ICC All Time Greatest Test Team

[Gurjot95]

ICC is going to put online poll to select All Time Test Team on the occasion of Test cricket's 2,000th match starting 21st July between India and England at Lords. The fans will be asked to pick two opening batsmen, three middle-order batsmen, a wicketkeeper, three fast bowlers and one spinner. The public vote on ICC's website closes in two days' time with results set to be announced the week before the 2,000th Test.

Here are the players which are nominated for Greatest Test XI.

Opening batsmen: Geoffrey Boycott, Sunil Gavaskar, Gordon Greenidge, Desmond Haynes, Jack Hobbs, Len Hutton, Hanif Mohammad, Virender Sehwag, Herbert Sutcliffe, Victor Trumper.

Middle-order batsmen: Don Bradman, Greg Chappell, Wally Hammond, George Headley, Brian Lara, Javed Miandad, Graeme Pollock, Ricky Ponting, Viv Richards, Sachin Tendulkar.

All-rounder: Ian Botham, Kapil Dev, Aubrey Faulkner, Richard Hadlee, Jacques Kallis, Imran Khan, Keith Miller, Wilfred Rhodes, Gary Sobers, Frank Worrell.

Wicketkeepers: Les Ames, Mark Boucher, Jeff Dujon, Godfrey Evans, Andy Flower, Adam Gilchrist, Alan Knott, Rod Marsh, Clyde Walcott, Wasim Bari.

Fast bowlers: Curtley Ambrose, Sydney Barnes, Michael Holding, Dennis Lillee, Ray Lindwall, Malcolm Marshall, Glenn McGrath, Fred Trueman, Courtney Walsh, Wasim Akram.

Spinners: Bishen Bedi, Richie Benaud, Lance Gibbs, Clarrie Grimmett, Jim Laker, Anil Kumble, Muttiah Muralitharan, Bill O'Reilly, Derek Underwood, Shane Warne.

Source

 

[Cricketman]

Going to be interesting to see if they go for Warne or Murali here.

 

[angryangy]

Is it really interesting? I think it'd be more interesting if neither got in.

 

[sifter132]

^Haha - indeed.

They also have done the ODI version a little while back. Somehow Virender Sehwag got voted as one of the best openers of all time in ODIs... Rest of the team looks pretty good though:
International Cricket Council - Greatest ODI Team of All Time


Anyway for this, I was annoyed by a lack of options. Exactly ZERO of those openers are left handers. Granted, there haven't been a lot of great ones, but at least having a couple would be nice for those that like to balance their lineup a little. There's no Ken Barrington or Steve Waugh for the middle order or even Allan Border. They could have made the middle order pool a bit larger. The bowling options are pretty solid though.

I went: Hobbs, Hutton, Bradman, Tendulkar, Ponting, Sobers, Gilchrist, Marshall, Barnes, McGrath, Warne. 5 Aussies

 

[shravi]

It will never work with a voting system. Players and cricket experts have to decide on the final XI. There are too many Indians in the world so there's a good chance there will be players in the XI who don't deserve to be there. The players of the other countries are at a disadvantage because they don't come from countries with such a large population.

 

[Papa_Smurf]

WTF is Barry Richards not doing there? Disgraceful.

My XI:

J Hobbs
S Gavaskar
D Bradman
W Hammond
V Richards
I Khan
A Knott
W Akram
M Marshall
S Barnes
B O'Reilly

I know Warne's considered the greatest, and he may very well be. But from what I've read of O'Reilly, he seems to be, if anything, atleast as good as Warne.

 

[StinkyBoHoon]

I'm just so sick of "greatest ever" polls. they are so obsessed with statistics and nonsense even I get sucked in.

also, they're done to death, the only slightly interesting debate I can see arising is when Dhoni begins getting seriously considered for the ODI wk batting spot. because surely he's done enough now to be considered a realistic challenger to gilchrist.

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nice to see godfrey evans considered for the WK spot though. cricinfo didn't even shortlist him for the best england XI which was a shocking oversight.

 

[Fenil]

My Vote

Sunil Gavaskar
Jack Hobbs
Don Bradman
Sachin Tendulkar
Brian Lara
Gary Sobers
Clyde Walcott
Wasim Akram
Malcolm Marshall
Sydney Barnes
Muttiah Muralitharan​

 

[cricket_icon]

Great Point

It will never work with a voting system. Players and cricket experts have to decide on the final XI. There are too many Indians in the world so there's a good chance there will be players in the XI who don't deserve to be there. The players of the other countries are at a disadvantage because they don't come from countries with such a large population.

Great point. btw the ODI team that was posted, it's different from another ICC one I saw a little while back. Is there a reason for that?

 

[cricket_icon]

the team i chose. different from what i would normally have chosen but there were restrictions in place for positions. so here it is:

Herbert Sutcliffe
Jack Hobbs
Donald Bradman
Brian Lara
Sachin Tendulkar
Imran Khan
Adam Gilchrist
Curtly Ambrose
Glenn McGrath
Wasim Akram
Muttiah Muralidaran

 

[sifter132]

also, they're done to death, the only slightly interesting debate I can see arising is when Dhoni begins getting seriously considered for the ODI wk batting spot. because surely he's done enough now to be considered a realistic challenger to gilchrist.

I'd pick Dhoni for an all-time ODI team. His record is great, plus he comes in down the order. There are heaps of great opening ODI batsmen so you don't want to 'waste' a spot by using Gilchrist up there.

As for a voting system, well you can see in some of the choices that they are trying to get a representative sample. I mean is Hanif Mohammad really one of the top 10 openers ever? Or do they just want an option for the Pakistan vote? I'd argue Saeed Anwar is better anway. He always did well against McGrath and Warne, and that's not something you can say about many guys - Lara and Sehwag are about the only others that CONSISTENTLY excelled against the great pair.

 

[shravi]

Mine is the same as usual.

Jack Hobbs
Sunil Gavaskar
Donald Bradman
Sachin Tendulkar
Vivian Richards
Gary Sobers
+ Adam Gilchrist
* Imran Khan
Shane Warne
Dennis Lillee / Glenn McGrath / Wasim Akram
Malcolm Marshall

 

[Papa_Smurf]

According to the categories, you can't have both Imran and Sobers, shravi

Goes to show how ridiculous this whole thing is.

 

[Fenil]

Mine is the same as usual.

Jack Hobbs
Sunil Gavaskar
Donald Bradman
Sachin Tendulkar
Vivian Richards
Gary Sobers
+ Adam Gilchrist
* Imran Khan
Shane Warne
Dennis Lillee / Glenn McGrath / Wasim Akram
Malcolm Marshall

According to the categories, you can't have both Imran and Sobers, shravi

Goes to show how ridiculous this whole thing is.

Yes, according to the rule there ought to be 2 openers, 3 middle order batsmen, 1 wicketkeeper, 1 allrounder, 3 fast bowlers and 1 spinner.

 

[AsadAbrar]

Hey, I couldn't vote.