All-Time ODI XIs

Thought long & hard about Fairbrother & given i saw most of his career in 90s, i personally think Morgan is already more dynamic & better. Both average similar 38/39, while Morgan already has 4 hundreds in 11 less games & is likely to continue to have a dominant ODI career for England.

It's not always about statistics though, Fairbrother's importance to the side was far more than just his own runs contribution in terms of when he scored runs and of course his second to none fielding.

And "all time XIs" don't really have much scope for potential which is a part of your argument for Morgan, it should be based on what the player has done at the time of picking.

And of course Morgan is playing in a time of powerplays and flat tracks, in that regard the averages of Knight and Fairbrother are way above and beyond awesome (in their day 250-270 was a good total)

Cant leave Pietersen out of the main XI either my friend. No way. He is easily the most dominant limited overs batsman England has had - he is a must pick & arguably should be one of 1st names on the list when picking an All-time England ODI XI.

Another one for his own personal stats, I go for TEAM myself and Pietersen has his own agenda all too often.

Hick in the squad is a fair shout yea. Its between him & Collingwood as the other back-up in the squad for me.

I understood why Hick was left out of the Test side, he was wrongly dropped from the ODI side and could easily have bolstered our 2003 and 2007 World Cup campaigns.

Another player who i wanted to pick was Robin Smith.

I think spinners would have worked him out like they kinda have with Pietersen, another reason not to pick the peanut

Gooch is under-rated in this format. He was ahead of his time in his ability as a ODI opener in the 80s. He would be my skipper personally.

Funny how you recognise the difference between eras here, but not with regard picking Pietersen and Morgan ahead of Fairbrother and Hick ;) I don't want to leave Gooch out, but your side has FOUR openers (including Stewart) in it, you should really pick two from Gooch, Knight and Trescothick, especially as you've put Knight at three who played just eight innings there (albeit his average was about the same, still not enough innings to justify it)

I suppose you could include Gooch for his captaincy and leadership from the front, but I would be hard pressed to drop Knight or Trescothick. I'd have to put Trescothick in the reserves and drop the peanut altogether. No room in my XI/squad for egos like his
 
India-

Sourav Ganguly
Sachin Tendulkar
Rahul Dravid
Yuvraj Singh
MS Dhoni
Azhar
Kapil Dev
Anil Kumble
Harbhajan Singh
Zaheer Khan
Javagal Srinath

3 awesome pace bowlers, 2 great spinners, still bats to 7... i'm liking it.
 
Hayden was indeed a powerhouse no doubt - but mainly in tests during the 2000s era. In ODIs he only showed that consistently for about 1 year (early of 2007 - early 2008).

Guys like Watson & M Waugh where consistent as ODI opener for much longer than that.

On Martyn he was pretty close to selection for me as a back-up batsman. But i went for G Chappell.




Hmm i actually thought about picking this side. But i found it hard to leave out Saqlain @ his peak.

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Kallicharran as keeper?. Im pretty sure he never any experience doing that role @ ODI level. Bit of a risky selection that my friend.
ur very right but i think he was class so im gona give him a nod. just thought his batting was an extra string to his bow.
 
It's not always about statistics though, Fairbrother's importance to the side was far more than just his own runs contribution in terms of when he scored runs and of course his second to none fielding.

And "all time XIs" don't really have much scope for potential which is a part of your argument for Morgan, it should be based on what the player has done at the time of picking.

And of course Morgan is playing in a time of powerplays and flat tracks, in that regard the averages of Knight and Fairbrother are way above and beyond awesome (in their day 250-270 was a good total)

Firstly yes its not all about stats. Morgan importance to current England ODI worth more than his runs as well. So im certainly not just basing it on blind stats. As i said i saw about 90% of Fairborther's ODI career in the 90s & all of Morgan's career to date & i'd rate Morgan higher easily. Plus if you take out Morgan's record for Ireland, his average reaches 40 as well in 20 less games than uncle Neil.

Secondly. My "potential" argument for Morgan is based on his future career outcomes. As i mentioned for England he already averages more than uncle neil in 30 odd less games. He will likely unless he has a horrendous dip in form, play ODIs for ENG for 10 more years, play 200+ ODIs & will be one of our leading in ODI batsmen in ENGs history.

Thirdly fair point about Fairbrother playing in an era where 250-270 was seen as a good score. But to be fair to modern players, i'd say ODIs have certainly advanced thanks to T20 in the last decade. A proper/par ODI score against a top-class ODI bowling attack today on a fair wicket would be around 280-290


Another one for his own personal stats, I go for TEAM myself and Pietersen has his own agenda all too often.

Pietersen for his own personal stats & agenda??. Whoaa!, thats a bit of an outlandish theory my friend, which isn't proven by facts.

KP at his batting peak in ODIs from that debut tour in S Africa 04/05 to the 2007 world cup, averaged an outstanding 56. That is the most outstanding batting peak any England ODI batsmen has ever accomplished & given all-time XIs you are picking players @ their peaks, that makes KP a must pick, even if he never gets to that level again for whatever reason.

His average has dropped to 40 now given he has averaged a poor 30 since the 2007 WC.



I understood why Hick was left out of the Test side, he was wrongly dropped from the ODI side and could easily have bolstered our 2003 and 2007 World Cup campaigns.

I dont remember the exact circumstances in which Hick was dropped from the ODI side. But i do remember him looking really crap the last time for ENG in both tests & ODI during that famous winter series wins in Pakistan & SRI 2001.

The batsman i'd say England's 2003 WC campaign missed was Graham Thorpe.

While in 2007, i struggle to see how a 41 year old Hick would have made much of a difference. England where just horribly crap in ODIs circa 2007, no excuses. Thank god KP was in legendary form back then.



I think spinners would have worked him out like they kinda have with Pietersen, another reason not to pick the peanut

Ha well Smith best role would have been opening. So if picked his probable problems vs spin may not have been exposed much.



Funny how you recognise the difference between eras here, but not with regard picking Pietersen and Morgan ahead of Fairbrother and Hick ;) I don't want to leave Gooch out, but your side has FOUR openers (including Stewart) in it, you should really pick two from Gooch, Knight and Trescothick, especially as you've put Knight at three who played just eight innings there (albeit his average was about the same, still not enough innings to justify it)

I suppose you could include Gooch for his captaincy and leadership from the front, but I would be hard pressed to drop Knight or Trescothick. I'd have to put Trescothick in the reserves and drop the peanut altogether. No room in my XI/squad for egos like his

Well in Gooch's case i think he is better old days player than Fairbrother. Which is why i pick him. No bias.

On Knight yes of course he never batted much @ 3. But i think he is versatile enough to bat @ 3 to play their in the ENG ATXI. His style of batting is very similar to role Trott has been playing @ 3 recently.

Stewart also although he can open is very versatile. He can bat anywhere in the top 7 for me depending on match situation. For eg:

1. Lets say some early wickets fall batting first, i'd send him up to bat in the top 5.

2. But if its a big chase, i'd having him low down @ # 8 & allow Botham & Flintoff to go up the order.
 
Here is the New Zealand line-up I'd prefer
1 Glenn Turner
2 Stephen Fleming(c)
3 Martin Crowe
4 Nathan Astle
5 Roger Twose
6 Chris Cairns
7 Adam Parore(WK)
8 Sir Richard Hadlee
9 Daniel Vettori
10 Shane Bond
11 Geoff Allott/Dion Nash
 
Here are some other line-ups according to my preference.
These line ups only include the players from the mid 1980s till present.

INDIA:
1 Virender Sehwag
2 Sachin Tendulkar
3 Sourav Ganguly
4 Rahul Dravid
5 Yuvraj Singh
6 MS Dhoni(captain + wk)
7 Ravi Shastri
8 Kapil Dev
9 Anil Kumble
10 Zaheer Khan
11 Javagal Srinath

SOUTH AFRICA:
1 Graeme Smith
2 Gary Kirsten
3 Jacques Kallis
4 Herschelle Gibbs
5 AB de Villiers
6 Hansie Cronje(c)
7 Mark Boucher(wk)
8 Lance Klusener
9 Shaun Pollock
10 Nicky Boje
11 Allan Donald

SRI LANKA:
1 Sanath Jayasuriya
2 Maravan Atapattu
3 Kumar Sangakkara(wk)
4 Mahela Jayawardene
5 Aravinda DeSilva
6 Arjuna Ranatunga(c)
7 Upul Chandana
8 Chaminda Vaas
9 Pramodya Wickramasinghe
10 Lasith Malinga
11 Muttiah Muralidharan

WEST INDIES:
1 Desmond Haynes
2 Chris Gayle
3 Brian Lara
4 Shivnarine Chanderpaul
5 Sir Vivian Richards
6 Clive Lloyd(c)
7 Carl Hooper
8 Jeff Dujon(wk)
9 Malcolm Marshall
10 Curtly Ambrose
11 Joel Garner/Courtney Walsh

PAKISTAN:
1 Saeed Anwar
2 Aamer Sohail
3 Zaheer Abbas/Ijaz Ahmed
4 Inzamam-ul-Haq
5 Javed Miandad
6 Imran Khan
7 Shahid Afridi
8 Wasim Akram
9 Wasim Bari(wk)
10 Waqar Younis
11 Shoaib Akhtar/Sarfraz Nawaz

AUSTRALIA:
1 Adam Gilchrist(wk)
2 Matthew Hayden/Mark Waugh
3 Ricky Ponting
4 Damien Martyn
5 Dean Jones
6 Michael Bevan
7 Allan Border(c)
8 Shane Warne
9 Brett Lee/Jeff Thompson
10 Dennis Lillee
11 Glenn McGrath

ENGLAND:
1 Marcus Trescothick
2 Graham Gooch(c)
3 Kevin Pietersen
4 Neil Fairbrother
5 Paul Collingwood
6 Allan Lamb
7 Ian Botham
8 Jack Russell/Alan Knott(wk)
9 Graeme Swann
10 Darren Gough
11 Bob Willis
 
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isn't selecting hypotheticals like barry richards and proctor opening a can of worms. I can see that you could use their list A records to justify them, but does that make them any more justifiable selections than players that never played list a cricket but would have obviously excelled. eg. sobers?
 
Ireland ODI XI

1. William Portfield
2. Niall O'Brien +
3. Paul Stiring
4. Gary Wilson
5. John Mooney
6. Kevin O'Brien ^*
7. Trent Johnson ^
8. Kyle McCallan ^
9. Andre Botha ^
10. George Dockell ^
11. Boyd Rankin ^
 
isn't selecting hypotheticals like barry richards and proctor opening a can of worms. I can see that you could use their list A records to justify them, but does that make them any more justifiable selections than players that never played list a cricket but would have obviously excelled. eg. sobers?

Nah its totally different hypothetical scenario's with regards to picking Richards/Procter and Sobers for the S Africa All-time and West Indies.

Like with the test side, Richards/Procter ODI careers were cut short due to the apartheid, while performing great feasts domestically in OD matches in ENG, AUS, SA.

Sobers retired from cricket before the ODIs became a serious form of cricket.
 
Can't remember who bought up Caddick, but if this is an all time XI please don't put Caddick anywhere near! He barely had the bottle to play Cricket against good sides, let alone hypothetical World XIs.
 
Nah its totally different hypothetical scenario's with regards to picking Richards/Procter and Sobers for the S Africa All-time and West Indies.

Like with the test side, Richards/Procter ODI careers were cut short due to the apartheid, while performing great feasts domestically in OD matches in ENG, AUS, SA.

Sobers retired from cricket before the ODIs became a serious form of cricket.

Not to mention Sobers scored a duck in his only ODI innings.:spy
 
Not sure if this has been done before on this site. But i just thought about & decided to make a thread. So this is my opinion on the best ODI XI for all the teams since the 1975 WC:


INDIA:

Sourav Ganguly
Sachin Tendulkar
Mohammad Azharuddin
Rahul Dravid
Yuvraj Singh
Mahendra Dhoni +
Ravi Shastri
Kapil Dev *
Anil Kumble
Zaheer Khan
Javagal Srinath

Virender Sehwag
Harbhajan Singh
Roger Binny
Manoj Prabhakar

Feel free to post your own sides...

Rahul Dravid, Azharuddin,Roger Binny,Manoj Prabhakar,Sahstri in India's best ODI XI is a bit debatable.

:yes
 

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