Draft: One-Test Wonders

[Aislabie]

Fred le Roux

Test stats: 1 run @ 0.50 (best 1) and 0 wickets in 1 match
First-class stats: 1,258 runs @ 28.59 (2 centuries, best 104) and 93 wickets @ 19.75 (6 5WI, best 6/28) in 34 matches

There seems oddly little record of Fred le Roux, which is some surprise given that he was an excellent all-rounder and captain for Transvaal in the years both before and after the First World War. National selection for South Africa came a little belatedly, but judging by his first-class record you would have expected him to put the setback behind him and make a decent Test career out of things. His debut came in 1914, and in it he didn't shine - everyone's allowed a bad game of course, but before he could be considered for selection again, the War happened. By the time it was done and Test cricket was back, le Roux was nearly 40 and would not be playing for South Africa again. Will be used as a change seamer and lower-order batsman, although he was good enough to bat at five and open the bowling for South Africa and Transvaal.

1.
2. Jim Parks
3. Ed Joyce
4. Paul Parker
5.
6. Albie Morkel
7. Fred le Roux
8. Andre Adams
9.
10.
11. Dinuka Hettiarachchi

12th man - JJ Ferris

@Yash.

 

[VC the slogger]

Clarence Passailaigue will be my next pick. That’s two writeups pending now..[DOUBLEPOST=1588237769][/DOUBLEPOST]@ahmedleo414

I think we all know the bit about George Headley being the first great black batsman to emerge for the West Indies at Test level, and then going on to score centuries at a rate second only to Don Bradman, earning himself the moniker “The Black Bradman” in the process. But what if I told you he wasn’t the only one, and that there was another such player similar in ability who was also a childhood friend of Headley’s to boot? But who had the misfortune of being in the latter’s shadow most of the time and being constantly ignored by the West Indies’ selectors despite having a far better record than most of the batsmen who played for them during their first decade as a Test nation. His country Jamaica not being a part of West Indies’ Inter-Colonial Tournament also didn’t help matters, as he would often have to wait years between tours undertaken by the MCC and other sides to the Caribbean to get another crack at first-class cricket. The man in question was Charles Passailaigue.

Passailaigue literally stormed onto the first-class arena with a scintillating 183 on debut in 1929/30 against the touring MCC, who had a bowling attack consisting of Bill Voce, Nigel Haig and Ewart Astill, all of whom were good enough to have played Test cricket for England. He rescued his team from a precarious 168 for 5 to 418 all out, to give them a realistic chance of victory but for a resolute unbeaten 142 from Les Ames that helped the MCC save face. His performance prompted the selectors to pick him for the 4th and final Test of the series against England to be played in front of his home crowd in Kingston, Jamaica. As far as debuts go, one couldn’t have had a more gruelling one as he would have to watch the English batsmen pile on one milestone after another and chase the ball around for the best part of three days. In that time, England had racked up a gargantuan 849 with Andy Sandham scoring a then Test record 325 in his final Test, which would only months later be eclipsed by Don Bradman’s 334. West Indies struggled to a pitiful 286 in response, with Passailaigue having to curb his usual aggressive style of play to bat time, scoring 44 off 133 balls in his first Test innings. He wouldn’t have much to do for the remainder of the match, which was drawn almost single-handedly by the efforts of his friend George Headley who scored 223 off 385 balls in the second innings, where Passilaigue finished unbeaten on 2 when both players and umpires decided they’d finally had enough after 9 days of Test cricket!

Despite acquitting himself rather well given the circumstances, Passailaigue was strangely overlooked for West Indies’ maiden tour of Australia in 1930/31. They would go on to lose all but the final match of a 5-Test series which Australia would win quite comfortably by a 4-1 margin. West Indies found themselves badly exposed on the batting front during the series, and their over-dependence on Headley didn’t help with the latter scoring a mediocre 336 runs at 37.33 with just 2 centuries, his worst average in a Test series in the 1930s. Needless to say, they badly missed someone of Passailaigue’s skill to complement Headley’s genius, especially when it came to facing spin as Clarrie Grimmett and Bert Ironmonger ran riot with 33 wickets at 17.96 and 22 wickets at 14.68 respectively during the Test series. With no teams touring the Caribbean that season, he would have to wait until 1931/32 to play his next dose of first-class cricket and stake his claim for a Test recall.

Come 1931/32, as if out to prove how wrong the selectors were to give him the cold shoulder, he scored an awe-inspiring 261* in just his third ever first-class match for Jamaica against Lord Tennyson’s XI, which had a pretty decent bowling attack in the form of the Test-capped trio of Stan Nichols, George Geary and Ewart Astill, but who ultimately proved no match for Passailaigue and Headley at their absolute best. The two friends put on a massive unbeaten 487-run stand for the 6th wicket which remains a first-class record to this day, Headley finishing unbeaten on 344 to take Jamaica to a mammoth 702 for 5. Neither man looked like getting out at any point, and there’s no telling how much they could have scored if not for skipper Karl Nunes’ act of mercy on the tourists who were hammered by an innings and 97 runs. Passailaigue was less successful in the two other matches he played, but still finished the season with an average of 76.75; his first-class career stats at this point reading 536 runs at an average of 89.33 with 2 centuries from 5 matches.

But that much awaited comeback to the West Indian lineup would never happen, with him again being ignored for the West Indies’ next Test assignment in England in 1933, where they were beaten 2-0 from 3 Tests by Douglas Jardine’s Englishmen, with Headley again having to carry the entire batting lineup on his shoulders scoring 277 runs at 55.40 whereas nobody else who played a minimum of 2 Tests could average even 25 with the bat. As a result of no teams touring during this time, Passailaigue would not play another first-class match until 1934/35 by which time he was already aged 34, and perhaps considered too old for a recall. Despite an impressive 82 against a touring Yorkshire lineup containing Hedley Verity and Bill Bowes among others in 1935/36, and 65 against Trinidad in one final big stand of 133 with his pal Headley in 1938/39, he wasn’t the same batsman of yesteryears recording just 252 runs at 28.00 during the final half of his career. His final act as a first-class cricketer saw him finish with a maiden first-class wicket in his final match, though he did little of note with the bat scoring just 1.

Overall, Passailaigue played only 12 matches scoring 788 runs at an average of 52.53 with 2 centuries alongside 2 fifties, and a highest score of 261* in a first-class career spread nearly over a decade from 1929/30 to 1938/39. Seeing those figures, one couldn’t help but wonder how different things could have been not only for him but for the West Indies team in general had they not cast him aside after just 1 match. Perhaps there could have been another addition, that of Headley-Passailaigue to the list of all-time great batting partnerships produced by West Indies cricket over the years in Worrell-Weekes-Walcott, Stollmeyer-Rae, Butcher-Nurse, Kanhai-Sobers, Greenidge-Haynes, Richards-Lloyd, Lara-Chanderpaul etc. A great shame it wasn’t to be.

VC’s XI

1) Leslie Wight
2) Ken Meuleman
3)
4) Colin Munro
5) Charles Passailaigue
6)
7) Andre Russell
8)
9)
10) Fred Tate
11) Ladha Ramji

 

[Yash.]

My pick would be Alec Coxon.

@Na Maloom Afraad

 

[Na Maloom Afraad]

NMA's ONE-TEST WONDERS XI

Wally Hardinge
Ajay Sharma
"Bal" Dani
John Stephenson
Shute Banerjee
"Hopper" Read
Hardus Viljoen

Bal Dani. Because, why not.

Only Test: 1 wicket for 19 runs in 1 inning; did not bat
First-class stats: 200 wickets at an average of 21.90, four 5-wicket hauls; 6476 runs at an average of 44.35, seventeen 100s and thirty-four 50s in 116 games

"Few Indian cricketers have had a better all round record in domestic cricket than 'Bal' Dani. At the end of a career that spanned more than two decades, Dani finished with figures of 6459 runs (44.54), including 17 centuries and 198 wickets (21.97)."

"In the Ranji Trophy he was simply superb with a tally of 4757 runs (48.05) with 15 hundreds and 145 wickets (19.10) from 78 matches. A sound right hand middle order batsman and a right arm medium pace bowler who could also bowl off and leg breaks."

"Dani was a tower of strength to the Services team in the national competition for several years with his all round skills, besides being a shrewd captain."

"Unfortunately Dani's multitalented skills were not rewarded suitably when it came to selection to the Indian team. He played only one Test, took one wicket (that of Nazar Mohammed for a duck), latched on to a brilliant catch to dismiss Kardar but did not get to bat. He toured Pakistan in 1954-55 without playing a Test. Later he became a member of the National selection committee."

You're up @El Loco

 

[Yash.]

1. ?
2. ?
3. ?
4. Robin Singh
   
5. Azmat Rana
   
6. Vijay Yadav
   
7. George Pope
   
8. Charlie Parker
   
9. R. Vinay Kumar
10. Alec Coxon
    
11. ?

Alec Coxon was one of the players who was picked up by Yorkshire, on the basis of his performance in the Bradford League. Coxon bowled fast medium right-arm, with expert use of the seam, emerging from Dalton in the Huddersfield League to serve Brighouse and Saltaire in the Bradford League where his annual haul of wickets first attracted Yorkshire's attention. He opened the county bowling with Bill Bowes, Bob Appleyard and the young Fred Trueman and a 6-17 against Surrey at Sheffield in 1948 caused him to be called up by England, in their perennial search for a partner for Alec Bedser, to play against Australia at Lord's.

However, his debut against Australia, went horrific, because (as he claims) of an umpiring error. Coxon claimed that he had Don Bradman lbw first ball for nought with a fast inswinger that hit the back pad, but the umpire disagreed. His match figures of 63 overs returned 3-172. He never played for England again, but continued to play for Yorkshire and Durham. In his first-class career, he took 473 wickets at an average of 20.91.

 

[El Loco]

Dependable Queenslander Len Johnson took very respectable figures of 3/66 and 3/88 in his only ever outing for Australia along with a score of 25 not out and was instrumental to his team's charge to victory on the fifth day against a touring India side in 1948.
Again, regrettably as for many cricketers in this draft, politics intervened and as a result of the influence of Don Bradman, Sam Loxton was called up in his place and he never saw the international spotlight again.

1.
2. Andy Ganteaume
3.
4. Vic Stollmeyer
5.
6. Frank Penn
7.
8. Len Johnson
9. Arnold Warren
10. Douglas Carr
11. Charles Marriott

@Yash.

 

[Yash.]

My pick would be one of the few people who played one test, but got 2 caps



A left-handed opening batsman, Ken Eastwood played first-class cricket for Victoria from 1959-60 to 1971-72. In 1969-70, when Victoria won the Sheffield Shield, he was their leading batsman, with 584 runs at an average of 41.71.

In his whole career, he made 2722 runs at an average of 41.9 with 9 centuries. He’ll give my team a perfect start.[DOUBLEPOST=1588494674][/DOUBLEPOST]@CerealKiller

1. Ken Eastwood
2. ?
3. ?
4. Robin Singh
   
5. Azmat Rana
   
6. Vijay Yadav
   
7. George Pope
   
8. Charlie Parker
   
9. R. Vinay Kumar
10. Alec Coxon
    
11. ?

 

[ahmedleo414]

It's been more than 24 hours for @CerealKiller .. @El Loco I believe you are next

 

[El Loco]

As a Western Australian from Perth in an era where his state only played half as many first class games as the rest of the teams in the Sheffield Shield, John Rutherford had to work twice as hard to be noticed by the ACB selectors. When he finally got his opportunity against all odds, he became the first ever Western Australian to receive a test cap while playing in his home state (Ernie Bromley was called up only after he had moved to Victoria to improve his international prospects).
He put on a half-century stand with Jimmy Burke and in the next innings he was surprisingly handed the ball:
"We ran up against this fellow who we couldn't get out, Vijay Manjrekar. They pulled me up from fine leg and said, 'Have a go.' I rolled a couple of balls down and clean-bowled him. It comes to the end of the over and they said, 'Back you go to fine leg.'"
His test career subsequently ended with a rather tidy bowling average of 15.00.


1. John Rutherford
2. Andy Ganteaume
3.
4. Vic Stollmeyer
5.
6. Frank Penn
7.
8. Len Johnson
9. Arnold Warren
10. Douglas Carr
11. Charles Marriott

It occurred to me that it would've probably made more sense to promote Stollmeyer to open with fellow Trinidadian Ganteaume as they actually did form an opening partnership together in First Class cricket, but I felt like Rutherford's story just had to be included.

@ahmedleo414

 

[ahmedleo414]

My next pick is Fred Grace

Stats|Matches|Runs|HS| Ave|100s/50s|Wkts|BBI|BBM| Ave|Econ|5w/10w
First-Class |195|6,906|189*|25.02|8/32|329|8/43|?|20.06|2.24|17/5
Test |1|0|0|0.00|0/0|-|-|-|-|-|-

His bio from cricinfo:

"The youngest of the Grace brothers to play Tests, Fred Grace never had the chance to realise his potential. A more attractive bat than his two illustrious brothers, he liked to hit, but lacked the concentration and resolve that allowed EM and above all WG to build big innings. He was an effective bowler and a fine deep field. He was a tall man, favouring mutton chop whiskers rather than the full beard of WG. He toured Australia with WG's team in 1873 with some success. The three brothers played together in the first Test played against Australia in England - Fred got a pair, but took a memorable catch on the boundary to dismiss Bonnor (the batsmen had turned for their third run before the ball descended into his hands). Two weeks later he was dead of pneumonia at the age of 30, contracted when he slept on a damp mattress. He was training to be a doctor at the time of his death"

My Team so far:


1. Rodney Redmond
2. Andy Lloyd
3. Naveed Nawaz
4. Buddy Oldfield
5.
6. Fred Grace
7. Zulqarnain Haider
8. Charles Aubrey Smith
9.
10. Mick Malone
11.

@Aislabie you have the next pick

 

[CerealKiller]

I'll go with South African quick Tertius Bosch, whose only Test was also South Africa’s first after their return to international cricket. He ranked alongside Allan Donald as the quickest South African bowler of his era.
He picked up 210 wickets in 68 FC matches at an average of 27.

CerealKiller's XI
1. Mark Benson
2.
3.
4.
5. Stuart Law
6. Naman Ojha
7. James Faulkner
8. Rangy Nanan
9. Jack Durston
10. Tertius Bosch
11. Gobo Ashley

 

[ahmedleo414]

@Aislabie missed his 24 hour deadline, @Na Maloom Afraad is next

 

[Na Maloom Afraad]

Jeff Moss. Writeup later.

 

[ahmedleo414]

tagging @VC the slogger he has the next two picks

 

[VC the slogger]

Rockley Wilson and Niall O’Brien shall be my picks. Writeups later, its 2 AM here[DOUBLEPOST=1588711102][/DOUBLEPOST]Back to @Na Maloom Afraad