Kevin Pietersen named in Tony Greig's Best-Ever England XI.

[aussie_ben91]

Hebert Sutcliffe
Len Hutton (c)
Ken Barrington
Wally Hammond
Kevin Pietersen
Ian Botham
Allan Knott (wk)
Johnny Wardle
Alex Bedser
Fred Trueman
Frank Tyson

I listened to it on cricinfo. Pretty cool.

Pietersen, IMO will go onto be one of the greatest batsman of all time by the end of his career. I reckon he'll be better then Ponting, Tendulkar & Lara because he isn't some ruthless slogger everyone makes him out to be. :

Also what's with Jack Hobbs? He was selected in Richie Benaud's World XI & was 1 of Wisden Cricket's Cricketers of the Century.
Sutclife has a much superior record to him considering they played in the same era.
I always thought Hutton & Sutclife were better for some reason when you compared statistics but I've always seen Hobbs get selected ahead of Hutton & Sutclife in people's World XI.

Anyways, thoughts?

 

[smssia0112]

Statistics tell only half the story, and you truly have to view someone batting to get a real idea of how good they are. Watching Ricky Ponting is great because his technique is so sound. The only time I've seen Pietersen live he wasn't impressive at all, so I can't comment.

 

[Vcassano]

Hobbs is in their as highest First Class scorer. He scored 61,760 runs at 50.70 with 199 centuries. That is why he is often mentioned as one of the best.

 

[King Pietersen]

Thats a pretty awesome team. No Jim Laker though ? thats a strange decision. Nice to see Pietersen included but i'm not sure he deserves it just yet. He is a fantastic batsman and i agree, will go on to be one of the greatest batsmen of his generation but i dont think he's one of the best XI players England have ever had yet. He has played some awesome innings though, the one that still stands out however is his 158 against the Aussies. In the most important test match in years Pietersen plays an ashes winning innings. It started shakily, with dropped catches etc but after that he went on and played a fabulous innings, one of the great ashes centuries imo. He will go down in history i'm sure as one of Englands greatest batsmen.

 

[evertonfan]

I'm amazed that Giles isn't there.

 

[aussie_ben91]

Pietersen averaged 50+ in 2 series against Australia where Warne & McGrath were bowling at their very very very best.

 

[smssia0112]

I'm amazed that Giles isn't there.

Or Tufnell as 12th Man. Disgusting.

 

[andrew_nixon]

No WG Grace?

 

[RoboRocks]

He has picked this side purely on stats, Jack Hobbs would of been in if he averaged more than Hutton or Sutcliffe.
It doesn't matter to Greig that Hobbs has 197 FC Centuries and WG Grace made 125 centuries (sorry if not correct, I could not remember) on poor pitches which players of this generation could not be able to get off the square and also took over 2000 wickets.

Johnny Wardle is another example, did a good job for England in a spin quartet but Laker and Lock were ahead on him still.

 

[aussie_ben91]

WG Grace & Hobbs played 800-900 odd FC games though, of course there going to score a few centuries here and there in FC cricket where the competiton they faced could be questionable back in the days. You wouldn't see any modern day players playing that many FC games nowadays.

 

[Animator!]

Eugh. It's far too soon to to give him an honour like this. Generally in my opinion a player has to have finished or very nearly finished their career before they get mentioned in these. Pietersen could now go on a horror trott, get dropped and somebody could come into the side and keep him out.

Then he will not have had an international career worthy of this acolade.

 

[RoboRocks]

WG Grace & Hobbs played 800-900 odd FC games though, of course there going to score a few centuries here and there in FC cricket where the competiton they faced could be questionable back in the days. You wouldn't see any modern day players playing that many FC games nowadays.

They played until they 55 and 47 respectively, Only Greame Hick is playing at 40+ now.
Grace was unlucky as he was chosen for his first test at the age of 32 and then since there wasn't regular test cricket with just England and Australia he played during his 40's when he was below his best.

Hobbs started playing test from 1907 to 1930 so he had the chance to play at his best for England.

 

[Vcassano]

WG Grace & Hobbs played 800-900 odd FC games though, of course there going to score a few centuries here and there in FC cricket where the competiton they faced could be questionable back in the days. You wouldn't see any modern day players playing that many FC games nowadays.

Oh I know but the point is that he managed to be so good over so long a time when batting wasn't as easy as it is now. I was not saying he should be in this team or not, just answering your question of 'what's with Jack Hobbs?'

 

[MUFC1987]

This is something that I never get, we're told that the likes of Warne is one of the best bowlers in history, yet batting was always 'harder back in those days.' It sounds like this myth has just been passed down the generations as there is no way that you can prove anything about cricket played 50 years ago, let alone more than that.

 

[A_Whitey]

This is something that I never get, we're told that the likes of Warne is one of the best bowlers in history, yet batting was always 'harder back in those days.' It sounds like this myth has just been passed down the generations as there is no way that you can prove anything about cricket played 50 years ago, let alone more than that.

Well, there are more runs scored per wicket and at a faster rate. 'Go figure'.

Jack Hobbs and WG played in what basically were cart tracks, utterly unpredictable bounce and pace. This is why they are so revered. Grieg looks like he's selected mostly players that he actually has seen