100 Greatest Cricketers of All-Time

Waspsting · **Joined:** Tue May 22, 2012 5:35 am **Posts:** 111

India
1. Gavaskar
2. Merchent
3. Sehwag
4. Tendulkar
5. Dravid
6. Hazare
7. Kapil Dev
8. Aamir Singh
9. Kirmanie
10. Bedi
11. Chandrashekar

tough one this, especially the bowling balance. Hard to make a convincing 3/1 pace/spin combo given the weakness of pace and the strenght of spin. I don't like the 2/2 way, but what else to do?

With Kapil, Aamir Singh and Kirmanie, batting has enough depth that i've gone with what i think are the top bowlers, irrespective of their weakness as batsmen.

On the batting order, Sehwag's deadly when he gets in, but gets out early often. Why have him open, when chances of going early are increased? I'd rather have Gavaskar and Merchent - a depressing thought for bowlers to have to come out to bowl to, and keep Sehwag in reserve.

Waspsting · **Joined:** Tue May 22, 2012 5:35 am **Posts:** 111

Pakistan
1. Hanif Mohammed
2. Sayeed Anwar
3. Zaheer Abbas
4. Inzamam-Ul-Haq
5. Mohammed Yousuf
6. Javed Miandad
7. Imran Khan
8. Wasim Akram
9. Wasim Bari
10. Abdul Qudair
11. Waqar Younis

this one's easy.

Note on the order. I'd fancy Miandad to bat with the tail bettter than Inzie or Yousuf, otherwise you could change the middle order up.

Very strong pace attack.

Waspsting · **Joined:** Tue May 22, 2012 5:35 am **Posts:** 111

New Zealand
1. G. Turner
2. B. Sutcliffe
3. M. Donnelly
4. M. Crowe
5. B. Congdon
6. J. Reid
7. R. Hadlee
8. D. Vettori
9. I. Smith
10. B. Taylor
11. D. Cowie

Depth in batting. 3 pacers/1 spinner with some back up spin from the batsmen.

Waspsting · **Joined:** Tue May 22, 2012 5:35 am **Posts:** 111

Sri Lanka
1. S. Jayasuriya
2. T. Dilshan
3. K. Sangakarra
4. M. Jayawardena
5. A. De Silva
6. R. Dias
7. P. Jayawardena
8. C. Vaas
9. Ru. Ratnayake
10. L. Malinga
11. M. Muralidharan

on weakest ground for choosing this 11 as i don't know as much as i'd like about the history of Sri Lankan cricket.

Dilshan makes it in considering largely his fielding and part time spin. with Murali the only spinner, some back up from the bowlers is worth considering - Jayasuriya, Dilshan and De Silva are all handy.

Prefer to have Sanga in just as a batsman, and Prasanna Jayawardena has been very good as a keeper (decent bat too)

On the batting order, all those huge Sanga-Jayawardena partnerships influenced me to keep them right next to each other in the order, putting De Silva down a spot from where he usually batted.

Easily the weakest All-time 11, over-dependent on Murali for inroads, but not a bad team all in all

rockvirtuoso · **Joined:** Mon Oct 11, 2010 5:36 pm **Posts:** 2414

Waspsting wrote:

West Indies
1. G. Greendige
2. D. Haynes
3. G. Headley
4. B. Lara
5. V. Richards
6. G. Sobers
7. J. Dujon
8. M. Marshall
9. J. Garner
10. C. Ambrose
11. M. Holding

regarding lack of a spinner - same deal as for the SA 11.

Lot of guys to leave out - Hunte, Weekes, Walcott, Worrell, Kanhai, Roberts, Croft - all bring a lot to the table

you could play walcott as keeper, his batting was exceptional. kept in tests until back injuries

rockvirtuoso · **Joined:** Mon Oct 11, 2010 5:36 pm **Posts:** 2414

Waspsting wrote:

I was thinking sharing, discussing all time 11s might be fun.

I'll start -

Australia
1. Hayden
2. Ponsford
3. Bradman
4. G. Chappell
5. R. Ponting
6 A. Gilchrist
7. K. Miller
8. A. Davidson
9. S. Warne
10. D. Lillee
11. B. O'Reilly

I like to have a 3 paceman, 2 spinner attack if possible, but it usually weakens the batting.

Here, with a combo of Bradman, Gilchrist and Miller/Davidson, the batting stays solid while allowing for the perfect bowling combo.

Shout outs to Morris, Border, Harvey, Mcgrath and Lindwall among others.

incredible to leave out grimmet, mcgrath, lindwall, border. id play any of them over hayden on principle :smile:

MintCondition · **Posted:** Mon Jun 18, 2012 8:39 am

Yeah McGrath could have opened the batting better than Hayden if given the chance. We all know how many centuries were nipped in the bud by his batting partner getting out and ending Australia's innings while he was playing brilliantly.

Good lists Waspsting...hard to find much fault.

John G · **Posted:** Sat Jun 30, 2012 6:58 pm

rockvirtuoso wrote:

Waspsting wrote:

I was thinking sharing, discussing all time 11s might be fun.

I'll start -

Australia
1. Hayden
2. Ponsford
3. Bradman
4. G. Chappell
5. R. Ponting
6 A. Gilchrist
7. K. Miller
8. A. Davidson
9. S. Warne
10. D. Lillee
11. B. O'Reilly

I like to have a 3 paceman, 2 spinner attack if possible, but it usually weakens the batting.

Here, with a combo of Bradman, Gilchrist and Miller/Davidson, the batting stays solid while allowing for the perfect bowling combo.

Shout outs to Morris, Border, Harvey, Mcgrath and Lindwall among others.

incredible to leave out grimmet, mcgrath, lindwall, border. id play any of them over hayden on principle :smile:

ha ha rv still on about hayden, he has to be an opener his record speaks for itself, but if you dont want him in you could always put gilchrist opener and that would allow McGrath to come in, he has to be there somewhere.

John G · **Posted:** Sat Jun 30, 2012 7:01 pm

of all of these fantasy sides who would be the best? very close but i'd give the windies.

John G · **Posted:** Sat Jun 30, 2012 7:02 pm

of all of these fantasy sides who would be the best? very close but i'd give it to the windies.

John G · **Posted:** Sat Jun 30, 2012 7:06 pm

found this nice Viv's sixes compilation sit back and enjoy the master blaster, he loved smashing poor ol mo matthews too.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZqKBevrRKCQ

Waspsting · **Joined:** Tue May 22, 2012 5:35 am **Posts:** 111

rockvirtuoso wrote:

you could play walcott as keeper, his batting was exceptional. kept in tests until back injuries

Regarding the best keeper vs keeper & taking into accounting batting in general - I like to pick the best keeper out of keepers of the highest quality, defining "keeper of the highest quality" as a guy who rarely missed a chance.

In the SA team, Lindsay gets in over Waite and Boucher on this score.

Not sure if Walcott fits into that calibre of keeper, though his batting definitely makes him a contender for a place (Kanhai has played as keeper, too).

Worth noting that all the guys who've played both as keeper and purely as a batsman average considerably more when they're not keeping -

Walcott as keeper - 40, as non-keeper 65
Sangakkara 40 and 68
Alec Stewart 35 and 47

Makes you wonder what Adam Gilchrist and Andy Flower (who hardly played as a non-keeper) might have achieved purely as a batsman, doesn't it?

Waspsting · **Joined:** Tue May 22, 2012 5:35 am **Posts:** 111

John G wrote:

of all of these fantasy sides who would be the best? very close but i'd give it to the windies.

I think the teams fall into three categories -

top class West Indies and Australia
next class, just a cut under England, South Africa and Pakistan
bottom class, considerably below top 5 India, New Zealand, Sri Lanka

between Windies and Australia, its very close. whether conditions favor spin or pace might settle matters on that one.

Waspsting · **Joined:** Tue May 22, 2012 5:35 am **Posts:** 111

Glenn McGrath was the hardest guy to omit in making all of these teams.

Where to put him?

Not over Miller, the all rounder or Warne/ O'Reilly, given the desired chemistry of the bowling side.

Davidson and Lillee are the only guys he can come in for

Not much between them the 3 as bowlers, while Davo's batting is much better (particularly worthy of consideration, given we only have 5 specialist batsmen) than the other two.

I also like the added variety of having a left arm paceman that having Davidson brings

Lillee or McGrath? Flip a coin

John G · **Posted:** Thu Aug 16, 2012 8:26 am

i rate mcgrath highly but DK's the man for me, i think there may even be room for both, warne as the spinner, miller allrounder then order of
8. davidson
9. warne
10. lillee
11. mcgrath
12. o'reilly

100 Greatest Cricketers of All-Time

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