Newsgroups: rec.sport.cricket
Subject: Re: 1980s Dream Teams Matchup
From: WEABEP@DEVAX1 (Peter ABELA)
Date: 25 Jan 93 10:00:47 +1000
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In <1993Jan19.211137.16307@cs.brown.edu> vr@cs.brown.edu writes:

> With all the talk of World XIs going on, I thought I'd post my 1980s
> dream XI and dream 2nd XI for Test Matches. 
> 
> Dream XI		Dream 2nd XI
> --------		------------
> 1. Gavaskar		1. Gooch
> 2. Greenidge		2. Haynes
> 3. Richards (vc)	3. Gower 
> 4. Miandad		4. Martin Crowe (vc)
> 5. Border (c)		5. Vengsarkar
> 6. Botham		6. Kapil Dev
> 7. Rod Marsh (wk)	7. Imran (c)
> 8. Hadlee		8. Ian Smith (wk)
> 9. Lillee		9. Akram
> 10. Marshall		10. Holding
> 11. Qadir		11. Emburey
> 
> Hon. Mentions : Roberts, Garner, Walsh, Bob Willis	(Bowling)
> 		Dujon	(Wicket Keeper)
> 		Lloyd, Greg Chappell, Richardson, Boon  (Batting)
> 
I think you've done a pretty good job. Possibly I'd like to see Imran ahead of
Botham, as he is a better bowler, and probably a better batsman than Botham,
especially when he was captain. From 1982 onwards, Imran averaged 52 with the
bat, and about 18-20 with the ball. But Botham was an excellent player, so
there are arguments both ways.

I really can't see how Dilip Vengsarkar can beat Greg Chappell though. Chappell
averaged 54, and scored over 7000 runs. He retired when he was still on top (he
averaged over 70 in his last series). Vengsarkar was a very good player, but I
think Chappell was quite a bit better.

Emburey's a bit of a joke. Maybe you should pick another fast bowler. Or
possible John Bracewell.

> 
> Now here's my all-time Test XI, though I must confess that there must
> be a bias towards more recent players.
> 
> 1. Gavaskar
> 2. Jack Hobbs / Len Hutton
> 3. Bradman (must be the only one nobody will dispute!)
> 4. Richards (c)
> 5. Wally Hammond
> 6. Gary Sobers (vc)
> 7. Rod Marsh (wk)
> 8. Lillee
> 9. Marshall
> 10. Sid Barnes
> 11. Clarrie Grimett  
> 
I think it is almost impossible to pick such a team. Virtually every position
(bar Bradman) is open to dispute, so I won't even bother to argue. I will say
though, that at the time, O'Reilly was widely regarded as the best bowler
around, so he should get picked ahead of Grimmett. Indeed, only a few months ago
on O'Reilly's death, Bradman nominated him as the second best bowler of all time
(behind Barnes).

I think it's fair to say that that side wouldn't lose to many matches ...


The Speaker.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------/\/\----
Peter Abela, Computing Science Cadet, Process & Engineering Section   / / /\
               BHP Information Technology, Wollongong Region         / / /  \
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All opinions are my own, and not BHP IT's
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