An indepth analysis of the ICC Greatest Test Team
In case you have missed the greatest joke of the decade, check out the latest http://www.senore.com/Cricket/ICC-World-Cup-2011-c100625 Greatest Test team of All Time. Although the team was selected via fan poll, there were many players, who shouldn’t have been in the nominations in the first place.
The selected players are: http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Glenn-Donald-McGrath-c60183.
There were some of the world’s greatest openers present in the list and the fans had to choose two out of the available ten. The players were: http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Hanif-Mohammad-c61403, Virender
Sehwag, http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Victor-Thomas-Trumper-c95153.
Sehwag and Gavaskar were chosen out of the lot, which definitely made no sense at all. Although the latter did deserve to be present in the nominations, Sehwag by no means deserved to be present there.
There were some legendary players ignored from the list including South Africa’s http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Matthew-Lawrence-Hayden-c75233. Both were technically sound players and had the ability to score runs with consistency on home and foreign soil unlike Sehwag, whose
feet start shaking on bouncing tracks.
However, Sehwag could have been a much better nominee for the youngest cricketer to appear on the international scene with no hair on his head, leaving his lice homeless.
Gavaskar was no doubt a much better player compared to Sehwag, but with the presence of Greenidge, Haynes, Hutton and Hobbs, the Indian didn’t stand a chance of making it to 11.
There was a stiff competition between the middle-order players, which were: Don Bradman, http://www.senore.com/Cricket/SR-Tendulkar-c2556. However, only three had to be
selected from the available list.
Considering the batting records of Bradman and Tendulkar, they did deserve to be a part of the greatest Test team ever. Both have outstanding records and can fit into any sort of playing-11.
However, Richards was the other one, who equally deserved a place in the greatest team. He was one of the most lethal cricketers ever seen in the history of cricket and was much more consistent compared to Lara, who was the choice of the fans as the number
five batsman.
The list of all-rounder was: Ian Botham, Kapil Dev, http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Devi-Chand-Worrel-c53918.
The fans had to choose just one and the went for Kapil Dev. This was once again an unjust selection, as the list had some phenomenal names such as Kallis, http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Imran-c64193, Hadlee and Sobers.
Kapil might have won the award for the best ever moustached cricketer, but certainly not the greatest all-rounder of all time.
The fans really didn’t have much choice when it comes to the greatest wicketkeeper batsman of all time. The list was: http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Rodney-William-Marsh-c86419, Clyde Walcott, Wasim Bari.
Guess who was the winner? Yes, it was Gilchrist, who undoubtedly was the finest keeper batsman of all time. He was agile behind the stumps and won numerous games for Australia with his explosive batting skills.
There were also a couple of surprise selections in the fast bowling department, not as big as the selection of Sehwag and Kapil though.
The nominees were: Curtley Ambrose, http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Wasim-Akram-c96292.
You would have guessed the first of the three bowlers selected by now. Correct again, it was Wasim from http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Pakistan-c755, definitely the greatest left-arm fast bowler ever seen in the history of cricket.
However, the other two bowlers selected were McGrath and Ambrose. Although both were one of the finest of all time, there were http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Marshall-c74817 and Holding in the list as well, who were far more lethal compared to the selected bowlers.
Finally the fans had to select one spinner out of the following: Bishen Bedi, http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Shane-Keith-Warne-c89672.
The fans voted for Warne, which was not a big surprise. However, the shocking thing was ignoring the inventor of the “doosra” http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Saqlain-Mushtaq-c88743, who could easily make it to any playing-11.
Cricket has been ruled by the West Indians and the Australians for most part of the history and http://www.senore.com/Cricket/India-c750 has not even proved to be the best amongst the subcontinent sides. They still have four players in the greatest Test team ever, which still leaves a lot
of people scratching their heads.
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