blockerdave
ICC Chairman
Oh FFS how did I not pick Ezra Moseley!
I probably wouldn't have picked him over any of your players except maybe Hough, but I've never seen him bowl so had no reason to look beyond him as a not-really-anybody who flitted across my alt-90s playthroughOh FFS how did I not pick Ezra Moseley!
If you look at the 3rd test vs England in 1990, he was the only one causing Gooch trouble when the other bowlers were Ambrose, Walsh and Bishop.I probably wouldn't have picked him over any of your players except maybe Hough, but I've never seen him bowl so had no reason to look beyond him as a not-really-anybody who flitted across my alt-90s playthrough
If you look at the 3rd test vs England in 1990, he was the only one causing Gooch trouble when the other bowlers were Ambrose, Walsh and Bishop.
By all accounts he was genuinely quick, and would get nasty bounce from quite a full length: very horrible to face.
Would have had to rejig but would have liked to have got him in with Hough and Brandes - just had an absolute brain fade.
Pretty much the caps and comedy value ayeThe guys who stood a good chance of being picked if my first choices were gone:
Jonathan Agnew (4 wickets at 93.25 in 3 Tests, 666 wickets at 29.25 in 218 FC) - I actually almost did pick him before I came across Chris Drum, if only because he has exactly 666 FC wickets to his name. The fact that he's been the voice of International Cricket Captain for so many years helps a hell of a lot. Either way, I can't equate this soft-spoken commentator with the hard and fast bowler that he was during his playing days.
Justin Ontong (average 19 in 2 Tests, 41.87 in 194 FC) - Ontong's Test career will be unfortunately remembered for one thing, the fact that he was picked over Jacques Rudolph in order to fulfill South Africa's quota of players of colour. Which probably led to his only playing the 2 matches. Maybe not deserving of the selection at that time, but he made up for it in the years that followed domestically, and could have gotten picked afterward. Got a bit of a raw deal what with politics and whatnot. I wouldn't have picked him for his bowling, even though he could be used to break a partnership, but really it was the batting that got him noticed for me.
Hemang Bandani (average 15.66 in 4 Tests, 45.97 in 121 FC) - He was this close to being my last pick. But I ended up going with the 4-spin attack. Didn't really research him much, even though his Cricinfo profile was open in my browser for weeks. Was planning to do my research and write him up, didn't quite get that chance. Would have easily slotted into my middle order though.
Mark Benson (average 25.5 in 1 Test, 40.23 in 292 FC) - 1 cap only, but I had him down in case I really needed him as an emergency pick. Plus, he was the first victim of DRS, not as a player, but as an umpire. Tillakaratne Dilshan reviewed a call of out, caught. Rudi Koertzen said he couldn't tell whether ball hit bat or bat hit ground. I think it's the first time a lot of casual fans ever saw the crossed arms signal. I actually kinda liked him as an umpire, never saw him play, but seems like he would have been a good bloke to watch live.
Roy Marshall (average 20.42 in 4 Tests, 35.94 in 602 FC - 176 wickets at 28.93) - When this Draft started, I looked through the list and I latched onto this guy, both as a West Indian, and as a guy that no article that I found could say a bad word against him. Even his Cricinfo bio is something of a masterclass example in how to write an essay, and I mean that with the highest possible thoughts. A single excerpt from that bio tells it all: "Members' wives dropped their knitting. He created an instant frisson; they loved the way this gentle cavalier set to work to impose his mastery over the best bowlers on the county circuit." The stereotypical "blind without his glasses" person, this man hated fast bowling with a passion. I don't mean he hated fast bowling and just dispatched it all over the park. He genuinely disliked the stuff. He'd tell you so himself. Yet he still dispatched it all over. What a guy. And he was enough of a man to admit that due to his sheltered upbringing, he maybe didn't exactly feel comfortable around black people, even though he knew that it was wrong. That may or may not have been the reason why he dedicated his career to County cricket instead of playing for the WI, even when Headley asked him to play more Tests. The guy realised that he was raised to be prejudiced, and willingly killed his Test career because of it. (That sort of thing hopefully is in the past, there is only cricket, not colour.)
Colin Stuart (20 wickets at 31.4 in 6 Tests, 144 wickets at 30.09 in 52 FC) - Would have picked him for the mere fact that he was involved in Test cricket's only 3-player over. Merv Dillon began bowling, started having "abdominal discomfort" (an elegant way to say the guy had massive diarrhoea)...then Stuart came on to complete the over. Except he didn't. He bowled beamer after beamer, and was banned by the umpires for dangerous bowling, I believe the first time it had ever happened in Tests too. Chris Gayle then had to eventually finish the over, which at that point, was becoming rather farcical. Typical for the West Indies, I suppose. Thankfully apart from a four hit by Jayasuria, Gayle finished off tidily. Could have picked him because no Draft is really complete without a West Indian fast bowler, but in the end he just wasn't all that very good.
There are one or a few others from ye olden days of yore, but as I found better players, I sort of deleted them from my brain.
I intentionally didn't pick current WI players Keemo Paul (FC wicket average 18.31) and Chemar Holder (FC wicket average 25.33) because while I believe they have a lot of potential, I don't think they're there yet. Their potential will only be realised by playing more international cricket, either at the top level, or at the very least tour and A team games. Their FC averages seem mouth-watering, but the level of FC cricket in the region isn't very good at present. I'd love to see more West Indians play County cricket like they used to. But with the lure of quick cash in T20 leagues...well...that won't happen much. I also didn't pick our current blast-from-the-past-recalled-for-Bangladesh Verasammy Permaul for the same reason, the WICB (sorry, Cricket West Indies) FC tournament just isn't good quality cricket. It was sort of the same with the many Bangladesh and Zimbabwe players on the list. The quality of the domestic cricket had to be considered. Aislabie found a gem in Haque, but he's a good player in a bad setup.
It's why I loved actual tours. Even in pre-Covid times, a tour wasn't a tour. Back in the day, a tour meant playing through like half the FC teams in a country, some before Tests, some between Tests, some even after Tests. I want proper tours to happen again.
Whatever. Moving on.
There's the guys that got picked before me. Should I have picked Ajay Sharma when I had the chance? Maybe, but to be honest in a team all 11 players bat. Only a few of them bowl. Sometimes I just like to pick bowlers first. And sometimes bowlers bat. Ashton Agar has 98 at number 11 (and if not for that one innings, he'd be on the list). Tino "the worst" Best has 95 at 11 (and he's actually a pretty decent commentator in all fairness). We all (should) remember that Jason Gillespie has a Test double, albeit pushed up the order as a night watchman. And...well, my own Chandu Sarwate was flip-flopped all over the place in his career, so he really can't be called a legitimate number 10, but fact is that he could be picked just on bowling alone. So bowlers can bat, albeit the odds of them scoring big being something of an onfield lightning strike despite clear skies overhead. (Yes, this actually did happen. Poor Mervyn Dillon, the gods just didn't like him much, did they?) Now, Sharma could bowl too, but he wasn't who I was thinking of when I started my picks.
There were players who were just absolutely stolen from me. Hmph. Richard Tyld(random letters)y, James Foster, Rob Bailey, Buster Farrer, Shujauddin.
Other players who were picked who I was considering, but were honestly backups in my particular team that were chosen by others, not that they were bad, I just didn't have them at the top of my own list, but they were around - Ed Joyce (always Middlesex to me, he was a mainstay in my International Cricket Captain games, sorry Sussex fans, even though he did better across by you guys...he was also my fifth seamer for some reason in ICCIII, he and Chris Silverwood/Murali Kartik would clean up the tail so easily before Stuart Law went in and invariably scored damn near a century everytime), Rana Naved, Colin Munro, Dulip Samaraweera.
At one point, and one point only, did I even consider Nixon McLean. He wasn't terrible, but for much of his career he took a backseat to the last great WI bowling partnership. The West Indies (sorry, the corporate branding is the Windies, however I cannot subscribe to a "win" team if they don't exactly...you know, win.)...anyways the West Indies has been looking to find a bowling partnership similar to Walsh and Ambrose for damn near two decades now. Roach and Gabriel? Can't even come close, although they are good enough in their own ways. Probably the closest we ever came was Edwards and Taylor, just on sheer pace and penetration. McLean never was a good bowler, and it was just the caps @Dale88, wasn't it?
It was pretty much the same for guys like Ian Bradshaw, the hero of the Champion's Trophy (157 wickets at 25.56 in 45 FC) and Lionel Baker (94 wickets at 30.7 in 37 FC), thus far the only Test cricketer to come from the island of Montserrat...which is pretty much just a massive volcano that ended up above sea level. They were okay, but really not that good. I definitely missed out on Moseley, would have been one to think about for sure.
Jerome Taylor, now there was a bowler I really rated.The guys who stood a good chance of being picked if my first choices were gone:
Jonathan Agnew (4 wickets at 93.25 in 3 Tests, 666 wickets at 29.25 in 218 FC) - I actually almost did pick him before I came across Chris Drum, if only because he has exactly 666 FC wickets to his name. The fact that he's been the voice of International Cricket Captain for so many years helps a hell of a lot. Either way, I can't equate this soft-spoken commentator with the hard and fast bowler that he was during his playing days.
Justin Ontong (average 19 in 2 Tests, 41.87 in 194 FC) - Ontong's Test career will be unfortunately remembered for one thing, the fact that he was picked over Jacques Rudolph in order to fulfill South Africa's quota of players of colour. Which probably led to his only playing the 2 matches. Maybe not deserving of the selection at that time, but he made up for it in the years that followed domestically, and could have gotten picked afterward. Got a bit of a raw deal what with politics and whatnot. I wouldn't have picked him for his bowling, even though he could be used to break a partnership, but really it was the batting that got him noticed for me.
Hemang Bandani (average 15.66 in 4 Tests, 45.97 in 121 FC) - He was this close to being my last pick. But I ended up going with the 4-spin attack. Didn't really research him much, even though his Cricinfo profile was open in my browser for weeks. Was planning to do my research and write him up, didn't quite get that chance. Would have easily slotted into my middle order though.
Mark Benson (average 25.5 in 1 Test, 40.23 in 292 FC) - 1 cap only, but I had him down in case I really needed him as an emergency pick. Plus, he was the first victim of DRS, not as a player, but as an umpire. Tillakaratne Dilshan reviewed a call of out, caught. Rudi Koertzen said he couldn't tell whether ball hit bat or bat hit ground. I think it's the first time a lot of casual fans ever saw the crossed arms signal. I actually kinda liked him as an umpire, never saw him play, but seems like he would have been a good bloke to watch live.
Roy Marshall (average 20.42 in 4 Tests, 35.94 in 602 FC - 176 wickets at 28.93) - When this Draft started, I looked through the list and I latched onto this guy, both as a West Indian, and as a guy that no article that I found could say a bad word against him. Even his Cricinfo bio is something of a masterclass example in how to write an essay, and I mean that with the highest possible thoughts. A single excerpt from that bio tells it all: "Members' wives dropped their knitting. He created an instant frisson; they loved the way this gentle cavalier set to work to impose his mastery over the best bowlers on the county circuit." The stereotypical "blind without his glasses" person, this man hated fast bowling with a passion. I don't mean he hated fast bowling and just dispatched it all over the park. He genuinely disliked the stuff. He'd tell you so himself. Yet he still dispatched it all over. What a guy. And he was enough of a man to admit that due to his sheltered upbringing, he maybe didn't exactly feel comfortable around black people, even though he knew that it was wrong. That may or may not have been the reason why he dedicated his career to County cricket instead of playing for the WI, even when Headley asked him to play more Tests. The guy realised that he was raised to be prejudiced, and willingly killed his Test career because of it. (That sort of thing hopefully is in the past, there is only cricket, not colour.)
Colin Stuart (20 wickets at 31.4 in 6 Tests, 144 wickets at 30.09 in 52 FC) - Would have picked him for the mere fact that he was involved in Test cricket's only 3-player over. Merv Dillon began bowling, started having "abdominal discomfort" (an elegant way to say the guy had massive diarrhoea)...then Stuart came on to complete the over. Except he didn't. He bowled beamer after beamer, and was banned by the umpires for dangerous bowling, I believe the first time it had ever happened in Tests too. Chris Gayle then had to eventually finish the over, which at that point, was becoming rather farcical. Typical for the West Indies, I suppose. Thankfully apart from a four hit by Jayasuria, Gayle finished off tidily. Could have picked him because no Draft is really complete without a West Indian fast bowler, but in the end he just wasn't all that very good.
There are one or a few others from ye olden days of yore, but as I found better players, I sort of deleted them from my brain.
I intentionally didn't pick current WI players Keemo Paul (FC wicket average 18.31) and Chemar Holder (FC wicket average 25.33) because while I believe they have a lot of potential, I don't think they're there yet. Their potential will only be realised by playing more international cricket, either at the top level, or at the very least tour and A team games. Their FC averages seem mouth-watering, but the level of FC cricket in the region isn't very good at present. I'd love to see more West Indians play County cricket like they used to. But with the lure of quick cash in T20 leagues...well...that won't happen much. I also didn't pick our current blast-from-the-past-recalled-for-Bangladesh Verasammy Permaul for the same reason, the WICB (sorry, Cricket West Indies) FC tournament just isn't good quality cricket. It was sort of the same with the many Bangladesh and Zimbabwe players on the list. The quality of the domestic cricket had to be considered. Aislabie found a gem in Haque, but he's a good player in a bad setup.
It's why I loved actual tours. Even in pre-Covid times, a tour wasn't a tour. Back in the day, a tour meant playing through like half the FC teams in a country, some before Tests, some between Tests, some even after Tests. I want proper tours to happen again.
Whatever. Moving on.
There's the guys that got picked before me. Should I have picked Ajay Sharma when I had the chance? Maybe, but to be honest in a team all 11 players bat. Only a few of them bowl. Sometimes I just like to pick bowlers first. And sometimes bowlers bat. Ashton Agar has 98 at number 11 (and if not for that one innings, he'd be on the list). Tino "the worst" Best has 95 at 11 (and he's actually a pretty decent commentator in all fairness). We all (should) remember that Jason Gillespie has a Test double, albeit pushed up the order as a night watchman. And...well, my own Chandu Sarwate was flip-flopped all over the place in his career, so he really can't be called a legitimate number 10, but fact is that he could be picked just on bowling alone. So bowlers can bat, albeit the odds of them scoring big being something of an onfield lightning strike despite clear skies overhead. (Yes, this actually did happen. Poor Mervyn Dillon, the gods just didn't like him much, did they?) Now, Sharma could bowl too, but he wasn't who I was thinking of when I started my picks.
There were players who were just absolutely stolen from me. Hmph. Richard Tyld(random letters)y, James Foster, Rob Bailey, Buster Farrer, Shujauddin.
Other players who were picked who I was considering, but were honestly backups in my particular team that were chosen by others, not that they were bad, I just didn't have them at the top of my own list, but they were around - Ed Joyce (always Middlesex to me, he was a mainstay in my International Cricket Captain games, sorry Sussex fans, even though he did better across by you guys...he was also my fifth seamer for some reason in ICCIII, he and Chris Silverwood/Murali Kartik would clean up the tail so easily before Stuart Law went in and invariably scored damn near a century everytime), Rana Naved, Colin Munro, Dulip Samaraweera.
At one point, and one point only, did I even consider Nixon McLean. He wasn't terrible, but for much of his career he took a backseat to the last great WI bowling partnership. The West Indies (sorry, the corporate branding is the Windies, however I cannot subscribe to a "win" team if they don't exactly...you know, win.)...anyways the West Indies has been looking to find a bowling partnership similar to Walsh and Ambrose for damn near two decades now. Roach and Gabriel? Can't even come close, although they are good enough in their own ways. Probably the closest we ever came was Edwards and Taylor, just on sheer pace and penetration. McLean never was a good bowler, and it was just the caps @Dale88, wasn't it?
It was pretty much the same for guys like Ian Bradshaw, the hero of the Champion's Trophy (157 wickets at 25.56 in 45 FC) and Lionel Baker (94 wickets at 30.7 in 37 FC), thus far the only Test cricketer to come from the island of Montserrat...which is pretty much just a massive volcano that ended up above sea level. They were okay, but really not that good. I definitely missed out on Moseley, would have been one to think about for sure.
Great story about this ball.Genuinely quick confirmed
Honestly, as a quick bowler there's just no better feeling than when everything in your body works perfectly for a moment and you just send a ball down that's considerably faster than anything else you've bowled all day.View attachment 242813
This is from the book “Unforgiven”
Cheers; I was worried it might come off as a bit "peaked at school" cringey, but it's just my barely-qualified opinion on bowling fast.@Aislabie that is an awesome excerpt. Wow