Cricinfo, after picking all-time XI's for individual nations over the past few months is now heading for the crescendo....the All-Time-XI....kings of kings, players of players and champions of champions.
Getting down to work straight away, here is an all-time XI which I would pick if Earth were to play a match against a bunch of aliens.
Sunil Gavaskar and Len Hutton to open --> Can't think of a more solid, immaculate and accomplished pair to walk out to a blank scoreboard. Gods of technical purity. Fearless and dependable as a tank. If putting down the highest value for your wicket was an art, these two were the Da Vinci and the Van Gogh of it. Sunil Gavaskar was my very first God of cricket. Hutton's choice is through a blend of testimonials by respected cricketrs and my own statistical insight.
Vivian Richards, Don Bradman and Sachin Tendulkar in the middle order --> The untamed, the unassailable and the indisputable. The Brahma-Vishnu-Mahesh of cricket, not necessarily in that order though. All three are already beyond adjectives as individual players...even more so as a trio. Shut up, watch them play, and see if you can understand the ultimate truth of life.
Brian Lara, Garry Sobers and Adam Gilchrist in the lower middle order --> 3 southpaws, 3 musketeers. Perhaps the most aggressive lower middle order that one could compose.
You'd somehow manage to uproot the stubborn Gavaskar and Hutton, you'd go through a massively grueling ordeal of taking Richards, Bradman and Tendulkar out, and yet, you would not even be close to done with these three still left to do their business ! And business they did with a flaming sword for a bat. The two West Indians were known for scoring quick and huge against anyone and everyone. The frenetic Australian scored Test runs at a freewheeling rate that no other human has (bar Virender Sehwag). Charismatic presence, lightening quick bat speed, ever ready for a blitz, these are the big bombers in the artillery. Forget aliens, if even God decided to bowl he would be wary of these three killers lined up one after the other.
Malcolm Marshall, Richard Hadlee and Shane Warne as specialist bowlers --> None of them requires a justification. Marshall came out as Wisden's single best fast bowler of all time, all eras, all parameters and all equations considered. Hadlee a close second. Warne has no equal among spinners who pitch on the leg stump. If these three can't take 9 wickets between themselves, then nobody can. The 10th wicket of the innings will go to Garry Sobers whose nippy swing bowling can compliment Hadlee's accuracy as equally and easily as his tricky chinamen would to Warne's wrist magic.
That's that for an all-time XI if Earth were to play Mars. The captain would be Garry Sobers with Sunil Gavaskar as deputy. Of these 11, only Hutton, Bradman and Sobers are visual unknowns to me. I have had the fortune of having seen the careers of all the rest - either partially or wholly.
*********************************
Considering Cricket is a grand old man of 125 or more, and that this old man has produced an uncountable number of greats over its lifetime, I feel that picking up a one sided roster of 11 great players from all the rest is a bit unfair and illogical too.
To me, an all-time-XI should be compiled and complimented by a counter all-time XI, to make sense of it. A Dodge Viper makes no sense if there ain't a Corvette or Shelby Cobra to compare and run it against. For every Lamborghini there is a Maserati or a Ferrari that helps us put the Lamborghini in perspective. Similarly, in my world, if there is an all-time team, then there has to be a counter all-time team to make sense of the first. Otherwise it just doesn't make any worldly sense to have all the power of Bradman-Tendulkar-Lara-Gavaskar etc. under one hood and nobody to pit it against.
Tendulkar is Tendulkar because of the way he handled McGrath and Warne in his career....if Tendulkar, Warne and McGrath were to share lockers on the same side of the dressing room, wouldn't it throw the very reason why Tendulkar is Tendulkar right out of the window ? Who'd want to watch Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal play as doubles partners....unless, say, you had Andre Agassi and Pete Sampras at the other end of the court ? (My sense of logic may be wobbling more than Mohammad Asif's outswinger on a cloudy English day :)).
So we got a Viper. Now to build a Corvette that can run against the Viper. A counter all-time XI that I'd love to watch take on the one above.
Here goes the Rebel all-time XI:
Virender Sehwag and Gordon Greenidge as openers of my rebel all-time XI. This won't be a cautiously controlled and reserved opening for sure...the team would race to 200 for no loss by lunch or just be 2 down for 20 in no time. But that's a chance to take if one were to take on the awesome original all-time XI above. Attack is the best defense, agreed. But if your attackers simply don't know how to defend at all, then this will be a one way war if they get going.
Walter Hammond, Jacques Kallis and Greg Chappell in the upper middle order which will be a perfect mix of sensibility, caution and aggression. Wisden calls Hammond one of the four best batsmen in the history of cricket, period. His obsession to become as successful as his arch rival Bradman was not without a base...if we wipe out Bradman for a moment, then Hammond was indeed the next best to Bradman during his career. Greg Chappell was the calm mercenary who went about dismantling the best bowling attacks with a rather cool stand-tall-and-deliver attitude without breaking a drop of a sweat. Kallis is one of the the game's most prolific batsmen, famed for his resistance, sensibility, technique and accumulation without being starry or hungry for credit. Additionally his statistical qualification as one of the three best all-rounders of all time is all the more reason to include him in the middle order alongside the cool dude Chappell or the effortless Hammond. This will be a strong top-middle order to overcome.
Note: There is absolutely nothing that separates Rahul Dravid from Kallis. But based on Kallis' all-round skills, he gets chosen ahead of Dravid. If designated 4th bowler - Imran Khan were to sprain his back (as he was always prone to), the team needs a workhorse bowler of good skill to fill in. It is an added bonus that Kallis the fill in bowler is also one of the 5 best batsmen of the new millennium.
Graeme Pollock, Kumar Sangakkara and Imran Khan in the lower middle order. Graeme Pollock was certified by Sir Bradman - and we won't dare disagree - as the finest left handed batsmen that the Don had ever seen. Kumar Sangakkara and Imran can claim to have some of the finest cricketing brains there would be. In addition to brains, their adundant cricketing skills would help them take charge of the situation as required - play fast, they can, play slow, they can, take charge, they can, think, they can, assume leadership, they can. While Imran Khan would be a straight choice for captain, Sangakkara would be vice captain to this team without hesitation.
Straight one on one with the original all-time XI, is Graeme Pollock v/s Brian Lara as batsmen, Imran Khan v/s Garry Sobers as allrounders and Kumar Sangakkara v/s Adam Gilchrist as wicketkeeping allrounders a feasible match up ? Yes it is.
Glenn McGrath, Wasim Akram and Murulidharan as specialist bowlers. Nothing pacy or glamorous about this collection, but a perfect blend of discipline, spitting vile, shrewdness and patience. I can visualize without stretching much a Murali set Sobers up for 5 patient overs with the usual huge turners before making him play the suicide shot on his surprise wrong one. The ball leaving Wasim Akram's hands had to be dealt with on 3 different criteria, unlike 2 from most others. An Akram special wobbled in and out of the line in the air before pitching, dipped shorter or pushed longer on length as it pitched, and whipped in or out after pitching like an enraged rattlesnake. Swing-dip-and-whip in one...pure magic. Ask the many dumbfounded batsmen who fell for it. I can just see Bradman and Tendulkar summon their last ounce of concentration in order to counter Akram. The master of discipline that Glenn McGrath was, he would have been the ideal candidate to get under the skin of batsmen who didn't care much about getting disciplined...Sir Viv Richards, anyone ? Additionally, the fantastic Imran Khan would provide the 4th gun in the bowling attack. Who wouldn't love to watch a re-run of the old foes Imran Khan v/s Sunil Gavaskar ?
That's that for the Corvette.
It has been a long time since I wrote a ponderous note on the blog. Today my fingers feel better.
Wednesday, September 29, 2010
Monday, September 6, 2010
Wisden re-asserts the rantings of the sleeping Ninja
Cricinfo posted a documentary on Don Bradman today.
A well compiled documentary on one of the greatest sportsman of all time, across all sports.
Some snippets:
"Comparing the overall batting numbers during his time with the corresponding number today: in the 20 years in which Bradman played his Test cricket, the overall batting average was 31.85; in the 21 years since Sachin Tendulkar's Test debut, the overall batting average in 845 Tests is 31.07. Restricting this only to top-order batsmen (batsmen in the top six of a line-up) also throws up similar numbers - 39.99 during Bradman's time (1928 to 1948), and 38.40 during Tendulkar's (November 1989 onwards)."
Speaking of the total percentage of aggregate in century scores:
"His percentage of 77.09 is also way higher than the other batting greats. Tendulkar's 48 hundreds have contributed 6964 out of 13,837 runs (50.33%), while the percentage for Ricky Ponting is 46.85, for Brian Lara 49.27, and 47.44 for Sunil Gavaskar."
Speaking of individual share in a team sport :
"In the 52 Tests he played, Bradman scored more than 25% of his team's runs (6996 out of 27,624 bat runs), more than 41% of the hundreds (29 out of 70) and averaged more than three times the combined average of the other batsmen. It can safely be said there won't be another like him again."
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)