Cricinfo All Time World XI
The Cricinfo all time world 11 is now out. Unsurprisingly there are a few differences (though I was expecting more). Hutton ahead of Greenidge is on pure style terms pretty straightforward. Similarly Wasim would make a great replacement for Freddie Trueman.
I personally don’t subscribe to the view that an all-rounder is needed in a world XI – if you are going to pick one then there is indeed only one choice. This point is perhaps best expressed by Rob Steen here. Talking about Gilchrist he suggests that picking him is overly cautious given the batting talent available. I’d suggest the same argument applies to Gary Sobers.
One decision, though, sticks out as strategically unsound. With a top six as superlative as this on tap, nominating Gilchrist seems excessively cautious. Those to whom glovemanship is first, last and everything – i.e. the bowlers – would surely have preferred Alan Knott or Ian Healy
I can see why one would say that an all rounder and a keeper who can bat is not needed since you have the best eleven players the world has ever seen. However cricket is a funny game, even such a great team on paper does not mean it will win every game it plays. And also since test cricket is basically a bowlers game as you have to take twenty wickets quickly to be able to win, having six great batsmen and two pretty good ones instead of just six specialists batsmen can increase the win/loss ratio even further.
Saad
25 Oct 10 at 11:01 pm
And as far as the all rounders are concerned there aren’t that many great all-rounders to go around (Imran, Botham & Kapil Dev in the last few decades) and hence a typical test team usually just has one. If there is an opportunity to pick two great all-rounders over the pair of a great batsman and bowler, I would personally go with Imran and Botham or just Imran since sobers is already in that category. Imran the decade after his injury averaged 50+ with the bat and under 19 with the bowl (irrespective of the fact that his overall test avg. is better than lille and akram), so in my view having Imran in the team would make the team stronger as it would have a genuine pace bowler and a handy batsman who would give you 40+ runs every inning.
Saad
25 Oct 10 at 11:11 pm