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

[VC the slogger]

Right, so I haven't really given this sort of thing a try before, but now that I have followed some of the recent draft threads on this section of the forum, I feel like starting one of my own. It may as well be with a theme that interests me more than any other apart from World Cups (which was already done by @Rebel2k19) - the best players to never play Test cricket.

Throughout it's 142-year history, Test cricket has seen some truly awful players get selected, but at the same time many superbly talented ones get ignored for one reason or another - either due to them being born in the wrong era, their countries not holding Test status, dumb selection panels, injuries, isolation, racism, war, lifetime bans from the sport, just short lifetimes in general, or plain and simple bad luck. Here we shall try to unearth as many such players as possible in a 6-8 team draft, assuming we get that many signups in the first place.

I understand that digging up players you've never seen or heard of before can prove a tedious task for most, but by doing so you might learn a new thing or two about the game we all love, or about life in general. Like what happens when you ignore proper dental hygiene, fall in love with the wrong person, have too big a mouth on you, or chase after money in the wrong places etc etc. Besides, with the right use of Google, Cricinfo, CricketArchive (if you're rich and have a few bucks to waste or simply nuts) one can find pretty much anything. Go all in.


Player selection rules

In order to be ruled eligible, a player must have played first-class cricket or unofficial international cricket (the USA-Canada contests during the late 19th-early 20th century for eg) during or after the year 1877, when Test cricket came into being on that fateful day at the MCG. Players who have played official international cricket in the form of ODIs or T20Is or both, but zero Tests are also eligible.

The reason I'm excluding players from earlier eras is because of the huge differences in playing conditions and the competitiveness of the sport in general. I mean, there's no way you'd see a no talent fat wine merchant averaging 3 with the bat without bowling or even fielding most of the time and yet still going on to enjoy a 50-game career, or the best batsman in the world averaging a mere 16, or players demolishing entire lineups with underarm bowling in today's world. I'm sure the players of those eras were very good in their own right or by the rules in place then, but there's no way I can see someone like a Billy Beldham who faced underarm bowling all career suddenly face up to overarm bowling at pace or even spin for that matter.


Draft guidelines

I will post the ordered draft once I get the sufficient amount of signups. The same rules apply as in other drafts i.e the next person may pick if it's been more than 24 hrs and the person before hasn't picked their player, the player picked is invalid, and that you have to tag the person coming after you. It would also be appreciated if you can post a sentence or two about why you're picking a certain player - it doesn't have to be as detailed as this; something like the example posted below would more than suffice:

For eg - " Ken McEwan - His entire first-class career between 1972/73 to 1991/92 coincided with South Africa's isolation from international cricket. In that time he racked up 26668 first-class runs at 41.73 with 74 hundreds, the second most by a non-Test player. Could also serve as a decent backup keeper when called upon."


Draft Part 1

1. @blockerdave - Clive Rice
2. @CerealKiller - Franklyn Stephenson
3. @Aislabie - Vince van der Bijl
4. @VC the slogger - Bart King
5. @VC the slogger - George Patterson
6. @Aislabie - Frank Tarrant
7. @CerealKiller - Don Shepherd
8. @blockerdave - Garth le Roux
9. @Aislabie - Shantanu Sugwekar
10. @blockerdave - Charles Kortright
11. @VC the slogger - Ryan Campbell
12. @CerealKiller - David Hussey
13. @CerealKiller - Amol Muzumdar
14. @VC the slogger - Sunny Jim Mackay
15. @blockerdave - Gamini Goonesena
16. @Aislabie - Jimmy Boucher
17. @Aislabie - Karl Schneider
18. @blockerdave - Mahadevan Sathasivam
19. @VC the slogger - Ken McEwan
20. @CerealKiller - Tom Pritchard
21. @blockerdave - Surendra Bhave
22. @Aislabie - Michael Di Venuto
23. @VC the slogger - Bert Kortlang
24. @CerealKiller - Ryan ten Doeschate
25. @blockerdave - Steve Tikolo
26. @Aislabie - Bill Alley
27. @VC the slogger - Ilikena Bula
28. @CerealKiller - Rajinder Goel
29. @CerealKiller - Bhausaheb Nimbalkar
30. @VC the slogger - Jack Walsh
31. @Aislabie - Ray Jennings
32. @blockerdave - Henry Martyn
33. @VC the slogger - Jack Marsh
34. @Aislabie - Jamie Siddons
35. @CerealKiller - Jamie Cox
36. @blockerdave - Derrick de Saram
37. @blockerdave - Sheridan Raynor
38. @CerealKiller - Darren Berry
39. @Aislabie - Yacoob Omar
40. @VC the slogger - Sydney Smith
41. @Aislabie - Jack Massie
42. @VC the slogger - Jack Laing
43. @CerealKiller - Glen Chapple
44. @blockerdave - Ole Mortensen

Draft Part 2

1. @blockerdave - James Hildreth
2. @VC the slogger - Carst Posthuma
3. @Yash. - Darren Stevens
4. @Asham - Palwankar Baloo
5. @ahmedleo414 - James Aitchison
6. @Aislabie - Albert Moss
7. @Aislabie - Norman Callaway
8. @ahmedleo414 - Alan Jones
9. @Asham - Ali Brown
10. @Yash. - Padmakar Shivalkar
11. @VC the slogger - Float Woods
12. @blockerdave - Charles Ollivierre
13. @Asham - Paras Dogra
14. @Yash. - Saait Magiet
15. @VC the slogger - Lucius Gwynn
16. @blockerdave - Denys Hobson
17. @Aislabie - Duncan Spencer
18. @ahmedleo414 - Nic Pothas
19. @ahmedleo414 - Iqbal Sikander
20. @Aislabie - John Barclay
21. @Yash. - Thomas Wass
22. @VC the slogger - Sam Trimble
23. @blockerdave - John Langridge
24. @Asham - Billy Bestwick
25. @Aislabie - Vincent Barnes
26. @blockerdave - Jim Allen
27. @VC the slogger - Alan Kourie
28. @Yash. - Geoff Humpage
29. @Asham - Sridharan Sriram
30. @ahmedleo414 - Andre Botha
31. @Yash. - Peter Trego
32. @ahmedleo414 - Walter Wright
33. @Asham
34. @Aislabie - David Sales
35. @blockerdave - Frank Roro
36. @VC the slogger - Percy Clark
37. @VC the slogger - Eddie Gilbert
38. @Asham
39. @Aislabie - Hamid Hassan
40. @blockerdave - Dirk Nannes
41. @ahmedleo414 - Basil Robinson
42. @Yash. - Trent Johnston
43. @blockerdave - Lewis Gregory
44. @VC the slogger
45. @Yash. - Henry Fotheringham
46. @Asham
47. @ahmedleo414 - Gerrie Snyman
48. @Aislabie - Charles Gregory
49. @Aislabie - Khurram Khan
50. @ahmedleo414 - Rajeev Nayyar
51. @Asham
52. @Yash. - Priyank Panchal
53. @VC the slogger
54. @blockerdave - Stephen Jefferies
55. @Asham
56. @Yash. - Tom Cooper
57. @VC the slogger
58. @blockerdave - Sam Billings
59. @Aislabie - Craig Kieswetter
60. @ahmedleo414 - Jack Newman
61. @ahmedleo414 - Clem Gibson
62. @Aislabie - Babar Hayat
63. @Yash.
64. @VC the slogger
65. @blockerdave - Sam Northeast
66. @Asham

 

[Alexei.]

In

 

[Aislabie]

I am all over this, although there was no need to link all of my selections in the main post!

 

[CerealKiller]

In

 

[blockerdave]

In

 

[Gaurav_7]

Can it wait till we finish the T20 one? I will love to participate in this but if we keep both running in parallel then it would lead to overkill maybe.

 

[VC the slogger]

Can it wait till we finish the T20 one? I will love to participate in this but if we keep both running in parallel then it would lead to overkill maybe.

Sure, I don't mind

 

[blockerdave]

I should declare that actually I made a squad of my own picks for the best players never to play test cricket to use in cricket 19 - so i have a long list already!

 

[Aislabie]

Can it wait till we finish the T20 one? I will love to participate in this but if we keep both running in parallel then it would lead to overkill maybe.

I mean, personally I'm alright with both running at once but that's just me.

I should declare that actually I made a squad of my own picks for the best players never to play test cricket to use in cricket 19 - so i have a long list already!

I mean, not to be competitive but this makes me feel competitive

 

[Alexei.]

In

Sorry but I think Ill have to pull out of this.

 

[blockerdave]

Sorry but I think Ill have to pull out of this.

I’m very sorry to have intimidated you out of it with my preparation

 

[Gaurav_7]

I think I will pull out too as I am unable to give time for drafts. I am struggling in the ongoing draft due to lack of time and don't want to do the same here. So please excuse me, thanks.

 

[VC the slogger]

That leaves us with only four signups including myself. Well, this draft is a bust..

 

[blockerdave]

That’s a shame I was looking forward to this

 

[Aislabie]

I would still like for it to go ahead.

If there's only four of us, that doesn't mean it won't be a good draft