Most unlikely Test cricketers

[Smudge]

Rod "The Barely Penetrating Rocket" Latham.

 

[Clarence]

I was in China at the time so I didn't actually watch the game, but I don't see what Hauritz did wrong. I'm not trying to target you here, cause I've seen lots of people mentioning him, but he took 3/16 off 5 in the first innings, and then picked up Tendulkar and Laxman in the second, giving him a test average of 20.6. Is it just because he was expensive (ER was 3.81)?

Mate the deck he bowled on was turning a long, long way. He got out bowled by Clarke, who even turned them more than Haruitz. Though it's not his results I am referring to it is the fact he did not show a great deal of potential and also that one, two years down the track he is the number 3 first class spinner for his state, let alone playing test cricket. Any other first class spinner at the time could've done what he did and more and on that pitch. I am not saying he isn't a good bowler, just not the most deserving spinner of the test cap. Hence an unlikely test cricketer.

 

[irfan]

Ashish Nehra with his 120km/h dibbly dobblers and his non-existent batting. Unlikely personified

 

[BoyBrumby]

Of recent times Ian Blackwell, Gavin Hamilton and Shaun Udal.

Of those three only Udal (when selected for Pakistan, his recall for the 3rd Indian test seemed perfectly fair after Blackwell's efforts in the 2nd! ) was really outlandish, IMHO. Blackwell was selected because Udal had looked so dog-rough in Pakistan & he himself bowled pretty reasonably in the ODIs after we'd lost the test series, it just became obvious he wasn't of the required standard when he played.

Hamilton, although he had an absolute mare on debut & never really recovered as a player was selected on the back of a v impressive 99 WC for yer sweaties.

 

[vic_orthdox]

Shane Warne.

 

[BoyBrumby]

Shane Warne.

I don't think you're supposed to drink with that medication.....

 

[Richard]

Of those three only Udal (when selected for Pakistan, his recall for the 3rd Indian test seemed perfectly fair after Blackwell's efforts in the 2nd! ) was really outlandish, IMHO. Blackwell was selected because Udal had looked so dog-rough in Pakistan & he himself bowled pretty reasonably in the ODIs after we'd lost the test series, it just became obvious he wasn't of the required standard when he played.

Blackwell was quite blatantly an infinately worse selection than Udal.
Equally, it should be clear to anyone with a brain that Udal is a better spinner in the four\five-day format.
Equally, it should be pretty obvious that Blackwell's batting is worthy of comparison to a decent club-level slogger. Most people could score runs at Taunton.

Hamilton, although he had an absolute mare on debut & never really recovered as a player was selected on the back of a v impressive 99 WC for yer sweaties.

Gavin Hamilton certainly wasn't finished by his 1999\2000 tour. He continued to be a fine player for the next 2 seasons.
It was only in 2002 that the problems started.

 

[Richard]

Darren Maddy.

Great guy, solid county pro, but come on!

Not really a solid county pro, at least not when he was selected. His career average was poor, so was his 1999 average.

 

[Richard]

Barring Zimbabwe and to be cruel you would say Bangladesh, but for the purpose of this thread they don't count.

Is there anybody who you saw and thought 'no way would they play Tests' but they did or should never have played.

Hmm... for England I'll give you...
Ian Blackwell
Liam Plunkett
Gareth Batty
Anthony McGrath
Stephen Harmison
James Foster
Richard Dawson
Usman Afzaal
Ryan Sidebottom
Chris Schofield
Darren Maddy
Chris Read (in 1999 - less so in 2003\04)
Warren Hegg
Ben Hollioake (RIP)
Minal Patel
Ronald Irani
Michael Watkinson
Joseph Benjamin
Martin McCague (was never fit enough for top-level cricket)
Mark Lathwell (any Somerset batsman has to be averaging in the high 40s at least to be considered for mine)
Paul Taylor (at least for the game he was selected)
Dermot Reeve (Derek Pringle was a poor player - this was a latter-day "Watson's injured - how about Hopes?")
Neil Williams (RIP)
Alan Igglesden
Devon Malcolm (in 1989, not 1990)
Michael Atherton (obviously, when selected - why the hell couldn't they have let him have his A-tour first?)
John Childs
And will stop for simplicity's sake.

 

[Pothas]

Blackwell was quite blatantly an infinately worse selection than Udal.
Equally, it should be clear to anyone with a brain that Udal is a better spinner in the four\five-day format.
Equally, it should be pretty obvious that Blackwell's batting is worthy of comparison to a decent club-level slogger. Most people could score runs at Taunton.

Ive wanted to agree with you on something. You have got that spot on.

 

[Pothas]

Richard you forgot Habib

 

[luckyeddie]

Richard you forgot Habib

Is this one of those George Bush "You forgot Poland" moments?

 

[BoyBrumby]

Blackwell was quite blatantly an infinately worse selection than Udal.
Equally, it should be clear to anyone with a brain that Udal is a better spinner in the four\five-day format.
Equally, it should be pretty obvious that Blackwell's batting is worthy of comparison to a decent club-level slogger. Most people could score runs at Taunton.

Why? Leaving aside averages Blackwell had outbowled Udal in Pakistan & was therefore entitled to be given a go.

He also has a longer career ahead of him, being nearly a decade younger. Udal was an awful pick, shown up all the more because until his selection the current regime had almost invariably put their faith in (relative) youth.

WRT their batting, I doubt anyone would say Udal has more ability.

 

[Richard]

Richard you forgot Habib

Oh, no, I certainly didn't. I quite deliberately passed him over. I feel he got a raw deal. I wasn't worried about it, because Atherton was clearly the better choice once he was fit again - but Habib deserved selection when it came his way and SHOULD have got more chances than he did. Picking Chris Adams that winter having given Habib just 3 innings in the summer was absurd.

 

[Pothas]

you really are very predictable

 

[luckyeddie]

Why? Leaving aside averages Blackwell had outbowled Udal in Pakistan & was therefore entitled to be given a go.

He also has a longer career ahead of him, being nearly a decade younger. Udal was an awful pick, shown up all the more because until his selection the current regime had almost invariably put their faith in (relative) youth.

WRT their batting, I doubt anyone would say Udal has more ability.

You can safely ignore Richard's post, because it (or at least the bit you quoted) doesn't contain the phrase "Any fool knows that".

This renders it ineffective - a little like children neglecting to say "O'Grady says"

 

[Richard]

Why? Leaving aside averages Blackwell had outbowled Udal in Pakistan & was therefore entitled to be given a go.

Err, eh? Udal played 1 game, Blackwell 5 - until the final game Blackwell was far from impressive.
Blackwell didn't even play Tests in Pakistan, so he couldn't outbowl Udal. If he'd played, I presume he'd have done every bit as poorly as Udal did, because sure as no fingerspinner was ever going to be averaging under 30, or even under 40, on those pitches.

He also has a longer career ahead of him, being nearly a decade younger. Udal was an awful pick, shown up all the more because until his selection the current regime had almost invariably put their faith in (relative) youth.

Udal wasn't an awful selection - no-one could possibly have predicted how un-spin-friendly the Pakistan pitches were going to be. Udal was a good selection, most people said that at the time, and it's only with hindsight (which any fool can excercise) that people've started throwing these stupid derogatory comments his way.
There are certainly no more than 2 better spinners in England than Udal (and 1 of those, Croft, has retired and had an awful 2005 anyway).

WRT their batting, I doubt anyone would say Udal has more ability.

I'd say Udal's not massively worse than Blackwell. His ODI average of 15 says it all. He can't really bat very well. IMO if he played for anyone other than Somerset he'd probably average in the low 20s in First-Class cricket.

 

[Richard]

you really are very predictable

Why does this case illustrate that?

 

[Jungle Jumbo]

My contribution:

Adam Sanford. I see him now and I still can't fathom the reasoning behind his selection.

There's also Nehemiah Perry, but he proved a useful character.

I first saw Sanford v India in 2002 or 2003 - bowled okay.
I last saw Sanford v England in 2004 - cue Boycott quotes.

 

[Langeveldt]

Marcus Trescothick was a bit of a random selection at the time, a good hunch though