Draft: Best to never play Test cricket | Draft Part 2 underway...

[Mouseydread]

Nice one! I have that book in fact Bacher wrote three in succession valuable reads! One on Batsmen, one on Bowlers and one on Allrounders in South African history. Roro has been on the academy for months, no one downloaded him yet, but maybe now someone will!

 

[blockerdave]

Nice one! I have that book in fact Bacher wrote three in succession valuable reads! One on Batsmen, one on Bowlers and one on Allrounders in South African history. Roro has been on the academy for months, no one downloaded him yet, but maybe now someone will!

I'll nab him for my barbarians team, if only the academy server will ever work!!

 

[Mouseydread]

It's your Barbarian team which sits pride of place on my academy that made me delve into South African Cricket and got me reading again. TBH I never knew who Bart King was!

I'll put my South African forgotten legends team out next Roro is there. If you check out my video I mention them there and you can get a sneak preview

PS Was watching your Blocktown Boys today - it was close unlucky, then watched you struggle to get bat on ball as Viv when facing Lance Cairns! Shocking!

 

[blockerdave]

It's your Barbarian team which sits pride of place on my academy that made me delve into South African Cricket and got me reading again. TBH I never knew who Bart King was!

I'll put my South African forgotten legends team out next Roro is there. If you check out my video I mention them there and you can get a sneak preview

PS Was watching your Blocktown Boys today - it was close unlucky, then watched you struggle to get bat on ball as Viv when facing Lance Cairns! Shocking!

oh that 80s league was embarrassing!! Inns loss to NZ as West Indies. My god.

 

[ahmedleo414]

@VC the slogger missed his 24 hour deadline, @VC the slogger you have the next pick

 

[VC the slogger]

I already have Bart King in my first XI, so perhaps it's only natural that I opt for the man who played second fiddle to him in Philadephia's near-Test class lineup for most of his career, and one who could have probably gone down in history as the finest bowler ever produced by America had it not been for his illustrious bowling partner - Percy Clark. He was right up there with some of the best swing bowlers in the world during the 1900s, and a much better bat than his first-class average of 12.81 suggests. One of his finest performances came in a match that wasn't even awarded first-class status for the Germantown CC against an Australian XI containing Test players Herbie Collins, Warren Bardsley, Charles Macartney and Arthur Mailey among others in 1913 on his 40th birthday, where Clark delivered a fine all-round performance of 82 & 6 for 20 to bowl his team to a stunning 4-wicket victory. Overall, he claimed 199 wickets at 21.97 with 11 five-fers and 4 match ten-fers, whilst also scoring 897 runs at 12.81 with 2 half-centuries over a 52-match first-class career stretching from 1896 to 1913. Its a shame that a player of his calibre is now better remembered for being the father-in law of Nelson Rockefeller.

Don Bradman faced several fast bowlers over the course of his career such as Harold Larwood, Bill Voce, George Francis, Herman Griffth, Gubby Allen in international cricket, and the likes of Ray Lindwall, Keith Miller, Ernie McCormick in domestic cricket - but none of them made him feel quite as inadequate as did Eddie Gilbert, an Aboriginal tearaway from Queensland who dismissed cricket's greatest batsman for a 5-ball duck after hitting him on the belly and tormenting him during what the former recalled as the fastest few balls he had ever faced during his career. So fast that he could get bat on ball only once and even had his bat knocked out of his hand. No bowler in Australia or perhaps even the world for that matter came anywhere close to matching Gilbert's speed and ferocity at his peak, but he would ultimately never play a single game for Australia despite an impressive first-class record reading 87 wickets at 28.97 with 6 five-fers from 23 matches between 1930 and 1936, bowling on some of the flattest pitches in history in the Sheffield Shield during the 1930s. You see, he was fast, but he was also black..


VC’s XI

1) Sam Trimble
2) Lucius Gwynn
3)
4)
5)
6)
7) Alan Kourie
8) Percy Clark
9) Carst Posthuma
10) Float Woods
11) Eddie Gilbert


Really pleased with that bowling attack. Two tearaways complemented by two of the canniest swingers, and a damn good spinner who could be classified as a genuine all-rounder. What more can a man ask for?

@Asham has two picks to make now..

 

[Mouseydread]

Overall Pick #16: Jimmy Boucher

Profile
Long before Ireland's "golden generation" propelled them on an improbably journey that led to bowling England out for 85 in the first session of their Lord's Test match, Ireland's best-ever cricketer had given them decades of devoted service well away from the limelight. James Chrysostom Boucher of Dublin bowled his off-breaks to great effect on both sides of the Second World War, playing the vast majority of his cricket for the Phoenix Cricket Club, mere yards from where he was born; for them, he took over 1,300 wickets, to go with his hundreds of wickets for Ireland. His great success and devotion to his skill was all the more remarkable for the face that he never considered a career in cricket. Instead, he stuck with the greater security of his career with the Electrical Supply Board.

First-class statistics
625 runs @ 13.58 (best 85) and 168 wickets @ 14.04 (18 5WI, best 7/13) in 28 matches

Finest Performances
On 11th September 1937, Ireland hosted New Zealand for a first-class match in Dublin. Though New Zealand eventually prevailed by eight wickets, Boucher's Day One spell of twelve overs, five maidens, seven wickets for thirteen runs was truly outstanding. In the second innings, things could have been entirely different had Ireland's slip fielder (which could not be the usually velcro-handed Boucher as he was bowling) not shelled a catch that would have reduced New Zealand to three wickets down without a run on the board.

Role in the Team
Alongside Frank Tarrant, Boucher forms a twin spin threat of enviable skill.

Overall Pick #17: Karl Schneider

Pictured here with "Big Ship" Warwick Armstrong​

Profile
(Marginally) before there was Bradman, there was Archie Jackson. And before there was Jackson, there was Karl Schneider. First selected as a slight seventeen-year-old for the mighty Victorian cricket team, his debut would go down in history as the match in which Bill Ponsford hit 429 out of Victoria's first-class record total of 1,059. Schneider's contribution was 55 out of a partnership of 158 with Ponsford before he was run out. However, a team with Ponsford, Woodfull, Armstrong and so many who would go down as legend was a difficult one for a young batsman to break into. He therefore relocated to South Australia whilst still barely into his twenties, and was the star batsman as South Australia won the 1926-27 Sheffield Shield, the first time they hadn't finished in last place since the 1913 season. Clearly, a batting luminary had arrived, so it was particularly tragic that he would have to leave so soon: Karl Joseph Schneider would be dead of Lukaemia before he turned 24.

First-class statistics
1,509 runs @ 48.67 (6 centuries, best 146) and 10 wickets @ 35.50 (best 2/10) in 20 matches

Finest Performances
Although he arguably batted better the following year, to average 54.22 in your first season at a new state, which was also your first season as a Sheffield Shield opening batsman, and to be a pivotal figure in an unlikely Shield triumph has to be the outstanding performance for any player. To do so at the age of 21 is ridiculous.

Role in the Team
Karl Schneider will open the batting. At only 5' 2", his adept back-foot play will come to the fore. He may also be called upon as a back-up spin bowler; though not used often in the Shield, his left-arm spin was more than competent as he once took 139 wickets in a season for Xavier College 1st XI.

Aislabie's XI so far:
1. Karl Schneider (Pick #17)
2.
3.
4. Shantanu Sugwekar (Pick #9)
5.
6. Frank Tarrant (Pick #6)
7.
8.
9. Vince van der Bijl (Pick #3)
10. Jimmy Boucher (Pick #16)
11.

Next pick:
@blockerdave

Some wonderful reading about these players. Some I've heard of, but most I hadn't! Great, great stuff!

 

[Mouseydread]

I'm sticking with Ceylon/Sri Lanka for now, and going for their great batsman MAHADEVAN SATHASIVAM

Mahadevan Sathasivam was a cavalier on and off the field. A batsman of great elegance described by Sobers as "the greatest batsman ever on earth" and by Frank Worrell as the best he'd ever seen, he was something of a play boy and dilettante off it. He batted wearing a silk shirt and a cravat, and was rumoured to occasionally have a G&T brought out at the drinks break. With the alcoholic and sexual appetite of James Bond and the elegance at the crease of a right-handed David Gower, "Satha" would have got into any team in the world at his peak. Even the legendary 1948 Australians couldn't get him out (ok, he was on 6* when rain curtailed the match).

Satha holds the distinction of being the only person to captain 3 international teams - Ceylon, Singapore, and Malaysia.

He played just 11 First Class matches, scoring 753 runs at 41.83, with 3 centuries and 3 half-centuries. His high score was 215 made vs South India and rated one of the best innnings ever played in Madras/Chennai.

Satha slots in at number 4 in the order.

1. 
   
2. 
   
3. 
   
4. Mahadevan Sathasivam
5. 
   
6. Clive Rice (C)
   
7. 
   
8. Gamini Goonasene
9. Garth Le Roux
10. Charles Kortright

@VC the slogger your turn next

Easily a player that would captain my own team, love the style of carrying a G+T with the drinks! Fell about laughing!

 

[ahmedleo414]

@Asham missed his deadline @Aislabie you have the next pick

 

[Aislabie]

Hamid Hassan

First class stats: 67 wickets @ 22.33 (6 5WI, best 7/61) in 13 matches

Over a decade ago now, when Rashid Khan was just a young adult child, there was a loud, aggressive and high-quality fast bowler who put Afghan cricket on the map by running in and intimidating batsmen through sheer force of personality and skill. By the time his performances reached a stage where they'd be televised, his body was working towards being too battered and broken for him to keep hitting the same 90 mile per hour speeds he was known for. Except... he could still do it. Years after having traded in his playing spikes for TV mics, Hamid Hassan announced that he was going to play in the 2019 Cricket World Cup. The selectors duly announced his name, and he hobbled out onto the field for the Afghans' first game against Australia. With a target of only 207 to defend, Afghanistan weren't up to the job. Mujeeb, Rashid, Dawlat and Gulbadin all leaked more than a run a ball - but Hamid didn't. Sending down 145 kph thunderbolts, he made Finch and Warner look ordinary. Ball after ball whistled past the bat. He started with a maiden, then had Warner dropped at slip - and that would account for four of the 15 runs he conceded from his six overs.

Just imagine being the opening batsman who has to go out and face Spencer, Hamid, Barnes and Moss.

@Aislabie 's Second XI so far:
1.
2. John Barclay (Pick #20)
3.
4. David Sales (Pick #34)
5. Norman Callaway (Pick #7)
6.
7.
8. Hamid Hassan (Pick #39)
9. Vincent Barnes (Pick #25)
10. Duncan Spencer (Pick #17)
11. Albert Moss (Pick #6)

@blockerdave

 

[Yash.]

@blockerdave Missed his deadline. @ahmedleo414

 

[ahmedleo414]

My next pick will be another Canadian Basil Robinson

Stats|Matches|Runs|HS| Ave|100s/50s|Wkts| Ave|BBI|5w/10w
First-Class |24|325|51|13.54|0/1|53|27.20|6/55|3/0

His bio from cricinfo:

"Basil Robinson was a prolific allround sportsman at the University of British Columbia - in 1936 he scored 1533 runs and took 186 wickets for Vancouver Junior CC - and in 1939 was awarded a Rhodes Scholarship to Oxford but because of the war he was unable to take this up until 1946 by which time he was 27.

While at Oxford he played football, rugby and cricket, becoming the first Canadian to be awarded his Blue in 1947 and 1948 as an offspinner and lower-order batsman. He did little in his second appearance at Lord's but in 1947 he took 4 for 54 in a drawn match.

He enjoyed success with the ball in both seasons, taking 50 wickets for the university at 27.74; his best bowling came against Worcestershire in 1947 when he took 6 for 55 as the students beat the county by 169 runs. His only first-class half-century came when he scored 51 on his debut against Lancashire.

On leaving Oxford he returned to Canada where he rejoined the Department of External Affairs but he continued to be an active cricketer. In 1954 he captained the Canadian squad which toured England playing a number of first-class games."

My Team so far:

1. Alan Jones
2. ?
3. James Aitchison
4. Andre Botha
5. ?
6. Nic Pothas
7. / Walter Wright
8. Basil Robinson
9. Iqbal Sikander
10. ?
11. ?

@Yash. you are next

 

[blockerdave]

Apologies for the delay, my choice is DIRK NANNES

 

[Yash.]

1. ?
2. ?
3. ?
4. ?
5. Geoff Humpage
   
6. Peter Trego
   
7. Darren Stevens
8. Saait Magiet
   
9. Trent Johnston
   
10. Thomas Wass
    
11. Padmakar Shivalkar

The last piece of my bowling, Trent Johnston



Statistics
First Class: 103 Wickets @ 20.2 (3 5WI, BBI 6/23) in 33 Matches

A bowlers who once played among the likes of Brett Lee, Michael Slater, and Mark Taylor, Trent Johnston was one of the first superstars of Irish cricket, and one of the key contributers for the Irish team in rising to competitiveness in International Cricket.

@blockerdave

 

[ahmedleo414]

@blockerdave missed his deadline, @VC the slogger is next