Greatest ever Cricket XI

Don Bradman
S Tandulkar
V Richards
B Lara
Sir Gary Sobers
Imran Khan (Captain)
Adam Gilchrist
Wasim Akram
Shane Warne
Murali
Michael Holding

No doubt missed a few dozen greats in the process.
 
Sultan said:
Don Bradman
S Tandulkar
V Richards
B Lara
Sir Gary Sobers
Imran Khan (Captain)
Adam Gilchrist
Wasim Akram
Shane Warne
Murali
Michael Holding

No doubt missed a few dozen greats in the process.
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That'd take some beating.
 
Good side there Sults...I was going for pretty much the same..except for Bradman.

Kallis doesn't deserve to be anywhere near an all time XI
 
Seen a few greats and very hard putting em into 1 team. 2 great test sides over the years, West Indies during the 80's and Austrilia over the last 10-15 years.

Bowling line up was hardest, how do you leave out the 3 top wicket takers in history, yet again how can u you ignore the likes of micheal holding, merv hughes, bob willis and more recently Alan Donald. Some legend batters not in there either Clive Lloyd an Old Trafford hero, David Gower, Tendulkar :/

Mark Taylor
Graham Gooch
Ricky Ponting
Bryan Lara
ViV Richards
Ian Botham
Adam Gilchrist
Shane Warne
Malcom Marshall
Murli (cba spelling his name)
Glenn McGrath

Good thread
 
kinkster said:
Seen a few greats and very hard putting em into 1 team. 2 great test sides over the years, West Indies during the 80's and Austrilia over the last 10-15 years.

Bowling line up was hardest, how do you leave out the 3 top wicket takers in history, yet again how can u you ignore the likes of micheal holding, merv hughes, bob willis and more recently Alan Donald. Some legend batters not in there either Clive Lloyd an Old Trafford hero, David Gower, Tendulkar :/

Mark Taylor
Graham Gooch
Ricky Ponting
Bryan Lara
ViV Richards
Ian Botham
Adam Gilchrist
Shane Warne
Malcom Marshall
Murli (cba spelling his name)
Glenn McGrath

Good thread
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How can you have a greatest cricket 11 without Don Bradman and Thendulker?
 
Richie Benaud made a DVD on this. His team looked like this:

1. Jack Hobbs
2. Sunil Gavaskar
3. Sir Donald Bradman
4. Sir Vivian Richards
5. Sachin Tendulkar
6. Sir Garfield Sobers
7. Imran Khan
8. Adam Gilchrist
9. Shane Warne
10. Dennis Lillee
11. Syd Barnes

12th man: keith miller
 
KingBest said:
How can you have a greatest cricket 11 without Don Bradman and Thendulker?
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never saw bradman play and that was one of the rules as for tendulkar, very hard but tried to have openers opening hence probably gooch not tendulkar who was a more natural 3 or 4, and couldnt leave out lara and imo ponting is one of the most under rated of the worlds best ever batsmen.

If it were based on best 11 ever then bradman and sobers would undoubtedbly be in there.
 
kinkster said:
Seen a few greats and very hard putting em into 1 team. 2 great test sides over the years, West Indies during the 80's and Austrilia over the last 10-15 years.

Bowling line up was hardest, how do you leave out the 3 top wicket takers in history, yet again how can u you ignore the likes of micheal holding, merv hughes, bob willis and more recently Alan Donald. Some legend batters not in there either Clive Lloyd an Old Trafford hero, David Gower, Tendulkar :/

Mark Taylor
Graham Gooch
Ricky Ponting
Bryan Lara
ViV Richards
Ian Botham
Adam Gilchrist
Shane Warne
Malcom Marshall
Murli (cba spelling his name)
Glenn McGrath

Good thread
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No chance. They'd get their country's best eleven, but not a chance in a world eleven. As for Merv Hughes, he can easily be ignored, wouldn't make Australia's best XL. As for Donald, very good but not great.
 
KingBest said:
Richie Benaud made a DVD on this. His team looked like this:

1. Jack Hobbs
2. Sunil Gavaskar
3. Sir Donald Bradman
4. Sir Vivian Richards
5. Sachin Tendulkar
6. Sir Garfield Sobers
7. Imran Khan
8. Adam Gilchrist
9. Shane Warne
10. Dennis Lillee
11. Syd Barnes

12th man: keith miller
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That's a good list. Syd Barnes, though, one for the old timers that one. Doubt his record would've looked half as good in the modern game. And I bet he only ever played against one nation.
 
In the last 10 - 15 years (I'm only 26).

Sachin Tendulkar
?????
Ricky Ponting
Brian Lara
Steve Waugh (c)
Adam Gilchrist
Wasim Akram
Shane Warne
Alan Donald
Courtney Walsh
Glenn McGrath


Only position that really stumped me. Tempted to put Atherton (one of my fave's) but he's not good enough to make that team.
 
Parks Life said:
In the last 10 - 15 years (I'm only 26).

Sachin Tendulkar
?????
Ricky Ponting
Brian Lara
Steve Waugh (c)
Adam Gilchrist
Wasim Akram
Shane Warne
Alan Donald
Courtney Walsh
Glenn McGrath


Only position that really stumped me. Tempted to put Atherton (one of my fave's) but he's not good enough to make that team.
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Last 10 years? Saeed Anwar's a good bet.
 
Anwar was a better opener. Reckon he chucked it in far too early in his career. Best pair of openers I've seen were Greenidge and Haynes. . . Not seen many great combos since.
 
Spoony said:
No chance. They'd get their country's best eleven, but not a chance in a world eleven. As for Merv Hughes, he can easily be ignored, wouldn't make Australia's best XL. As for Donald, very good but not great.
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As an all rounder name one better than beefy in last 20 years, As I said trying to put players in there natural position and including an all rounder in the team is essential imo :)

as for taylor and gooch well there test records were nigh on equal to those of haynes & greenidge. Taylor would easily open the batting for an australian 11 in the last 25 years or so since ive been watching cricket.
 
Parks Life said:
Whenever I saw England play Pakistan (probably the only time I saw Anwar play Test Cricket) I never thought he was that much better than Atherton.
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He was a lot better. Could play both forms of the game. Naturally talented, whereas Atherton was more of a grafter. I'll check his record. . . Test average 45.52 which is excellent for an opener, OD average around 40, which is also very good for OD cricket. . . and arguably more importantly he had an excellent strike rate of 80. Fantastic player. Atherton however, averaged 37.69 in Tests and over 35 in ODIs. . . his strike rate was awful, though. . .58.64. Not in Anwar's league.
 
kinkster said:
As an all rounder name one better than beefy in last 20 years, As I said trying to put players in there natural position and including an all rounder in the team is essential imo :)

as for taylor and gooch well there test records were nigh on equal to those of haynes & greenidge. Taylor would easily open the batting for an australian 11 in the last 25 years or so since ive been watching cricket.
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Gooch was decent in the twighlight of his career. He was average at best for the majority of it. As for Botham, he doesn't come close to Imran. . and I'd have Akram, Dev, Hadlee and a few others above him, too.
 
Sobers and all. Seeing as we're talking all time XL, and not the best players from the last 20 years.
 
Spoony said:
He was a lot better. Could play both forms of the game. Naturally talented, whereas Atherton was more of a grafter. I'll check his record. . . Test average 45.52 which is excellent for an opener, OD average around 40, which is also very good for OD cricket. . . and arguably more importantly he had an excellent strike rate of 80. Fantastic player. Atherton however, averaged 37.69 in Tests and over 35 in ODIs. . . his strike rate was awful, though. . .58.64. Not in Anwar's league.
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Granted Athers was crap in ODI's. However his Test record was far more than stats. At one stage we we're far too dependant on him and whenever he didn't make a score we seemed to fall apart.

That 185 was just amazing as well.
 
Parks Life said:
Granted Athers was crap in ODI's. However his Test record was far more than stats. At one stage we we're far too dependant on him and whenever he didn't make a score we seemed to fall apart.

That 185 was just amazing as well.
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He was a good player, not denying that. Bit too limited, though.
 
Sults, has come the closest, though. I'd probably have Tendulkar opening too. A case could be made for Gavasker to open, as well. Not been many better openers than him.
 
Spoony said:
Gooch was decent in the twighlight of his career. He was average at best for the majority of it. As for Botham, he doesn't come close to Imran. . and I'd have Akram, Dev, Hadlee and a few others above him, too.
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yep give u imran, wouldnt put hadlee in same league or akram, tho havnt realy looked at stats for any of em.
 
kinkster said:
yep give u imran, wouldnt put hadlee in same league or akram, tho havnt realy looked at stats for any of em.
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To be fair, Botham, at his peak, for a couple of years, was amazing. Thing is though, during the rest of his career he wasn't anywhere near as good. You're probably right about Hadlee. Great bowler, though. Akram had the talent to be a fantastic batsmen too, but never realised his true potential. Statistically, they're both in a different league in terms of bowling. Botham clearly has a better batting record. Great character, though. Not many around like him thesedays.
 
Spoony said:
To be fair, Botham, at his peak, for a couple of years, was amazing. Thing is though, during the rest of his career he wasn't anywhere near as good. You're probably right about Hadlee. Great bowler, though. Akram had the talent to be a fantastic batsmen too, but never realised his true potential. Statistically, they're both in a different league in terms of bowling. Botham clearly has a better batting record. Great character, though. Not many around like him thesedays.
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I guess its hard to ascertain a great all rounder, theres no doubt akram was an imense bowler but as a true all rounder his batting let him down a majority of the time.

In terms of an all rounder id say botham was right up there, granted there were better bowlers and better batsmen but not many (imran aside) who were truley good at both

batting 33.5
bowling 28.4

120 catches (great slip fielder)

and hes a Sir
 
Hadlee's record pretty good too. Batting 27, Bowling 21. I'd say his record was better overall. Sobers, who's up there with the very best, too. More of a batsman all rounder, though. I'd have Botham top 4. Behind Imran and Sobers. I guess an argument can be made for Hadlee and Botham for the next spot.
 
Spoony said:
Hadlee's record pretty good too. Batting 27, Bowling 21. I'd say his record was better overall. Sobers, who's up there with the very best, too. More of a batsman all rounder, though. I'd have Botham top 4. Behind Imran and Sobers. I guess an argument can be made for Hadlee and Botham for the next spot.
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sobers way before my time :) so in my lifetime botham 2 behind imran would be fair. Thus coming back to my original 11 within which u critisised my selection of botham, when considering all rounders in my lifetime I really wasnt far off.
 
Sobers was named as the second best player of the 20th century, just behind Bradman and far ahead of everyone else. He could do almost everything. As a batsman he was every bit as good and classy as Viv Richards. Sobers was an excellent medium-fast bowler and could also bowl slow in two different styles. He first came into the Windies team as a slow bowler. He was a world class fielder at slip or short leg and caught everything, especially off the bowling of Lance Gibbs. Also, Colin Cowdrey was once asked who was the fairest and most honest player he had ever played against and he said Gary Sobers. A true corinthian. Botham, Imran, Kapil Dev, Hadlee and the others were not in the same class.
 
Sultan said:
Don Bradman
S Tandulkar
V Richards
B Lara
Sir Gary Sobers
Imran Khan (Captain)
Adam Gilchrist
Wasim Akram
Shane Warne
Murali
Michael Holding

No doubt missed a few dozen greats in the process.
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Alan Donald
Sir Jack Hobbs
Clarrie Grimmett
'Big' Joel Garner
Michael Bevan
Dean Jones
Sydney Barnes

Those are just some names I can recall (not first hand for most of them... but through many a rainy day when the cricket is on).
 
And now that I've read the original post, I see you're looking for a greatest ever cricket team but you can only choose players you've seen.... rather confusing that.

Also, the original poster put Mark Waugh in his team? Surely he meant Steve Waugh.

Mark Waugh to James Ormond:

"feck me, look who it is. Mate, what are you doing out here, there's no way you're good enough to play for England".

James Ormond to Mark Waugh:

"Maybe not, but at least I'm the best player in my family".
 
Been thinking about this, and have excluded players before my time:

Barry Richards
Gavaskar
Viv Richards
Graeme Pollock
Tendulkar
Sobers
Adam Gilchrist
Richard Hadlee
Warne
Lillee
Murali

Barry Richards only played 4 tests (for political reasons). He's still my favourite opening bat. I'm not sure who's the best wicketkeeper so Gilchrist gets it for his batting. Gavaskar is the weakest of the top 6 batsmen and could be replaced by an extra fast bowler if necessary.
 
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