Draft: Test Cricket Scrubs XI Draft
- Thread starter Aislabie
- Start date
ahmedleo414
The Butcher
So my pick will be James Foster
From cricinfo:
"James Foster was earmarked early on as an England wicketkeeper in the making, and though opportunities at the top were intermittent, he has earned a reputation as one of the best glovemen in the English game. In the latter part of his career, Foster also combined keeping and captaincy with being one of the mainstays of the Essex batting. A reward for his longevity came late: he was 37 when he won a championship-winning medal as part of Essex's 2017 side. Earlier in the season, he had been omitted, but responded with spirit, regained his place and was duly rewarded. A year later, he was told that it was time to move on and retired with some reluctance. He joked that his first job was to act as Alastair Cook's bodyguard as he travelled on the tube to his farewell Test at The Oval.
Foster's career began in meteoric fashion. After just four first-class matches for Essex he was selected for the England A tour of West Indies in 2000-01. At this point he was still sharing the English season between his studies at Durham University and playing for Essex, but once he committed full-time to cricket he was being talked of as a successor to Alec Stewart. His chance came on the 2001-02 one-day tour of Zimbabwe, where he made his debut at Harare, before earning a spot on the trip to India after Stewart opted out. He made a nervous start at Mohali, but became more assured during the tour and impressed with some determined innings."
man my team is getting very England heavy
@Dale88 you are next
| Stats | Matches | Runs | HS | Batting Ave | 100s/50s | Catches/Stumps |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| First Class | 289 | 13,761 | 212 | 36.69 | 23/70 | 839/62 |
| Test | 7 | 226 | 48 | 25.11 | 0/0 | 17/1 |
From cricinfo:
"James Foster was earmarked early on as an England wicketkeeper in the making, and though opportunities at the top were intermittent, he has earned a reputation as one of the best glovemen in the English game. In the latter part of his career, Foster also combined keeping and captaincy with being one of the mainstays of the Essex batting. A reward for his longevity came late: he was 37 when he won a championship-winning medal as part of Essex's 2017 side. Earlier in the season, he had been omitted, but responded with spirit, regained his place and was duly rewarded. A year later, he was told that it was time to move on and retired with some reluctance. He joked that his first job was to act as Alastair Cook's bodyguard as he travelled on the tube to his farewell Test at The Oval.
Foster's career began in meteoric fashion. After just four first-class matches for Essex he was selected for the England A tour of West Indies in 2000-01. At this point he was still sharing the English season between his studies at Durham University and playing for Essex, but once he committed full-time to cricket he was being talked of as a successor to Alec Stewart. His chance came on the 2001-02 one-day tour of Zimbabwe, where he made his debut at Harare, before earning a spot on the trip to India after Stewart opted out. He made a nervous start at Mohali, but became more assured during the tour and impressed with some determined innings."
- ?
- ?
- ?
Azmat Rana- Charles Passailaigue
- ?
- Nigel Haig
- James Foster
- Sam Staples
- Kabir Khan
- Les Jackson
man my team is getting very England heavy
@Dale88 you are next
Aislabie
Test Cricket is Best Cricket
Ah poo - that's the first player I had in my ideal XI that's been picked up before I could get to them. I was going to pick him up either in this round or the next
qpeedore
SOTM Winner - July 2014
Was gonna be my keeper too. I know what you said about Pandit, but I still feel rather dirty about using a pick as a keeper when he only kept in 2 games out of 5. Damn, damn, damn. That's two picks down the drain, and I already had writeups on them too.
Gotta scrub the scrubs list once again. I have guys in mind, but I'm not due for a bit...I can hope, at least.
Gotta scrub the scrubs list once again. I have guys in mind, but I'm not due for a bit...I can hope, at least.
blockerdave
ICC Chairman
I really liked Foster but he’s entirely associated in my mind with not appealing when catching out Steve Waugh
Aislabie
Test Cricket is Best Cricket
Basically a war crime.
I still think it should have been him they called up for what we might term "the Geraint Jones era". Foster had really figured his batting out by then
Ed Smith
Gaffer
Aislabie
Test Cricket is Best Cricket
Pat TrimbornTest stats: 11 wickets @ 23.36 (best 3/12) in 4 matches
First-class stats: 314 wickets @ 22.61 (12 5WI, best 6/36) in 94 matches
Pat Trimborn is someone who missed out on a proper international career as a result of South Africa's Apartheid isolation and like... yeah, fair enough. The other thing that robbed Pat Trimborn of more impact in Test cricket was that he got picked the fifth part of an absolutely stonking six-man pace attack alongside Mike Procter, Peter Pollock, Trevor Goddard, Eddie Barlow and Tiger Lance (one of the coolest names in cricket history). With teammates like those before you even look at the spinners (seriously guys, I recommend Grahame Chevalier and Jackie du Preez for this draft) it's hardly Trimborn's fault he didn't manage to scrape together a four-for. Trimborn could also bat a bit, and once flayed a List A century in ridiculous time against Griqualand West. Couldn't risk him with @blockerdave having a double pick coming up...
@Aislabie's XI so far:
1.
2.
Ken Meuleman3.
4.
Usman Salahuddin5.
6.
Simon O'Donnell7.
8.
Pat Trimborn9.
Pat Crawford10.
Dick Tyldesley11.
Gordon Rorke(27 of 50 caps)
@qpeedore
Aislabie
Test Cricket is Best Cricket
Also worth noting that Guy de Alwis is the proud owner of the rare distinction of not even being the best cricketer in his own marriage, which is impressive.7.
Ed Smith
Gaffer
Makes him an even better pick
qpeedore
SOTM Winner - July 2014
It's not a big secret that certain members immediately snap up certain players in Drafts, within the particular rules of those Drafts, of course. I'm not exactly impartial myself. If there's a Draft where Mark Boucher is available, I'll probably pick him in my squad. And I'll always remind everyone that he has 1000 international dismissals to his name. But he's not eligible for this one, unfortunately.
His career-ending eye injury brought to light a whole lot of safety issues regarding wicketkeepers standing up to the stumps, and his loss for the South African team created a massive gap that needed to be filled. Quinton de Kock eventually proved himself a worthy replacement, after some experiments with AB de Villiers. But there was once another, perhaps second to de Kock, but a good player still.
Dane Vilas was another South African experiment, but couldn't quite live up to the reputation that his relentless predecessor had, and the selectors figured that it would have been better to play AB behind the stumps in a few more matches while they awaited Boucher's eventual replacement. He ended up going the Kolpak route to play for Lancashire, and very quickly showed that he doesn't just wear the keeper's gloves, he can wield a bat just as effectively. Brexit and the status of Kolpak players is sort of up in the air right now, I dunno where the final stage of his career will take him, but it's going to be a great First Class career no matter what.
6 Tests, average 10.44, best 26 - 13 catches across 12 innings
161 FC, average 42.02, 21 centuries, 42 fifties, best 266 - 434 catches, 20 stumpings across (I assume) 322 innings
1.
2. Shafiq Ahmed (Facilitating opener)
3.
4.
5. Chandu Sarwate (Jack of all trades, second spinner, offie and leggie, mostly leggie)
6. Chandrakant Pandit (Middle order anchor)
7. Dane Vilas (Second new ball specialist batsman)
8.
9. Chris Drum (Second seamer, short spells)
10. Shaun Tait (First seamer, short spells)
11. Tabraiz Shamsi (Strike spinner, chinaman spin)
36/50 caps currently
@blockerdave for a double.
His career-ending eye injury brought to light a whole lot of safety issues regarding wicketkeepers standing up to the stumps, and his loss for the South African team created a massive gap that needed to be filled. Quinton de Kock eventually proved himself a worthy replacement, after some experiments with AB de Villiers. But there was once another, perhaps second to de Kock, but a good player still.
Dane Vilas was another South African experiment, but couldn't quite live up to the reputation that his relentless predecessor had, and the selectors figured that it would have been better to play AB behind the stumps in a few more matches while they awaited Boucher's eventual replacement. He ended up going the Kolpak route to play for Lancashire, and very quickly showed that he doesn't just wear the keeper's gloves, he can wield a bat just as effectively. Brexit and the status of Kolpak players is sort of up in the air right now, I dunno where the final stage of his career will take him, but it's going to be a great First Class career no matter what.
6 Tests, average 10.44, best 26 - 13 catches across 12 innings
161 FC, average 42.02, 21 centuries, 42 fifties, best 266 - 434 catches, 20 stumpings across (I assume) 322 innings
1.
2. Shafiq Ahmed
(Facilitating opener)3.
4.
5. Chandu Sarwate
(Jack of all trades, second spinner, offie and leggie, mostly leggie)6. Chandrakant Pandit
(Middle order anchor)7. Dane Vilas
(Second new ball specialist batsman)8.
9. Chris Drum
(Second seamer, short spells)10. Shaun Tait
(First seamer, short spells)11. Tabraiz Shamsi
(Strike spinner, chinaman spin)36/50 caps currently
@blockerdave for a double.
Last edited:
Aislabie
Test Cricket is Best Cricket
Was my backup keeper, but no worries - there are a few out there
blockerdave
ICC Chairman
Well as Grahame Chevalier was already on my list and @Aislabie has already flagged him up, I'd better snag him now. An excellent spinner, who might have played more but for the apartheid issue. A defo number 11 averaging under 5 with the bat, but having a first class bowling average of 23.72 is very impressive for a spinner in the Currie Cup in a very powerful era.
