Which is your favourite all time team in cricket?

[Samuels]

It is totally wrong! Dhoni is the best captain whereas Ganguly lead the best Indian squad. Ganguly's squad had fastest Indian bowlers like Jagwal Shrinath and Nehra. It had best batsmen. Coming to Dhoni now, he has no legends in is team now ,excluding himself, but still India is performing satisfactorily..

lol Firstly, I think the modern day pillars of Indian cricket namely, Harbhajan (till a few years back), Laxman, Srinath, Yuvraj, Sehwag and Dhoni himself groomed under Ganguly so it was obviously the man from Kolkata who build the squad out of nothing back when the match fixing saga gripped and crippled Indian cricket. Srinath was no good bowler until early 2000s mind you. On the other end, Dhoni got the likes of Gambhir, Sehwag, Yuvraj, Ganguly, Kumble, the potent Irfan Pathan, Harbhajan, Sachin, Dravid, VVS and who not readily available for him. Furthermore, I believe it was the efforts of the test team under Ganguly and Kumble that the Indian team became the world #1 and it was only a coincidence that Dhoni was the skipper then because obviously India had a top notch batting and legendary spin attack for long and it was their performance that and the retirement of the legendary Aussie cricketers led to India getting that pole position. That said, Dhoni deserves full credit for making his team lift the inaugural T20I world cup as much as he deserves the tantrums for his strategy to low and slow and painfully extended the match to take it to the last overs of a match.

But ^that is not even the point of talk. The point is, whether the Aussies' sledging and stuff was just aggressiveness or whether they were ridiculed at times just because the fans of other teams were jealous of them or was it that they crossed the lines more often than not. If you ask me, it is more or less the third case. Not many skippers raise the finger and virtually order the umpire to give the decisions in their favor and that is just the start.

 

[Parmesh killer]

But anyone, in this site has any idea about the australian who started this legacy of misbehaving in the field? If anyone knows this then please tell me.

 

[lovethisgame]

West Indies is my all time favorite.

Love their spirit, love the way they take this game.

 

[Parmesh killer]

Btw, a painful thought has came in my mind. The thought is that when were Indian perfect. They were never dominating other teams. Truly posting, only australia and west indies are the teams which had been lucky enough to dominate the world cricket. Indians are winning in the poll because they've majority.

 

[playkid12]

It is totally wrong! Dhoni is the best captain whereas Ganguly lead the best Indian squad. Ganguly's squad had fastest Indian bowlers like Jagwal Shrinath and Nehra. It had best batsmen. Coming to Dhoni now, he has no legends in is team now ,excluding himself, but still India is performing satisfactorily..

Ganguly formed the team he was in by giving players chances. He brought back Srinath from retirement because India didn't have seamers. Nehra was molded by him as well. Ganguly took over the Indian team after one of the worst phases in Indian cricket history - match fixing and Tendulkar's failure of a captaincy. Sehwag, Yuvraj, Dravid, and Zaheer were not big names when Ganguly attained the captaincy. His captaincy allowed them to nurture their talent. That is something that's missing from Dhoni's captaincy. None of the players under Dhoni have become potential greats, with the exception of Kohli, who was already there tbqh.

The bad part about Ganguly is that he didn't always get along with everybody. He was a ruthless captain that wore his emotions on his sleeve.

Dhoni is a very good captain, a quick stumper, the best Indian wicketkeeper in history, and the best finisher in modern cricket. Dhoni's captaincy tactic is very different from Ganguly. In the selection process, he tends to show favoritism toward certain players. Players like Ishant Sharma have been given too many chances, while others haven't. He's also a very pro-batting captain. He often selects all-rounders that have poor bowling ability, just to load the team with an extra batting talent. Finally, Dhoni doesn't have the same talent to play against. The Aussies that Ganguly had to face were among the best players in the history of the game.

In short, they're both good, and they both have their weaknesses. What matters is Dhoni won the WC, while Ganguly didn't. So history will remember Dhoni as the better captain. In my opinion, Ganguly had the much harder job and he turned Indian cricket around. Dhoni built on his foundation and didn't let it go to waste.

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Btw, a painful thought has came in my mind. The thought is that when were Indian perfect.

There's nothing painful about this thought. The Indian team was never "perfect." You need good bowlers to be world beaters for a long time. Indian bowlers are among the worst in the world. Until that's corrected, India can't be #1 for very long.

 

[spack]

Australia (under Allan Border)
Australia (under Mark Taylor)
West Indies (under Clive Lloyd)
NSW (under Rick "The Snick" McCosker)

 

[cricket_icon]

For me, it has to be the Australians teams which played between 1999-2007 and yes I'm English but I can't help it. That team had everything, pace, spin, aggressive openers in both tests and ODIs, the greatest number 3 batsman of all time (possibly), a great keeper/batsman the likes of which we will never see again...all of this wrapped up in an aggressive package which was attractive to the teenage me. This was cricket being played at the highest level where the practitioners just didn't give a fearsome tweak! Excuse the language.

Hayden
Langer
Ponting
Waugh
Lee
McGrath
Warne
Gilchrist...I could go on and on.

3 back to back world cups, test wins almost everywhere on the planet and the loss of a single Ashes series. This hasn't been surpassed in cricket and may never be, in fact, it's one of the greatest teams in sports period.

 

[SaiSrini]

The poll asks "Which international team is your favorite". Its obvious that many people will vote for their national team, because most people follow their national teams passionately (apart from a few, who are mature enough to see past their patriotism and pick a team that's not their home country).

I am voting for India, but apart from them, I like South Africa as my favorite "non-India" team. Its so hard playing against SA because they are very tight and hard to play against. They have choked and been unlucky at winning those title/big moments, but overall if I want to pick a team that I would not want to face, it would be South Africa.

 

[ethybubs]

This hasn't been surpassed in cricket and may never be

The West Indies didn't lose a test series for 15 years, on the basis of wins alone the two are hardly comparable.

 

[cricket_icon]

The West Indies didn't lose a test series for 15 years, on the basis of wins alone the two are hardly comparable.

But the Aussies were a far better ODI side, winning 3 back to back world cups, coupled with one of the greatest test runs of all time and featuring two bowlers who will probably be ranked higher than many of the Windies pace stars and the greatest keeper batsman ever. I don't think even the Windies compare to that Australian side. There's not much in it but there is enough.

 

[ethybubs]

There's not much in it

Which is why I hope you understand I am not willing to argue my point further in the risk of us engaging in a fierce argument over a subject neither of us will change our minds on.

 

[cricket_icon]

Which is why I hope you understand I am not willing to argue my point further in the risk of us engaging in a fierce argument over a subject neither of us will change our minds on.

That's fine, I see no problem in someone believing the Windies is one of the top 2 best teams in test cricket ever. They were a formidable side with a great (greatest?) captain ever.