All about All-time XIs

[Zunaid]

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

[Zeeshan]

Try All-time Spectacled XI

[...plugging my blog for inspiration...]

[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...iple_centuries

I just realized Tendulkar doesn't have a triple

[Sohel]

^No Sir Vivian Richards?!?

[Zeeshan]

Originally Posted by Sohel
^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]

Originally Posted by AsifTheManRahman
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?

Posted via BC Mobile Edition (Blackberry)

[Gowza]

Originally Posted by AsifTheManRahman
Gowza, no Allan Border? Or Ricky Ponting? Guess he loses out to Don Bradman?

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]

Originally Posted by 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 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]

Originally Posted by 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!