All Time XIs: All Captains

An all time XI of great former test skippers and a huge photo gallery.

For today’s blog post I have selected an XI made up entirely of players who captained their country in test cricket. I required players with excellent playing records – no passengers for me, and also who had been successful as captains.

THE XI IN BATTING ORDER

Mark Taylor (Australia, left handed opening batter, ace slip fielder). Second link in a chain of four successive very successful Aussie skippers. He succeeded Allan Border who had inherited a rabble and passed on the best side in the world. Taylor kept Australia at the top of the world pecking order, in its own way as impressive an achievement as his predecessor’s feat of dragging them to the top in the first place.
*Frank Worrell (West Indies, right handed opening batter, left arm fast medium bowler, occasional left arm spinner). He averaged 49 with the bat, which confirms that he was worth his place as a player. I have named him as captain of this side of captains because as well as being a superbly successful skipper he was one of genuinely historic importance – his appointment represented the end of a particularly unpleasant captaincy fetish, since he was the first black man to be appointed West Indies captain.
Don Bradman (Australia, right handed batter, outstanding outfielder). The most prolific batter there has ever been, with a test average of 99.94, and a superb captain. In the 1936-7 Ashes he turned a 0-2 deficit after two matches into a 3-2 series win. In 1948 he led the Australians through an unbeaten tour of England.
Clive Lloyd (left handed batter, outstanding cover fielder and later a fine slip). The pioneer of the ‘four fast bowlers’ strategy that propelled West Indies back to the top of the world game after a difficult period in the late 1960s and early 1970s.
Steve Waugh (Australia, right handed batter, occasional right arm medium fast bowler). The third link in the chain of Aussie skippers I referred to earlier, and he built on the earlier achievements of Border and Taylor give an acknowledged best side in the world an aura of total invincibility.
Imran Khan (Pakistan, right handed batter, right arm fast bowler). A great all rounder and a great skipper. Maybe in a few years time Stokes will challenge him for this slot – he has made an outstanding start as skipper, and an Ashes triumph this summer would help to cement his reputation in that role, but as things stands he has no challenger.
+Rodney Marsh (Australia, wicket keeper, left handed batter). A bit of a cheat as he never actually captained his country, but keeper-captains in test cricket are few and far between, and successful keeper-captains at test level are in the ‘hens teeth’ category of rarity, and he would have been a better choice than Kim Hughes to skipper the 1981 Ashes touring party.
Wasim Akram (Pakistan, left arm fast bowler, left handed batter). His greatness as a player is unquestioned and he was a fine skipper as well. Not too much should be read into the acrimonious end to his tenure in the top job – Pakistan skippers rarely go gently into the night.
Richie Benaud (Australia, leg spinner, right handed batter). The first cricketer to achieve the test career double of 2,000 runs and 200 wickets. His captaincy highlights include regaining the Ashes in 1958-9, defending them in 1961 and again in 1962-3, and captaining Australia in the classic 1960-1 tied test series against the West Indies when his opposite number was Frank Worrell.
Bishan Singh Bedi (India, left arm orthodox spinner, left handed tail end batter). One of the greatest ever masters of his craft and a successful skipper in somewhat difficult circumstances.
Courtney Walsh (right arm fast bowler, right handed tail end batter). The first bowler ever to take 500 test wickets, and a respectable captaincy record in spite of the fact that the job is generally reckoned tough for specialist fast bowlers and the West Indies were on the way to crashing down from the heights of the Lloyd/ Richards eras by the time he got the job.

This side has a powerful batting line up, a great keeper, and Walsh, Wasim Akram and Imran Khan as front line bowlers, Benaud and Bedi as front line spinners and support bowling available from Worrell and Waugh. It is a side to be reckoned with in every department.

HONOURABLE MENTIONS

I regarded Frank Worrell as having the right handed openers slot under wraps, and I preferred my other opener to be left handed. Taylor’s chief rival for this slot was Andrew Strauss (England), who led his side to the top of the world rankings. Worrell’s presence also meant that I had to leave out WG Grace, a superb skipper as well as the best cricketer of the 19th century. I could not accommodate Border alongside Lloyd without having a huge surfeit of left handers, and I regarded the West Indian’s achievements as captain as being the greater. The fourth in that chain of successful Aussie skippers, Ricky Ponting, cannot be said to be unlucky – a) he was up against Bradman for the number three slot and b) when the greats he had inherited from his predecessors departed the scene he was shown up as a fairly ordinary skipper and one given to inappropriate outbursts – his rant on being run out by Gary Pratt and his infamous stand off with umpire Dar six years later being two examples. Another Aussie, Steve Smith, rendered himself ineligible by being caught up in a cheating scandal while captain. If you feel I have been unfair to your favourite feel free to comment. None of the England skippers I have witnessed in action have massively impressed me save Stokes, who I have mentioned as a potential future captain. Alec Stewart, who could have been used as a solution to the keeper-captain problem failed two grounds in my book: keeping was not his best role and he was a very poor skipper to boot.

PHOTOGRAPHS

I have a bumper photo gallery for you…

Australia 1946-62

A look at Australia in the period 1946-62 and some photographs.

Today’s post looks at Australia immediately after WWII (for the significance of 1962 as a dividing year check this post). Please note that in this XI positions 7-10 in the order are flexible – Australia in this era was well equipped with bowlers and keepers who could bat well in the middle and lower order. Australia have not had so many multi-dimensional test players in later eras, and the mighty side of the late 1990s and early 2000s tended to rely on six specialist batters, a keeper and four specialist bowlers.

THE XI IN BATTING ORDER

Arthur Morris (left handed opening batter). Picked by Don Bradman as the left handed opening batter in his all time world XI. His peak series came in England in 1948 when he scored 696 runs at 87.00.
Sidney George Barnes (right handed opener). Like his English near namesake of an earlier era, Sydney Francis Barnes, he often failed to see eye to eye with authority figures, which along with WWII was one reason his appearances at the highest level were limited. In the few appearances he did get to make art the top level he averaged 63 with the bat, with a highest score of 234 at Sydney in 1946.
Don Bradman (right handed batter). Not quite the overwhelming force with the bat that he had been before WWII, but still the best around, albeit he benefitted from a controversial call in the first match of the 1946-7 Ashes when he sent a shoulder high catch to Jack Ikin at second slip, stood his ground and was given not out.
Neil Harvey (left handed batter). The only 1940s test cricketer still alive (95 years old as I write this), he was part of the Invincibles of 1948, on which tour he scored his maiden test century. He scored over 6,000 test and averaged 48 in his career.
Norman O’Neill (right handed batter, occasional leg spinner). His debut was in the Brisbane 1958 snoozefest. In the final innings of that match, immediately after Trevor Bailey had snailed his way to 68 in 458 minutes (428 balls faced, of which 388 were dots) he scored 71* in less than two and a half hours to see Australia to victory. He would average 46 overall in test cricket, and he retained his commitment to playing his shots throughout his career.
Keith Miller (right handed batter, right arm fast bowler, occasional right arm off spinner). A superlative all round cricketer and possibly the best captain Australia never had (Rod Marsh and Shane Warne of later eras are also in the mix for this one).
Ray Lindwall (right arm fast bowler, right handed batter). One of the greatest of all fast bowlers, and in an example of how cricket transcends national boundaries he modelled his run up and action on Harold Larwood, Australia’s nemesis in the 1932-3 Ashes.
Alan Davidson (left arm fast bowler, left handed batter, occasional left arm spinner). His greatest match performance came in the first ever tied test match at Brisbane in 1960: 5-135, 44, 6-87, 80, becoming the first male test cricketer to score 100 runs and take 10 wickets in the same match. 186 wickets at 20.53 places him among the greatest ever masters of his type of bowling, and he was also a superb fielder, referred to as ‘the claw’ for his habit of grabbing unlikely catches.
*Richie Benaud (leg spinner, right handed batter, captain). In the first phase of one of the most outstanding careers connected with cricket he was the first player to achieve the test career of 2,000 runs and 200 wickets, and the time of his retirement he was Australia’s leading wicket taker at that level with 248 scalps. He was also a superb skipper, hence why I gave him that job, rather than Bradman who had it for the interwar team. He went on once his playing days were done to establish himself as ‘the Bradman of TV Commentators’ (yes, that far ahead of the rest IMO).
+Don Tallon (wicket keeper, right handed batter). Named by Bradman as keeper in his all time world XI. A combination of selectorial politicking which denied him a place on the 1938 tour of England and WWII meant that he was past his very best by the time he got the opportunity at test level, but his only rival as a keeper in that era was Godfrey Evans of England.
Bill Johnston (left arm fast medium bowler, left arm orthodox spinner, left handed tail end batter). Australia’s leading wicket taker in three series immediately postwar, when he was very effective at sweeping up after Lindwall and Miller had made early inroads. He was injured on the 1953 tour of England, but with the connivance of some his team mates (who when they realized the possibility was there got themselves out to preserve his average) he became only the second person to average over 100 with the bat for a full season in England (102.00, with 16 of his 17 innings being not outs), after Don Bradman’s 115.66 in 1938.

This XI is awesomely strong in batting, with a powerful top five, one of the all time great all rounders at six, and a collection of players in slots 7-10 who while batting was the second string to their bows were all capable of match winning knocks on their day. The bowling has two great right arm fast bowlers, one of the greatest of all left arm fast bowlers, a left armer who could bowl seam or spin according to team necessity, a great leg spinner, and Miller could turn his hand to off spin if needed. This side ticks every box and would take a lot of beating, especially with Benaud captaining them.

HONOURABLE MENTIONS

Colin McDonald was a gritty right handed opener in the 1950s, and Bobby Simpson made his debut near the end of the era in question. Most of the bowlers who bowled Australia to a 4-0 series win in 1958-9 had dodgy actions, being either throwers, draggers or both of the foregoing, ruling them out of serious consideration. Ernie Toshack did a useful job as a fill-in bowler while Lindwall and Miller were resting in the immediate postwar era. Australia had three other fine keepers besides Tallon in this era: Gil Langley, Len Maddocks and Wally Grout. Ken ‘Slasher’ Mackay, a left handed blocker and workaday medium pacer had a respectable test record but was hardly a challenger to any of those I included. Ron Archer might have become a great fast bowling all rounder, but he suffered a career ending injury in Pakistan in 1956-7 at a very young age.

PHOTOGRAPHS

My usual sign off…

Australia Interwar Years XI

A look at Australia’s best cricketers of the interwar years and a photo gallery.

Today I look at the best Australian cricketers of the period 1919-39. Australia were strong for much of this period, although English desperation to atone for the perceived sins of the 1932-3 Ashes contributed to their excellent Ashes record – Larwood never played another test match after the end of that series, Voce was not picked at home in 1934, though he did tour in 1936-7, while the last pre-WWII Ashes series in 1938 was halved, with one game washed out without a ball bowled, two high scoring draws, Australia narrowly winning a thriller at Headingley and England totally bossing the last match at The Oval.

THE XI IN BATTING ORDER

Bill Woodfull (right handed opening batter). One half of Australia’s best opening pair of the period.
Bill Ponsford (right handed opening batter). The first megascorer, possessor for almost three years of the two highest scores in FC history, 437 for Victoria v Queensland in 1927 and 429 for Victoria v Tasmania in 1922. He had two other triple centuries in FC cricket and achieved a unique double in test cricket of scoring centuries in each of his first two test matches and in each of his last two.
*Don Bradman (right handed batter, captain). Quite simply the most consistent run scorer the game has ever known. It was he who topped Ponsford’s individual FC record with 452* for NSW v Queensland. He also had two test match triple centuries and a 299* v South Africa when his last partner was run out trying to get through for the crucial run. Australia lost only two Ashes series with him in the side – 1928-9 when he was trying to establish himself and was actually dropped for the second match of the series, and 1932-3 when Jardine’s strategy halved his usual output.
Charlie Macartney (right handed batter, left arm orthodox spinner). His batting hit the heights in the first seven years after the war – in the 1926 Ashes at the age of 40 he hit three centuries in successive test matches, while in 1921 he blasted Nottinghamshire for 345 in 232 minutes at the crease, still the highest FC score for a member of an Australian touring party.
Stan McCabe (right handed batter, right arm medium fast bowler). Two of the most famous of all Ashes innings, his 187* at Sydney in the face of fast leg theory as conceived by Jardine and bowled by Larwood in the first match of the 1932-3 Ashes and the 232* he scored at Trent Bridge in 1938 when Bradman called the rest of the Aussie team out on to their balcony to watch the action because “you will never see anything like this again”.
Warwick Armstrong (right handed batter, leg spinner). A dominant force in both of the first two Ashes series after WWI, and undoubtedly Australia’s best all rounder of the period.
Jack Gregory (right arm fast bowler, left handed batter, ace slip fielder). Under the captaincy of Warwick Armstrong he and Ted McDonald provided the first example in test cricket of a bowling side opening their attack with express pace from both ends – received wisdom had been to open with one fast and one slow bowler, though in 1911-12 and at home in 1912 Sydney Barnes and Frank Foster, both above medium pace, had opened the bowling for England with considerable success.
+Bert Oldfield (wicket keeper, right handed batter). One of the greatest keepers ever, I believe he still holds the record for men’s test stumpings (52).
Bill O’Reilly (leg spinner, left handed batter). 144 wickets in 27 test matches, bowling at something above medium pace and possessing a superbly disguised googly.
Ted McDonald (right arm fast bowler, right handed batter). He played the first two post-war Ashes series before decamping to play Lancashire League cricket and ultimately to turn out for Lancashire and bowl them to several championships with Cecil Parkin and Dick Tyldesley in support.
Clarrie Grimmett (leg spinner, right handed batter). He had to cross one national border and two state boundaries to find cricketing fulfillment, and still managed to become the first ever to claim 200 test wickets (216 in 37 test matches). Even 80 odd years after the end of his career he probably ranks second among cricketers born in New Zealand (Sir Richard Hadlee being #1).

This XI has a powerful batting line up, though left handers are under represented. The bowling is also strong, with Gregory and McDonald an outstanding new ball duo, O’Reilly, Grimmett and Armstrong being three very dissimilar leg spinners, McCabe a handy medium pacer and Macartney sometimes useful with his left arm spin.

HONOURABLE MENTIONS

Warren Bardsley, the left handed opener I selected in the prewar Aussie XI, played on until 1926, but a remarkable 193* at Lord’s that year apart he was a fading force, and therefore I felt I could not break the Woodfull/ Ponsford pairing for the sake of balance. No Australian middle order left handed batter of this period was good enough to merit selection.

Vic Richardson was a remarkable all round athlete and grandfather of two Aussie test skippers, but his test batting record was quite ordinary. Arthur Richardson, a middle order batter who bowled off spin, was not good enough in either department to merit more than an acknowledgement.

There were two other candidates for the number six slot I gave to Armstrong, Jack Ryder and Hunter ‘Stork’ Hendry, forceful batters who bowled right arm fast medium.

This period featured the tail end of Hanson Carter’s career as a keeper, but he was not the equal of Oldfield. The one Aussie to play FC cricket in this period who probably was a match for Oldfield as keeper and a better batter, Don Tallon, did not make his test debut until after WWII, so I felt I could not pick him.

Other than Gregory and McDonald, who came as a partnership the only other Aussie fast bowler of the era who might have demanded selection was Thomas William Wall, usually known as ‘Tim’ Wall, whose record suffered from the fact that he was often the only quick in the side. Ernie McCormick, ‘Bull’ Alexander, Jack Scott and Laurie Nash were all quick but erratic, while Eddie Gilbert never played test cricket.

The only Aussie specialist finger spinner of the period with a really good test record was Bert Ironmonger, and he was never selected for a tour of England, possibly because of fears that his action would not stand up to the scrutiny of English umpires. Left arm wrist spinner Leslie ‘Chuck’ Fleetwood-Smith was too expensive to merit a place, while Arthur Mailey was unlucky in that Grimmett was clearly ahead of him as a conventional leg spinner and O’Reilly’s distinctive method and provenly effective partnership with Grimmett qualified him for a place. Hans Ebeling’s seam bowling did not qualify him for a place, but he deserves a mention because the 1977 Centenary Test Match, which Australia won by the same margin, 45 runs, as they had won the inaugural test match 100 years earlier, was his brainchild.

PHOTOGRAPHS

The weather here continues to be dull and grey, but I do have a photo gallery to share…

All Time XIs – Match Ups (10)

Continuing my analysis of how the all time XIs I selected for each letter of the alphabet fare against each other. Today’s match ups are the last four involving the Bs, and the first with the Cs in the hot seat.

Welcome to the latest in my series of posts analysing how the all time XIs I picked for each letter of the alphabet fare against each other. This post sees the completion of the Bs and the first match up with the C team in the hot seat. The Bs come into today with 69 of a possible 105 points. Before I get to the main meat of the post, Heritage Open Day 2022 which was to have been this Sunday has been postponed due to the death of a ludicrously over-privileged old woman. Apaarently the council cannot support the event on Sunday and without their support it cannot be run. Provisionally Sunday 2 October is being looked at the new date – I have already declared my availability for that date.

THE Bs V THE Ws

The Bs are ahead on batting, but the Ws are ahead on bowling. I personally think the Ws have the bowling guns to compensate for the Bs batting advantage and score this one Bs 2, Ws 3.

THE Bs V THE Xs

The Xs lose 10 match ups out of 11 fairly comprehensively. Box, allowing for how difficult batting was in his day, can be considered to win the battle of the keepers, but that will make little difference to the overall outcome – Bs 5, Xs 0.

THE Bs V THE Ys

The Bs are ahead in all areas – even if one accepts that Poonam Yadav is a better leg spinner than Richie Benaud was, the Aussie’s batting compensates for this. Bs 5, Ys 0.

THE Bs V THE Zs

The Bs once again dominate this one, with only Zulqarnain Haider definitely winning his match up. I score this as Bs 5, Zs 0.

THE Bs FINAL ANALYSIS

The Bs scored a further 17 points today, giving them 86 out of 125, or 68.80%. This puts them comfortably ahead of the As, who scored 69, and for the moment first in our ranking table.

THE Cs V THE Ds

The Cs come into this match up with 1.5 points out of a possible 10 from their match ups against the As and the Bs. The Cs have a strong opening combo, albeit both batting out of their very best positions, a good number three who is also a shrewd and resourceful skipper, two unequivocal greats at four and five, a mercurial all rounder at six, a fine keeper, and a decent quartet of bowlers. The Ds lose out in the matter of opening pairs, win the number three slot hands down, but as against that lose on captaincy. Four and five are closely fought, but the greater experience of the C pair gives them the honours. Number six goes to the Ds. Dujon comfortably wins the battle of the keepers, while Davidson beats Cornwall in the number eight slot. Daniel and Donald are a good match for Cummins and Croft in the pace department, and Dennett, possibly the finest bowler never to have played test cricket (he overlapped with Rhodes and Blythe, both even greater left arm spinners), probably has the edge on Chandrasekhar. This is by far the closes contest the Cs have been in, and allowing for Chappelli’s captaincy and the possibility of a turner, where they would have the advantage, I score this one Cs 2, Ds 3. This means that after three match ups the Cs are on 3.5 of a possible 15 points, 23.33%.

PHOTOGRAPHS

Time for my usual sign off…

I was at the Red Mount Chapel this morning for a training session for stewarding it.

All Time XIs – Match Ups (6)

Welcome to the latest post in my series analysing how my all time XIs for each letter of the alphabet fare against each other. We reached the conclusion of the A XIs match ups yesterday, so now we start with the B XIs. They have 3.5 points in the bank from their encounter with the As (see here).

THE Bs V THE Cs

The Bs dominate the batting, with only G Chappell among the top six outpointing his opposite number, and that by a mere fraction. Added to this is the fact that for reasons explained in the original post about the Cs Chanderpaul and arguably Cowdrey are batting out of position. Carter out bats Bari, but Bari was the finer keeper. Bates and Benaud are unquestionably a finer pair of spinners than Cornwall and Chandrasekhar, and both also possessed batting pedigree, something to which Cornwall has limited claim and Chandrasekhar none. Barnes and Bumrah for my money have the edge on Cummins and Croft as a new ball combination, though the Cs are undoubtedly the faster pair. Botham and Constantine were two mercurial all rounders, capable of match winning performances. I will allow for the possibility of a Constantine special, while rating it odds against, so my final score for this is Bs 4.5, Cs 0.5.

THE Bs V THE Ds

The Bs have an advantage with the bat – only Duleepsinhji, D’Oliveira and Dujon of those whose batting is of major significance win their match ups in this department. Davidson, Daniel and Donald as a pace trio probably beat Barnes, Bumrah and Botham, but as against that the Ds have only one front line spin option, Dennett, to match up against Bates and Benaud. Finally, Bradman was acknowledged to be a superb skipper, whereas Dennett never got any captaincy experience because of the social mores of his time. Although the Ds are far from helpless in this contest, the Bs are obvious favourites and I score it Bs 3, Ds 2.

THE Bs V THE Es

The Bs have a huge advantage in batting, and Botham is definitely a better third pacer than Edrich, though Emmett and Elliott v Barnes and Bumrah is a fine contest, as is Ecclestone and Evans v Benaud and Bates in the spin bowling department. I make this one Bs 4, Es 1.

THE Bs V THE Fs

The Bs boss the batting as usual, though Foakes is the better keeper. The Fs have a greater range of bowling options, with six genuine front line bowlers. I accord them a definite win the pace department, with Ferris, Freeman and Foster clearly a stronger combo than Barnes, Bumrah and Botham. Flowers, Fender and Faulkner give the Fs three front line spin options. The question is whether the Fs extra bowling will compensate for the Bs huge superiority in batting. I don’t think it quite does, but I am not prepared to award the Bs victory here – Bs 2.5, Fs 2.5.

THE Bs V THE Gs

The Bs as usual are ahead on batting, but are clearly behind on bowling – WG is his side’s sixth best bowler. Grimmett and Gibbs are a good match for Bates and Benaud in the spin department, Gregory, Garner and Geary compare nicely with Barnes, Bumrah and Botham. I award this one to the Gs – Bs 2, Gs 3.

INTERIM REPORT ON THE Bs

The Bs are that this stage on 19.5 points out of 30, or 65%. The As were on a mere 14.5 points after their first six match ups, for comparison.

PHOTOGRAPHS

My usual sign off…

All Time XIs: Ultimate Talents

A look at a selection of record breaking and utterly unique cricketers by way of explaining the unanswerability of the question “who was the greatest ever cricketer”.

This post was provoked by a question I saw posted on twitter yesterday: who was the greatest cricketer of all time. This question is of course unanswerable and to explain why this is so I have assembled a touring party of 17 all of whom were about as good as players of their type can be. All of these players have attributes that mean that the claim that they stand alone in cricket history is unassailable, and I explain why in the course of my look at that them.

FIRST XI IN BATTING ORDER

JB Hobbs – right handed opening batter, occasional right arm medium pacer. ‘The Master’, scorer of more FC runs and more FC centuries than anyone else in the history of the game.
*WG Grace – right handed opening batter, right arm bowler of various types through his career. The most dominant player of any era, towering over his contemporaries both literally and metaphorically.
DG Bradman – right handed batter, occasional leg spinner. A test batting average of 99.94, maintained over 52 matches at level needs no further comment.
SR Tendulkar – right handed batter, occasional bowler. The only player to have scored 100 centuries across formats in international cricket.
FE Woolley – left handed batter, left arm orthodox spinner. The only cricketer to tally over 10,000 FC runs, take over 1,000 wickets and hold over 1,000 catches in the course of a first class career.
GS Sobers – left handed batter, left arm bowler of every type known to cricket. The most complete cricketer the game has ever seen.
GH Hirst – right handed batter, left arm fast medium bowler. Achieved the feat of 1,000 runs and 100 wickets in first class matches in each of 10 successive seasons, including the only ever instance of 2,000 runs and 200 wickets in the same FC season.
+RW Taylor – wicket keeper, right handed batter. The most wicket keeping dismissals (1,649 of them – 1,473 catches and 176 stumpings) of anyone in first class cricket history.
W Rhodes – left arm orthodox spinner, right handed batter. More first class wickets than anyone else in the game’s history, even though there was a phase in his career when he hardly bowled. He also scored almost 40,000 runs in FC cricket.
SF Barnes – right arm fast medium bowler, right handed batter. The best wickets per game ratio of anyone to play 20 or more tests – 189 in 27 matches, at 16.43 each = seven wickets per match. Generally regarded as the greatest of all bowlers.
T Richardson – right arm fast bowler, right handed batter. The fastest to the career landmarks of 1,000 FC wickets (134 matches) and 2,000 (327 matches). From the start of the 1894 season to the end of the 1897 season he took just over 1,000 wickets, a period of wicket taking unique in cricket history.

This is a well balanced XI of awesome power. Now onto…

THE RESERVES

These are my six designated reserves:

H Sutcliffe, right handed opening batter. My reserve opener was the ultimate big game player. His overall FC average was 52.02, his overall test average 60.73 and his overall Ashes average 66.85. As he himself once said to Pelham Warner “ah Mr Warner, I love a dogfight”.
JH Kallis, right handed batter, right arm fast medium bowler. Has a fair claim to be regarded as the best batting all rounder ever to play the game. He didn’t master the full range of skills that Sobers did, hence his place as a reserve rather than in the starting XI.
GA Faulkner, right handed batter, leg spinner. The only cricketer to have finished a career of over 20 test matches with a batting average of over 40 and a bowling average of less than 30.
GL Jessop, right handed batter, right arm fast bowler. The most consistently fast scorer ever to play the game.
+LEG Ames, right handed batter, wicket keeper. The only recognized keeper to have scored 100FC hundreds, also holds the record for most career stumpings in first class cricket – 418.
GA Lohmann, right arm medium fast bowler, right handed batter. The man with the lowest career bowling average of anyone take 100 test wickets – 10.75.

CONCLUSIONS

This little collection of players fully illustrates why there is no definitive answer to the question I saw on twitter yesterday. I also missed the taker of 800 test wickets (Muralidaran), the only player to score 5,000 test runs and take 400 test wickets (Kapil Dev), the holder of the record test and first class individual scores (Lara), and quite a few others who have and deserve to have legions of fans. If forced to provide a single player as answer to this question I would consider WG Grace to be less far wrong than any other single answer.

PHOTOGRAPHS

My usual sign off…

An All Time XI All From Different Countries

A variation on the all-time XI, this time requiring every player to come from a different country. Also some photographs.

I have one other thing to mention besides my main topic, which is a revisit to the All Time XI theme which I have explored here many times, especially during the period immediately after Covid-19 was officially declared a pandemic.

THE BRIEF

This is to be an All Time XI with every selected player coming from different countries. It is to be a team that will pose a formidable threat in any and all conditions, so variety is essential. There are some players (Bradman and Sobers e.g) whose preeminence is such that they have to be their country’s representative, and in the case of some of the minor nations who are represented they had only one player wh0 could even be considered. This in turn limited who could be picked from other countries where the field was theoretically wider.

THE TEAM INCLUDING 12TH

Jack Hobbs (England, right handed opening batter and occasional medium pacer). “The Master”, scorer of 61,237 FC runs including 197 centuries, scorer of 12 Ashes centuries. The oldest ever test centurion, the last of his centuries at that level coming at Melbourne in 1929 by when he was 46 years old. My English representative is highly likely to be one half of a pair that gets the innings off to a strong start.
Sunil Gavaskar (India, right handed opening batter, occasional medium pacer). He was the first to reach the milestone of 10,000 test runs. He had an excellent technique and seemingly limitless patience. One would absolutely ideally prefer one of the openers to be left handed but I can’t see many new ball bowlers queuing up for a crack at this opening pair!
Don Bradman (Australia, right handed batter, occasional leg spinner). The greatest batter ever to have played the game (his test average of 99.94 puts him almost 40 runs an innings ahead of the next best, his FC average of 95.14 puts him 24 an innings ahead of the next best at that level). He is also vice captain of the team.
Graeme Pollock (South Africa, left handed batter, occasional leg spinner). The best test average of any left hander to have played 20 or more test matches, 60.97 per innings.
Garry Sobers (West Indies, left handed batter, left arm bowler of every type known to cricket). Quite simply the most complete player the game has yet seen and one whose absence from this XI I could never countenance.
+Mushfiqur Rahim (Bangladesh, right handed batter, wicket keeper). One of the great stalwarts of Bangladesh cricket, an excellent keeper and a gritty middle order batter whose test record would almost certainly be even more impressive than it actually is had he been part of a stronger side.
*Imran Khan (Pakistan, right handed batter, right arm fast bowler). Has a strong case to be regarded as the greatest genuine all rounder in test history (batting average 37, bowling average 22), and a great captain as well (he is designated skipper of this side, and one of very few who could possibly see Bradman named vice captain rather than captain).
Rashid Khan (Afghanistan, leg spinner and useful right handed lower order batter). This one was fairly inevitable – I need a wide range of top class bowling options, and a leg spinner of undisputed world class who hails from a minor nation is pretty much indispensable in that regard.
‘Bart’ King (USA, right arm fast bowler, useful right handed lower order batter). The original ‘King of Swing’, taker of over 400 FC wickets at 15 a piece, and good enough with the bat to average 20.
Richard Hadlee (New Zealand, right arm fast bowler, useful left handed lower order batter). With genuine respect to today’s Kiwi side, comfortably the strongest they have ever been able to field, he remains his country’s greatest ever cricketer.
Muttiah Muralitharan (Sri Lanka, off spinner, right handed tail end batter). 800 test wickets, taken at a rate of six per game. At The Oval in 1998, on a pitch that was quite hard and quite dry but basically blameless he claimed 16 English wickets in the match (7-155 in the first innings, and then after SL had taken a lead of 150, spearheaded by Jayasuriya scoring a double hundred, 9-65 in the second English innings).
Andy Flower (Zimbabwe, left handed batter, wicket keeper, occasional off spinner). This man covers as many bases as possible as 12th – while I would not relish him coming in for any of the front line bowlers given that he is very much a part timer, and Sobers and Bradman can both be considered impossible to cover for anyway he won’t massively weaken the side even in a worst-case scenario.

RESULTS AND PROSPECTS

I start this little section by looking at the bowling, as it is that department that separates winners and also-rans. A pace bowling unit of Richard Hadlee, ‘Bart’ King and Imran Khan is awesome by any reckoning, and if there is definitely nothing for spinners, there is Sobers in his faster incarnations as fourth seamer. If spinners are called for, Rashid Khan and Muttiah Muralitharan are two of the all time greats, and offer a contrast, being leg spinner and off spinner respectively, and Sobers can bowl left arm orthodox and left arm wrist spin support. Thus there are bowling options available to meet every eventuality, and this side can be very confidently expected to take 20 wickets in any conditions.

The batting features a pair of openers who are highly likely to give the innings a strong start, a trio of fast and heavy scoring batters at 3, 4 and 5, a keeper who scores lots of runs at six, a genuine all rounder at seven, and three bowlers who can genuinely bat as well. Murali is the only bunny in a very deep batting order.

A number of the players in this XI, most notably Hobbs, Bradman and Sobers are rated among the the finest fielders ever to have played the game, and there are no carthorses anywhere, so they will give a good account of themselves in this department as well.

Finally, with Imran Khan as captain and Don Bradman as vice captain and Hobbs also there to be consulted this team has tactical acumen to burn and is highly unlikely to be outmatched in that area.

Thus this team seems to tick every box, and I would confidently expect it to dispose of any opposition put in front of it.

THE STEAM HOUSE CAFE

The STEAM House Cafe on King’s Lynn High Street is a cafe-style safe space for people with mental health issues, and I was there yesterday as part of a group from NAS West Norfolk. We and they are hoping to be able to organize something there specifically for autistic people.

PHOTOGRAPHS

Time for my usual sign off…

Selecting An All Time Test XI

I take on the near impossible task of selecting an all time test XI. Also some more photographs for you.

Let me start by saying that this task, suggested on twitter by Adam Sutherland, is the sort of thing Alexa might come up with if asked for an example of an insoluble problem. The embarrassment of riches at one’s disposal is such that I would expect no two people to arrive at the same answer. Nevertheless it is fun to do, and I am going to offer my answer. Feel free to list your alternatives, or if you dare, a completely different XI of your own to take on mine in a five match series in the comments.

THE TEAM

There are lots of candidates for an opening pair. In my case I resolve the issue by selecting an opening pair who were the best in test history and who I therefore pick as a package: Jack Hobbs and Herbert Sutcliffe, with their average partnership of 87.81 at that level.

Number three, with all due respect to such masterly practitioners as Rahul Dravid and Ricky Ponting is one of the two nailed on certainties for a place in this XI: the one and only Donald Bradman, who I also name as captain of the side. An average of over 30 runs an innings more than any of the competition does not allow for argument.

Number four has many contenders, but having named three right handers I wanted a left hander, and the best record among such batters is held by Graeme Pollock, with an average of 60.97 (Brian Charles Lara is the other contender, but too many of his really big scores came in either defeats or draws).

Number five goes to Sachin Tendulkar. Again there were many possibilities, but I accept the word of Don Bradman, who recognized something of himself in the way Tendulkar batted (a resemblance also acknowledged by Lady Bradman when consulted), and there can be no higher praise.

Now we need an all-rounder, and this is the other utterly undisputable slot other than no3: the most complete cricketer there has ever been, Garfield St Aubrun Sobers. He scored 8,032 test runs at 57.78, took 235 wickets, bowling virtually every type of delivery known to left arm bowlers (he was originally selected as a left arm orthodox spinner, batting no9) and he was also one of the greatest fielders the game ever saw.

For the wicket keeper, although I do not normally approve of compromising at all on keeping skills I rate Adam Gilchrist’s batting at no seven so highly that I am selecting him for the role.

For my remaining bowlers I go for Wasim Akram at no8, left arm fast and capable of generating prodigious swing. No9 is Malcolm Marshall, for me the greatest fast bowler of the golden age of West Indies fast bowling. No10 is Sydney Barnes, 189 wickets in just 27 tests (seven per game) at 16.43 a piece. I round out the order with the off spinner Muttiah Muralitharan.

Thus in batting order we have:

JB Hobbs
H Sutcliffe
*DG Bradman
RG Pollock
SR Tendulkar
G St A Sobers
+AC Gilchrist
Wasim Akram
MD Marshall
SF Barnes
M Muralitharan

Barnes’ principle weapon was a leg break at fast medium pace, so I felt that the off spinner Muralitharan as opposed to a leg spinner (Warne, O’Reilly, Grimmett and Kumble being the principle contenders) gave the attack more variation. Wasim Akram’s place as left arm paceman could have gone to Alan Davidson or Mitchell Johnson without appreciably weakening the side, and there are a plethora of right arm quicks for whom cogent cases could be made. Barnes’ extraordinary record made him the third clearest selection in the entire XI.

PHOTOGRAPHS

Just before my usual sign off, a link to the piece I produced OTD last year as part of my ‘all time XIs’ series: Leicestershire. Now for those photos…

All Time XIs – Through The Alphabet IV

Our all time XIs resume the alphabetic progression seen on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Lots of photographs.

INTRODUCTION

For today’s all time XI cricket post we revert to the alphabetic progression that I started on Friday and continued on Saturday and Sunday. No 11 in Sunday’s second XI began with an N, so today’s first XI starts with an opener who begins with O.

HEDLEY VERITY’S XI

Javed Omar – right handed opening batter. His test record looks modest, but he had very little support at the top of the Bangladesh order (his most frequent opening partner, Hannan Sarkar, was once out to the first delivery of each of three successive test matches).
Alviro Petersen – right handed opening batter. A so-so record in test cricket for South Africas, but a regular big scorer in the county championship. His overall FC average is just above 40 runs an innings, good enough to suggest a player of quality.
Willie Quaife – right handed batter, occasional leg spinner. A fine and consistent upper order batter for Warwickshire for a very long period, signing off with a hundred in his last match, at the age of 56 years and 4 months, the oldest scorer of first class hundred there has ever been (WG Grace notched his 126th and last on his 56th birthday, going on to 166 in that innings). There were question marks about the legality of his bowling action, and the most famous occasion on which his bowling featured prominently did not end well for Warwickshire – when Hampshire made their astonishing recovery at Edgbaston in 1922 after being rolled for 15 in the first innings he bowled 49 overs, being then 50 years of age, as Hampshire reached 521 at the second attempt. Warwickshire, exhausted from their efforts in the field and dispirited by Hampshire’s Houdini act then collapsed to 158 all out in their own second innings, the match ending in a Hampshire victory by 155 runs at 4:20PM on third and final scheduled day.
Viv Richards – right handed batter, occasional off spinner. Had he been able to play all five tests of the 1976 ‘grovel’ series against England Don Bradman’s 974 runs in the 1930 Ashes series would almost certainly have been overtaken. Richards missed the third match of that series through injury, scoring 829 in the other four games. In the final match of the 1985-6 home series v England, with quick runs the order of the day as the Windies pushed for a second successive blackwash of their opponents, Richards smashed a century off 56 balls, at the time the fewest ever to reach that mark in a test match (still third on that list).
Kumar Sangakkara – left handed batter, occasional wicket keeper. Only one left handed batter has scored more test career runs than him, Alastair Cook. The biggest partnership for any wicket in first class cricket is the 624 that he and Mahela Jayawardene put on against South Africa.
+Sarah Taylor – right handed batter, wicket keeper. One of the most accomplished keepers the game has ever seen and a fine stroke making batter as well. Mental health issues cut short her career, but she did plenty enough in the time she did play to justify her selection.
George Ulyett – right arm fast bowler, right handed batter. An attacking all rounder for Yorkshire and England in the late 19th century. He had a test best score of 149, and test best innings bowling figures of 7-36. In the test match at The Oval in 1882, the second ever on English soil after 1880, he top scored with 26 in the England first innings, and was third out in the second, with the score at 51, and only another 34 needed to win. Grace fell two runs later, having become only the second player in the game to record a 30+ innings, and the middle and lower order froze in the face of Fred ‘the demon’ Spofforth’s unbridled hostility. In the end Peate’s wild heave against Harry Boyle might contact only with fresh air, and the stumps were rattled, leaving England beaten by seven runs. He also had a famous fielding moment in the course of his England career, when he took a catch of a shot that Bonnor, the legendary Aussie hitter had absolutely middled.
*Hedley Verity – left arm orthodox spinner, useful lower order batter. 1,956 first class wickets in less than a full decade at that level, at 14.90 each. 144 test wickets at 24 – when contending with a combination of doped pitches and Bradman’s batting. I have awarded him the captaincy that the mores of his time withheld from him, because I believe he would have been excellent at the job.
Bill Whitty – left arm fast medium bowler. He had an excellent record in the years just prior to World War 1 breaking out. In terms of bowling averages only two Aussie left armers of pace have subsequently had records to compare with his (65 wickets at 21.12 from 14 test appearances), Alan Davidson (186 wickets at 20.53) and Bill Johnston who will be meeting later.
Xara Jetly – off spinner. The young Kiwi is very much a prospect rather than an established player, but her last set of bowling figures recorded on cricinfo were 3-35, and I expect the hear more of her in due course (she is only 18, and has appeared a handful of time for Wellington Women).
Waqar Younis – right arm fast bowler. Has all the ingredients – extra pace, rikght handed as opposed to left, etc, to make an excellent new ball partner for Bill Whitty. His first big moments were in the 1992 test series in England, when the home batters simply could not handle him. He subsequently played county cricket for first Surrey, and then Glamorgan, spearheading the bowling for the latter when they won the championship in 1997. Once in an ODI against England he took the first seven wickets to fall, the first time that had ever been done.

This team has a fine top five, albeit there is a question mark over Javed Omar, a great wicket keeping all rounder at six, the perfect type of all rounder to be coming at seven, and four well varied bowlers. Waqar Younis and Bill Whitty as mentioned should combine well with the new ball, Ulyett wuld be an excellent third seamer, and Verity’s class as a left arm spinner as unchallengable. His ‘spin twin’, Xara Jetly is admittedly an unknown quantity, but bowling in tandem with Verity could only help her. Quaife’s leg spin is more than adequate for a sixth bowler.

DON BRADMAN’S XI

Hazratullah Zazai – left handed opening batter. Whatever he does he will do at a rapid rate.
Azhar Ali – right handed opening batter. Averages 42 in test cricket, and had some very fine innings for Somerset as their overseas player. He and Zazai don’t need to score bucket loads opening for this team, just enough to set the stage for…
Don Bradman – right handed batter. The greatest batter there has ever been, and number three was his preferred slot.
Denis Compton – right handed batter, occasional left arm wrist spinner. A man who averaged 50 in test cricket, including scores of 145 and 184 against the 1948 invincibles. His record would have been even more amazing but for a long term knee injury.
Basil D’Oliveira – right handed batter, right arm medium pacer. Had he been able to make his debut for his native land when in his mid 20s, instead of for his adopted land ten years later he would probably have had a record to put him among the all time greats. As it was, he averaged 40 in test cricket, starting at age 35 and ending at age 41. He also played probably the most important innings ever, the 158 at The Oval in 1968 that underlined his claim to a place in the tour party to South Africa that winter, and that triggered the events that led to the sporting isolation of apartheid South Africa.
Grant Elliott – right handed batter, right arm medium paced bowler. Another cricketer born in South Africa who sought pastures new, albeit for different reasons. He has played for New Zealand, mainly in limited overs cricket.
+Bruce French – wicket keeper, right handed batter. He was in his prime when the England selection approach was at its most inconsistent – the second half of the 1980s, which saw the England gauntlets spread around Paul Downton, him, Jack Richards and Jack Russell (and probably others I have forgotten).
Joel Garner – right arm fast bowler. His ODI economy rate was just 3.09 runs per over, he also had a magnificent test record, and as a youngster possessed one of the most powerful throwing arms ever seen on a cricket field. He was broad and solid in proportion to his 6’8″ height, which helped to spare him from the kind of stress related injuries that plagued beanpoles such as Bruce Reid. The immense height from which he brought the ball down (approx 10 feet given the length of his arms and the fact that he had a high action) made things extremely tricky for opposing batters, especially at his native Barbados where his arm was coming from above the height of the sight screen.
Bill Hitch – right arm fast below. Over 1,000 first class wickets at 21 a piece, but he was never an England regular such was the bowling strength available in his day. Playing for Surrey meant that a lot of his bowling was done at The Oval, not a ground that tops many bowler’s lists of favourites.
Jack Iverson – right arm wrist spinner. A one place promotion from his usual spot for ‘wrong grip Jake’. I have used the designation right arm wrist spinner because although he bowled with a leg spinner’s action (augmented by flicking the ball with his middle finger) his principal delivery was the off break, which confused opposition batters no end. He was only once collared in first class cricket, when Keith Miller and Arthur Morris realized that getting well down the pitch was the way to play him. He played one test series, and was instrumental in Asutralia winning it, capturing 21 cheap wickets.
Bill Johnston – left arm medium fast bowler, left arm orthodox spinner. Three times in the post World War Two era he was Australia’s leading wicket taker in a series. It was not unknown when conditions warranted it for Johnston to switch straight from spinning the old ball to swinging the new. His 40 test match appearances yielded 160 wickets at 23.91.

This team has an adequate looking opening pair, the incomparable Bradman at three, Compton at four, two fine players at five and six who can fill in as support bowlers, an excellent keeper and a marvellous line up of bowlers. Garner, Hitch and Johnston look an excellent pace trio, while Iverson’s spin would pose a stern test, and if a second spinner is needed Johnston can bowl in his slower style.

AN HONOURABLE MENTION

Some would argue that I should have picked Sobers ahead of Sangakkara, but with virtually all of Sobers’ bowling skills covered by specialists in the persons of Verity and Whitty I felt that Sangakkara’s batting style was more suited to the team’s needs than that of Sobers. It is a very close call.

THE CONTEST

This is a close call – the advantage the Bradman gives his own XI is to an extent negated by the presence of Verity, the one bowler he acknowledged facing as an equal in the opposition. Also, bearing in mind 1932-3, if Younis were to strike early with the new ball I would be tempted to set a 7-2 legside field for him and see how Bradman stands up to a barrage – possibly deploying Ulyett from the other end, also with a packed legside field as well. I would just about favour Verity’s XI to emerge victorious, and if the match was being played on an uncovered pitch I would make them distinct favourites, because they are better equipped to take advantage of a rain affected surface than Bradman’s XI, and Bradman himself rarely succeeded with the bat on such surfaces.

PHOTOGRAPHS

We end with my usual sign off:

IMG_1019 (2) — Caterpillar on a nettle 2

IMG_1020 (2) — The aerial view of the indivdual nettle plant selected by this caterpillar.

All Time XIs – All Rounders v Specialists

Today’s ‘all time XI’ cricket post pits all rounders against specialists.

INTRODUCTION

Welcome to another variation on an ‘all time XI‘ cricket theme. Today an XI noted for all round talents take on an XI largely made up of specialists (although I have allowed them one all rounder).

THE ALL ROUNDERS

*WG Grace – right handed opening batter, right arm bowler of varying types through his career. He tallied 54,896 runs at 39.55 in first class cricket and took 2,876 first class wickets at 17.92 each. I note two things in defence of his batting average: he played on poor wickets for much of his career, and that career was very long, and went on well past his cricketing prime. In the decade of the 1870s, when he was at his zenith he averaged 49 with the bat, while no one else who played consistently over the course of that decade averaged over 25. If we accept that he would have paid for his wickets and averaged more with the bat playing on good pitches and allow 50% inflation for the effects of the change in pitches then his career figures become a batting average of 59.42 and a bowling average of 26.88.
Wilfred Rhodes – right handed batter, left arm orthodox spinner. His career figures were 39.807 runs and 4,187 wickets, at averages of 30 and 16 respectively, but his career had several distinct periods: he started as pure bowler, batting no 10 or 11, then he moved up into the middle order for a few seasons, batting habitually at 6 or 7, and doing the double regularly (seven successive seasons), then he moved up to the top of the batting order, and on the 1911-2 Ashes tour he was England’s number two in every way – number two in the order, and second to Hobbs in the batting averages. Then, after World War 1, with Yorkshire needing more bowling he picked up his bowling arts, dropped into the middle order (no 5 initially, and moved down as years passed), and he again did the double in the first seven post war seasons. In 1926, now batting at no 8, he returned to the England team at the age of 49 for the Ashes decider at The Oval, and took 4-44 in the second innings. Then came the final stage of his career, when eyesight problems, which eventually became complete blindness late in his life, caused his batting to decline and he played as an out and out rabbit with the bat who was still worth his place as a batter. He went on the 1929-30 tour of the West Indies, playing for his country for the last time at the age of 52 years 165 days, the oldest ever to play test cricket for any country. In 1930 Hedley Verity began his Yorkshire career, and at the end of that season, at the age of 53, Rhodes retired from first class cricket to leave the stage clear for the younger man. A A Thomson wrote a two part book about the ‘Kirkheaton twins’, titled simply “Hirst and Rhodes”.
Frank Woolley – left handed batter, left arm orthodox spinner, close fielder. 58,969 first class runs at 40.75, 2,068 wickets at 19.85 and 1,018 catches (the only player ever to achieve this treble, and indeed the only outfielder ever to take 1,000 first class catches. The 1906 Wisden said of Woolley after his debut season that “it is doubtful whether he is robust enough to enjoy a really long career.” He only lasted 32 years, up to the end of the 1937 season!
Wally Hammond – right handed batter, right arm medium fast bowler, ace slip fielder. 50,551 first class runs at 56.10, 732 wickets at 30.58, 820 catches. He lost two seasons of his early career, one to bureaucratic malice (Lord Harris, a stickler on matters of qualification, and dedicated to Kent, noted Hammond’s Dover birthplace, and that school – Cirencester Grammar – did not technically count as residence, and caused this hiatus), and one to a mysterious illness picked up in the Caribbean, and six seasons of his later career to World War II, so his figures might have been ever more remarkable.
Garry Sobers – left handed batter, left arm bowler of every type known to cricket, fine fielder. 28,314 first class runs at 54.87, 1,043 wickets at 27.74, 407 catches. The most complete all rounder the game has ever seen. Like Rhodes he started his career as a left arm spinner who did not really bat. Unlike Rhodes having climbed up the order he never went right back down, although he was moved down from three to six when his captain Frank Worrell noted that he and Rohan Kanhai were not combining very well and split them up.
+Les Ames – wicket keeper, right handed batter. 37,248 runs in first class cricket at 43.51, 703 catches and 418 stumpings. The only wicket keeper ever to score 100 first class hundreds.
Gilbert Jessop – right handed batter, right arm fast bowler, ace fielder. 26,698 first class runs at 32.63, 873 wickets at 22.79, 407 catches. A contemporary assessment of his fielding had it worth 20-30 runs per innings. He scored 53 first class innings, five of them doubles, with a best of 286, and only once in his career did he spend over three hours at the crease. For most of his career a ball had to go right out of the ground to score six, otherwise his record would have been even more extraordinary. He was once involved in a partnership of 66 to which he contributed…66 – the highest such partnership in first class cricket history.
George Hirst – right handed batter, left arm fast medium bowler. 36,356 first class runs at 34.13, 2,742 wickets at 18.73. In each of 1904 and 1905 he achieved the 2,000 runs, 100 wickets double, only previously achieved by WG Grace, Charles Townsend and Gilbert Jessop, though matched in 1905 by the Aussie Warwick Armstrong, and then in 1906 he became the only player ever to the ‘double double’, scoring 2,385 runs and taking 208 wickets in first class matches. Every season from 1903-13 inclusive he scored at least 1,000 runs and took at least 100 wickets in first class matches. He went on to be a successful coach, first at Harrow, then for Yorkshire. He was at the Yorkshire nets when Trueman had his first bowl there, and when others were fretting over the youngster’s wildness Hirst said coolly “just imagine what he will do when he teach him to bowl straight”, correctly realizing that pace cannot be taught but accuracy can.
Maurice Tate – right arm fast medium, right handed batter. 2,784 first class wickets at 18.16, 21,616 first class runs at 25.04. Other than Hirst’s 1906 ‘double double’ only two cricketers have ever combined a season tally of 1,000 first class runs with 200 wickets, and he is one of them. He relied on swing and cut, being the first bowler to make really devastating use of the sea fret at Hove – usually the flatness of the pitches there emasculated bowlers.
Albert Trott – right arm slow bowler, right handed batter. 1,674 first class wickets at 21.09, 10,696 runs at 19.48. The first of only two members of this team to have averages the wrong way round. In 1899 and 1901 he combined over 200 wickets with over 1,000 runs in first class matches. However, his decline was rapid thereafter as an obsession with repeating his 1899 feat of hitting a ball over the Lord’s pavilion negatively affected his batting and his bowling lost its fizz, and somewhere along the line he completely lost the fast yorker that was such a devastating weapon in his armoury. His first misfortune occurred when after making a sensational start to his test career he was not picked for the 1896 tour of England, and made his own way to that country, ultimately signing for Middlesex. He seemed to have put the disappointment behind him by the time another Aussie side visited in 1899, but then came that shot of Monty Noble, and its subsequent effect on his batting.
Peter Smith – leg spinner, right handed batter. 1,697 wickets at 26.55 , 10,142 runs at 17.95 in first class cricket. He achieved the season’s double for the first time in 1947, and it was in that season that he had his greatest batting moment. In the game before his big day out he had batted at no 10 and bagged a pair, so he had seemingly little cause for complaint at being made no 11 for the game against Derbyshire. The ninth Essex wicket fell at 199 and he walked out to join Frank Vigar. By the time he was out the score had risen to 417, and his share of that stand of 218 was 163, with five sixes and 23 fours, the highest first class score ever made by a no 11.

This team has an excellent top five, statistically the best batter keeper there has ever been, the ultimate x-factor player in Jessop and a fine foursome who are there principally as bowlers. Counting Sobers as three options because of his multiplicity of styles there are 12 front line bowling options in this team.

THE SPECIALISTS

Jack Hobbs – right handed opening batter. 61,237 first class runs at 50.65. Both this tally of first class runs and his 197 centuries are first class records, and he lost four years of his cricketing prime to World War 1. His entry into first class cricket was also slightly delayed because he was a native of Cambridge and had to qualify by residence for Surrey (after someone at Chelmsford apparently binned his letter asking for a trial without having read it).
Herbert Sutcliffe – right handed opening batter. 50,670 first class runs at 52.02. The only player to score at least 2,000 first class runs in every inter-war season. He and Jack Hobbs were statistically the most productive of all test opening partnerships, the average opening stand between them being 87.81 per wicket, including 15 century opening stands.
*Don Bradman – right handed batter. 28,067 runs at 95.14 in first class cricket. In his 338 innings he reached 50 186 times and went on to the century on 117 of those occasions, an average of a century per 2.78 innings, a figure not remotely approached by anyone else who played enough innings to qualify for assessment. 37 times he topped 200, an all time first class record, and on six of those occasions he scored over 300, the only player have more than four such first class scores (Hammond and Ponsford joint 2nd).
Phil Mead – left handed batter. 55,061 runs at 47.67. His Hampshire tallies of 48,809 runs and 138 centuries are both records for any single first class team. He was originally associated with Surrey, and considered to be mainly a bowler, but moved to Hampshire and ended up as one of the heaviest scoring batters of all time.
Patsy Hendren – right handed batter. 57,611 runs at 50.80. The third leading first class run scorer of all time, and second leading centurion with 170. He did all of this while having a reputation for being a great joker and prankster, just to show that one can be a highly successful player while remembering that it should be fun.
Keith Miller – right handed batter, right arm fast bowler. 14,183 first class runs at 48.90, 497 wickets at 22.30. Another who always realized that it should be fun. He served as an RAAF pilot in World War Two which led to his famous response to a question about pressure “There is no pressure in cricket – pressure is being in a Mosquito with two Messerschmidts up your arse.”
+Bob Taylor – wicket keeper. He took 1,473 first class catches and executed 176 stumpings, totalling the most dismissals ever achieved by any keeper in first class cricket (two London based cricketers, John Murray and Herbert Strudwick are 2 and 3 on the list). Until he finally scored his maiden first class hundred near the end of his career he was in a club of two with Tony Lock – players who had over 10,000 first class runs, but no first class hundred (Lock’s highest score was 89 not out).
Alec Kennedy – right arm medium fast bowler. 2,874 first class wickets at 21.23. He was seventh in the all-time list of first class wicket takers, and the only one of those seven not to be in Philippe-Henri Edmonds’ “100 Greatest Bowlers”. For many years he and Jack Newman (see yesterday’s post) carried the Hampshire bowling, until left arm spinner Stuart Boyes came along to lighten their workload a bit.
Jack Hearne – right arm medium fast bowler. 3,061 first class wickets at 17.75 each. Number four in the list of all time wicket takers, a haul that included nine in an innings no fewer than eight separate times.
Tich Freeman – leg spinner. 3,776 first class wickets at 18.42, taken in 550 first class games. Second on the all-time list of wicket takers behind Rhodes. Remarkably a combination of World War 1 and the strength of Kent’s bowling in his youth meant that by the time he turned 30 he had captured precisely 29 first class wickets. He took 200 or more wickets in each of eight successive seasons, including the only ever instance of 300 (304 in 1928).
Charlie Parker – left arm orthodox spinner. 3,278 first class wickets at 19.46. The third leading wicket taker in first class cricket. Six times in first class cricket he achieved the hat trick, most remarkably in his benefit match when he hit the stumps five times in succession but the second was called no-ball.

This team has a stellar top five, a great all rounder, a great wicket keeper and four excellent and varied bowlers. The bowling with Kennedy, Hearne, Freeman and Parker with Miller as fifth option also looks highly impressive.

HONOURABLE MENTION

Every single batter to have scored over 50,000 first class runs is present in one or other of my teams, and numbers 1,2,3,4,6 and 7 of the all time leading wicket takers are also represented. No 5 in that list is Tom Goddard, the Gloucestershire off spinner who took 2,979 first class wickets at 19.84. For reasons of balance I had to select Kennedy, otherwise my only recognized pace options would have been Hearne and Miller, which is a bit too rich even for my blood.

THE CONTEST

This would be an absolute cracker of a contest. From no 3-11 inclusive the all-rounders team has a combined batting average of 280.95, while for different reasons it is hard to quantify Grace and Rhodes as openers. It would seem likely given their records when they were at their best as openers that these two would contribute sufficiently to make a team total of 400 more likely than not. The top six of the specialists team have a combined average of 344 in first class cricket, so nos 6-11 would have to come up with 50-60 between them to equalize things on this assessment. Without Bradman the specialists would have no chance whatsoever, with him it looks very even. I will call the trophy for this contest the ‘Martin – Stokes Trophy’, honouring two New Zealand born cricketers, one of the great specialists, that purest of pure bowlers Chris Martin, and a great all rounder in Ben Stokes.

AFTERWORD

For all that I would expect my side of all rounders to give a good account of themselves I most emphatically do not recommend selecting a fistful of all rounders in general. Especially I would warn of the curse of the ‘bits and pieces’ cricketer – the player who can bat a bit and bowl a bit but is not good enough at either to warrant selection. In general someone should only be picked if they merit selection as a specialist – and if they have a second string to their bow so much the better. The other problem that I did not highlight in connection with the all rounders side is that teams that bat literally all the way down often end up struggling because folk in such teams tend to develop the feeling that it is not likely to matter much if they do get out. I have memories seared in to me of England teams in the 1980s and 1990s picking bowlers who could bat a bit, and ending up neither able to score commanding totals nor to bowl the opposition out.

PHOTOGRAPHS

My usual sign off…

	Thomas on Auction Week at James and…
	cindy knoke on Auction Week at James and…
	Thomas on Auction Week at James and…
	GP on Auction Week at James and…
	Thomas on England Women’s Unusual…