All about All-time XIs

[Zunaid]

Everyone has done the all time all time XIs at some point or the other. Here is the place for it and more.

So Sohel asked - what's your all time subcontinent XI? Lay out the roster here.

And as we exhaust one category, one can always create more creative ones.

All time Bombay XI. All time mustachioed XI. All time banned XI. All time Southern Hemisphere XI.

So on so forth.

[zinatf]

All-time Asia XI

Saeed Anwar
Sachin Tandulkar
Mahela Jayawardene
Rahul Dravid
Javed Miandad
Kumar Sangakkara (WK)
Imran Khan (C)
Shakib Al Hasan
Wasim Akram
Waqar Younis
Muttiah Muralitharan

[Sohel]

ATG Indian Subcontinent Test XI

1. Sourav Ganguly (C)
2. Sachin Tendulkar
3. Rahul Dravid (in the Subcontinent)/VVS Laxman (outside the Subcontinent)
4. Mahela Jayawardene
5. Javed Miandad
6. Aravinda de Silva
7. Kumar Sangakkara (WK)
8. Shakib Al Hasan (in the Subcontinent)/Imran Khan (outside the Subcontinent)
9. Wasim Akram
10. Waqar Younis
11. Muttiah Muralitharan

[Sohel]

ATG Indian Subcontinent ODI XI

1. Sachin Tendulkar
2. Sanath Jayasuriya
3. Saeed Anwar
4. Aravinda de Silva
5. Javed Miandad (C)
6. Kumar Sangakkara (WK)
7. Yuvraj Singh
8. Shakib Al Hasan (in the Subcontinent)/Imran Khan (outside the Subcontinent)
9. Wasim Akram
10. Waqar Younis
11. Muttiah Muralitharan

[BrianLara7]

ATG Indian Subcontinent Test XI

1. Sourav Ganguly (C)
2. Sachin Tendulkar
3. Rahul Dravid (in the Subcontinent)/VVS Laxman (outside the Subcontinent)
4. Mahela Jayawardene
5. Javed Miandad
6. Aravinda de Silva
7. Kumar Sangakkara (WK)
8. Shakib Al Hasan (in the Subcontinent)/Imran Khan (outside the Subcontinent)
9. Wasim Akram
10. Waqar Younis
11. Muttiah Muralitharan

I am sorry brother but Sourav ganguly at best was a decent test player as his average of 40 suggests, Sunil gavaskar is unarguably the greatest test opener to have emerged from the subcontinent and considered as one of the greatest batsmen ever.

[BrianLara7]

All time Asia test XI is dominated by Indian batsmen and Pakistani bowler/ all rounder. Only sri lankans would be Murali and Sanga.
Hopefully Shakib will be in there by the time he is done

[AsifTheManRahman]

All Time Subcontinent/Asia XI - Tests

1. Sunil Gavaskar
2. Sachin Tendulkar
3. Rahul Dravid
4. VVS Laxman
5. Mahela Jayawardene
6. Kumar Sangakkara (wk)
7. Imran Khan (c)
8. Wasim Akram
9. Chaminda Vaas
10. Waqar Younis
11. Muttiah Muralitharan

Only one spinner, YEAH!

[Ajfar]

^ That's my squad too. For ODI I would switch out Laxman for Arvinda D Silva/Ranatunga

[roman]

Subcontinent test XI

1 Gavaskar
2 Tendulkar
3 Dravid
4 Miandad
5 Arvinda De Silva
6 Sangakkara (wk)
7 Imran Khan (c)
8 Wasim Akram
9 Waqar
10 Shoaib Akhter
11 Muralitharan

ODI XI

1 Saeed Anwar
2 Jayasuria
3 Tendulkar
4 Inzamam ul Haq
5 Sangakkara
6 Shakib al Hasan
7 Imran Khan
8 Wasim Akram
9 Waqar
10 Muralitharan
11 Vaas

[AsifTheManRahman]

All Time Subcontinent/Asia XI: ODIs

1. Sachin Tendulkar
2. Sanath Jayasuriya
3. Virat Kohli
4. Aravinda de Silva
5. Inzamam-ul-Haq
6. Mahendra Dhoni (wk)
7. Imran Khan (c)
8. Wasim Akram
9. Chaminda Vaas
10. Waqar Younis
11. Muttiah Muralitharan

Only one spinner, YEAH!

[AsifTheManRahman]

^ That's my squad too. For ODI I would switch out Laxman for Arvinda D Silva/Ranatunga
de Silva yes, but I don't know about a few of the others. As you can see, I've handed the chop to Dravid, Sanga and Jaya for (IMO) superior batsmen in this format. Kohli gets in because he will be greater than many subcontinent batsmen by the end of his career.

[AsifTheManRahman]

Kapil Dev, while a very good medium fast bowler (the pioneer of genuine pace bowling - as opposed to gentle leg cutters - in India), doesn't make the cut ahead of Imran. Saeed Ajmal also falls short, because no one is greater than Murali. All this for Tests and ODIs of course.

[Kohli_Sox]

ATG Asia Test XI

1. Sunil Gavaskar
2. Hanif Mohammad
3. Rahul Dravid
4. Sachin Tendulkar
5. Javed Miandad
6. Kumar Sangakkara+
7. Imran Khan*
8. Wasim Akram
9. Waqar Younis
10. Fazal Mahmood
11. Muttiah Muralitharan

Sehwag to be 12th man and very hard exclusion. Sunil Gavaskar has to be an automatic choice for Asia All Time Test XI. Now I don't know why Hanif Mohammad is so overlooked. Hanif Mohammad is one of the best openers for Pakistan imo. As much as I like Saeed Anwar but Hanif Mohammad edges him comfortably. Not to forget Hanif Mohammad's marathon triple century to save the game against West Indies. Next Rahul Dravid and Sachin Tendulkar also automatic choices in Asia Test XI. The next spot at no 5 is also a crucial selection. Javed Miandad is the best bat for Pakistan, can't leave him out. Therefore he edges over Inzamam and Yousuf.

Now another dilemma at no 6 spot. I don't particularly like the fact Sangakkara keeping over a genuine keeper because Sanga's batting generally gets affected if he also has to bat. He avergaes around 42 with keeping duties which boosts to over 60 when he doesn't have to keep, but for lack of room in XI, Sanga has to do both here and not depending on Sanga much with batting as the guys above him already likely to make over 500 runs (biased opinion I know). Then only one room for all rounder which goes to Imran Khan over Kapil Dev. Now the bowler selection is pretty easy with Wasim and Waqar there.

Another spot I couldn't leave Fazal Mahmood. Fazal Mahmood was the one who started the pace bowling trend esp for sub continent. A bowler with genuine swing and pace. The guy literally destroyed half of the batting line up half of the time he played. Outstanding hold of 13 five fers and 4 ten fers with economy rate of 2??!! One of my all time heroes. Then spinner, Muttiah Muralitharan, no need to say anything about him. So that pretty much completes my All Time Asia Test XI.

Honourable Mentions:

Batsman: Vijay Hazare
Bowler: Anil Kumbe
Wicket keeper: Farokh Engineer

(Shakib will be right up there by the time he finishes his career)

[AsifTheManRahman]

Hey Kohli Sucks, Hanif Mohammad and Fazal Mahmood are very good picks.

[Kohli_Sox]

Hey Kohli Sucks, Hanif Mohammad and Fazal Mahmood are very good picks.

Thanks!

[Gowza]

yeah wasim, waqar and murali are auto picks. gavaskar is an auto pick, i wouldn't open with tendulkar in tests so probably anwar or sehwag would be the 2nd opener. 1st down is clearly between dravid and sanga but unless you want dhoni keeping sanga has to be in the team as keeper so dravid is 1st drop. tendulkar at #4, the #5 spot can go to a lot of different people: miandad, yousuf, inzi, de silva, mahela, younis khan #6 goes to sanga. #7 goes to shakib, #8 imran #9 wasim #10 waqar #11 murali

if you don't want a 5th bowling option (outside of tendulkar and similar) then one of miandad, yousuf, younis khan, de silva, inzi, mahela can bat at #6, sanga can drop to #7 then shakib makes way so imran at #8 wasim at #9 waqar at #10 murali at #11

1 gavaskar
2 anwar/sehwag
3 david
4 tendulkar
5 miandad/inzi/de silva/yousuf/khan/mahela
6 sanga
7 shakib
8 imran
9 wasim
10 waqar
11 murali

i guess you could also pick another specialist spinner infront of shakib, qadir, saqlain, bedi etc but i'm not sure it would make to much difference since you already have imran, wasim, waqar and murali and shakib is as good as most of the next best specialist spinners anyway.

[Zunaid]

All time mustachioed 11

1. David Boon
2. Graham Gooch
3. Brian Lara
5. Allan Border
6. Javed Miandad
7. Rod Marsh (wk)
8. Ian Botham
9. Kapil Dev
10. Andy Roberts
11. Richard Hadley

12th Man Merv Hughes. Just for that bloody mustache.

I had to sit out so many greats. Lloyd, Border, Rice (the entire Indian and Pakistani teams of the 60s and 70s) et al

[Gowza]

All time mustachioed 11

1. David Boon
2. Graham Gooch
3. Brian Lara
5. Allan Border
6. Javed Miandad
7. Rod Marsh (wk)
8. Ian Botham
9. Kapil Dev
10. Andy Roberts
11. Richard Hadley

12th Man Merv Hughes. Just for that bloody mustache.

I had to sit out so many greats. Lloyd, Border, Rice (the entire Indian and Pakistani teams of the 60s and 70s) et al

mate you have border at #5. quality team, clive lloyd a shout due to his captaincy ability, does malcolm marshall count as a mustache? and dennis lillee has to be up there to. what about spinners? bedi who else...

[Dilscoop]

LOL @ all the biased buffoons mentioning Shakib's name among those other legends and HOFers. As soon as I saw the title I went straight to facepalm mode knowing how people in this forum would just jerk up Shakib's name in there.

[Zunaid]

mate you have border at #5. quality team, clive lloyd a shout due to his captaincy ability, does malcolm marshall count as a mustache? and dennis lillee has to be up there to. what about spinners? bedi who else...

Aye. Forgot Lloyd and Lillee. See how tough it is? You can probably make two all time hirsute 11s.

[Sohel]

Aye. Forgot Lloyd and Lillee. See how tough it is? You can probably make two all time hirsute 11s.

ATG Long Bearded Test XI:

1. WG Grace (C, because WG secretly stands for Wahidul Gani. He pulled a Neil Armstrong before Neil was born and became a key part of the faked moon landing.)
2. Saeed Anwar (Imam)
3. Hashim Amla
4. Moeen Ali
5. Inzamamul Haq (WK)
6. Mohammad Yusuf
7. Mehrab Hossain "Jr"
8. Mohammad Sohrawardi
9. Saqlain Mushtaq
10. Mushtaq Ahmed
11. Waqar Younis

[Zunaid]

ATG Long Bearded Test XI:

1. WG Grace (C, because WG secretly stands for Wahidul Gani. He pulled a Neil Armstrong before Neil was born and became a key part of the faked moon landing.)
2. Saeed Anwar (Imam)
3. Hashim Amla
4. Moeen Ali
5. Inzamamul Haq (WK)
6. Mohammad Yusuf
7. Mehrab Hossain "Jr"
8. Mohammad Sohrawardi
9. Saqlain Mushtaq
10. Mushtaq Muhammad
11. Waqar Younis

Bravo! Pictures please.

[Sohel]

Bravo! Pictures please.

1. http://p.imgci.com/db/PICTURES/CMS/14200/14265.player.jpg
Wahidul Gani Grace

2. http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Sport/Pix/pictures/2010/2/26/1267176294099/Saeed-Anwar-001.jpg
Saeed Anwar

3. http://newspaper.li/static/8d3ce2bede9abd2c248744988dc09b3c.jpg
Hashim Amla

4. http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_EqK9xqdGgTc/S_jHsMzNvII/AAAAAAAAA1U/XpQ874ngfi0/s1600/mo.jpg
Moeen Ali

5.http://www.topnews.in/sports/files/Inzamam%20ul%20Haq.jpg
Inzamamul Haq (WK)

6. http://topnews.in/sports/files/Mohammad-Yousuf_8.jpg
Mohammad Yusuf

7. http://s15.postimage.org/vrg0pjay3/mehrab.jpg
Mehrab Hossain "Jr" (Maybe Rifat can post a more up to date Facebook picture with a longer beard?)

8. http://p.imgci.com/db/PICTURES/CMS/128600/128613.jpg
Mohammad Sohrawardi

9. http://topnews.in/sports/files/Saqlain-Mushtaq-1.jpg
Saqlain Mushtaq

10. http://topnews.in/sports/files/Mushtaq-Ahmed.jpg
Mushtaq Ahmed

11. http://www.pakpassion.net/images/cms_thumbs/waqar_pic_small.jpg
Waqar Younis (Not sure about the length of his beard now. Maybe Rifat can shed some light?)

[Zunaid]

Well, looking at Amla, I'm tempted to do a bald atg XI.

[Sohel]

Well, looking at Amla, I'm tempted to do a bald atg XI.

Now that's a challenge without the aid of Adobe or Corel if you're doing bald and long bearded, unless you have access to CIA's satellite pics. Simply bald can be done. Here's your top 3:

1. Herschelle Gibbs
2. Sanath Jayasuriya
3. Hashim Amla

[Zunaid]

No. Just bald. Not bald and bearded nor completely depilated.

[Zeeshan]

Try All-time Spectacled XI

[...plugging my blog for inspiration. (http://cricketmuseum.wordpress.com/2012/06/22/of-vision/)..]

[Sohel]

How about ATG LHBs Test XI (yes, one can include LHBs like Chis Gayle who bowl right handed).

[Kohli_Sox]

ATG Left Handed Test XI

1. Arthur Morris
2. Matthew Hayden
3. Neil Harvey
4. Graeme Pollock
5. Brian Lara
6. Sir Garfield Sobers
7. Adam Gilchrist+
8. Wasim Akram
9. Alan Davidson
10. Wilfred Rhodes
11. Bill Johnston

Allan Border, Kumar Sangakkara and Derek Underwood just misses out. In swinging conditions, Bill Lawry to replace Hayden

[Ajfar]

How about all time Ashraful XI? (Players that had lots of potential, but very little output)

[Zeeshan]

All Time Triple Threats XI (those who scored Test triple)

1. DG Bradman
2. Hutton /don't know him though up close and personal
3. Brian Lara
4. Gayle
5. Jayasuria
6. Sehwag
7. Amla
8. Jaywardena
9. Sandham
10. Inzamam
11. Clarke

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Test_cricket_triple_centuries

I just realized Tendulkar doesn't have a triple :shakibsmile:

[Sohel]

^No Sir Vivian Richards?!?

[Zeeshan]

^No Sir Vivian Richards?!?


Sir Viv Richards' top score was 291 in International Test. But I did miss Garry Sobers.

[AsifTheManRahman]

Hayden should be in the list, I think he has the second highest score in Tests, after Lara.

[Zeeshan]

Hayden should be in the list, I think he has the second highest score in Tests, after Lara.

He is, but you can only pick so many. So I picked Clarke. He is a good batsman.

[Gowza]

all time australia xi

1 hayden
2 taylore/simpson/ponsford (can't pick between these 3)
3 bradman
4 g.chappell
5 s.waugh
6 miller
7 gilchrist
8 warne
9 o'reilly
10 lillee
11 mcgrath

thought about davidson or lindwall to be there over mcgrath as both are ok bats and davidson is also a left hander but being that it's an all time great team that has genuine batsmen down to 7 and warne at 8 who is ok i figure no need for extra batting, imo mcgrath is a far better bowling option than them. lillee gets in with his strike rate, completeness and his match winning ability.

warne gets in as he's consider by many to be the greatest spinner ever, o'reilly gets in because he was amazing and bradman says he was the best he ever saw or faced against and he bowled quite fast, similar bowler to barnes. jack iverson was a thought though.

for me hayden is a must, can't leave him out as he averages 50, great slipper to. tough to pick between taylor, simpson and ponsofrd. ponsford had a ridiculous FC record, 65 average, and a 48 test average as an opener is great. simpson had a 46 test average (closing in on 47), was a great captain, a great slipper and could bowl leg spin (actually when he was first selected is was as an allrounder). taylor considered by many the greatest aussie test captain ever, one of the best slippers ever but his batting average is slightly less at 43. btw as opener simpson averaged 55, he didn't always bat as opener.

bradman of course picks himself, chappell was one of the greatest batsmen of all time and was a total match winner with his flashy attacking shots, steve waugh was probably the best test #5 ever. all of them were aussie captains.

miller gets in as one of the best allrounders ever, a great fielder, a match winner. his bowling record speaks for itself, he was genuinely quick when he wanted to be and an average of under 22 and had a knack of getting the best batsmen out. the contraversial thing about miller is that he didn't always try that hard which makes him in one way a great pick and in another way a bad pick. when he tried he was as good as anyone with both bat and ball, a match winner in every sense and way (bowling, batting fielding, team morale booster), but there were times where he just didn't try, one of the most common examples was when he came into bat in one match and australia were completely dominating and he let himself get bowled first ball because he didn't like annihilating opposition. on the bowling side of things my dad always tells me a story where he turned up hung over and didn't feel like playing, they were bowling first and he wanted them out by lunch to get it done and dusted and he ripped through them with 7 wickets that morning. bad thing is if he decides not to try then you're stuffed, though most likely he'll only do that if the team is smashing the opposition so in that sense he'll always give it his all when it's really needed.

gilchrist like bradman is self-picked imo. people say it's an all time team you don't need a keeper for batting so pick one for their glove work. i don't care what anyone says gilchrist was a terrific keeper, on top of that he could change a test match with his bat in 20 minutes something which is a rare trait even for all time great batsmen and he does it averaging 47, i mean think about it 17 test tons, and 26 half centuries as a #7, strike rate of nearly 82. basically his batting is on par with all time great batsmen and on top of that his keeping is almost up there with all time great glovemen, he kept to warne which would have been one of the toughest tasks in cricket history. oh and something people have probably forgotten but he actually did captain australia in test cricket.

[Dilscoop]

For the next rounds lets go by decades or era.

Lets do a Pre-ODI era, ODI era/modern era, and invention of T20 era (which will obviously be the weakest as it is still in progress).

[Navo]

I like the lists on this thread. You know how many people know about Sir Viv or Imran Khan or Gary Sobers without being particularly well informed or passionate about cricket? Which of the current cricketers do you think will have such an impression on the lay public 20 years from now?

[AsifTheManRahman]

Gowza, no Allan Border? Or Ricky Ponting? Guess he loses out to Don Bradman?
<br />Posted via BC Mobile Edition (Blackberry)

[Gowza]

Gowza, no Allan Border? Or Ricky Ponting? Guess he loses out to Don Bradman?
<br />Posted via BC Mobile Edition (Blackberry)

yeah ponting misses out because of bradman, border is probably interchangeable with s.waugh i guess but personally i prefer waugh, they would be batting at #5 or #6, border (ave 52) is better at #6 than waugh (ave 49) but waugh (ave 56) is better than border (ave 52) at #5.

unless you drop miller but then you are a bowler short imo, for an all time team it's best to have 5 genuine bowling options if possible so dropping miller means just 4 bowling options.

but if you are fine with just 4 bowling options then miller can be changed for border.

[AsifTheManRahman]

Border was a decent ODI bowler and handy, but not great, in Tests. If you pick Waugh and Border, they can share 5th bowler responsibilities. I guess Miller gets the chop in that case.

This is for Tests right?

[Gowza]

yeah it's for tests, personally i wouldn't feel comfortable with border and waugh as my fifth bowling option in tests, miller gets in because he's one of the best fast bowlers ever and was a genuine batsman, i feel you lose more with border/waugh as the fifth bowling option than miller being a top 6 bat mainly because miller had the capability of being a genuine bat and did play many great innings whereas neither waugh nor border can pass as a genuine bowler. in ODIs they wouldn't be so bad but in tests, i need a better fifth bowler.

[BrianLara7]

No offense but there can be no Australian all time test xi without Allan border. This guy picked them up from the shambles they used to be pre 87 world cup and turned them into world beaters and was the main reason that Australia was probably the greatest team ever and dominated in the 90's and 00's. He is massively underrated by all except his contemporaries, Steve waugh and Mark taylor themselves would admit that they owe much of their success to AB. Averaging 50 while playing in the 80's was one of the toughest tasks in cricket, only couple of other batsman have done it, combined with his unbelievable average outside Australia which was even better than his average at home.

[Gowza]

the 90s was also an extremely tough era to bat with so many great fast bowling attacks: waqar and wasim. walsh, ambrose, bishop. pollock, donald, de villiers. angus fraser and darren gough. streak. and australia had mcgrath, gillespie and mcdermott though obviously the aussie batsmen didn't face these guys in internationals. pakistan, WI, SA and australia all had incredible attacks in the 90s. add warne, murali, saqlain and kumble to those fast bowling units and batsmen had a pretty tough tim in the 90s.

[Gowza]

WI all time XI

1 greenidge
2 hunte
3 headley
4 lara/worrell/weekes/kanhai
5 viv richards
6 sobers
7 walcott
8 marshall
9 holding
10 ambrose
11 garner/gibbs

i think the WI XI is possibly the most straight forward one to select. hunte and greendige are their 2 best openers, the other contenders being fredericks and haynes. headley undoubtedly their best #3. lara gets the #4 spot, averaged 60 there, though he was best at #3 you can't move headley from the #3 spot. viv takes the #5 spot, he was best at #3 like lara but as said can't move headley, #5 was his next best spot. sobers at #6. walcott is their best keeper batsman. then a 4 man pace attack most likely, gibbs if you want a spinner. sobers can chip in with the ball both pace and spin. 5 genuine bowling options with sobers and either 4 pacers or 3 pacers and a spinner. 7 genuine batsmen with walcott at #7 and marshall being decent at #8.

[thebest]

ATG Indian Subcontinent Test XI

1. Sourav Ganguly (C)
2. Sachin Tendulkar
3. Rahul Dravid (in the Subcontinent)/VVS Laxman (outside the Subcontinent)
4. Mahela Jayawardene
5. Javed Miandad
6. Aravinda de Silva
7. Kumar Sangakkara (WK)
8. Shakib Al Hasan (in the Subcontinent)/Imran Khan (outside the Subcontinent)
9. Wasim Akram
10. Waqar Younis
11. Muttiah Muralitharan
Sohel bhai,
This is surprising selection from a cricket sage like you and who did not grown up in internet age. Ganguly would not get a place in Indian all time test XI let SubContinent one and Dravid is better player in overseas condition then in subcontinent. Jaya as graceful player as he, but a FTB; Non Subcontinental test team could be without Hanif Md and Sunny.
My team would consist 2 opener, 3 middle order, 1 Wk (does not matter whether he could bat or not), 1 all rounder, 3 pacer and 1 spinner.
for opener there is no choice
1. Hanif mohammad and 2. S Gavasker. Honorable mention Shehwag and Watemuny
The most headache is middle order and two place is certainly occupy. those are tendy and miandad. For the remaining spot the contenders are Dravid, J Abbas, De Silva, Mendis, Sangakara, Youhanna, Vishy, Vengsarker, Laxman, Ganguly. My sentimental favorite would is Silva/ Abbas just the openers are accumulators. However the logical choice is Dravid. Sub continent has only 2 worthy all rounders - Kapil and Imran and the choice is simple. I belive Sakib has not yet reach their levels. As Imran is pace bowler we could play two spinners. The contenders - Murali, Qadir, Kumble, Indian famous quartet, Sakib and Saqlain. My picks are Murali and Qadir. Akram is sure shot for pacer position. For the other contenders are waqar, shoib, srinath, the tainted asif and Sarfaraz Newaz. As I could not decide between waqar and shoib I would let you decide. The W/K position is a tussle between W Bari and Kirmani. I am going againest the bald headed because of Bari's experience against quality fast bowler . So my all time sub continental XI in batting order
1. Gavasker
2. Hanif
3. Dravid
4. Tendy
5. Miandad
6. Imran
7. Bari
8. Akram
9. Waqar
10.Qadir
11. Murali

[Gowza]

i think imran batting at #6 in an all time team makes the batting a bit weak, especially with bari batting at #7....if sangakkara doesn't make it as the #3 he should make it as the keeper imo. shakib is a great option even in an all time team because he can be a great #7/8/9 and is also a quality spinner. with shakib in the team and imran then you can have terrific depth in the batting and a bowling attack as good as any.

if you have sanga as your keeper then he can bat at #6, he averages 40+ as a keeper in 81 innings, 7 centuries, 11 half centuries. sanga playing as keeper in tests batted at #3 most of the time and actually averaged over 44 batting at #3 while keeping wicket so although he might not have been the best of the best glovemen i think his keeping skills were pretty good and his batting far outweighs any improvement on glovework that bari offered.

so your lower order would look like this:

1
2
3
4
5
6 sangakkara
7 shakib/imran
8 imran/imran
9 wasim
10 waqar
11 murali

in that you get a stronger #6 than imran, you're #7 is exceptionally good for a #7, you're #8 is probably the best #8 ever, you have wasim at #9 which would probably mean you have the best #9 ever. then bowling wise you get 3 all time great pacemen, one of the greatest spinners ever and another spinner who's right up there.

i do see the logic in having 2 all time great spinners but having imran at #6 weakens the batting a lot, it's alright for a normal XI to have your #6 average 37 but in an all time team it's a bit behind par imo. plus bari being in there is a huge weakness in the batting to, he's basically a #10/#11 in quality. murali, qadir and waqar are pretty much #10s/#11s so you're basically only batting down to #7 akram would bat at #7 in that team imo then bari/waqar/qadir/murali). the batting isn't there.

plus compare shakib's bowling numbers to qadir's. qadir averages worse than shakib, their economys are about similar, but shakib has a much better strike rate. shakib also gets 3.7 wickets a match to qadir's 3.5, not to much difference there but remember shakib often doesn't get a 2nd innings to bowl in, and if he did you'd expect that wickets per match stat to go up.

[Crisis]

Asia All-time flops XI ?

[Crisis]

Asia All-time flops XI ?

1. Ashraful
2. Shahriar Nafees
3. Shahadat Hossain
4. Rakibul
5. Sunil Joshi
6. Rohan Gavaskar
7. Mehrab Hossain Snr.
8. Abul Hasan
9.Upul Chandana
10. Farhad Reza
11. Habibul Bashar ( c )

[Crisis]

ASIA All-time best ODI XI

1. Sachin
2. Ganguly
3. Dravid
4. Dhoni
5. Inzamam
6. Jayasuriya
7. Vaas
8. Anil Kumble
9. Wasim Akram
10. Waqar Younis
11. Muralitharan

Beat that! Funny how all of us are selecting almost the same players. Great minds think alike!

[Crisis]

WORLD All-time non-Asia best ODI XI

1. Ricky Ponting
2. Steve Waugh
3. Mark Boucher
4. Brian Lara
5. Andrew Flintoff
6. Chris Gayle
7. Andy Flower
8. Lance Klussener
9. Jhonty Rhodes
10. Shane Warne
11.Stephen Fleming

Can't think of any fast ballers. Brett Lee ? Pollock ?

[Gowza]

WORLD All-time non-Asia best ODI XI

1. Ricky Ponting
2. Steve Waugh
3. Mark Boucher
4. Brian Lara
5. Andrew Flintoff
6. Chris Gayle
7. Andy Flower
8. Lance Klussener
9. Jhonty Rhodes
10. Shane Warne
11.Stephen Fleming

Can't think of any fast ballers. Brett Lee ? Pollock ?

shaun pollock, allan donald, glenn mcgrath, dennis lillee, hadlee, marshall, holding, ambrose, roberts, garner. probably a few i've missed but plenty of fast bowlers to choose from.

btw gilchrist or dhoni for keeper spot, even sanga is a possible choice.

few qustions though, why are ponitng and steve waugh opening? why is gayle at #6? why do you have 2 keepers? why is boucher batting at #3 and fleming at #11, and jonty rhodes at #9. is this just a list or the batting order? definitely need more specialist bowlers in there.

[Crisis]

shaun pollock, allan donald, glenn mcgrath, dennis lillee, hadlee, marshall, holding, ambrose, roberts, garner. probably a few i've missed but plenty of fast bowlers to choose from.

btw gilchrist or dhoni for keeper spot, even sanga is a possible choice.

few qustions though, why are ponitng and steve waugh opening? why is gayle at #6? why do you have 2 keepers? why is boucher batting at #3 and fleming at #11, and jonty rhodes at #9. is this just a list or the batting order? definitely need more specialist bowlers in there.

Couldnt think of any ballers when making the list. Now that you have made some recommendations, I can go back and change the list :)

[al Furqaan]

All time All-rounders XI (Tests)

Kallis, Imran, Dev, Botham, Hadlee, Sobers, Pollock, Shakib, Flintoff, Broad, Vettori

1) Imran
2) Vettori
3) Sobers
4) Kallis
5) Shakib
6) Botham
7) Vettori
8) Flintoff
9) Shaun Pollock
10) Hadlee
11) Stuart Broad

Try-outs for keeper position among the XI.

[BrianLara7]

All time All-rounders XI (Tests)

Kallis, Imran, Dev, Botham, Hadlee, Sobers, Pollock, Shakib, Flintoff, Broad, Vettori

1) Imran
2) Vettori
3) Sobers
4) Kallis
5) Shakib
6) Botham
7) Vettori
8) Flintoff
9) Shaun Pollock
10) Hadlee
11) Stuart Broad

Try-outs for keeper position among the XI.

Shane watson- average 41 in odis with bat, 28 with with ball.
average 37 in tests with bat , 28 with ball.
One of the most destructive odi/ t20 batsman ever. And he can't get in team ahead of Shakib, Vettori, Broad, Flintoff.. LOL

[AsifTheManRahman]

If we're just going by stats, Chris Cairns, Sanath Jayasuriya, Kapil Dev, even Mohammad Hafeez and Shahid Afridi, to name a few, have comparable (and possibly slightly better than in some cases) stats in Tests. Shakib might have the potential to be much better, not sure. We'll see, but I don't think he's a "great" yet.

[BrianLara7]

If we're just going by stats, Chris Cairns, Sanath Jayasuriya, Kapil Dev, even Mohammad Hafeez and Shahid Afridi, to name a few, have comparable (and possibly slightly better than in some cases) stats in Tests. Shakib might have the potential to be much better, not sure. We'll see, but I don't think he's a "great" yet.

If it's supposed to be subjective then you can't argue any list... but stats are the only thing that can't be argued against.. and it's not just sheer numbers either.. a player with 5 thousand runs at average of 40 is significantly better in my opinion than someone with 8 thousand runs at average of 30. jayasuriya/ afridi can't stake a claim based upon their numbers in quality.. only longevity.

[TimAus]

All time All-rounders XI (Tests)

Kallis, Imran, Dev, Botham, Hadlee, Sobers, Pollock, Shakib, Flintoff, Broad, Vettori

1) Imran
2) Vettori
3) Sobers
4) Kallis
5) Shakib
6) Botham
7) Vettori
8) Flintoff
9) Shaun Pollock
10) Hadlee
11) Stuart Broad

Try-outs for keeper position among the XI.

You must rate Vettori highly, at number 2 and number 7. Personally I'd have: Jayasuriya, Kallis, Sobers, Miller, Imran, Dev, Botham, Greig, Procter, Benaud, Hadlee. My guess is that Sobers would keep, that guy can do anything.

[Gowza]

all time T20 XI

1 gayle
2 marsh
3 mccullum
4 aaron finch
5 pietersen
6 mike hussey
7 david hussey/afridi
8 swann/ajmal
9 malinga/steyn/gul
10 malinga/steyn/gul
11 mendis

[One World]

All time Non-English LORD's 11 - Test

Adam Gilchrist (wk)
Tamim Iqbal
Steve Waugh
Gary Sobers
Shivnarine Chanderpaul
Alan Border(c)
Mohsin Khan
Dion Nash (pace-allrounder)
Makhaya Ntini
Glenn McGrath
Maninder Singh (SLA)


:waiting:

[One World]

ALL TIME NON-BD SBNS 11 - ODI

Saeed Anwar
Sachin Tendulkar
Mohammad Yousuf
Shivnarine Chanderpaul
Andrew Flower (c)
Mark Boucher (wk)
Jacques Kallis
Abdul Razzaq
Vasbert Drakes
Azit Agarkar
Saqlain Mushtaq

(Will change with time...)

[One World]

all time T20 XI

1 gayle
2 marsh
3 mccullum
4 aaron finch
5 pietersen
6 mike hussey
7 david hussey/afridi
8 swann/ajmal
9 malinga/steyn/gul
10 malinga/steyn/gul
11 mendis

Narine?

[mufi_02]

All time Non-English LORD's 11 - Test

Adam Gilchrist (wk)
Tamim Iqbal
Steve Waugh
Gary Sobers
Shivnarine Chanderpaul
Alan Border(c)
Mohsin Khan
Dion Nash (pace-allrounder)
Makhaya Ntini
Glenn McGrath
Maninder Singh (SLA)


:waiting:

Not too sure about Tamim and Ntini. Replace Ntini with Geoff Lawson.

[One World]

Not too sure about Tamim and Ntini. Replace Ntini with Geoff Lawson.

I am not sure about openers other than Tamim, you can consider this as a guess with less information. I think if Ntini then why not Lawson. But if we strictly go by records then none can beat the phenomenal Robert Arnold Lockyer Massie (http://www.espncricinfo.com/ci/content/player/6518.html)

[Gowza]

Narine?

narine was a thought and could possibly be in there but he has similar stats to the others. similar to mendis in general t20s but in t20Is mendis is averaging 10, 11 strike rate while narine is at an average of 18 and 17 strike rate. swann has similar bowling averages but a better batting pedigree, so that has to be considered being t20s. ajmal has similar averages but a better strike rate.

i think mendis is an auto in this format, at least going by current stats (might change as we've all seen his fall in the other formats and it could happen in t20s as well). the other spinner spot i guess is up for grabs but when you compare swann to narine you're not losing anything with the ball and getting more with the bat, whilst ajmal doesn't add with the bat but has a lot more t20 experience and comparable stats to narine.

[One World]

1. Ashraful
2. Shahriar Nafees
3. Shahadat Hossain
4. Rakibul
5. Sunil Joshi
6. Rohan Gavaskar
7. Mehrab Hossain Snr.
8. Abul Hasan
9.Upul Chandana
10. Farhad Reza
11. Habibul Bashar ( c )

Who is the keeper? You missed a lot of Indian greats like Mohammad Kaif, Vinod Kambli, Venkatesh Prasad etc. Few Lankans also count in, who had greater promise than Nirala, SN, Opi but failed miserably. Too many Bangladeshis, btw Bashar won't be considered a complete flop by many after leading a minnow team in 2007 QF.

Also, is it for all versions or just test/ODI/T20I?

[Zeeshan]

Duck XI
Habibul Bashar
Tamim Iqbal (v/c)
Mohammad Ashraful (c)
Shahriar Nafees
Khaled Mahmud
Mushfiqur Rahim (w/k)
Shafiul Islam
Tushar Imran
Abdur Razzak
Mashrafe Mortaza
Mohammad Rafique

[Zeeshan]

The Z XI (take that Steven Lynch!!)
<table><tbody><tr> <td class="sep" style="width:630px;"> <table> <tbody><tr> <td class="ciPlayerserialno"> 1</td> <td class="ciPlayernames"> Zabid Hossain (1991- ) (http://www.espncricinfo.com/bangladesh/content/player/301864.html) </td> </tr> </tbody></table> </td> </tr> <tr> <td class="sep" style="width:630px;"> <table> <tbody><tr> <td class="ciPlayerserialno"> 2</td> <td class="ciPlayernames"> Zahid Razzak (1967- ) (http://www.espncricinfo.com/bangladesh/content/player/56165.html) </td> </tr> </tbody></table> </td> </tr> <tr> <td class="sep" style="width:630px;"> <table> <tbody><tr> <td class="ciPlayerserialno"> 3</td> <td class="ciPlayernames"> Zahurul Islam, M (Zahurul Islam, 1986- ) (http://www.espncricinfo.com/bangladesh/content/player/56170.html) </td> </tr> </tbody></table> </td> </tr> <tr> <td class="sep" style="width:630px;"> <table> <tbody><tr> <td class="ciPlayerserialno"> 4</td> <td class="ciPlayernames"> Zakaria Masud (http://www.espncricinfo.com/bangladesh/content/player/550134.html) </td> </tr> </tbody></table> </td> </tr> <tr> <td class="sep" style="width:630px;"> <table> <tbody><tr> <td class="ciPlayerserialno"> 5</td> <td class="ciPlayernames"> Zakir Hasan (1972- ) (http://www.espncricinfo.com/bangladesh/content/player/56166.html) </td> </tr> </tbody></table> </td> </tr> <tr> <td class="sep" style="width:630px;"> <table> <tbody><tr> <td class="ciPlayerserialno"> 6</td> <td class="ciPlayernames"> Zakir Hossain (1977- ) (http://www.espncricinfo.com/bangladesh/content/player/56173.html) </td> </tr> </tbody></table> </td> </tr> <tr> <td class="sep" style="width:630px;"> <table> <tbody><tr> <td class="ciPlayerserialno"> 7</td> <td class="ciPlayernames"> Ziaul Haque (1972- ) (http://www.espncricinfo.com/bangladesh/content/player/56171.html) </td> </tr> </tbody></table> </td> </tr> <tr> <td class="sep" style="width:630px;"> <table> <tbody><tr> <td class="ciPlayerserialno"> 8</td> <td class="ciPlayernames"> Ziaul Islam (1952- ) (http://www.espncricinfo.com/bangladesh/content/player/56174.html) </td> </tr> </tbody></table> </td> </tr> <tr> <td class="sep" style="width:630px;"> <table> <tbody><tr> <td class="ciPlayerserialno"> 9</td> <td class="ciPlayernames"> Ziaul Islam (http://www.espncricinfo.com/bangladesh/content/player/330894.html) </td> </tr> </tbody></table> </td> </tr> <tr> <td class="sep" style="width:630px;"> <table> <tbody><tr> <td class="ciPlayerserialno"> 10</td> <td class="ciPlayernames"> Ziaur Rahman (1986- ) (http://www.espncricinfo.com/bangladesh/content/player/56167.html) </td> </tr> </tbody></table> </td> </tr> <tr> <td class="sep" style="width:630px;"> <table> <tbody><tr> <td class="ciPlayerserialno"> 11</td> <td class="ciPlayernames"> Ziaur Rashid (1968- ) (http://www.espncricinfo.com/bangladesh/content/player/56172.html)</td></tr></tbody></table></td></tr></tbody></table>

[Zeeshan]

The Prophetic XI

<table><tbody><tr><td class="sep" style="width:630px;"><table> <tbody><tr> <td class="ciPlayerserialno"> 1
</td> <td class="ciPlayernames"> Mohammad Ashraful (1984- ) (http://www.espncricinfo.com/bangladesh/content/player/55988.html) </td> </tr> </tbody></table> </td> </tr> <tr> <td class="sep" style="width:630px;"> <table> <tbody><tr> <td class="ciPlayerserialno"> 2
</td> <td class="ciPlayernames"> Mohammad Azim (http://www.espncricinfo.com/bangladesh/content/player/270250.html) </td> </tr> </tbody></table> </td> </tr> <tr> <td class="sep" style="width:630px;"> <table> <tbody><tr> <td class="ciPlayerserialno"> 3
</td> <td class="ciPlayernames"> Mohammad Forkan (1992- ) (http://www.espncricinfo.com/bangladesh/content/player/544832.html) </td> </tr> </tbody></table> </td> </tr> <tr> <td class="sep" style="width:630px;"> <table> <tbody><tr> <td class="ciPlayerserialno"> 4
</td> <td class="ciPlayernames"> Mohammad Kalim (1983- ) (http://www.espncricinfo.com/bangladesh/content/player/55980.html) </td> </tr> </tbody></table> </td> </tr> <tr> <td class="sep" style="width:630px;"> <table> <tbody><tr> <td class="ciPlayerserialno"> 5
</td> <td class="ciPlayernames"> Mohammad Mahmood (http://www.espncricinfo.com/bangladesh/content/player/281072.html) </td> </tr> </tbody></table> </td> </tr> <tr> <td class="sep" style="width:630px;"> <table> <tbody><tr> <td class="ciPlayerserialno"> 6
</td> <td class="ciPlayernames"> Mohammad Mostadir (1977- ) (http://www.espncricinfo.com/bangladesh/content/player/56005.html) </td> </tr> </tbody></table> </td> </tr> <tr> <td class="sep" style="width:630px;"> <table> <tbody><tr> <td class="ciPlayerserialno"> 6</td> <td class="ciPlayernames"> Mohammad Rafique (1970- ) (http://www.espncricinfo.com/bangladesh/content/player/55973.html) </td> </tr> </tbody></table> </td> </tr> <tr> <td class="sep" style="width:630px;"> <table> <tbody><tr> <td class="ciPlayerserialno"> 7
</td> <td class="ciPlayernames"> Mohammad Rahi (1986- ) (http://www.espncricinfo.com/bangladesh/content/player/383426.html) </td> </tr> </tbody></table> </td> </tr> <tr> <td class="sep" style="width:630px;"> <table> <tbody><tr> <td class="ciPlayerserialno"> 8
</td> <td class="ciPlayernames"> Mohammad Rashed (http://www.espncricinfo.com/bangladesh/content/player/56030.html) </td> </tr> </tbody></table> </td> </tr> <tr> <td class="sep" style="width:630px;"> <table> <tbody><tr> <td class="ciPlayerserialno"> 9
</td> <td class="ciPlayernames"> Mohammad Robin (http://www.espncricinfo.com/bangladesh/content/player/242210.html) </td> </tr> </tbody></table> </td> </tr> <tr> <td class="sep" style="width:630px;"> <table> <tbody><tr> <td class="ciPlayernames">10 Mohammad Rubel (http://www.espncricinfo.com/bangladesh/content/player/400582.html)
<table><tbody><tr> <td class="ciPlayerserialno"> 11
</td> <td class="ciPlayernames"> Mohammad Younus (http://www.espncricinfo.com/bangladesh/content/player/287880.html)</td></tr></tbody></table></td></tr></tbody></table></td></tr></tbody></table>

[Zeeshan]

The Domestic Double XI
i. Mohammad Ashraful
ii. Habibul Bashar
iii. Minhajul Abedin
iiii.Khaled Masud Pilot
iiiii.Hasnuzzaman
vi.Nazimuddin
vii.Rokibul Hasan
viii. Farhad Hossain
viiii.Marshall Ayub
x. Mehrab Hossain
xi. [to be edited]

[Zeeshan]

ki bepar tomra keu amar sathe khelte chacho na kano?

how about Bowler "first ball wicket" XI???

[nadim 98]

Nijer thread nijei hit bananor chesta. I see;)
<br />Posted via BC Mobile Edition (Opera Mobile)

[Nocturnal]

Bangladesh Coach 11 :)
-------------------------------

1. Gordon Greenedge
2. Jamie Siddons
3. Dav Whatmore
4. Eddie Barlow
5. Stuart Law
6. Mahindar Amarnath
7. Richard Pybus
8. Saqlain Mushtaq
9. Ian Pont
10.Trevor Chappell
11. Mohsin Kamal

[Moriarty]

All time Asian XI

1. Sunil Gavaskar
2. Sanath Jayasuriya
3. Sachin Tendulkar
4. Kumara Sangakkara (wk)
5. Inzimam-ul-Haq
6. Imran Khan (C)
7. Wasim Akram
8. Waqar Younis
9. Abdul Qadir
10. Muttiah Muralitharan
11. Shoaib Akhtar

[Cric Boss]

World 11 at this moment
13/01/13
test:
1. A Cook (vc)
2. H Amla
3. Cs Pujara
4. K Sangakara (w)
5. M Clarke (c)
6. Sn Chanderpaul
7. Fs Du Plessis
8. M Johnson
9. S Ajmal
10. D Styen
11. Philander
ODI:
1. N Jamshed
2. H Amla
3. V Kohli
4. Ab de Villias (vc)
5. Shakib All Hassan
6. Ms Dhoni (c + w)
7. K Petersen
8. S Ajmal
9. Junayed Khan
10. M Sturck
11. M Morkel
T20:
1. C Gayle (vc)
2. A Hales
3. S Watson (c)
4. Tm Dilshan
5. M Samuels
6. Yuvraj Sing
7. Morgan
8. K Pollard
9. S Narine
10. R Rampaul
11. L Malinga
<br />Posted via BC Mobile Edition (Opera Mobile)

[One World]

:-p Noc, you beat me to it. I had this in mind to make a coach 11 but that was for the world.

OW Asia XI

1.Saeed Anwar
2.Tamim Iqbal
3. Sachin Tendulkar
4. Inzamamul Haque
5. Aravinda De Silva
6. Kumar Sangakara (wk)
7. Imran Khan (c)
8. Shakib Al Hasan
9. Wasim Akram
10. WUJPV Chaminda Vaas
11. Abdul Qadir

Unless Tendulkar goes for century or Hariharan comes for umpiring, it will be another century of centuries before this team gets beaten by any other Asian combination.

[Matribhasha]

Bekar manusher XI

[Gowza]

my all time test XI as i'm feeling it right now:

1 barry richards (didn't play much test cricket but no doubt in my mind one of the best openers ever)
2 jack hobbs (scored all around the world consistently at brisk pace)
3 don bradman (the best batsman ever)
4 greg chappell/sachin tendulkar (to close to pick atm)
5 viv richards (consistency and demolition ability)
6 garry sobers (one of the greatest sportsmen ever born)
7 adam gilchrist (the greatest wicky batsman of all time, not just for his batting but his keeping also)
8 warne/murali (obviously the 2 best spinners ever, selection depends on conditions and opponents weaknesses)
9 malcolm marshall (complete fast bowler)
10 waqar younis (blistering pace and swing)
11 donald/procter (can't decided between them atm - i like donald for his pace, bounce and aggressive style but proctor had batting up his sleeve and his bowling off the wrong foot)

[salman2510]

My All Time XI would be -

Sachin Tendulkar
Adam Gilcrist (wk)
Brain Lara
Inzamamul Haq
Jaque Kallis
Shane Watson
Imran Khan (C)
Wasim Akram
Glenn Mcgrath
Mutaiah Murlidharan
Shane Warne

[Gowza]

My All Time XI would be -

Sachin Tendulkar
Adam Gilcrist (wk)
Brain Lara
Inzamamul Haq
Jaque Kallis
Shane Watson
Imran Khan (C)
Wasim Akram
Glenn Mcgrath
Mutaiah Murlidharan
Shane Warne

is this a test or ODI XI? also if it's a test XI gilchrist opening is a a bit much no? and shane watson....the rest are all great selections.

[Gowza]

ok so my revised test XI:

1 Barry Richards
2 Jack Hobbs
3 Don Bradman
4 Chappell/Tendulkar
5 Viv Richards
6 Garry Sobers
7 Adam Gilchrist
8 Mike Procter (he also bowled a bit of offspin btw)
9 Malcolm Marshall
10 Warne/Murali
11 Waqar Younis

[riankhan]

My all time XI will be:

1 Graeme Pollock
2 Brian Lara
3 Don Bradman
4 Tendulkar
5 Viv Richards
6 Jack Kallis
7 Adam Gilchrist
8 Wasim Akram
9 Marshal
10 Warne
11 Murali

[Gowza]

allrounders XI:

1 watson
2 barlow
3 kallis
4 sobers
5 miller
6 shakib (needed a top 6 batsman and someone who is good enough to be picked purely as a spinner)
7 gilchrist
8 procter
9 imran
10 akram
11 hadlee

12th man: chris cairns

[salman2510]

is this a test or ODI XI? also if it's a test XI gilchrist opening is a a bit much no? and shane watson....the rest are all great selections.

Its an ODI team !! and i agree, for TEST Gilly would be be a bit too much !!

[Zeeshan]

The Esh

1.Mohammad Ashraful
2.Ash, DL (http://search.espncricinfo.com/ci/content/player/8789.html) David Ash, 1944-England
3. Ash, EP (http://search.espncricinfo.com/ci/content/player/8790.html) Edward Ash, 1842-1909 England
4.Ash, RC (http://search.espncricinfo.com/ci/content/player/333014.html) Rohan Ash, 1976- Turks and Caicos Islands
5. Ash, SAH (http://search.espncricinfo.com/ci/content/player/8891.html) Selby Ash, 1836-1870 England
6. Cutler, ASH (http://search.espncricinfo.com/ci/content/player/36800.html) Arthur Cutler, 1913-1997 New Zealand
7. Gowers, A (http://search.espncricinfo.com/ci/content/player/568366.html) Ash Gowers, 1994- England
8. Perera, AJW (http://search.espncricinfo.com/ci/content/player/266221.html) Ash Perera, 1982-
9. Mohammad Ashraful
10. Mohammad Ashraful
11.Turner, AD (http://search.espncricinfo.com/ci/content/player/38697.html) Ash Turner, 1975-New Zealand

[One World]

This.XI (Current Test Eleven)

1. Chetasswar Pujara
2. Hashim Amla
3. Shivnarine Chanderpaul
4. KC Sangakkara
5. Alistair Cook (c)
6. Mahendra Sing Dhoni (w)
7. Faff Du Plesis
8. Ravichandran Ashwin
9. Shakib Al Hasan
10. Steyn
11. Philander

[Gowza]

This.XI (Current Test Eleven)

1. Chetasswar Pujara
2. Hashim Amla
3. Shivnarine Chanderpaul
4. KC Sangakkara
5. Alistair Cook (c)
6. Mahendra Sing Dhoni (w)
7. Faff Du Plesis
8. Ravichandran Ashwin
9. Shakib Al Hasan
10. Steyn
11. Philander

No Clarke? Also a but risky putting pujara and Amla to open, they're #3s in tests.

[One World]

No Clarke? Also a but risky putting pujara and Amla to open, they're #3s in tests.

Great point man, funny that I had Clarke in mind when I was thinking of the post and completely missed him while posting.

[Gowza]

allrounders XI:

1 watson
2 barlow
3 kallis
4 sobers
5 miller
6 shakib (needed a top 6 batsman and someone who is good enough to be picked purely as a spinner)
7 gilchrist
8 procter
9 imran
10 akram
11 hadlee

12th man: chris cairns

now i'd probably remove cairns from the 12th man spot and have jack gregory, actually gregory could possibly take the spot of wasim or hadlee as he'd strengthen the batting and since you would already have imran, miller, procter and one of wasim/hadlee as the pacers gregory shouldn't take much away from the pace unit.

[Gowza]

now i'd probably remove cairns from the 12th man spot and have jack gregory, actually gregory could possibly take the spot of wasim or hadlee as he'd strengthen the batting and since you would already have imran, miller, procter and one of wasim/hadlee as the pacers gregory shouldn't take much away from the pace unit.

another edit. greig takes the #8 spot and procter takes wasim's spot. and goddard contends for an opener spot. so:

1 goddard/watson
2 barlow
3 kallis
4 sobers
5 miller
6 shakib
7 gilchrist
8 greig
9 imran
10 procter
11 hadlee

could possibly take shaun pollock ahead of hadlee but hadlee has the better strike rate and better average as a bowler, he has the same number of test tons as pollock with many less matches, a higher highest score in tests and FC cricket and he scored more than double the amount of tons in FC cricket than pollock (14 to 6) and more half tons (59 to 35). granted hadlee played many more matches but he just has a slightly better resume plus he's a better overall bowler and being that they'll be batting at #11 i think the batting is pretty much similar if not hadlee possibly slightly better and hadlee is also a slightly better bowler.

[Gowza]

if you had marshall, warne, procter and sobers already in your team who bowled, would you take imran or waqar to compliment them? don't say wasim, i'm well aware of his abilities, but he underachieved, his stats don't stack up quite as well. procter bowls with sheer pacer, and is aggressive and ruthless, marshall is quick but also swings it and is considered the most complete fast bowler of all time, i thought someone to reverse it would be a good addition to the attack. imran has a plus with his batting but since it's an all time team the batting side of it isn't necessary though would be a great bonus but the main thing is who would be the best bowler to go with procter, marshall, warne and sobers.

i like waqar for his pace, low strike rate, reversing ability and that he took a lot of wickets bowled and lbw. i like imran for his consistency across the world and reversing ability. both were quite destructive. imran was probably the more complete bowler but i can't get waqar's inswingers out of my mind which would destroy the tail enders. saw waqar quite a bit, didn't get to see much of imran.

[Gowza]

My revised 1st and 2nd XI All Time

1st XI:

1 Jack Hobbs
2 Barry Richards
3 Don Bradman
4 Graeme Pollock
5 Viv Richards
6 Garry Sobers
7 Adam Gilchrist
8 Mike Procter
9 Imran Khan
10 Malcolm Marshall
11 Shane Warne

if you've ever researched jack hobbs you'll know why he's the #1 pick opener for me, some consider him the best after bradman, though it's very subjective and there are a few contenders he's the only opener with significant test experience to be given this honour, a pretty great close in fielder to. barry richards is the other opener who might be grouped in with those that are considered to be best after bradman though he gets discounted quite often as he didn't play many tests, unfortunate as it is i still rate him as one of the 2 best openers of all time. also was a great slipper.

bradman, no need to say anything really, averages nearly 100, from what was recorded his strike rate was around in the mid 70s in tests. pollock, another one that by some is considered the best after bradman, like barry richards didn't get to play much because of circumstance but boy was he a sight, amazing brilliant batsman and for me the best #4 of all time, another one who was a good fielder even in the slips. viv richards, so dominant, has an aurora about him, could take on the very best bowlers and succeed, also considered by some the next best after bradman and yes like the others above him a great fielder especially in the slips. garry sobers, he's in my team purely for his batting but adds with his fielding and 3 different types of bowling plus the left arm. garry is amazing, and what he adds to a team is amazing, one of the best batsmen of all time, one of the best fielders of all time, a really good left arm swing bowler, also bowled SLA and chinaman, you don't get many left arm chinaman bowlers and this adds to my all time XI attack.

gilchrist, incredible batsman, but also an incredible keeper. personally i rate him above healy as a keeper and healy is rated one of the best of all time so for me that puts his keeping ability right there up in the top echelon of all time keepers, purely on the keeping level. add to that his batting ability.

mike procter, very classy looking with the bat and very powerful, scored tons of FC runs, 48 tons, also scored 6 consecutive tons as well which not many have ever done. again he didn't get to play much but i still rate him as the best. bowling wise got a truckload of wickets at a strike rate in the mid 40s in FC cricket, was even better in the few tests he played. as a bowler he was fiery, tremendous pace, great bouncer and a wicket taker. he also bowled some decent offspin and could take wickets with it.

imran is there for his ATG bowling and really solid batting. the fact that i put procter above imran in the batting order isn't discounting imran but just saying how great of a cricketer mike procter truly was. imran's batting was very good and batting at #8, well he'd have to be the best #8 of all time...bowling wise he performed consistently across the globe, bowled conventional swing, reverse swing, good bouncer and at certain points in his career was very rapid (said to be the 3rd fastest at one time behind thomson and holding and they were both 160km/h bowlers). he also tore through quality batting attacks almost single-handed.

malcolm marshall, complete bowler, swung it both ways at express pace, a very dangerous bouncer, strike rate in the mid 40s, performed like imran across the globe. on top of that he could bat quite well with an FC batting average of 24 including 7 tons.

shane warne, considered by many the greatest spinner ever, a great strike rate for a spinner, great variations with his googly, top spinner, flipper, zooter, wrong'un, bouncer (yes he had a bouncer, no it wasn't by accident, though it was very rarely used). also a decent batsman with a couple of FC centuries and 26 FC half centuries, top test score of 99. he was a great slipper as well.

so overall the batting consists of very consistent but aggressive, attacking batsmen who dominated the best attacks across the world. bowling wise there is good variation with conventional swing, good bouncers, express pace, reverse swing, the leg spinner plus the left arm pace of sobers his SLAs and chinaman bowling combined with procters offies means this bowling attack has pretty much every style of bowling and variation that there is to offer.

2nd XI:

1 Len Hutton
2 Sunil Gavaskar
3 George Headley
4 Greg Chappell
5 Sachin Tendulkar
6 Wally Hammond
7 Les Ames
8 Wasim Akram
9 Joel Garner
10 Waqar Younis
11 Muttiah Muralitharan

an explanation to the 2nd XI. i think the batsmen speak for themselves, ames the keeper was picked ahead of guys like flower and knott because he was a high quality keeper but also a decent batsman averaging 40 in tests with 8 centuries (and more than 100 tons in FC cricket average of 43). flower isn't a good keeper and knott although a decent bat wasn't as good as ames, ames was a top quality keeper and one of the best keeper bats of all time (and in his time the best there ever had been).

the bowlers i picked on both quality and variation that's why i have wasim akram who could bowl express pace swing it both ways conventionally, reverse it and also seam it (sometimes doing all that in the same ball). waqar is there for his incredible strike rate, blistering pace and his style of bowling, he attacked the stumps more than other batsmen and it shows as he has a lot more bowled and LBW than fast bowlers usually get. garner is in there because of his nippy pace, incredible height and ability to get the ball on an awkward length with sharp bounce making it almost impossible to score off him, also had a great yorker (just as waqar did). murali there as he can spin it both ways and a great strike rate for a spinner.

[Roey Haque]

My revised 1st and 2nd XI All Time

1st XI:

1 Jack Hobbs
2 Barry Richards
3 Don Bradman
4 Graeme Pollock
5 Viv Richards
6 Garry Sobers
7 Adam Gilchrist
8 Mike Procter
9 Imran Khan
10 Malcolm Marshall
11 Shane Warne

if you've ever researched jack hobbs you'll know why he's the #1 pick opener for me, some consider him the best after bradman, though it's very subjective and there are a few contenders he's the only opener with significant test experience to be given this honour, a pretty great close in fielder to. barry richards is the other opener who might be grouped in with those that are considered to be best after bradman though he gets discounted quite often as he didn't play many tests, unfortunate as it is i still rate him as one of the 2 best openers of all time. also was a great slipper.

bradman, no need to say anything really, averages nearly 100, from what was recorded his strike rate was around in the mid 70s in tests. pollock, another one that by some is considered the best after bradman, like barry richards didn't get to play much because of circumstance but boy was he a sight, amazing brilliant batsman and for me the best #4 of all time, another one who was a good fielder even in the slips. viv richards, so dominant, has an aurora about him, could take on the very best bowlers and succeed, also considered by some the next best after bradman and yes like the others above him a great fielder especially in the slips. garry sobers, he's in my team purely for his batting but adds with his fielding and 3 different types of bowling plus the left arm. garry is amazing, and what he adds to a team is amazing, one of the best batsmen of all time, one of the best fielders of all time, a really good left arm swing bowler, also bowled SLA and chinaman, you don't get many left arm chinaman bowlers and this adds to my all time XI attack.

gilchrist, incredible batsman, but also an incredible keeper. personally i rate him above healy as a keeper and healy is rated one of the best of all time so for me that puts his keeping ability right there up in the top echelon of all time keepers, purely on the keeping level. add to that his batting ability.

mike procter, very classy looking with the bat and very powerful, scored tons of FC runs, 48 tons, also scored 6 consecutive tons as well which not many have ever done. again he didn't get to play much but i still rate him as the best. bowling wise got a truckload of wickets at a strike rate in the mid 40s in FC cricket, was even better in the few tests he played. as a bowler he was fiery, tremendous pace, great bouncer and a wicket taker. he also bowled some decent offspin and could take wickets with it.

imran is there for his ATG bowling and really solid batting. the fact that i put procter above imran in the batting order isn't discounting imran but just saying how great of a cricketer mike procter truly was. imran's batting was very good and batting at #8, well he'd have to be the best #8 of all time...bowling wise he performed consistently across the globe, bowled conventional swing, reverse swing, good bouncer and at certain points in his career was very rapid (said to be the 3rd fastest at one time behind thomson and holding and they were both 160km/h bowlers). he also tore through quality batting attacks almost single-handed.

malcolm marshall, complete bowler, swung it both ways at express pace, a very dangerous bouncer, strike rate in the mid 40s, performed like imran across the globe. on top of that he could bat quite well with an FC batting average of 24 including 7 tons.

shane warne, considered by many the greatest spinner ever, a great strike rate for a spinner, great variations with his googly, top spinner, flipper, zooter, wrong'un, bouncer (yes he had a bouncer, no it wasn't by accident, though it was very rarely used). also a decent batsman with a couple of FC centuries and 26 FC half centuries, top test score of 99. he was a great slipper as well.

so overall the batting consists of very consistent but aggressive, attacking batsmen who dominated the best attacks across the world. bowling wise there is good variation with conventional swing, good bouncers, express pace, reverse swing, the leg spinner plus the left arm pace of sobers his SLAs and chinaman bowling combined with procters offies means this bowling attack has pretty much every style of bowling and variation that there is to offer.

2nd XI:

1 Len Hutton
2 Sunil Gavaskar
3 George Headley
4 Greg Chappell
5 Sachin Tendulkar
6 Wally Hammond
7 Les Ames
8 Wasim Akram
9 Joel Garner
10 Waqar Younis
11 Muttiah Muralitharan

an explanation to the 2nd XI. i think the batsmen speak for themselves, ames the keeper was picked ahead of guys like flower and knott because he was a high quality keeper but also a decent batsman averaging 40 in tests with 8 centuries (and more than 100 tons in FC cricket average of 43). flower isn't a good keeper and knott although a decent bat wasn't as good as ames, ames was a top quality keeper and one of the best keeper bats of all time (and in his time the best there ever had been).

the bowlers i picked on both quality and variation that's why i have wasim akram who could bowl express pace swing it both ways conventionally, reverse it and also seam it (sometimes doing all that in the same ball). waqar is there for his incredible strike rate, blistering pace and his style of bowling, he attacked the stumps more than other batsmen and it shows as he has a lot more bowled and LBW than fast bowlers usually get. garner is in there because of his nippy pace, incredible height and ability to get the ball on an awkward length with sharp bounce making it almost impossible to score off him, also had a great yorker (just as waqar did). murali there as he can spin it both ways and a great strike rate for a spinner.

Love reading all these "all time XI" lists. Especially when they are backed up by justifications for the selections as in your posts. You should make a 3rd team.

[Gowza]

Love reading all these "all time XI" lists. Especially when they are backed up by justifications for the selections as in your posts. You should make a 3rd team.

Thanks. i actually shortened the explanations a bit as to not make the post too long but turned out very long anyway. as for a 3rd XI, i've never really thought about it but will give it ago.

3rd XI:

1 Matthew Hayden
2 Herbert Sutcliffe
3 Jacques Kallis
4 Brian Lara
5 Allan Border
6 AB De Villiers
7 Richard Hadlee
8 Alan Knott
9 SF Barnes
10 Allan Donald
11 Bill O'Reilly

the openers: sutcliffe was an easy choice, for some he is in their 1st XI. averaged 60, partnered jack hobbs so as you can imagine they had an incredible partnership so since sutcliffe averages 60 and was apart of probably the best opening batting partnership ever he gets into my 3rd XI. hayden edged out sehwag, reason for that was sehwag's poor record in england, NZ and south africa, not that hayden had amazing records their but he did have a solid to great record everywhere whereas sehwag has a much better record in Asia and not very good in some of the other conditions.

#3: kallis, edged out dravid, ponting and sangakkara. dravid has the slower strike rate is was edged it for kallis of dravid, and that kallis scored in a slightly more balanced way across all conditions than dravid did. kallis nudged ahead of ponting due to ponting's record in india, he had more than enough matches and couldn't conquer it near well enough so that's a big hole in his record. sangakkara has a solid record everywhere but kallis's record in his home country south africa where the ball does a lot more for pacers is what edged kallis in this one.

middle order: lara grabs the #4 spot, dominated attacks, struggled against quality pace (look at his record against guys like akram, waqar, mcgrath, donald/pollock, ambrose/walsh etc) but one of the greatest against spin and medium fast bowlers. plus has the record highest test score. allan border pretty much conquered everywhere with great consistency, lowest average is 38 in south africa but 38 is still good and he did only play 3 matches there. everywhere else he managed to average at least 45+. de villiers, shocking it maybe but he's there. his worst average is 33 in Bangladesh but he only played 2 matches for that, everywhere else it's 43+ so he gets in for his flare and consistency across all conditions.

#7: the allrounder hadlee gets in. this fight was between haddles, shakib and miller. i ended up picking hadlee because his bowling was ahead of both shakib and miller. shakib and miller were better bats but if you look at hadlee's FC record he averaged over 30 with the bat and scored 14 tons and that's very good for a #7, i think as an overall package he offers a bit more. shakib was very close here, since he spins it SLA and it would have added some great variation to the attack but i couldn't resist the pacey corridor 5fer man hadlee. perhaps if i revise this team shakib may make it over hadlee depending on the day.

keeper #8: knott, makes it due to his superb keeping and solid batting, he's in a lot of peoples 1st XI so that says a lot about how good of a keeper he was.

specialist bowlers: barnes could do anything with the ball, seam, swing, spin, pace, slower etc his great record combined with his ability to do so much with the ball and that people say he was perhaps the greatest bowler of all time is why he makes my 3rd XI. Donald is in there for his terrific record, pace and his aggressiveness, he didn't mind hitting a batsman, he gave them a bit of fear, great bounce and seam at high pace. o'reilly, similar to barnes but barnes did it quicker, o'reilly bowled the googly though which barnes never did. o'reilly is one of the greatest spinners ever, in my book the 3rd best, he nearly piped murali to make the 2nd XI but murali's numbers, uniqueness and being an offie made me decide against it.

[Gowza]

Love reading all these "all time XI" lists. Especially when they are backed up by justifications for the selections as in your posts. You should make a 3rd team.

i also enjoy the all time xi lists, even better with explanations/discussion.

[Roey Haque]

Cool. Not having Kallis and Lara in the first two teams was an eye opener. Because when making such lists, shouldn't current players automatically carry more weight due to playing against more teams and undoubtedly a more varied and skilled bowling attack backed up by things such as better nutrition and fitness? But awesome collection of 33 players you got now.

17 more needed and you can have your 50 greatest players of all time. And perhaps ESPN or tencricket could one day gather 4 legends and have a draft pick type of show, choosing from the 50 options, to see what different teams are formed. The same way they did in the NBA. Would be a fantastic show.

I'm already recommending Amla for one of those 17 remaining spots. That ODI average(57) is insane by today's standards!

[Gowza]

Cool. Not having Kallis and Lara in the first two teams was an eye opener. Because when making such lists, shouldn't current players automatically carry more weight due to playing against more teams and undoubtedly a more varied and skilled bowling attack backed up by things such as better nutrition and fitness? But awesome collection of 33 players you got now.

17 more needed and you can have your 50 greatest players of all time. And perhaps ESPN or tencricket could one day gather 4 legends and have a draft pick type of show, choosing from the 50 options, to see what different teams are formed. The same way they did in the NBA. Would be a fantastic show.

I'm already recommending Amla for one of those 17 remaining spots. That ODI average(57) is insane by today's standards!

50 greatest players is a whole different thing, talking across all formats. amla is a great player i agree. as far as current players carrying more weight, definitely playing in more conditions against more opposition gives us a great insight into their ability but there are many things to weigh up such as quality of opposition, pitches in different countries at the time, eye-witness accounts etc.