler

Mahela Jayawardene
Len Hutton
Kumar Sangakarra
Wally Hammond
Mark Taylor
Graham Gooch
Chris Gayle
Shane Warne
Fred Spofforth
Richard Hadlee
Kapil Dev
Wasim Akram
Shaun Pollock
Imran Khan
Stuart Broad
Adam Gilchrist
George Headley
George Lohmann
Don Bradman
Graeme Pollock
Joel Garner
Barry Richards
Malcolm Marshall
Mohammed Siraj
Keegan Petersen
Devon Conway
Shubman Gill
Kyle Verreynne
Washington Sundar
Kumar Dharmasena
Srinivas Venkat
Jack Cowie
Gerry Gomez

Deadline for the next round is Tuesday 13th June at 8am GMT.

Round 7

A nice recovery round again. No restrictions except this one:

Pick a player who has a "Q" in their name.

(EDIT: I'll take a rule from the Alphabet Draft, only first or last names count, as listed on CricInfo. No middle names, unless they are known worldwide by their middle name. Vaas would be a "Chaminda" for example, because his name is WUPJC Vaas, but everyone knows him as Chaminda Vaas.)

(DOUBLE EDIT: Name does not need to necessarily BEGIN with Q, but Q must be somewhere.)

Lots of excellent players there to choose from.

 

[qpeedore]

Not to fear, will be continuing this shortly. Slight real life busy schedule.

 

[qpeedore]

Let's this back on track. I'll try to keep things more or less updated over the next few weeks. But no promises that you'll be able to hold me to.

Essentially, I sort of applied Aislabie's "Pick a Sri Lankan" question to this round, where it was pretty much "Pick a Pakistani". It does actually show in the list of picks, the non-Pakistanis are double-picked, and I think only one of the Pakistanis are. Missed out on some amazing players though.

1. @ddrap14 -Misbah-ul-haq
Pakistan's Mr. Consistency, he's one of the best captains of the squad that I've personally seen. I think he's slightly underrated by the cricketing world as a whole, because he's had moments of inconsistency - he'd give you runs one day and utterly fail the next time out, but he went about correcting that at an age when most Pakistanis would consider international retirement. He was, I think, something of a natural leader, and it showed.

2. @Neptune - Mushtaq Mohammad
Neptune technically picked after my deadline. Puts me in a bit of a pickle. See, he's picked already. It's an awesome pick, though. Sure, his brother Hanif might arguably be more well-known (well, even if only for one innings, but Mushtaq pips him in terms of number of FC centuries scored.) And definitely at a faster rate. I am the late one in updating the Draft, there was a clear deadline posted for picks, unfortunately I'll have to rule this as an invalid pick. Don't kill me.

3. @ahmedleo414 -Jacques Kallis
Bravery only goes so far, and you unfortunately miss out again. I'm not sure if I've ever said this before on here, but the very first time I saw Kallis live, a friend of mine just turned to me and said, "That's just...proper technique there." And it's true, the guy has a bowling action directly out of a textbook. A batting style that's so classical and orthodox. You need to encourage young players to do their own thing and use what works for them, but if any youngster out there is having an issue with batting or bowling, take a look at this guy, you'll see how to properly play the Game.

4. @CerealKiller -Inzamam-ul-haq
Inzy was the sort of guy that made an overweight kid like me feel like I could play cricket professionally. (I've since lost the weight, btw.) I was probably just after the Ranatunga era when I really started following cricket, so for me, Inzy was the guy. He always had a problem with playing across the line, but otherwise he was a solid batsman. And for someone who's first language isn't English, the guy was damn eloquent during interviews.

5. @Aislabie - Mushtaq Mohammad
In addition to his batting, Mushtaq also bowled effective leg spin - a proper spin all-rounder in a team. Definitely a great pick. As stated above, Neptune also picked Mushtaq, but he did so after the deadline. I'm going to take your pick as valid since you did so before the close-off. I really hate to have to disqualify anyone, especially since I myself am late in this update, but I made a judgement call here. Aislabie gets him and Neptune doesn't. Again...nobody bash me.

6. @Yash. - Jacques Kallis
The Kallis vs. Sobers debate will go on, probably forever. I'll give Kallis this - he played in an era when batsmen were becoming more aggressive. But he also played in an era when fielding standards were increasing. He's a coach now, right? He better be one.

7. @sanchitgarg -Syed Mushtaq Ali
This is a pretty good pick - the guy clearly had loads of potential. With such an excellent FC record, he should have played more. His biography and obituary is good reading and he definitely seems like one of the Game's better personalities. One or two unexplained absences sort of curtailed his Test career (much in the same way it can do to players nowadays too), but he was a talent that was, quote, "better than the sum of his runs".

8. @Mittal2002 - Iqbal Qasim
Not content with just one Q in the name, Mittal went with two. CricInfo surprisingly has just about three lines to describe one of the better left-arm spinners for Pakistan. There's this article that shows that Qasim was better than Lance Gibbs during a certain period.

9. @qpeedore - Waqar Younis
As much as I tend to pick bowlers first in most Drafts, I often end up having todo some serious research to complete my attack. Not so this time. I'm learning from mistakes and missed opportunities. Waqar...well...everyone said the old ball does nothing. Everyone said don't pitch it up, it's a freebie. Heh. Do any of the batsmen eat bananas? Because that's what he'll give you ball after ball when it gets old. And don't think he can't swing the new ball either.

Notable misses: Quinton de Kock, Saqlain Mushtaq, Tamim Iqbal

Like I mentioned earlier, this was a sort of Pakkistani round. But Tamim was a miss from all of us. I was a bit fearful about Waqar, I really thought that more people would have picked him. (Again, the rule is that if I pick him and you do, you get him over me. But if more than one you pick the player then everyone misses out. Example using the last listed pick, If I'd also picked Iqbal Qasim then sanchit gets him and I miss out.)

The teams thus far

Spoiler

@ddrap14
Mahela Jayawardene
Richard Hadlee
Adam Gilchrist
Mohammed Siraj
Kumar Dharmasena
Misbah-ul-haq

@Neptune
Len Hutton
Fred "the Demon" Spofforth
George Headley
Keegan Petersen

@ahmedleo414
Shane Warne
Kapil Dev
Donald Bradman
Devon Conway

@CerealKiller
Wasim Akram
Shubman Gill
Srinivas Venkat
Inzamam-ul-haq

@Aislabie
Kumar Sangakarra
George Lohmann
Jack Cowie

@Yash.
Wally Hammond
Graeme Pollock

@sanchitgarg
Mark Taylor
Shaun Pollock
Joel Garner
Mushtaq Ali

@Mittal2002
Graham Gooch
Imran Khan
Barry Richards
Kyle Verreynne
Iqbal Qasim

@qpeedore's extra team
Chris Gayle
Stuart Broad
Malcolm Marshall
Washington Sundar
Gerry Gomez
Waqar Younis

Unavailable players

Spoiler

Mahela Jayawardene
Len Hutton
Kumar Sangakarra
Wally Hammond
Mark Taylor
Graham Gooch
Chris Gayle
Shane Warne
Fred Spofforth
Richard Hadlee
Kapil Dev
Wasim Akram
Shaun Pollock
Imran Khan
Stuart Broad
Adam Gilchrist
George Headley
George Lohmann
Don Bradman
Graeme Pollock
Joel Garner
Barry Richards
Malcolm Marshall
Mohammed Siraj
Keegan Petersen
Devon Conway
Shubman Gill
Kyle Verreynne
Washington Sundar
Kumar Dharmasena
Srinivas Venkat
Jack Cowie
Gerry Gomez
Misbah-ul-haq
Inzamam-ul-haq
Mushtaq Ali
Iqbal Qasim
Waqar Younis

Deadline for the next round is...24hoursworktomorrowhometuesdayworkthursday...wed...wed? Yeah Wed! I will be working Thursday, today is Sunday...let's give it
Friday. So Friday 30th July, guys?

Covid as a medical doctor really sucks guys. Considering that at present my regular job is in the ICU...well...yeah. No comments about it please. Comment on your picks/missed picks. I don't even know why I said it, maybe I just need a little bit of a venting process.

Round 8

Pick a player who has either scored a Test century or taken 5-wicket-in-an-innings-haul after the age of 40.

I'll edit in the first post in time. I think I'm late in another Draft right now.

 

[Yash.]

At this rate, I'll complete my team by the next year.

By the way, I edited the above post a little bit because of some inconsistencies.

 

[qpeedore]

Oh, also it's about time to start getting your teams in order...so if all of you guys can do so, it would be appreciated.

@ddrap14
@Neptune
@ahmedleo414
@CerealKiller
@Aislabie
@Yash.
@sanchitgarg
@Mittal2002

My team thus far (@qpeedore):

1. Chris Gayle
2.
3.
4.
5.
6. Gerry Gomez
7. Washington Sundar
8. Stuart Broad
9. Waqar Younis
10. Malcolm Marshall
11.

 

[CerealKiller]

CerealKiller's XI
1. Shubman Gill
2.
3.
4.
5. Inzamam-ul-Haq
6.
7.
8. Wasim Akram
9. Srinivas Venkataraghavan
10.
11.

 

[qpeedore]

Do what you need to, I'm working on adrenaline right now, just off of a 24 hour shift and gotta head back in tomorrow for another 24 hours.

There's a meme floating around somewhere where it says "Would you trust an airline pilot who says he has worked three 24 hour shifts within the past week, he has last eaten yesterday morning, he doesn't know when next he will get a break? Why would you trust your doctor under the same circumstances?"

So damn true. I thought immediately...this is me!

But no worries, I'm fighting this thing called Covid, and I'm also fighting sickness. I love it.

 

[sanchitgarg]

1. Mark Taylor
2. Syed Mushtaq Ali
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8. Shaun Pollock
9.
10. Joel Garner
11

 

[ahmedleo414]

1. ?
2. Devon Conway
3. Sir Don Bradman
4. ?
5. ?
6. ?
7. Kapil Dev
8. Shane Warne
9. ?
10. ?
11. ?

 

[Neptune]

Think your call on not counting my pick is fair. Will add some balance to Aislabie's team for sure

1. Len Hutton
2.
3. George Headley
4. Keegan Petersen
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10. Fred Spofforth
11.

 

[qpeedore]

Think your call on not counting my pick is fair. Will add some balance to Aislabie's team for sure

1. Len Hutton
2.
3. George Headley
4. Keegan Petersen
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10. Fred Spofforth

Really thought about it, but in the end I had to make the call.

 

[ddrap14]

@qpeedore I hope everything looks up for you soon.

As for my team:
1.
2.
3.
4. Mahela Jayawardene
5. Misbah-ul-haq
6.
7. Adam Gilchrist
8. Richard Hadlee
9. Kumar Dharmasena
10.
11. Mohammed Siraj