Players most kindly treated by selectors

[wpdavid]

You could compile quite a list:

Plunkett
Mahmood
Vaughan(ODIs)- had to get injured to get out of the side
Trescothick- i mean how on earth has he never been dropped since debut?
Pietersen- picked over Thorpe when he shouldnt have been, still considered a certainity in tests when there are other players performing better
Strauss(ODIs)
Anthony Mcgrath
Rikki Clarke
James Anderson- picked about 2.5 years before he was ready for it in test. Continually picked over a superior bowler in Simon Jones.
Kabir Ali
Geraint Jones

Depends on your definition of "extended". Most of the above only played a handful of games or have been in & out of the oneday side rather than fixtures. Vaughan was actually our best oneday top 3 batter in the year or so before his longterm injury, although admittedly he'd had enough chances before then. How many times did Anderson play ahead of Jones? Can't think of many, given SJ's injury from Nov 2002 to March 2004.

Tres was lucky for a while - say 2003 into 2004 - but justified it thereafter, in tests, anyway. G Jones I'll grant you. Strauss in onedayers I'll grant you. And you should have included Harmison, of course. But apart from them, I think you're struggling.

 

[Nate]

Who doesn't? English players excluded.

13th highest average for those who played 10 matches or more. Gun strike-rate and converison-rate as well.

 

[NZTailender]

13th highest average for those who played 10 matches or more. Gun strike-rate and converison-rate as well.

Before he went to England he had scored about 2000fc runs with 3 centuries. In England he scored 1000+ runs with 5 centuries.

Hopefully he will enhance his skills by playing in England again next year...

 

[Perm]

Big centuries against Sri Lanka and Australia made Marshall a definite in the side for a little while, but has really struggled over our last few test series. Will hopefully be back into some good form for our next series against Sri Lanka.

Add to the list James Marshall, I mean just because he looks the same as his brother doesn't mean he should be in the team. I don't know why he was selected in the first place.

 

[Prince EWS]

ahhhhhhhhh that makes sense now..... No-one could've replaced Haydos at the top of the order, however, i do think they should've taken an extra player for that very reason.

Actually, Hussey and Watson were playing county cricket in England and made themselves available for selection in any of the Ashes matches. They may have even been officially added to the squad at one stage but I'm not sure... either way, Hussey could have opened if they wanted him to.

 

[Prince EWS]

Who would you play instead? Wiseman?

I always thought Wiseman was under-rated to be honest.

Wouldn't play him in front of Vettori or anything but he seemed to be the Ian Blackwell-like joke player for a while and I think he's better than that.

 

[Mister Wright]

Actually, Hussey and Watson were playing county cricket in England and made themselves available for selection in any of the Ashes matches. They may have even been officially added to the squad at one stage but I'm not sure... either way, Hussey could have opened if they wanted him to.

There is a difference between making yourself available and actually being selected by the selectors. Every player unless stated otherwise makes themselves available for Australia, however the selectors had already picked their squad and they could not pick outside the squad unless of injury. As is always the case when touring.

 

[_Ed_]

I always thought Wiseman was under-rated to be honest.

Wouldn't play him in front of Vettori or anything but he seemed to be the Ian Blackwell-like joke player for a while and I think he's better than that.

He really was under-rated. Never performed terribly, especially considering the lack of confidence his captain seemed to have in his ability.

 

[Gajanayake]

I still question why Ganguly is considered Indias best ever captain!!! I just dont get it

Out of interest, who do you think was better ?

 

[Mr Mxyzptlk]

since then he's gone on to be as strong as ever and Australia are better off for it, especially considering another Ashes series on the way.

False. He averages <40 in Tests this year IIRC.

 

[Mr Mxyzptlk]

Has he ever done anything worthy of a place... his record suggests not ?

146 v Australia and 160 v Sri Lanka?

 

[Mister Wright]

False. He averages <40 in Tests this year IIRC.

Just. 39.27 from 11 Innings. But he did have a stormer of a series against the West Indies IIRC.

 

[MinorThreat]

definately symonds for me difficult to beleive he played so many games for australia early on in his career

basically was useless with bat and ball

 

[Arjun]

For India, here's a list in reverse chronological order from what I remember:

• Ajit Agarkar– the most over-rated strike bowler in the last five years and counting.
• Parthiv Patel– Genuine wicketkeepers were dropped for a bits-and-pieces bloke expected to be India's Gilchrist
• Dinesh Mongia– Somehow returns to the Indian team after a long lay-off and still does little of note.
• Sunil Joshi– Pathetic attitude for someone so talented.
• Shiv Sunder Das and Sadagopan Ramesh– Neither were even remotely close to the top six or even top 10 Indian batsmen, but for the fact they could open in first-class matches. Even Ganguly and Tendulkar opening could outperform these two.
• Salil Ankola– Agarkar's lesser-known quick-fix predecessor, when the Indian pace attack was in better hands.
• Vikram Rathour– Remember him? Another quick-fix solution that wasn't.

For other teams:

• Geraint Jones– Comes to mind instantly.
• James Anderson– Well, he was just lucky
• Ashley Giles– He did add some value, though.
• Most England spinners were treated kindly because they just made up the numbers.
• Lou Vincent
• Matthew Sinclair
• The typical NZ medium-pacer we see these days
• Mohammed Sami
• Rana Naved
• TM Dilshan
• Chamara K– That extra batsman in the SL side who only scores in bits and pieces.
• Ian Bradshaw and Pedro Collins– Had the faster West Indian bowlers not been out of form or injured, we'd see these two a lot less often.
• Merv Dillon– Remember him?
• Runako Morton– I'm leaving this open for debate. Comments?

 

[Mr Mxyzptlk]

• Ian Bradshaw and Pedro Collins– Had the faster West Indian bowlers not been out of form or injured, we'd see these two a lot less often.
• Merv Dillon– Remember him?
• Runako Morton– I'm leaving this open for debate. Comments?

Very keen to know which part of Bradshaw's career has been evidenced as kind treatment by the selectors. He wasn't picked until the age of 29, despite consistently being the best OD bowler in the region. Since, he has been one of the most consistently good bowlers in ODI cricket, let alone the most reliable of West Indian bowlers.

Pedro Collins - when match fit and healthy - is quite a good bowler. Surely as an Indian fan you would know this, but if you've forgotten, ask Sachin Tendulkar. He's capable of swinging the ball both ways, and no longer needs swinging conditions to do so. Collins is a much-improved bowler from when he started his career and one of the best in the region. Selectors should pick the best players, no?

Pace is not everything. Just like there's more to batting than "hitting big six". The West Indian bowlers with the greatest ability to bowl a good line and length are the slower ones - Collymore, Collins and Bradshaw. I don't see the point in picking a Best ahead of a Collymore, simply because he's faster.

Mervyn Dillon may not have been the powerhouse bowler many tagged him to be, but he had a huge burden to shoulder after the retirment of Walsh. And he proved to be the best bowler in that period and deserved to be picked as such. For all the criticism, he still has a decent haul of 131 wickets in 38 Tests.

Runako Morton deserved to be selected everytime he has been for the West Indies team. Yes, he had disciplinary problems in the past, but the selectors recognized that he reformed his character and showed such new commitment that his domestic form almost demanded selection. Since his recall to the West Indies team, he has proven quite a good player in both forms of the game.

 

[magsi23]

We have a winner

lol

 

[PhoenixFire]

I've seen Lou Vincent play live, and he is a magnificent striker of the ball, and a great fielder, to call him lucky is very unfair.

 

[tooextracool]

Depends on your definition of "extended". Most of the above only played a handful of games or have been in & out of the oneday side rather than fixtures. Vaughan was actually our best oneday top 3 batter in the year or so before his longterm injury, although admittedly he'd had enough chances before then.

No Vaughan was our best batsman in Zimbabwe. He struggled miserably in SA despite his average, his SR was almost in the 50s and he played a greater part in losing games than he did in winning them. He had a poor Natwest series, and his not out 59 which came in a game that was won by the time he came in camouflaged his failure in the natwest challenge. For someone to bat in the top 3 for most of his 3 year career and not score a 100, not to mention 4 of his 50s came against the likes of zimbabwe and Netherlands is very very poor. Anyone averaging 21(?) at an SR of 68 with a poor List A record, managing to captain the side without ever being dropped doesnt deserve to have played as many as 74 games IMO.

How many times did Anderson play ahead of Jones? Can't think of many, given SJ's injury from Nov 2002 to March 2004.

Once, but my point was that the only time Anderson ever deserved to play in the England side was in the SA series in 03 when they most didnt know how well he would fare in tests(although you could tell that he was going to struggle) and when he got picked to play against India. So he played at least a good 5 matches that he didnt deserve to play.

Tres was lucky for a while - say 2003 into 2004 - but justified it thereafter, in tests, anyway.

That may very well be the case but it doesnt change the fact that he deserved to be dropped during that period. Any other player other than Trescothick or Vaughan would have been dropped had they performed as poorly as he did.

G Jones I'll grant you. Strauss in onedayers I'll grant you. And you should have included Harmison, of course. But apart from them, I think you're struggling.

So you think Plunkett has deserved all those chances that hes got in ODIs and tests? You honestly think Mahmood deserves to get picked in the ODI side time and again over players like Jon Lewis and Glen Chapple?
Pietersen can do whatever he wants but anyone can see that Cook, Collingwood and Bell have all performed for longer periods in more varied conditions than he has and all 3 of them deserve their place in the test side ahead of him. And as mentioned earlier Pietersen ahead of Thorpe was one of the stupidest and rashest decision ever made and whilst it managed to get lucky, it doesnt change the fact that it was a poor decision ITFP.
Kabir Ali, Rikki Clarke, Anthony Mcgrath and Tim Bresnan speak for themselves.

 

[vic_orthdox]

Just. 39.27 from 11 Innings. But he did have a stormer of a series against the West Indies IIRC.

...

 

[tooextracool]

[*]Parthiv Patel– Genuine wicketkeepers were dropped for a bits-and-pieces bloke expected to be India's Gilchrist[*]

Id have Parthiv Patel in the test side 10 out of 10 times ahead of Dhoni to be honest. His keeping was not very good but it was far from shocking especially for someone who wasnt even 20 years old when he got dropped. In batting terms he was probably the best wicket keeper Batsman india has seen in god knows how many years.

Dinesh Mongia– Somehow returns to the Indian team after a long lay-off and still does little of note.

except for scoring mountains of runs for leicestershire? Certainly why on earth he has never played a test match is beyond me.

Shiv Sunder Das and Sadagopan Ramesh– Neither were even remotely close to the top six or even top 10 Indian batsmen, but for the fact they could open in first-class matches.

Who would you have picked ahead of Das then? Certainly very few openers since have shown anywhere near as good a technique as Das did in his short career. Das failed in terms of temperment.

Ian Bradshaw and Pedro Collins– Had the faster West Indian bowlers not been out of form or injured, we'd see these two a lot less often.[*]

Honestly when it comes to Collins you couldnt be more wrong. If anything if he were injured we would see less of the rubbish from Edwards, Best and co. Whilst he was dismal earlier on in his career hes certainly added a lot more variety into his bowling in terms of being able to get the ball to reverse and bowl cutters and has also shown improved accuracy. Probably the best bowler in the WI when fully fit.