Aislabie
Test Cricket is Best Cricket
A fantastic pick - he was one of three all-rounders I had in mind. Another was Procter...
Draft: Budget Draft: 10 Test Centuries
- Thread starter Aislabie
- Start date
blockerdave
ICC Chairman
I’ve lost count of the number of times you’ve selected Procter in a draft and I’ve slapped my head into my hands thinking “how the hell did you not pick him yet!!” so this time I’m glad to have got him!
Goddard is something of a forgotten legend.
Na Maloom Afraad
Man of Tomorrow
NMA's 10-TEST CENTURY XI
WG Grace (2)
Glenn McGrath (0)
Courtney Walsh (0)
The 5th-highest wicket-taker in the history of Test cricket, Courtney Walsh. The man needs no introductions as a bowler. The least said about him as a batsman, the better. He's a quality pick considering that some of the leading wicket-takers around him were taken, or would cost me a century or two. With a hard 10-century limit, even using up just a single century for a bowler might prove to be a blunder in the end.
Test Stats: 519 wickets in 132 matches at an average of 24.44, 32 4-wicket hauls, 22 5-wicket hauls and 3 10-wicket hauls
First-Class Stats: 1807 wickets in 429 matches at an average of 21.71, 104 5-wicket hauls and 20 10-wicket hauls
"A physiological phenomenon, Courtney Walsh probably bowled faster for longer than any man in history. His spirit was as unbreakable as his body, urging him on to the previously undreamed-of heights of 519 Test wickets and 30,019 balls, not to mention the countless overs he sent down for Gloucestershire and Jamaica."
"For the first half of his career, Walsh was the willing workhorse cantering into the wind while Curtly Ambrose or Malcolm Marshall galloped down the hill. But he grew stronger and wilier with age, graduating to the new ball around 1993, and forming one of the great opening partnerships with Ambrose: 421 wickets between them from 49 Tests. Walsh's action was neither elegant nor orthodox, but it was hugely economical, catapulting the ball down from 10 foot high with a simple snap of the hips."
"An old-fashioned specialist, his comic incompetence with the bat earned him a Test-record 43 ducks."
- - -
You're next @Aislabie
WG Grace (2) Glenn McGrath (0) Courtney Walsh (0)The 5th-highest wicket-taker in the history of Test cricket, Courtney Walsh. The man needs no introductions as a bowler. The least said about him as a batsman, the better. He's a quality pick considering that some of the leading wicket-takers around him were taken, or would cost me a century or two. With a hard 10-century limit, even using up just a single century for a bowler might prove to be a blunder in the end.
Test Stats: 519 wickets in 132 matches at an average of 24.44, 32 4-wicket hauls, 22 5-wicket hauls and 3 10-wicket hauls First-Class Stats: 1807 wickets in 429 matches at an average of 21.71, 104 5-wicket hauls and 20 10-wicket hauls"A physiological phenomenon, Courtney Walsh probably bowled faster for longer than any man in history. His spirit was as unbreakable as his body, urging him on to the previously undreamed-of heights of 519 Test wickets and 30,019 balls, not to mention the countless overs he sent down for Gloucestershire and Jamaica."
"For the first half of his career, Walsh was the willing workhorse cantering into the wind while Curtly Ambrose or Malcolm Marshall galloped down the hill. But he grew stronger and wilier with age, graduating to the new ball around 1993, and forming one of the great opening partnerships with Ambrose: 421 wickets between them from 49 Tests. Walsh's action was neither elegant nor orthodox, but it was hugely economical, catapulting the ball down from 10 foot high with a simple snap of the hips."
"An old-fashioned specialist, his comic incompetence with the bat earned him a Test-record 43 ducks."
- - -
You're next @Aislabie
Aislabie
Test Cricket is Best Cricket
Lee IrvineTest stats: 353 runs @ 50.42 (1 century, best 102) in 4 matches
First-class stats: 9,919 runs @ 40.48 (21 centuries, best 193) in 157 matches
Lee Irvine was an excellent wicket-keeper, but he made his Test debut as a specialist batsman - and it's in that role that I plan to pick him for this draft. There's a chance he'll end up being thrown the gloves to balance my team, but at the moment he's unburdened and unshackled to make the most of the batting ability that the world was robbed the chance of seeing thanks to South African sporting isolation. An excellent, aggressive left-hander, he'll continue to augment an already very dynamic batting order.
@Aislabie's XI:
1.
Barry Richards (2)2.
Archie Jackson (1)3.
4.
5.
Lee Irvine (1)6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
Centuries: 4/10
@VC the slogger
VC the slogger
PlanetCricket Forever
- Joined
- Aug 23, 2010
From the mid-1990s to the early-2000s, the strongest Test team in the world by quite a distance was Australia. The second best Test team in the world was also Australia, or rather could have been had the ICC allowed them to simultaneously field another XI featuring players who couldn’t break into their all-conquering Test side, such was their embarrassment of riches during this period. But unfortunately this was something that didn’t come to fruition, thereby restricting several players of undoubtable Test match quality in Jamie Cox, Michael Di Venuto, Dene Hills, Jamie Siddons, Stuart Law, Martin Love, David Hussey, Ryan Campbell, Ian Harvey among others to the first-class arena with little or no hope of ever getting a Test call-up, whereas in any other country they could have easily ended up playing 70-80 Tests at the very least. None of these players though got quite a raw deal as Brad Hodge, who was actually good enough to break into the Australian Test lineup unlike several of his peers, score a double hundred in just his third Test match, and then inexplicably get cast aside despite boasting a Test batting average in the mid-50s.
Still not out of his teens when he made his first-class debut for Victoria, Hodge burst onto the scene in spectacular fashion scoring 991 runs at an average of 52.15 in his first season in 1993/94, falling an agonizing nine runs short of a 1000-run season - the dream for every Australian batsman in the Sheffield Shield. This did however see him finish ahead of some very illustrious names in Ricky Ponting (965 at 48.25), Damien Martyn (855 at 50.29) and Michael Slater (802 at 42.21) who would all go on to become regulars in the Australian Test side. He fell twice in the 90s in succession against Western Australia and New South Wales during the season, before finally bringing up three figures for the first time against Tasmania with 106. The following season, he scored another impressive 104 against the visiting English Test side there to contest the 1994/95 Ashes. Aged only 20 at the time, he seemed destined for a lengthy Test career with the Australian Test team, but there was perhaps only one thing that counted against him which was an inability to convert his fifty plus scores into big hundreds - something which is often the difference between a good first-class batsman and one of undoubted Test match calibre. In his first couple of seasons, he had amassed a very impressive 1448 runs at an average of 40.22 scoring 3 centuries and 9 half centuries with a highest of just 116.
But then from the mid to late 1990s, at a time when his career ought to have gone on from strength to strength, he hit a trough managing a rather disappointing 2079 runs at an average of 30.13 with just 3 centuries from 40 matches between 1995/96 and 1999/00, which saw him fall way behind the likes of Ricky Ponting, Damien Martyn, Darren Lehmann and Michael Bevan in the pecking order for a Test berth. During this period with Australia brushing aside any and every team in their path with the likes of Stuart Law, Jamie Cox and Jamie Siddons not getting a look-in despite scoring mountains of runs in domestic cricket, and Matthew Hayden, Justin Langer and Darren Lehmann just barely making it to the Test XI, Hodge’s prospects of ever getting a baggy green appeared almost non-existent. Despite the odds so heavily stacked against him, he returned in 2000/01 with his ambition burning brighter than ever totalling 1129 runs at 56.45 with 5 centuries, including an unbeaten 134 before retiring hurt against a touring West Indian bowling attack led by Test cricket’s then leading wicket-taker Courtney Walsh - making it the first instance of him scoring more than 1000 runs in an Australian domestic season.
It was the beginning of a run of form that saw him record a stunning 7709 runs at an average of 55.06 with 27 centuries (6 of which were doubles) between 2000/01 to 2004/05 playing for Victoria, Durham in 2002 as an overseas player, and Leicestershire from 2003 to 2004 in the same role. He looked completely unrecognizable from the talented youngster who would often fail to convert his starts into big scores, with some of his top performances during this period being a career best 302* off just 280 balls for Leicestershire against Nottinghamshire in 2003, 264 off 380 balls for Victoria against the touring Indians in 2003/04, along with four more doubles throughout 2004 - 262 off 299 balls against Durham, 240 off 337 balls against Essex, 221 off 290 balls against Derbyshire and 204* off 339 balls against South Australia. His prolific run-scoring finally culminated in a Test call-up for Australia’s tour of India in 2004/05. But his entry to Test cricket was delayed as a result of Michael Clarke being somewhat surprisingly preferred over him for the first Test, where he would make the only available Test place his own with a majestic 151 on debut. There was little he could do except watch from the sidelines as his team-mates made history by becoming the first Australian team to win a Test series on Indian soil since 1969/70. For now, he would have to wait..
The wait would continue for him during the famous 2005 Ashes series, where he was picked as a reserve batsman but ultimately didn’t get to play despite Damien Martyn and Simon Katich struggling badly during the series. He scored 166 off just 169 balls in their last tour game against Essex before the final Test of the series got underway, but was still overlooked as England went on to record their first Ashes series victory in 18 years. Nevertheless, the enormity of the result was such that Australia needed to make a few changes to their Test lineup for their home season in 2005/06 and Hodge was finally picked to make his Test debut aged 31 at the expense of a struggling Martyn in the 2nd Test, where he scored an impressive 60 in his first Test innings. His performance saw him retain his place for South Africa’s visit, and in just his third Test he would score a brilliant 203* off 322 balls at the WACA, but found himself criticised afterwards for skipper Ricky Ponting’s somewhat late declaration to allow him to reach the landmark, as South Africa batted out 120 overs for a draw. But if that was unfair, what happened next was totally inexplicable..
Following just two unremarkable outings with the bat after his double century, he was dropped from the Test lineup for the tour of South Africa in an extremely bizarre turn of events that saw Martyn, the man he originally replaced ending up re-replacing him. Selectors pointed to his patchy Pura Cup (aka Sheffield Shield) form, but one couldn’t help but notice his 433 runs at 33.30 was still much better than Martyn’s 142 runs at 23.66 for the 2005/06 season. The latter was momentarily vindicated when he scored a match-winning 101 in a very close contest against South Africa at Johannesburg, but aggregated a disappointing 281 runs at 31.22 from the final six Tests of his career before calling it quits after the 2nd Test of the 2006/07 Ashes. After his retirement, it was the formerly discarded Andrew Symonds who somehow found his way back into the Test lineup despite a very mediocre Test record reading at the time 286 runs at 19.06 from 10 Tests as opposed to Hodge’s 409 runs at 58.42 from 5 Tests. He too would go on to cement his place with a career defining 156 against England in the 4th Test of the extremely one-sided series. One couldn’t help but feel for Hodge, whose misfortune appeared to have no limits.
Still, he remained optimistic about his chances of a Test comeback, and was in the meantime used as a fill-in for most of 2007 in the ODI format, even playing 5 matches with a best of 123 in Australia’s unbeaten World Cup campaign. Taking it upon himself to prove the selectors wrong, he took his run-scoring up a notch in the Sheffield Shield aggregating 1527 runs at 61.08 with 4 centuries between 2006/07 and 2007/08, including a Shield best of 286* off 385 balls against Queensland in the latter season, which made the selectors see sense and include him for the 2008 tour of the West Indies. On his return, he scored a very respectable 67 and 27 against the West Indies, but was yet again dropped from the lineup - this time for good. His skills became high in demand in the T20 format in the IPL, and while he kept on playing first-class cricket at a very high standard until 2009/10, there came a day when he probably thought to himself why bother with all this? And who can really blame him..
Overall, he scored 503 runs at an average of 55.88 with 1 century (a double at that) from 6 Tests between 2005 and 2008. His first-class career read 17084 runs at an average of 48.81 with 51 centuries and 64 fifties between 1993/94 and 2009/10. Of the 51 centuries he scored, no less than 9 were double centuries; he could have made it an even 10 had he not been dismissed for 195 in his final Shield season. He also scored 10474 runs at an average of 45.34 with 29 centuries in the Sheffield Shield, putting him fifth in terms of runs on the all-time list after Darren Lehmann (13635 at 54.97), Jamie Cox (10821 at 38.92), Jamie Siddons (10643 at 44.71) and Michael Bevan (10621 at 60.69); his record reads an even more impressive 7190 runs at 52.10 with 26 centuries starting from 2000/01, the season the really came into his own as a batsman of undoubted Test match quality. Him playing a mere 6 Tests despite being one of the best middle-order batsmen produced by his country during the past 30 years, and being remembered more as a 40-something T20 gun for hire across the world hardly does his unbelievable talent justice.
VC’s XI (6/10)
1)
Vijay Merchant (3)2)
3)
KS Ranjitsinhji (2)4)
Brad Hodge (1)5)
6)
7)
8)
9)
10)
11)
@ahmedleo414 Double pick for you
ahmedleo414
The Butcher
My first pick goes to Wilfred Rhodes
Stats|Matches|Runs|HS| Ave|100s/50s|Wkts| Ave|Econ|BBI|BBM|5w/10w
First-Class |1,110|39,969|267*|30.81|58/197|4,204|16.72|2.27|9/24|?|287/68
Test |58|2,325|179|30.19|2/11|127|26.96|2.49|8/68|15/124|6/1
here is his bio from wiki
"Wilfred Rhodes (29 October 1877 – 8 July 1973) was an English professional cricketer who played 58 Test matches for England between 1899 and 1930. In Tests, Rhodes took 127 wickets and scored 2,325 runs, becoming the first Englishman to complete the double of 1,000 runs and 100 wickets in Test matches. He holds the world records both for the most appearances made in first-class cricket (1,110 matches), and for the most wickets taken (4,204). He completed the double of 1,000 runs and 100 wickets in an English cricket season a record 16 times. Rhodes played for Yorkshire and England into his fifties, and in his final Test in 1930 was, at 52 years and 165 days, the oldest player who has appeared in a Test match.
Beginning his career for Yorkshire in 1898 as a slow left arm bowler who was a useful batsman, Rhodes quickly established a reputation as one of the best slow bowlers in the world. However, by the First World War he had developed his batting skills to the extent that he was regarded as one of the leading batsmen in England and had established an effective opening partnership with Jack Hobbs. The improvement in Rhodes's batting was accompanied by a temporary decline in his bowling performances, but the loss of key Yorkshire bowlers after the war led to Rhodes resuming his role as a front-line bowler. He played throughout the 1920s as an all-rounder before retiring after the 1930 cricket season. His first appearance for England was in 1899 and he played regularly in Tests until 1921. Recalled to the team in the final Ashes Test of 1926 aged 48, Rhodes played a significant part in winning the match for England who thus regained the Ashes for the first time since 1912. He ended his Test career in the West Indies in April 1930.
As a bowler, Rhodes was noted for his great accuracy, variations in flight and, in his early days, sharp spin. Throughout his career he was particularly effective on wet, rain affected pitches where he could bowl sides out for very low scores. His batting was regarded as solid and dependable but unspectacular, and critics accused him of excessive caution at times. However, they considered him to be an astute cricket thinker. Following his retirement from playing cricket, he coached at Harrow School but was not a great success. His eyesight began to fail from around 1939 to the point where he was completely blind by 1952. He was given honorary membership of the Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) in 1949 and remained a respected figure within the game until his death in 1973."
My second pick goes to Waqar Younis
Stats|Matches|Wkts| Ave|Econ|BBI|BBM|5w/10w
First-Class |228|2,972|22.33|3.26|8/17|?|63/14
Test |87|373|23.56|3.25|7/76|13/135|22/5
His bio from wiki:
"Waqar Younis is a Pakistani cricket coach, commentator and former cricketer who captained Pakistan national cricket team. A right-arm fast bowler, Waqar is regarded as one of the greatest bowlers of all time. He is the current bowling coach of the Pakistani cricket team.
As of 2012, he holds the record for the youngest Pakistani Test captain and the third youngest Test captain in history (22 years 15 days). He played 87 Tests and 262 One Day International (ODI) matches for Pakistan during his international cricket career from 1989 to 2003.
Younis' trademark was his ability to reverse swing a cricket ball at high speed. He took 373 Test wickets and 416 One Day International wickets during his career. Together with bowling partner Wasim Akram, he formed one of the world's most feared bowling attacks. Younis has the best strike rate, after Dale Steyn, for any bowler with over 350 Test wickets. He is the youngest bowler to take 400 wickets in ODI cricket.
He is widely recognised as one of the world's best ever bowlers, though most commentators agree his career statistics weakened after his back injury in 1991. Despite this, he would place in the top ten of all time based on ICC rankings."
My Team:
1.
2. Wilfred Rhodes (2 centuries)
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8. Shane Warne
9.
10. Waqar Younis
11. Jimmy Anderson
Centuries used: 2/10
@VC the slogger you have the next pick
Ave|100s/50s|Wkts| Ave|Econ|BBI|BBM|5w/10wFirst-Class |1,110|39,969|267*|30.81|58/197|4,204|16.72|2.27|9/24|?|287/68
Test |58|2,325|179|30.19|2/11|127|26.96|2.49|8/68|15/124|6/1
here is his bio from wiki
"Wilfred Rhodes (29 October 1877 – 8 July 1973) was an English professional cricketer who played 58 Test matches for England between 1899 and 1930. In Tests, Rhodes took 127 wickets and scored 2,325 runs, becoming the first Englishman to complete the double of 1,000 runs and 100 wickets in Test matches. He holds the world records both for the most appearances made in first-class cricket (1,110 matches), and for the most wickets taken (4,204). He completed the double of 1,000 runs and 100 wickets in an English cricket season a record 16 times. Rhodes played for Yorkshire and England into his fifties, and in his final Test in 1930 was, at 52 years and 165 days, the oldest player who has appeared in a Test match.
Beginning his career for Yorkshire in 1898 as a slow left arm bowler who was a useful batsman, Rhodes quickly established a reputation as one of the best slow bowlers in the world. However, by the First World War he had developed his batting skills to the extent that he was regarded as one of the leading batsmen in England and had established an effective opening partnership with Jack Hobbs. The improvement in Rhodes's batting was accompanied by a temporary decline in his bowling performances, but the loss of key Yorkshire bowlers after the war led to Rhodes resuming his role as a front-line bowler. He played throughout the 1920s as an all-rounder before retiring after the 1930 cricket season. His first appearance for England was in 1899 and he played regularly in Tests until 1921. Recalled to the team in the final Ashes Test of 1926 aged 48, Rhodes played a significant part in winning the match for England who thus regained the Ashes for the first time since 1912. He ended his Test career in the West Indies in April 1930.
As a bowler, Rhodes was noted for his great accuracy, variations in flight and, in his early days, sharp spin. Throughout his career he was particularly effective on wet, rain affected pitches where he could bowl sides out for very low scores. His batting was regarded as solid and dependable but unspectacular, and critics accused him of excessive caution at times. However, they considered him to be an astute cricket thinker. Following his retirement from playing cricket, he coached at Harrow School but was not a great success. His eyesight began to fail from around 1939 to the point where he was completely blind by 1952. He was given honorary membership of the Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) in 1949 and remained a respected figure within the game until his death in 1973."
My second pick goes to Waqar Younis
Ave|Econ|BBI|BBM|5w/10wFirst-Class |228|2,972|22.33|3.26|8/17|?|63/14
Test |87|373|23.56|3.25|7/76|13/135|22/5
His bio from wiki:
"Waqar Younis is a Pakistani cricket coach, commentator and former cricketer who captained Pakistan national cricket team. A right-arm fast bowler, Waqar is regarded as one of the greatest bowlers of all time. He is the current bowling coach of the Pakistani cricket team.
As of 2012, he holds the record for the youngest Pakistani Test captain and the third youngest Test captain in history (22 years 15 days). He played 87 Tests and 262 One Day International (ODI) matches for Pakistan during his international cricket career from 1989 to 2003.
Younis' trademark was his ability to reverse swing a cricket ball at high speed. He took 373 Test wickets and 416 One Day International wickets during his career. Together with bowling partner Wasim Akram, he formed one of the world's most feared bowling attacks. Younis has the best strike rate, after Dale Steyn, for any bowler with over 350 Test wickets. He is the youngest bowler to take 400 wickets in ODI cricket.
He is widely recognised as one of the world's best ever bowlers, though most commentators agree his career statistics weakened after his back injury in 1991. Despite this, he would place in the top ten of all time based on ICC rankings."
My Team:
1.
2.
Wilfred Rhodes (2 centuries)3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
Shane Warne9.
10.
Waqar Younis11.
Jimmy AndersonCenturies used: 2/10
@VC the slogger you have the next pick
Aislabie
Test Cricket is Best Cricket
Those are a couple of very tidy picks. I'm not sure I'd be throwing picks around on bowlers so early in the draft, but I can see why you're doing it
ahmedleo414
The Butcher
Last edited:
blockerdave
ICC Chairman
Wilf Rhodes is a fantastic pick
VC the slogger
PlanetCricket Forever
- Joined
- Aug 23, 2010
Whenever there’s a conversation regarding the greatest all-rounders to ever play Test cricket, people’s minds generally shift towards the likes of Ian Botham, Garry Sobers, Jacques Kallis, Imran Khan, Keith Miller, Kapil Dev etc etc. There was another such player during the late 19th and early 20th century - someone who is largely forgotten today, who wasn’t such a stylist with bat or ball like some of the aforementioned names, but who on statistics alone has every right to be mentioned in the same breath as them. Of course I’m talking about Monty Noble, the greatest all-rounder ever produced by Australia prior to the arrival of Keith Miller.
As a right-handed batsman, Noble was not as aesthetically pleasing to watch as his contemporaries Victor Trumper and Clem Hill, but rather someone who played according to the match situation and usually saved his best for when the chips were down. He could bat pretty much anywhere in the order, having played in every position between Nos 1 and 9 throughout his career. As a bowler, he was even more versatile generally bowling at medium pace with the ability to swing the ball, whilst also delivering a variety of off breaks and leg breaks. This coupled with his unrelenting accuracy with the ball made him an extremely dangerous proposition on helpful wickets and near unplayable on rain-affected ones. He was also by all accounts a very fine fielder and a supreme athlete who would often spend most of his time doing push-ups or skipping rope whilst traveling via boat to cricketing tours.
First picked for the 1897/98 Ashes series, Noble made an immediate impact on debut with the ball, claiming 19 wickets at 20.26 with 2 five-wicket hauls from his first two Tests, both of which Australia won by an innings as they claimed the series 4-1. However, it wasn’t until the 1899 Ashes in England that he made his first telling contributions with the bat, scoring 367 runs at 52.42 with 4 half-centuries, of which three came in very crucial situations - his long stays of 60 and 89* in the 4th Test, followed by 69* in the 5th Test helped Australia bat time to avoid defeat in both matches where they had been forced to follow-on by their opponents. He wasn’t at his destructive best with the ball claiming a rather ordinary 13 wickets at 31.23, but without his all-round contributions the eventual scoreline could have easily been 2-1 in England’s favor rather than 1-0 in Australia’s. His performances on tour saw him named one of Wisden’s Cricketers of the Year for 1900. Over the next couple of years, his batting form would remain patchy but he would nevertheless go on to establish himself as one of the world’s premier bowlers at Test level.
Noble claimed as many as 51 wickets at an average of 19.39 with 6 five-fers and 2 match ten-fers from 12 Tests in 1902, becoming alongside his team-mate Hugh Trumble who claimed an even better haul of 53 wickets at 18.37 from just 8 Tests, one of the first two players to claim more than 50 Test wickets in a calendar year. Australia would win both the 1901/02 and 1902 Ashes series by 4-1 and 2-1 margins to keep their hold on the urn intact thanks to his bowling performances - which included a career best match haul of 13 for 77 at the MCG in the 2nd Test of the 1901/02 Ashes, where he bundled England out for a paltry 61 in their first innings with a stunning analysis of 7 for 17 off just 7.4 overs before returning to claim 6 more wickets in the second innings, in the process completely outbowling the legendary Sydney Barnes who had match figures of 13 for 163 in the same match. He claimed another ten-wicket match haul in the 3rd Test of the 1902 Ashes in England, with 11 for 103 after having previously top-scored with the bat by scoring 47 in Australia’s first innings. By now a key and well respected member of the side, he was chosen to captain Australia in the absence of regular skipper Joe Darling in the 1903/04 Ashes.
In just his first Test as Australian captain, Noble rose to the occasion with a career best 133 - incidentally his only century at Test level. In the 3rd Test at Sydney, he almost single-handedly carried a struggling Australian bowling attack with figures of 7 for 100 in the first innings, whilst also top-scoring with an unbeaten 53 in the second. His outstanding returns of 417 runs at 59.57 (1 century, 3 fifties) with the bat, and 16 wickets at 20.50 (1 five-fer) from 5 matches made it arguably his finest Test series as an all-rounder, but in vain as England recorded a 3-2 victory after a closely fought series to reclaim the urn for the first time since 1896. During the series, he also became only the second man after George Giffen to complete the all-rounders double of 1000 runs and 100 wickets, achieving the landmark in his 27th Test - the fastest in terms of Tests played at the time, and still the fifth fastest in Test history after Ian Botham (21 matches), Vinoo Mankad (23 matches), Kapil Dev (25 matches) and Shaun Pollock (26 matches). He gave up the reins of the side to Darling upon his return for the 1905 Ashes, where Australia were again beaten 2-0 - the first instance of them not winning a single Test in an Ashes series since 1893. Noble reached his nadir as a player with just 173 runs at 19.22 and 6 wickets at 68.16 despite doing much better in the tour overall.
He was appointed full-time captain following Darling’s retirement in 1905, and would help Australia reclaim the urn with a 4-1 victory in 1907/08, and then retain it with a 2-1 victory in 1909 before retiring to pursue a career in dentistry. While his returns as a player were middling with him scoring 575 runs at 30.26 and claiming 15 wickets at 27.80 during this phase, he made a far greater impact with his innovative captaincy such as using his fast bowlers in short spells, making him among the first to ever do so at a time when most other captains would simply tire them out by pushing them to their limits. He led Australia in a total of 15 Tests, winning 8, losing 5 and drawing 2 - giving him a success rate of 53.33, the best among captains to have led them in a minimum of 10 Tests at the time. The captaincy also brought out the best in him as an all-rounder, with him scoring 992 runs at 38.15 and claiming 31 wickets at 24.03 from his 15 Tests in the role. Following Noble’s retirement, Australia would not win another Ashes series until the famous 1920/21 whitewash orchestrated by Warwick Armstrong, making it their longest Ashes drought in history.
Overall, Noble scored 1997 runs at an average of 30.25 with 1 century and 16 half-centuries, whilst also claiming 121 wickets at an average of 25.00 with 9 five-fers and 2 match ten-fers from 42 Tests between 1898 and 1909. This extended to 13975 runs at 40.75 with 37 centuries and 66 half-centuries recording a highest of 284, alongside 624 wickets at 23.14 with 33 five-fers and 7 match ten-fers recording a best of 8 for 48 from 248 first-class matches between 1893/94 and 1919/20. He made a total of four tours to England over the course of his career, aggregating 1607 runs at 37.39 (3 centuries, 9 fifties) and 82 wickets at 22.90 (4 five-fers, 1 ten-fer) in 1899; 1357 runs at 33.09 (3 centuries, 6 fifties) and 93 wickets at 19.77 (5 five-fers, 2 ten-fers) in 1902; 2053 runs at 46.65 (6 centuries, 13 fifties) and 55 wickets at 26.61 (1 five-fer) in 1905; and 1060 runs at 25.85 (2 centuries, 4 fifties) and 25 wickets at 34.56 in 1909 - giving him an overall aggregate of 6078 runs at 35.96 (14 centuries, 32 fifties) and 255 wickets at 23.71 (10 five-fers, 3 ten-fers) from 128 matches in the country. If you think these figures to be merely world class, you have another thing coming when you see his overall stats in the Sheffield Shield which read 4896 runs at 68.00 with 19 centuries and 17 fifties, alongside 159 wickets at 22.55 with 7 five-fers and 1 match ten-fer from 51 matches for New South Wales - numbers that are simply insane, and the likes of which I doubt anyone can find in any first-class competition around the world let alone the one considered to be the best in terms of producing players of Test match quality.
VC’s XI (7/10)
1)
Vijay Merchant (3)2)
3)
KS Ranjitsinhji (2)4)
Brad Hodge (1)5)
6)
Monty Noble (1)7)
8)
9)
10)
11)
@Aislabie
Aislabie
Test Cricket is Best Cricket
Douglas JardineTest stats: 1,296 runs @ 48.00 (1 century, best 127) in 22 matches
First-class stats: 14,848 runs @ 46.83 (35 centuries, best 214) in 262 matches
I'm delighted to get the captain I've had my eye on for the whole draft, England's Douglas Jardine. Best known for being the captain associated with the infamous Bodyline tactic, his legacy as a player and as a captain is often forgotten. First, Jardine the batsman. Slower than a tortoise stuck in molasses while sleepwalking, Jardine was nonetheless extremely durable: on average, he would face 31 overs of bowling by himself before being dismissed. In a team with three stroke players already, that kind of durability is absolutely vital. Then there's Jardine the captain: not only was his own performance improved with leadership, so was that of his team - winning nine and losing only one of the matches in which he was captain. This is the vital pick to make my team work.
(I had been planning to have him bat at three with Monty Noble at four, but someone's gone and ruined that plan)
@Aislabie's XI:
1.
Barry Richards (2)2.
Archie Jackson (1)3.
4.
Douglas Jardine (1)5.
Lee Irvine (1)6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
Centuries: 5/10
@Na Maloom Afraad
blockerdave
ICC Chairman
Test stats: 1,296 runs @ 48.00 (1 century, best 127) in 22 matches
First-class stats: 14,848 runs @ 46.83 (35 centuries, best 214) in 262 matches
I'm delighted to get the captain I've had my eye on for the whole draft, England's Douglas Jardine. Best known for being the captain associated with the infamous Bodyline tactic, his legacy as a player and as a captain is often forgotten. First, Jardine the batsman. Slower than a tortoise stuck in molasses while sleepwalking, Jardine was nonetheless extremely durable: on average, he would face 31 overs of bowling by himself before being dismissed. In a team with three stroke players already, that kind of durability is absolutely vital. Then there's Jardine the captain: not only was his own performance improved with leadership, so was that of his team - winning nine and losing only one of the matches in which he was captain. This is the vital pick to make my team work.
(I had been planning to have him bat at three with Monty Noble at four, but someone's gone and ruined that plan)
@Aislabie's XI:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
Centuries: 5/10
@Na Maloom Afraad
Was to be next pick, got me back for Procter and Goddard!!
VC the slogger
PlanetCricket Forever
- Joined
- Aug 23, 2010
Been doing that a lot lately
Nearly went for Jardine myself, before discovering Noble had just 1 Test century too, which kinda surprised me.
ahmedleo414
The Butcher
@Na Maloom Afraad missed his 24 hours, @Yash. I believe you have the next pick
