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Pollock probably in the top 3 all rounders ever, 5th 11? Yeah nah.
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Best test world 11 last 50 years
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Maybe top ten allrounders ever, if lucky. Probably generous in 5th XI. 6th maybe
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23 with the ball and 33 with the bat says otherwise, Kallis is the only other all rounder to boast stats like that albeit the other way round.
You can live in statsville and have him. He nowhere near my team
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420 test wickets and almost 4000 runs, I’ll gladly take him.
Clearly ahead of Dev, Beefy, Hadlee, I would have Kallis and Khan ahead and that is all
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None of them in my team. Hadlee bowler
Top 3 all rounders ever? Sobers, Kallis, Miller would be ahead for sure. Arguably Imran, Kapil.
Roy Fredericks probably is one of those ahead of Haynes, and a good partnership with Greenidge. And 1973 was arguably overall better than pre-1973 for the 50 year cut-off.
Yeah, Fredericks probably was but i think i saw less of him than Barry Richards so struggle to rate him and rely on older types that seen him to rate him
I'm going mostly off reputation and numbers for both of these; but yes, if WSC is included Barry Richards is the one to go for imo. South Africa were banned by 50 years ago, so no official Tests in the cutoff period.
Gavaska
Grennidge
V Richards
Ponting
Lara
Kallis
Gilchrist
Warne
Hadlee
Lillee
Holding
Grennidge
V Richards
Ponting
Lara
Kallis
Gilchrist
Warne
Hadlee
Lillee
Holding
It was probably still ill-advised to sledge Viv by saying he wasn't the best Richards in the match.
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I went player who have played in the last 50 years, rather than their whole career in the last 50 years
1. V. Richards (averaged just over 50 in his career and 69 as an opener, handy in the field and could roll the arm too)
2. Kallis (averaged 55, professional and patient to bat up the order or down deep and 32 with the ball)
3. S. Smith (averaged around 55 batting up the order)
4. Tendulka (averaged just under 55 and could play anywhere required with flair or patience)
5. Sobers (averaged around 55 batting low in the order and 34 with the ball)
6. Khan (averaged close to 50 with the bat in his latter years and 22 with the ball. Given this stat I went with Khan at 6, sobers at 5 and this put hadlee out of the squad as we have too many 1.8m types)
7. Gillie (not as prolific with the bat as AB de Villiers but went with him based on attitude and keeping)
8. Marshall (20 with the ball and close to 20 with the bat - being similar height to lillee and style with more wickets and better average, lillee misses out of the side for team balance)
9. Akram ( I like playing a left hander averaging 23 with the ball and 22 with the bat. He is tainted though and could easily be replaced by Cummins, Cummins hasn't played enough cricket to be a walk up start)
10. Warnie (enough said)
11. Ambrose (all my bowlers are around 1.8m, so I wanted some height for variety and what better choice but a prolific and fearsome wicket taker who had longevity)
12. Murali (22 with the ball but could be easily switched with warnie)
Lillee, Steyn and Hadlee could easily displace marshall or akram. ambrose easily replaced by other greats such as walsh or garner. I also found it hard to leave out border who could easily open the side and roll his arm when required.
1. V. Richards (averaged just over 50 in his career and 69 as an opener, handy in the field and could roll the arm too)
2. Kallis (averaged 55, professional and patient to bat up the order or down deep and 32 with the ball)
3. S. Smith (averaged around 55 batting up the order)
4. Tendulka (averaged just under 55 and could play anywhere required with flair or patience)
5. Sobers (averaged around 55 batting low in the order and 34 with the ball)
6. Khan (averaged close to 50 with the bat in his latter years and 22 with the ball. Given this stat I went with Khan at 6, sobers at 5 and this put hadlee out of the squad as we have too many 1.8m types)
7. Gillie (not as prolific with the bat as AB de Villiers but went with him based on attitude and keeping)
8. Marshall (20 with the ball and close to 20 with the bat - being similar height to lillee and style with more wickets and better average, lillee misses out of the side for team balance)
9. Akram ( I like playing a left hander averaging 23 with the ball and 22 with the bat. He is tainted though and could easily be replaced by Cummins, Cummins hasn't played enough cricket to be a walk up start)
10. Warnie (enough said)
11. Ambrose (all my bowlers are around 1.8m, so I wanted some height for variety and what better choice but a prolific and fearsome wicket taker who had longevity)
12. Murali (22 with the ball but could be easily switched with warnie)
Lillee, Steyn and Hadlee could easily displace marshall or akram. ambrose easily replaced by other greats such as walsh or garner. I also found it hard to leave out border who could easily open the side and roll his arm when required.
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Murali averaged over 75 in Australia, Warne averaged 20 in Sri Lanka, Warne also had a better average in India believe it or not, both had similar averages in England.
Warne also played a combined 3 tests against Zimbabwe and Bangladesh, Murali played a combined 25 tests against those nations.
Warne also played a combined 3 tests against Zimbabwe and Bangladesh, Murali played a combined 25 tests against those nations.
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Graeme Smith (c)
Sunil Gavaskar
Viv Richards
Jacques Kallis
Brian Lara
Ricky Ponting
Adam Gilchrist
Shane Warne
Dale Steyn
Malcolm Marshall
Dennis Lillee
Easy swaps would be Ambrose or Akram probably for Lillee, Murali’s record is simply too brilliant to just ignore altogether but I believe Warne was the slightly better bowler, could easily slot Greenidge into an opening spot, Allan Border in at 5-6, and obviously by the time he retires Steve Smith will probably find his way into this side fairly comfortably.
Since 1972 there have been 3 distinct eras of sustained excellence though people seem fairly oblivious in large part to the third of them:
West Indies from the 1976 tour of England for the next 19 years were all but unbeatable. Virtually from that moment for the next 12-13 years Australia were similarly dominant with only Asia providing the occasional blip.
South Africa played 36 series across 12 years between 2004-2016.
They won 26, drew 8, and lost 2 to visiting Australian sides. They didn’t lose a series away during this time.
That they did this while fielding no world class spinners and played guys like Harris as a defender basically, tells a lot about the quality of their fast bowling and Smith’s leadership. That they also broke through Australia’s home stranglehold during this time is also a mark of their quality.
I would have liked to have seen them play more big series and more 3-4 test series but it is what it is.
So yeah my side is basically a cross section of those teams
Everything looks great with rose coloured glasses when you look back through time and I’m sure players like Imran Khan or Michael Holding etc would be equally deserving of a spot in a side like this but the two best fast bowlers I’ve seen with my own eyes are Dale Steyn and Curtley Ambrose, with Akram and McGrath just behind. I’m happy to take Lillee and Marshall on what people say about them.
Sunil Gavaskar
Viv Richards
Jacques Kallis
Brian Lara
Ricky Ponting
Adam Gilchrist
Shane Warne
Dale Steyn
Malcolm Marshall
Dennis Lillee
Easy swaps would be Ambrose or Akram probably for Lillee, Murali’s record is simply too brilliant to just ignore altogether but I believe Warne was the slightly better bowler, could easily slot Greenidge into an opening spot, Allan Border in at 5-6, and obviously by the time he retires Steve Smith will probably find his way into this side fairly comfortably.
Since 1972 there have been 3 distinct eras of sustained excellence though people seem fairly oblivious in large part to the third of them:
West Indies from the 1976 tour of England for the next 19 years were all but unbeatable. Virtually from that moment for the next 12-13 years Australia were similarly dominant with only Asia providing the occasional blip.
South Africa played 36 series across 12 years between 2004-2016.
They won 26, drew 8, and lost 2 to visiting Australian sides. They didn’t lose a series away during this time.
That they did this while fielding no world class spinners and played guys like Harris as a defender basically, tells a lot about the quality of their fast bowling and Smith’s leadership. That they also broke through Australia’s home stranglehold during this time is also a mark of their quality.
I would have liked to have seen them play more big series and more 3-4 test series but it is what it is.
So yeah my side is basically a cross section of those teams
Everything looks great with rose coloured glasses when you look back through time and I’m sure players like Imran Khan or Michael Holding etc would be equally deserving of a spot in a side like this but the two best fast bowlers I’ve seen with my own eyes are Dale Steyn and Curtley Ambrose, with Akram and McGrath just behind. I’m happy to take Lillee and Marshall on what people say about them.
I will go:
Gavaskar
G Smith
Ponting
Richards
S Smith
Kallis
Gilchrist
Marshall
Warne
Lillee
McGrath
Could be seen as Auscentric, but we have been the best side overall last 50 years, windies had us covered from 72-95 period but fell off a cliff after.
I’ve gone Steve Smith ahead of Tendulkar and Ponting ahead of Lara.
Keeper position is no contest, and neither is the spin position (Murali 2nd in line, but Warney didn’t get to dine out on Zimbabwe and Bangladesh like Murali did, also Murali struggled in Australia).
Pace bowling, lots of options to pick from (Hadlee, akram, imran khan, holding, Ambrose, Steyn) but Im happy with the 3 I’ve picked. Lillee went from tear away to older bowler with an array of tricks, McGrath most accurate bowler I’ve seen, Marshall a bit like Lillee, could do the express pace but had lots of tricks.
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I’m not sure if this stayed the case to the end of their careers but at one point late in their careers, if you removed matches against Bangladesh and Zimbabwe, Murali still had a better record. And let’s be realistic for most of Warne’s career SA and England who he played regularly, handled leg spin about as well as a minnow side.
That said I think Warne was the better bowler.
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Compare Shaun Pollock’s bowling record to Glenn McGrath’s. I think you’ll get a shock.
Pollock’s average is 1.5 runs worse than McGrath’s - he has a better economy rate - and there’s the small matter of two test centuries (would have been 3 except one of them was scored in the ‘u official’ test against India when they refused to sit Virender Sehwag out of the game when he had been suspended for over-appealing), nearly 4000 test runs and an average of 33.
He’s not as far away from a side like this as you think.
If you take out the minnows then take into account that murali bowled a lot more overs than Warne per innings their overall stats are actually remarkably similar.
For mine Warne has the edge simply because he was a big game player and also one thing people leave out is that he was a significantly better batsman than murali. Not even close. Murali was a genuine no11 and Warne batted at 8.
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Absolutely, very good point.
I thought Warne’s ability to rely on his smarts is probably what separated them as bowlers.
Murali could bowl to a nobody like me in the nets and probably get me out 6 balls out of 6 just because he had so much spin on the ball.
Warne who to be fair could turn it a mile himself when things were working, could probably give me 3-4 balls I could hit and maybe even bash, but he would find a way to outwit me without even having to make the the thing spin.
Guy just had so much going on between the ears when he was working out a batsman
He is for mine. There not much difference between a lot of very good players. He was very tight restraining bowler but he does not rate very highly in all the bowlers I seen in my life.
I see when picking a world XI of last 50 years no one has any English players, and rightly so.
They have produced fine cricketers, but all of their best are quite easily superseded by other equivalents. For the sake of the exercise he is my best English side of the last 50 years (I’m just thinking of it right now, so bound to miss some)
Cook
Gooch
Gower
Pietersen
Root
Stokes (captain, we are playing Baz ball)
Alec Stewart (keeper)
Botham
Swann
Broad
Anderson
Willis
Botham at 8 seems a bit rough, but gives lots of depth, and endless flexibility with him and Stokes.
I can’t think of a spinner if we are measuring careers from 1972 onwards who would be head of Swann (underwood perhaps? Though not sure how much of his career was pre 72). He’s certainly miles ahead of Emburey, Edmonds, Tufnell, Croft, Giles etc.
They have produced fine cricketers, but all of their best are quite easily superseded by other equivalents. For the sake of the exercise he is my best English side of the last 50 years (I’m just thinking of it right now, so bound to miss some)
Cook
Gooch
Gower
Pietersen
Root
Stokes (captain, we are playing Baz ball)
Alec Stewart (keeper)
Botham
Swann
Broad
Anderson
Willis
Botham at 8 seems a bit rough, but gives lots of depth, and endless flexibility with him and Stokes.
I can’t think of a spinner if we are measuring careers from 1972 onwards who would be head of Swann (underwood perhaps? Though not sure how much of his career was pre 72). He’s certainly miles ahead of Emburey, Edmonds, Tufnell, Croft, Giles etc.
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If you remove his tests against Australia his record is actually identical to McGrath’s - plus the runs. He was often used as the ‘donkey’ bowler against Australia. He also played all but 3 of his tests against Australia away from home during a time that literally bookended their time at the top of test cricket, his only tests at home against them coming right at the start, and 2 at the very end, of his career.
The guy was a superstar.
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I would say a mark of their lack of star power during that period is the fact that, to me at least, their ‘greatest’ batsman of that time is Kevin Pietersen. And he’s nowhere near a world side for that era.
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