Draft: The Quotea Draft

[Bevab]

Damn it, was just now dreaming of how good an opening duo of Omar and Gibbs would be.

 

[blockerdave]

View attachment 240474

Yacoob Omar

First-class stats: 3,742 runs @ 34.33 (8 centuries, best 174*) and 101 wickets @ 19.81 (2 5WI, best 5/34) in 67 matches

After Vincent Barnes, it made sense to pick the player who Barnes himself rated as easily the best he ever bowled at. The thing to remember here is that the Howa Bowl was hell for batsmen. Omar was to non-white cricket what Graeme Pollock and Barry Richards were to whites-only cricket: several standard deviations above and beyond his competition. Across the entire history of the Bowl, no batsman scored more runs than Omar's 3,377 (the next-best, Khaya Majola, scored 17% fewer runs in 50% more matches); no batsman scored more than his eight centuries (indeed it takes the next best three put together to exceed him) and only one other batsman sustained an average of over 30 from more than 20 matches. Omar was so good that on sheer weight of runs, he was able to force his way into the whites-only Natal team during the height of Apartheid. His very best seasons came in 1977-78 and '78-79. Across both seasons, batting conditions were so poor that only three batmen managed to score centuries across all 24 matches. Their names were Yacoob Omar, Yacoob Omar and Yacoob Omar.

1. Yacoob Omar
2.
3. Jacques Kallis
4.
5.
6.
7. Mike Procter
8.
9.
10. Vincent Barnes
11.

@qpeedore

Was next on my list but was expecting to lose him to you

 

[Aislabie]

It's quite funny how I'm getting a bit of a reputation for picking certain players ranging from reasonably well-known to almost entirely obscure. I'd say that at this point I have a bit of a reputation for picking up Mike Procter, the Pandya brothers, Frank Tarrant, Bill Alley, Yacoob Omar, Bob Appleyard and Hedley Verity, if not more.

@blockerdave is certainly similar though for guys like Jimmy Cook, Mike Procter (when I don't get him), Jack Russell, Derek Underwood, probably Alec Stewart and definitely not Ian Bell.

I'm sure other people have their go-to picks, but I don't know if they're as pronounced

 

[Yash.]

I'd say @CerealKiller with Zaheer Abbas and Greame Pollock.

I'm sure other people have their go-to picks, but I don't know if they're as pronounced

 

[qpeedore]

Hmm. Why Mark Boucher hasn't been picked yet totally boggles my mind. One of the best keepers ever, and a gutsy, aggressive batsman. Not elegant by any means, but 1000 international dismissals to his name (953 catches, 46 stumpings, and one bowling wicket)...well, that's just perfect. Is his batting average a bit on the lower side? Yes, at just 30 it's not the greatest, but he came up big when needed and SA could rely on him when they were in a spot of bother.

1.
2. Graeme Smith (c) for now
3.
4.
5.
6. Mark Boucher (wk)
7.
8.
9. Allan Donald
10. Kagiso Rabada
11.

@Dale88

(EDIT: Only changed his batting position from 7th to 6th, he did better at 6)

 

[Ed Smith]

2. Loots Bosman
4. Graeme Pollock
10. Paul Adams
11. Makhaya Ntini

For no other reason than his name is Loots, wasn't even very good.

@blockerdave

 

[qpeedore]

I saw Loots play a couple List A warmup matches live. The guy was better than his average says. He was good, should have played Tests.

Being from the Caribbean, we liked him not for his first name of Loots, but his last name of "Boss Man".

 

[blockerdave]

As @Aislabie already predicted, i always pick Jimmy Cook and quotas be damned, the opportunity to pair Cook and Richards at the top of the order is too good an option to not pick up.

hopefully neither of my planned next quota picks are taken, as I have another go quite soon.

@Yash. is next.

1. Jimmy Cook
2. Barry Richards
3. Frank Roro
4. Basil D’oliveira

my first 4 picks make a very tasty top 4!!

 

[Yash.]

Gary Kirsten for me.
@ahmedleo414

 

[ahmedleo414]

My next pick has to be one of my favourite players to watch Imran Tahir

1. ?
2. ?
3. ?
4. ?
5. Ashwell Prince
6. Andy Flower
7. ?
8. Shaun Pollock
9. ?
10. Dale Steyn
11. Imran Tahir

@Yash. you have the next pick

 

[Yash.]

Neil Adcock

@blockerdave

 

[blockerdave]

Even before Apartheid, racial discrimination in South Africa meant that being not white meant being excluded from top class cricket and being more or less invisible.

So little is known about KROM HENDRICKS that you can't even reliably say what his real name is. Cricinfo, in a pretty heartbreaking page, has him as "Armien". Wikipedia will tell you he was William Henry.

What they both agree on is that he was seriously fast, seriously good, and - to the detriment of his career - not white (Dutch Father, St Helenian mother).

This meant, despite being described as "the Spofforth of South Africa" by England/MCC captain Walter Read, Hendricks never played an official first class game.

Even so, both Transvaal and Western Province wanted him selected in the Springbok Tour to England in 1894, and Transvaal again supported his inclusion for the 2nd Test when England/MCC toured South Africa in 1896.

Of course "opposition" stopped him from being included either time, and then he more or less disappears. We don't know when he was born, when he died, or anything about his personal life. We only know his (nick)name, his 4/50 vs England for the "Malay" side in 1892 (where Malay in the parlance of time meant Muslim, even though he wasn't), and the controversies of his selection/non-selection.

But the fact that we even know that much suggests he really was bloody good, and bloody fast.

Hendricks adds to my quota, but also gives me a lethal new ball bowler.

1. Barry Richards
2. Jimmy Cook
3. Frank Roro
4. Basil D'oliveira
5. -
6. -
7. -
8. -
9. KROM HENDRICKS
10. -
11. -

@Dale88

 

[Ed Smith]

Well, because he's Jonathan Trott really. Probably the most solid Test Batsman I've ever seen live

2. Loots Bosman
3. Jonathan Trott
4. Graeme Pollock
10. Paul Adams
11. Makhaya Ntini

@qpeedore

 

[qpeedore]

For my next pick I'll take a player who perhaps didn't play as many international matches as he should have. Only 5 Tests to his name with the terrible average of 49.77 per wicket. But in FC matches he has an average of 26.85. And I'll always remember after Day 1 of a warmup game that I watched, while the rest of the team were playing football (soccer, fitba, footy), he made 10 laps of the entire field and then did some stretching before going inside. That was the day Graeme Smith jokingly asked me for a beer and where we'd be hanging out later that day (he refused the beer with a laugh saying he was kidding even though he probably really wanted it)...we also got royally cussed out by one of the SA coaching staff, dunno who. But he was a bit on the chubby side, so we said he must be eating all the food, he has to be the chef. We called him chef all throughout that football game up until he outright came to us and gave us a tongue-lashing that I wish smartphones were around to record.

Anyways while all of this is going on, Lonwabo Tsotsobe is silently jogging around the ground, never saying a word, never being distracted by anything. One of the groundsmen told me afterward that he said, "I'm not playing no ball. I'm gonna run 10 times around this place and I'm done." Or something along those lines.

1.
2. Graeme Smith (c) for now
3.
4.
5.
6. Mark Boucher (wk)
7.
8.
9. Allan Donald
10. Kagiso Rabada
11. Lonwabo Tsotsobe

 

[qpeedore]

@Aislabie