All-time XI with a twist

Blatently stolen from another cricket discussion board, and just for a bit of fun, try choosing the best all-time test XI within these parameters.

1)Batsmen can't have a test career average above 45

2)Bowlers can't have a test career average below 27

3)Wicketkeepers can't average above 30

4)Maximum of two all-rounders (who can't average over 45 with the bat or under 27 with the ball)

Here's mine.

W.G.Grace(c)
Victor Trumper
Zaheer Abbas
David Gower
Graham Thorpe
Tony Greig
Ian Botham
Ian Healy(wk)
Harold Larwood
Jeff Thomson
Lance Gibbs

Who would you choose?

Hoggy - I'll try to give your boys a game with this eleven (think they all qualify!):

Gordon Greenidge
Desmond Haynes
Larry Gomes
Colin Cowdrey
Tom Graveney
Kapil Dev
Deryck Murray
Richie Benaud (c)
Fred Titmus
Brett Lee
Garth McKenzie

Just going with players who have been playing since I started watching, so 2003/4 ish.

1) Marcus Trescothick
2) Stephen Fleming
3) Michael Vaughan (c)
4) Sanath Jayasuriya
5) Graham Thorpe
6) Andrew Flintoff
7) Ridley Jacobs (WK)
8) Greame Swann
9) Brett Lee
10) Morne Morkel
11) James Anderson

Obviously there are a good few English in there and current ones, but considering the time period is less than 10 years and in that period England have been a fairly dominant team in can't be too surprising. I found the keeper a tough one though, Boucher and Akmal would both have beaten Jones but they averaged about .4 too much. Vaughan got in over Ganguly literally because I didn't want to see that many left handers in my team!

Slater
Gooch
Vengsarkar
R Smith
De-Silva
M Waugh
C Cairns
W Bari
Ntini
Qadir
Srinath

Is this how new Zealand select their testing XI?

1.Chris Gayle (ALL ROUNDER)
2.Brendan Taylor
3.Zaheer Abbas
4.Sourav Ganguly (C)
5.Andrew Flintoff (ALL ROUNDER)
6.Shaun Marsh
7.Denesh Ramdin (wk)
8.Chris Martin
9.Tim Southee
10.Paul Harris
11.Fidel Edwards

some questionable picks there CF, considering you could pick Swann instead of Harris, a lot of other openers instead of Taylor whose average is under 30.

Ramdin, really? Many 'keepers averaging under 30 from before the 1990s, who are regarded as being 10 times better than Dinesh (Perhaps you were picking a team of players you've seen, but that wouldn't explain Zaheer Abbas?)

hodge wrote:Just going with players who have been playing since I started watching, so 2003/4 ish.

1) Marcus Trescothick
2) Stephen Fleming
3) Michael Vaughan (c)
4) Sanath Jayasuriya
5) Graham Thorpe
6) Andrew Flintoff
7) Ridley Jacobs (WK)
8) Greame Swann
9) Brett Lee
10) Morne Morkel
11) James Anderson

Obviously there are a good few English in there and current ones, but considering the time period is less than 10 years and in that period England have been a fairly dominant team in can't be too surprising. I found the keeper a tough one though, Boucher and Akmal would both have beaten Jones but they averaged about .4 too much. Vaughan got in over Ganguly literally because I didn't want to see that many left handers in my team!

Haha, very sneaky.

Gordon Greenidge
Desmond Haynes
David Gower
Sourav Ganguly
Toni Greig
Ian Botham
Ian Healey
Graeme Swann
Anil Kumble
Brett Lee
Makhaya Ntini

One for a Green top.

Grace
Greenidge
Gooch
Gower
Graveney
Ganguly
Greig
Gilmour
Grout
Gough
Gibbs

i'l make some changes

1.Chris Gayle (ALL-ROUNDER)
2.Tillkaratne Dilshan
3.Zaheer Abbas
4.Mark Waugh (ALL-ROUNDER)
5.Graham Thorpe
6.David Gower
7.Alan Knott (wk)
8.Harold Larwood
9.Brett Lee
10.Fidel Edwards
11.Lance Gibbs

CF, Knott can't be included, he averages 32 in test cricket.

wtf, very suprised about that lol, in which case i shall stick with Ramdin

Biltong wrote:

hodge wrote:Just going with players who have been playing since I started watching, so 2003/4 ish.

1) Marcus Trescothick
2) Stephen Fleming
3) Michael Vaughan (c)
4) Sanath Jayasuriya
5) Graham Thorpe
6) Andrew Flintoff
7) Ridley Jacobs (WK)
8) Greame Swann
9) Brett Lee
10) Morne Morkel
11) James Anderson

Obviously there are a good few English in there and current ones, but considering the time period is less than 10 years and in that period England have been a fairly dominant team in can't be too surprising. I found the keeper a tough one though, Boucher and Akmal would both have beaten Jones but they averaged about .4 too much. Vaughan got in over Ganguly literally because I didn't want to see that many left handers in my team!

Haha, very sneaky.

Must thank him for the start he had to test cricket