Draft: 90s England Draft - It's Richard Blakey time

[Aislabie]

So yeah, I wanted to pick Jason since I looked and saw @Dale88 had over batsman left, so I wanted to pick Jason first.... But I was doing 4 things at the same time and messed up... So I'll leave it up to @Aislabie to make up the decision and it's totally fair to say @Dale88 should keep him since I messed up and I'll pick someone else

I'm going to have to ask you to pick a second player, and make Peter Martin your first pick, because you did post Martin's name and photo. Hope that's not an issue

 

[ahmedleo414]

No worries, I messed up so I'll make another pick

 

[blockerdave]

I'm going to have to ask you to pick a second player, and make Peter Martin your first pick, because you did post Martin's name and photo. Hope that's not an issue

I think he posted Martin’s name but Gallian’s photo?

Edit - oh he changed the photo!

 

[ahmedleo414]

I think he posted Martin’s name but Gallian’s photo?

Edit - oh he changed the photo!

It was 3 in the morning. I was working, listening to a podcast, playing a game and doing the draft at the same time.... I had to give my work my full attention and unfortunately the draft got 10% of my attention.... I'll be posting my picks soon

 

[ahmedleo414]

So, double picks for me in a way.... My first pick Peter Martin

Stats||Matches||Wkts||BBI||BBM|| Ave||Econ||5w/10w
First-Class | |212| |606| |8/32| |?| |27.51| |2.72| |17/1
Test | |8| |17| |4/60| |4/60| |34.11| |2.39| |0/0

A bit of his bio from circinfo:

"Born in Accrington in 1968, Peter 'Digger' Martin made his first-class debut for Lancashire in 1989. After several years as an effective opening bowler in domestic cricket, he was called up to England's one-day squad to play West Indies in 1995-96, and immediately made a big impression, taking 4 for 44 on his debut at The Oval, including the wicket of Brian Lara, clean bowled. He made his Test debut the same summer, against West Indies. He toured South Africa later that year, taking 4 for 60 in the third Test at Durban. Martin played in all of England's games in the 1996 World Cup , but despite bowling well, he didn't pick up many wickets. He played his last one-dayer in England colours against South Africa in the ICC knock-out competition in 1998. Always a more effective one-day bowler, he played only eight Tests, his last against Australia in 1997. He remained an effective bowler in domestic cricket, with a first-class average of 27, until he retired in 2004 after a persistent knee injury forced his retirement. Painting and wines are his main relaxations."

My second pick John Morris

Stats||Matches||Runs||HS|| Ave||100s/50s
First-Class | |362| |21,539| |229| |37.32| |52/104
Test | |3| |71| |32| |23.66| |0/0

A bit of his bio from circinfo:

"John Morris, a stylish middle-order batsman, certainly had the talent to forge a successful international career, but he never quite made it. After impressing on the county scene with Derbyshire, he made his Test debut against India at Lord's in 1990. England won handsomely, but Morris played little part in a match which will always be remembered for Graham Gooch's 333. In another high-scoring affair in the second Test, at Old Trafford, Morris was forced to retire hurt in the second innings. Although he made a reasonable 32 in the third Test at The Oval, he had failed to make an impression in the series. However, he made the squad for England's 1990-91 Ashes tour, and managed to grab some of the limelight - but for the wrong reasons. During a warm-up match against Queensland in Carrara, Morris and David Gower flew a Tiger Moth plane over the ground. The England management failed to see the funny side and Morris was not picked for any of the Tests, and indeed no more after that. He did, however, have more success in the one-day leg of the tour, the World Series, playing all eight games and scoring a best of 63 not out against New Zealand."


So.... that completes my team

1. Michael Atherton
2. Hugh Morris
3. Nasser Hussain
   
4. John Morris
5. Andrew Flintoff
6. John Crawley
7. Mark Ealham
8. John Emburey
9. Martin Bicknell
10. Peter Martin
11. Allan Mullally

@Yash. to finish up his team

 

[ahmedleo414]

@Yash. has just over an hour to make his pick, @blockerdave has the next pick

 

[Yash.]

1. Michael Vaughan
2. Alec Stewart
3. Ali Brown
4. Graham Thorpe
5. Graham Lloyd
6. Allan Wells
7. Steve Rhodes
8. Dominic Cork
9. Neil Foster
10. Mark Ilott
11. Peter Such

Graham Lloyd completes my team. Looks like a good side to me, with some help from @Aislabie

 

[Aislabie]

@blockerdave

 

[blockerdave]

STEVE JAMES completes my team and opens alongside Gooch. James has a fine county record, it was not easy to average 40 opening in that era. He only got 2 chances for England, called up at short notice to face Donald and Pollock on a spicy Lords pitch, and then Murali on an Oval bunsen, and that was it. An average of 17.75, a test failure.
Obviously the emergence of Trescothick, Vaughan and then Strauss gave England genuine class and stability at the top of order, but a man with nearly 16,000 FC runs at 40.36 with 47 hundreds arguably deserved more of a go.

1. Graham Gooch
2. Steve James
3. Mark Butcher
4. Robin Smith
5. Rob Bailey
6. Ben Holliake
7. Chris Read
8. Darren Gough
9. Dean Headley
10. Steve Watkin
11. Phil Tufnell

Very happy with the side. 5 of that side would be in my first choice team of the 90s, which I think is a good hit. It's typical 90s England in being 5-out all out, but very atypical in having an attack that would take 20 wickets anywhere outside Asia. As it is, we have the best English spinner of the 90s and the best exponent of reverse swing: we shouldn't be out of the game with the old ball. The top 5 is very strong, Hollioake is picked on promise of course, and while there might not be a lot of batting below that, Read and Gough both have test match 50s, and let's not forget Gough has a first class century too!

Ultimately, I think my top order will score runs more often than not, and my attack can be backed to take 20 wickets. You couldn't often say that in the 90s, so I'm happy.

@Aislabie to complete his team and the draft.

Spoiler

@Aislabie doesn't as far as I can see have a keeper, so I assume he's gonna pick Maynard or Hegg. This is where I troll him by pointing out that Gough and Headley have better test averages than Hegg, and Gough's is higher than Maynard's.

 

[Aislabie]

Richard Blakey

90s Tests - 7 runs @ 1.75 (best 6) and 2 dismissals (2 ct) in 2 matches
Test career - 7 runs @ 1.75 (best 6) and 2 dismissals (2 ct) in 2 matches
First-class career - 14,674 runs @ 31.42 (13 centuries, best 223*) and 835 dismissals (778 ct, 57 st) in 348 matches

I was basically faced with a choice between the good (at county level) batting of Matt Maybard - a part-time keeper - or the good (at county level) keeping of Warren Hegg - a part-time batsman. In the end, I went with neither of them, and chose instead the person I described only the other day as looking like "the worst player of spin I've seen at any level of cricket". But there's more to Blakey than his meme-level batting in the face of Anil Kumble - he was also very good against fast bowling, and kept for 165 overs on Test debut without conceding a bye. He also has arguably the best-titled autobiography of all time.

@Aislabie's XI so far:
1. Nick Knight
2. Mike Gatting
3. Mark Ramprakash
4. Graeme Hick
5. David Gower
6. Richard Blakey
7. Chris Lewis
8. Phillip DeFreitas
9. Richard Illingworth
10. Angus Fraser
11. Devon Malcolm

Fin.

 

[Aislabie]

Under normal circumstances, I'd do two good things and one bad about each team in these reviews. I'm going to try to do the same here, although the players we were working with can make that a bit tricky.

@ahmedleo414

1. Michael Atherton
2. Hugh Morris
3. Nasser Hussain
4. John Morris
5. Andrew Flintoff
6. John Crawley
7. Mark Ealham
8. John Emburey
9. Martin Bicknell
10. Peter Martin
11. Allan Mullally

In Atherton and Hussain, you have two batsmen who come with huge amounts of resilience and outstanding cricket brains. That always helps.
Crawley-Ealham-Emburey at six, seven and eight, with Bicknell at nine, probably gives you the deepest batting in the draft, even if not all the batsmen are very good.
I think the biggest weakness I'd pick out is a lack of pace in the bowling attack. Flintoff is your quickest bowler, but not effective at all in the 90s. (He also wasn't a top-five batsman whatsoever.)


@Aislabie

1. Nick Knight
2. Mike Gatting
3. Mark Ramprakash
4. Graeme Hick
5. David Gower
6. Richard Blakey
7. Chris Lewis
8. Phillip DeFreitas
9. Richard Illingworth
10. Angus Fraser
11. Devon Malcolm

I think that's a very strong top five, even if they didn't all make the most of their Test careers. If they were able to play against 90s England bowling, they'd all have scored runs like in county cricket.
I've done my best to select everybody to play in their preferred roles - like Chris Lewis as a number seven and fourth seamer rather than a New Botham™
Of course, the focus on picking the best players I could left me with a very limited pool of keepers to choose from. Nobody's going to take Richard Blakey seriously.


@blockerdave

1. Graham Gooch
2. Steve James
3. Mark Butcher
4. Robin Smith
5. Rob Bailey
6. Ben Hollioake
7. Chris Read
8. Darren Gough
9. Dean Headley
10. Steve Watkin
11. Phil Tufnell

The star players in this team are very good indeed; Gooch, Smith, Gough, Headley. Tufnell too I guess, although we do rate him differently. It's a very strong core to build around.
Chris Read is probably the best English keeper since Jack Russell, and a very important cog in the team regardless of batting contributions.
There is a lot of unproven talent - James, Bailey, Hollioake, Watkin - none of them proved themselves capable of succeeding in Test cricket (though no doubt at least one or two could have).


@Dale88

1. Wayne Larkins
2. Jason Gallian
3. Allan Lamb
4. Neil Fairbrother
5. Ian Botham
6. Ronnie Irani
7. Jack Russell
8. Eddie Hemmings
9. Syd Lawrence
10. Gladstone Small
11. Andy Caddick

There's no question of this team being anything other than a fan favourite - Beefy, Lamby, Ned, Syd and Jack Russell. It's a team you could build an ad campaign around.
Most of those players were loved for a reason: Lamb, Botham, Russell and Caddick were all absolutely capable of greatness on their day.
Is it harsh to say pretty much everything else? Fairbrother at four and Irani at all seem to be the highlights though.


@Yash.

1. Michael Vaughan
2. Alec Stewart
3. Ali Brown
4. Graham Thorpe
5. Graham Lloyd
6. Alan Wells
7. Steve Rhodes
8. Dominic Cork
9. Neil Foster
10. Mark Ilott
11. Peter Such

There's a lot to be said for selecting specialists. Stewart, Thorpe, Vaughan, Cork and Such all being picked in their best roles is a solid start to the side.
You made our lives difficult with your keepers - Stewie and (shudder) Rhodes were two of the three best purely cricketing choices for that keeper's spot, and you had both. Made me pick Blakey, although I'd have picked Devon Malcolm to keep wicket before I picked Steve Rhodes.
You are probably going to draw a lot of Tests though, especially if one of your bowlers is injured. The only real part-time option you have is Vaughan's off-spin.

 

[Aislabie]

Unpicked XI

1. Mark Lathwell
A player picked purely on potential, which is often not a winning strategy. If he had a mindset more like Vaughan or Trescothick (thriving on a challenge rather than being frozen stiff by said challenge) then he might have had a better chance of success.

2. Darren Maddy
Darren Maddy never quite recovered as a player from being chewed up and spat out by the England side. From a dominant opener with Leicestershire, he regressed into a one-day bits and pieces player. He will also provide some part-time medium pace.

3. Chris Adams
One half of a duo that will guarantee an uncomfortable dressing room for all, Chris Adams is the archetypal "very good county player". He would probably expect to be captain of this side, and that's exactly the reason he shouldn't be.

4. David Smith
By all accounts just not a nice bloke, David Smith was grudgingly respected for taking the Hayden approach to fast bowling - stand up tall and whack it. If he had been a little bit more willing to toe the line, could have played about a dozen Tests.

5. Aftab Habib
I think Aftab Habib should have played more Tests, so I'd always pick him on Cricket Captain 2002. His Test batting average of under 10 probably makes that a bit of a hot take, but whenever he made runs they just looked effortless and made you forget the times he didn't.

6. Warren Hegg
Definitely getting a nosebleed at number six, but after an all-scrub top five that's the least of this team's worries. Hegg's good glovework is probably the biggest strength this team has, even if he's not really equipped to come in when this side is about 20 for four.

7. Robert Croft
I'm making Robert Croft my captain and batting him at seven - he never really got Test runs, but he would regularly bat in the top five for Glamorgan so close enough. He also put together a surprisingly good Test record as an off-spinner, and even now I feel like I should maybe have picked him over Illingworth.

8. Derek Pringle
It's not easy being a completely unfashionable cricketer, but Derek Pringle eked 30 Tests out of it. Pretty sure Peter May originally picked him as a batsman, and I guess that's fair enough. He's the only player in this team with a Test 50.

9. Chris Silverwood
A genuine fast bowler whose Test record wasn't great, Chris Silverwood would have strengthened quite a few of our teams. I considered picking him to add another genuinely fast bowler alongside Devon Malcolm, but it would have unbalanced my team too much.

10. Neil Mallender
The horses-for-courses archetype, Mallender was the bowler who made a generation of England selectors think that picking random players was a winning strategy. A genuinely good bowler, he also made the Test careers of Kabir Ali, Steve Watkin, Martin Saggers and Darren Pattinson possible.

11. Ed Giddins
Should have batted number 12, but just a really good bowler whose face didn't fit for several good reasons including a cocaine problem, a gambling problem, a chucking problem and a batting problem. Still might have been worth giving him more of a go.

 

[Ed Smith]

If have said Irani was a fan favourite too. But its a fair assessment. Was a really fun draft this.

 

[Aislabie]

If have said Irani was a fan favourite too. But its a fair assessment. Was a really fun draft this.

Of Essex fans, most certainly. Not sure that really translated very well to the rest of the UK though. And I'm glad you enjoyed it

 

[blockerdave]

Unpicked XI

10. Neil Mallender
The horses-for-courses archetype, Mallender was the bowler who made a generation of England selectors think that picking random players was a winning strategy. A genuinely good bowler, he also made the Test careers of Kabir Ali, Steve Watkin, Martin Saggers and Darren Pattinson possible.

11. Ed Giddins
Should have batted number 12, but just a really good bowler whose face didn't fit for several good reasons including a cocaine problem, a gambling problem, a chucking problem and a batting problem. Still might have been worth giving him more of a go.

Just on this, Watkin was actually originally picked “horses for courses” a yeah before Mallender, with greater success.

I think Giddins issue was also he was about 75-78 mph, and if it didn’t swing he had absolutely nowt else going for him.