Best team for each country ever to grace the cricket field?

[Days of Grace]

Not sure if this has been done before, but please send in your opinions of the best cricket team to play a test for each country.

I'll start with the NZ team, probably 1985/86, against Australia at Perth.

1. Wright
2. Edgar
3. Reid
4. Crowe,M.
5. Coney (c)
6. Crowe, J.
7. Hadlee
8. Smith (wk)
9. Bracewell
10. Cairns
11. Chatfield

The one that won the series against England at the Oval in 1999 was fairly decent too:

1. Horne
2. Bell
3. Fleming (c)
4. Astle
5. Twose
6. McMillan
7. Parore (wk)
8. Cairns
9. Nash
10. Vettori
11. O'Connor

And, finally, the one which won a series in the West Indies for the first time in 2002:

1. Richardson
2. Vincent
3. Fleming (c)
4. Harris
5. Astle
6. McMillan
7. Hart (wk)
8. Vettori
9. Tuffey
10. Bond
11. Butler

 

[Dissector]

For India perhaps this team which beat Pakistan in New Delhi in 1999 (Kumble taking 10 wickets):
http://content-ind.cricinfo.com/ci/engine/match/63829.html

Ramesh
Laxman
Dravid
Tendulkar
Azharrudin
Ganguly
Mongia
Kumble
Srinath
Prasad
Harbhajan

Of course not all those players were at their peak at that time.

There is probably a team from 1971-1973 of equal or greater quality though it would lack a fast bowler.
There were teams from 2001 and 2004 which also performed impressively.

 

[Dan]

Aussie Invincibles, nuff said

bar them, 2002 Aussie squad

M Hayden
J Langer
R Ponting
M Waugh
S Waugh
D Martyn
A Gilchrist
S Warne
B Lee
J Gillespie
G McGrath

 

[HeathDavisSpeed]

I'll start with the NZ team, probably 1985/86, against Australia at Perth.

The one that won the series against England at the Oval in 1999 was fairly decent too:

And, finally, the one which won a series in the West Indies for the first time in 2002:

Easily the first of the three NZ teams. The other two have plenty of weak links.

1999 has Horne, Bell and O'Connor
2002 has Harris, Hart, Tuffey and Butler

The weakest link in 85/86 was probably Braces.

 

[Perm]

One of the West Indies teams during the 70's or 80's would have to top this. Was there ever a game where Fredericks/Greenidge/Haynes, Richards, Richardson, Lloyd, Dujon, Marshall, Holding, Roberts and Garner played together?

 

[Dissector]

No Fredericks and Richardson(who came a bit later) but this is perhaps the finest team to grace the game:
http://www.cricinfo.com/db/ARCHIVE/1980S/1982-83/IND_IN_WI/IND_WI_T4_15-20APR1983.html

Greenidge
Haynes
Richards
Gomes
Logie
Lloyd
Dujon
Marshall
Roberts
Holding
Garner

 

[Days of Grace]

They would beat the 1948 invincibles?

 

[Matt79]

They'd go very close you'd think.

Bradman and Miller would have to play very well to keep the Aussies in it.

 

[Richard]

Aussie Invincibles, nuff said

bar them, 2002 Aussie squad

M Hayden
J Langer
R Ponting
M Waugh
S Waugh
D Martyn
A Gilchrist
S Warne
B Lee
J Gillespie
G McGrath

No way would that be as strong as:
Barnes
Morris
Bradman
Hassett
Loxton
Harvey
Miller
Tallon
Lindwall
Johnston
Ring (sadly Toshack was injured, so the ultimate combo never actually took the field together)
which played at The Oval in 1948.

 

[Richard]

For India perhaps this team which beat Pakistan in New Delhi in 1999 (Kumble taking 10 wickets):
http://content-ind.cricinfo.com/ci/engine/match/63829.html

Ramesh
Laxman
Dravid
Tendulkar
Azharrudin
Ganguly
Mongia
Kumble
Srinath
Prasad
Harbhajan

Of course not all those players were at their peak at that time.

There is probably a team from 1971-1973 of equal or greater quality though it would lack a fast bowler.
There were teams from 2001 and 2004 which also performed impressively.

Any line-up which has Laxman opening - no way.

The strongest Indian side ever would surely have been one that played against England in 1972\73:
Chetan Chauhan
Sunil Gavaskar
Ajit Wadekar
Gundappa Viswanath
Mansur Ali Khan Pataudi
Farokh Engineer
Eknath Solkar
Syed Abid Ali
Bishen Bedi
Bhagwat Chandrasekhar
Eripalli Prasanna

 

[Richard]

No Fredericks and Richardson(who came a bit later) but this is perhaps the finest team to grace the game:
http://www.cricinfo.com/db/ARCHIVE/1980S/1982-83/IND_IN_WI/IND_WI_T4_15-20APR1983.html

Greenidge
Haynes
Richards
Gomes
Logie
Lloyd
Dujon
Marshall
Roberts
Holding
Garner

TBH, I think this one was better, even though there was no Marshall:
Greenidge
Haynes
Richards
Kallicherran
Rowe
Lloyd
Murray
Roberts
Holding
Garner
Croft
Which played Australia at the MCG in 1979\80.

EDIT: actually, it might well have been this one:
Greenidge
Haynes
Richards
Kallicherran
Bacchus
Lloyd
Murray
Marshall
Roberts
Holding
Garner
which played England at Old Trafford in 1980. Only Faaod Bacchus is a weak-link, but the rest is superlative.

 

[Richard]

Best team for each country ever to grace the cricket field?

For South Africa it would pretty much beyond question be one of the two who played in the Third and Fourth Tests of 1969\70...
Barry Richards
Trevor Goddard
Ali Bacher
Graeme Pollock
Eddie Barlow
Lee Irvine
"Tiger" Lance
Dennis Lindsay
Michael Procter
Peter Pollock
John Traicos
or
Richards
Barlow
Bacher
Graeme Pollock
Irvine
Lindsay
Lance
Procter
Peter Pollock
Pat Trimborn
Traicos
Just a shame there was no Test where they played an all-seam attack and included both Goddard and Trimborn. I guess the one with Goddard wins-out by virtue of provenness.

 

[Richard]

Best team for each country ever to grace the cricket field?

For England it'd be so damn difficult. It's tempting to go for one of the really early ones, something like:
Archibald MacLaren
CB Fry
Ranji
Sir Stanley Jackson
Johnny Tyldesley
"Dick" Lilley
George Hirst
Gilbert Jessop
Leonard Braund
Bill Lockwood
Wilfred Rhodes

Something from the 1950s might possibly give it a run for its money... trouble is, there were so many fine names knocking around, it's hard to pin anything down. An eclectix XI might go something like this:
Leonard Hutton
Reg Simpson
Bill Edrich
Denis Compton
Peter May \ Tom Graveney
Godfrey Evans
Tony Lock
Alec Bedser
Brian Statham
Fred Trueman
Jim Laker
Sadly, there was never a time when Bedser, Statham and Trueman played together, and Statham and Trueman only played together for the first time after Hutton's retirement, and a team without Hutton is inconceivable. It almost seems indecent to pick one XI from around that time TBH.

Some of the immediate pre-war batting-line-ups rank with the very best, but there were few bowlers of note around that time. And the best XI since the 1950s would probably be this one:
John Edrich
Geoffrey Boycott
Colin Cowdrey
Kenny Barrington
Tom Graveney
Barry Knight
Alan Knott
Raymond Illingworth
David Brown
John Snow
Derek Underwood
which played Australia in 1968 at Edgbaston.

Maybe, just maybe, this one from Trent Bridge in 1977 comes close though:
Michael Brearley
Geoffey Boycott
Bob Woolmer
Derek Randall
Tony Greig
Geoff Miller
Alan Knott
Ian Botham
Derek Underwood
Mike Hendrick
Bob Willis
Though there's just 4 specialist batsmen there only one of whom had a really successful Test career (and this was his first Test back in 3 years too).

 

[pasag]

The Bodyline line-up wasn't too shabby tbh.

 

[Richard]

Best team for each country ever to grace the cricket field?

For Sri Lanka, it'd surely be this:
Atapattu
Jayasuriya
Mahela Jayawardene
Aravinda
Arjuna
Kaluwitharana
Dharmasena
Vaas
Zoysa
Wickremasinghe
Murali
But that team, I don't think, ever played together. The nearest was at The Oval in 1998, when both Vaas and Zoysa were missing through injury.

 

[Richard]

The Bodyline line-up wasn't too shabby tbh.

Too true:
Herbert Sutcliffe
Bob Wyatt
Walter Hammond
Iftikhar Ali Khan Pataudi
Maurice Leyland
Douglas Jardine
Leslie Ames
"Gubby" Allen
Harold Larwood
Hedley Verity
Bill Voce
This is the XI of the First Test, pretty much beyond a doubt the strongest, even though none of the trouble had erupted by then, as though Paynter later replaced Iftikhar Ali Khan, other changes were happening by then, several players missing matches through injury. In the Second Bill Bowes replaced Verity, and though England lost the Test you could argue that, given fingerspinners have seldom been effective in Australia, that XI was stronger still. Certainly an all-seam attack was incredible in those days.

 

[Flem274*]

The 2000 NZ Aussie tour team was one of our best IMO. I think it went:

Vincent
Richardson
Fleming
Astle
McMillan
Cairns
Parore
Nash
Vettori
Bond
Tuffey or Allot? Can't remember the other bowler.

 

[Richard]

The team of the First Test was the best of the series, even though they were clear 2nd-best:
Richardson
Bell
Sinclair
Fleming
Astle
McMillan
Cairns
Parore
Nash
Vettori
O'Connor

(Allott's last Test was in 1999 BTW - Nash and O'Connor missed the next 2 games and were replaced by Bond and first Tuffey then Martin; Vincent replaced Bell in the Third Test and scored a century and a half-century)

 

[Flem274*]

The team of the First Test was the best of the series, even though they were clear 2nd-best:
Richardson
Bell
Sinclair
Fleming
Astle
McMillan
Cairns
Parore
Nash
Vettori
O'Connor

(Allott's last Test was in 1999 BTW - Nash and O'Connor missed the next 2 games and were replaced by Bond and first Tuffey then Martin; Vincent replaced Bell in the Third Test and scored a century and a half-century)

OK thanks for that. Pity the best team they could have had didn't get to play.

 

[Goughy]

For South Africa it would pretty much beyond question be one of the two who played in the Third and Fourth Tests of 1969\70...
Barry Richards
Trevor Goddard
Ali Bacher
Graeme Pollock
Eddie Barlow
Lee Irvine
"Tiger" Lance
Dennis Lindsay
Michael Procter
Peter Pollock
John Traicos
or
Richards
Barlow
Bacher
Graeme Pollock
Irvine
Lindsay
Lance
Procter
Peter Pollock
Pat Trimborn
Traicos
Just a shame there was no Test where they played an all-seam attack and included both Goddard and Trimborn. I guess the one with Goddard wins-out by virtue of provenness.

Yeah, go with the first1 as Proctor batting at 9 is crazy. That is an amazing team on paper.