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Greatest First Class sides of all time

Pratters

Cricket, Lovely Cricket
Which ones and who would make the squads, first XIs?

Surrey, Barbados, Mumbai, New South Wales and which others?

The idea is not to list the all time Surrey XI etc.

The best sides which performed and won domestic championships over a period.

Like Team X (1901-1907) for example.
 
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FaaipDeOiad

Hall of Fame Member
The strongest first class side in my time watching cricket would easily be the New South Wales teams of the 90s. At times, a full strength lineup for New South Wales could have included Mark Taylor, Michael Slater, Mark and Steve Waugh, Michael Bevan and Glenn McGrath, along with various other quality players.
 

C_C

International Captain
i would say the strongest FC side i've watched in my time is the West Indies team ( test teams are FC teams too :p ) of the 80s.

But if we are sticking strictly to FC sides only, i would say NSW as well, though Barbados is the strongest alltime FC team by a handy distance.
 

crickhowell

U19 Vice-Captain
Surrey from late 90s until a couple of years ago was a pretty decent team with playes like Bicknell, Butcher, Thorpe, Stewart, Mushtaq, Salisbury, Ramprakash, Tudor. And Canterbury in the 90's was pretty good. Cairns, Harris, Astle, Fleming, Howell, Wiseman,.
 

Pratters

Cricket, Lovely Cricket
C_C said:
i would say the strongest FC side i've watched in my time is the West Indies team ( test teams are FC teams too :p ) of the 80s.
We know that.

International sides however dont win domestic championships.

Its state sides, count sides.(Not Duleep Trophy or Irani Trophy rest of India teams - saying this to avoid some one saying North Zone from India) :p
 
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Tim

Cricketer Of The Year
Yep Canterbury in the mid to late 90's was a stronghold in NZ FC cricket..not so much recently though.

Fleming, Astle, McMillan, Cairns, Harris, Bond, Allott and there were probably some more Im forgetting.
 

Tom Halsey

International Coach
crickhowell said:
Surrey from late 90s until a couple of years ago was a pretty decent team with playes like Bicknell, Butcher, Thorpe, Stewart, Mushtaq, Salisbury, Ramprakash, Tudor. And Canterbury in the 90's was pretty good. Cairns, Harris, Astle, Fleming, Howell, Wiseman,.
Doesn't really deserve a mention in this thread though IMO.
 

archie mac

International Coach
I would think the Surrey sides of the 50s although there have been a couple of very strong Yorkshire sides 1922-1925 and 1900-1902.

NSW have on occasions fielding near Test strength teams, but percentage wise, when there are only 3 or 4 teams the stats must give you a better chance than when there are 17-18 county teams.

So I think I will give it to the Surrey side from 1952-1958. Seven straight in a 17 team comp great effort.
 

Tom Halsey

International Coach
archie mac said:
I would think the Surrey sides of the 50s although there have been a couple of very strong Yorkshire sides 1922-1925 and 1900-1902.
Yeah, I was gonna say some of the old Yorkshire sides (particularly the ones between the wars) would have to be up there.
 

a massive zebra

International Captain
Yorkshire 1900-1902

John Tunnicliffe
Jack Brown
David Denton
Frank Mitchell
Tom Taylor
George Hirst
Stanley Jackson
Wilfred Rhodes
Schofield Haigh
Lord Hawke
David Hunter+

Yorkshire 1922-25

Herbert Sutcliffe
Percy Holmes
Edgar Oldroyd
Maurice Leyland
Arthur Mitchell
Wilfred Rhodes
Roy Kilner
Emmott Robinson
George Macaulay
Arthur Dolphin+
Abe Waddington
 
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James90

Cricketer Of The Year
NSW (1996)
--------
1. Taylor
2. Slater
3. Waugh S
4. Waugh M
5. Bevan
6. Matthews
7. Emery
8. Stuart
9. Freedman
10. MacGill
11. McGrath


Qld (2001)
--------------
1. Hayden
2. Maher
3. Love
4. Perren
5. Symonds
6. Law
7. Seccombe
8. Bichel
9. Kasprowicz
10. Dale
11. Dawes
 

Beleg

International Regular
United Bank and PIA were the two major powerhouses of Pakistan FC cricket during the 90's in terms of overall player quality.
 

greg

International Debutant
An example of a Surrey team (from 1957)

DGW Fletcher
MJ Stewart
KF Barrington
*PBH May
RCE Pratt
EA Bedser
+AJW McIntyre
GAR Lock
JC Laker
PJ Loader
AV Bedser
 

LongHopCassidy

International Captain
Just for a laugh, let's do the all-time FC XIs for the major teams.

New South Wales

1. AR Morris
2. S Barnes
3. ME Waugh
4. MG Bevan
5. SR Waugh
6. R Benaud*
7. AK Davidson
8. WAS Oldfield+
9. RR Lindwall
10. WJ O'Reilly
11. GD McGrath

(No Bradman - he played for South Australia as well)
 
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vic_orthdox

Global Moderator
LongHopCassidy said:
Just for a laugh, let's do the all-time FC XIs for the major teams.

New South Wales

1. AR Morris
2. S Barnes
3. ME Waugh
4. MG Bevan
5. SR Waugh
6. KR Miller
7. WAS Oldfield+
8. RR Lindwall
9. R Benaud*
10. WJ O'Reilly
11. GD McGrath

(No Bradman - he played for South Australia as well)
So why did you claim Keith Miller?

Thieves!
 

Zinzan

Request Your Custom Title Now!
I would have thought that one of the many MCC XI's over the years would have been right up there, along with other invitational teams in time that have played in matches classified as Firstclass. I pretty sure World XI's before they were given test status would have been awesome
 

Deja moo

International Captain
Pratyush said:
We know that.

International sides however dont win domestic championships.

Its state sides, count sides.(Not Duleep Trophy or Irani Trophy rest of India teams - saying this to avoid some one saying North Zone from India) :p
IMO, zonal sides should count. NSW have had just 5 teams to compete with for players. IMO, it isnt fair that domestic teams from other countries should be penalised in this exercise because they had to share their talent among a zillion teams :p . The 5 zonal teams should qualify. Whether they've been good enough is a different matter..
 

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