Australian cricket at the turn of the millennium

[Richard]

We all know that the peak of Australia's Test team's powers was reached around this time with the 16 consecutive victories, but something I'd never really looked in massive depth at was the domestic game at that time. It's quite astonishing how good the batting especially was. Say the series against West Indies had been called-off and by magic no-one was ever injured all season, the 2000/01 Pura Cup could've been contested by teams something along these lines:

NSW:
Michael Slater
Greg Mail \ Matthew Phelps
Michael Bevan
Mark Waugh
Stephen Waugh
Brad Haddin
Shane Lee
Brett Lee
Nathan Bracken
Stuart MacGill
Glenn McGrath
Reserves: Stuart Clark; Mark Higgs; Michael Clarke; Phelps \ Mail; Phil Jaques; Don Nash; Corey Richards
Qld:
Jimmy Maher
Matthew Hayden
Martin Love
Stuart Law
Andrew Symonds
Wade Seccombe
Andrew Bichel
Ashley Noffke
Michael Kasprowicz
Adam Dale
Joe Dawes
Reserves: Lee Carseldine; Brendan Nash
SA:
David Fitzgerald
Shane Deitz
Greg Blewett
Darren Lehmann
Ben Johnson
Jeff Vaughan
Graham Manou
Peter McIntyre
Jason Gillespie
Paul Wilson
Mark Harrity
Tas:
Dene Hills
Jamie Cox
Michael di Venuto
Ricky Ponting
Daniel Marsh
Shane Watson
Shaun Young
Sean Clingeleffer
Damien Wright
David Saker
Gerard Denton \ Andrew Downton
Vic:
Matthew Elliott
Jason Arnberger
Matthew Mott
Brad Hodge
Michael Klinger
Ian Harvey
Darren Berry
Shane Warne
Paul Reiffel
Mathew Inness
Damien Fleming
Reserves: Shane Harwood; Michael Lewis; Colin Miller (who was probably Australia's best Test bowler that season but wasn't even among the best bowlers at his state of the time ); Jonathan Moss; Cameron White; Allan Wise; Andrew McDonald; John Davison
WA:
Michael Hussey
Ryan Campbell
Justin Langer
Simon Katich
Damien Martyn
Murray Goodwin
Adam Gilchrist
Tom Moody
Brendon Julien
Jo Angel
Matthew Nicholson
Reserves: Shaun Marsh; Chris Rogers; Marcus North; Michael Dighton; David Hussey; Kade Harvey; David Bandy; Brad Hogg; Brad Williams

That is one serious amount of quality. All six sides were composed in about half of players who were or might very possibly have been Test-standard; almost all of the rest were proven either high-quality or reasonable state players. There were quite a few reserves who would go on to play international cricket and quite a few more who'd go on to play for Australia A.

For all West Indies' seam-bowling depth in the 1970s and 1980s was beyond anything else, I think Australia's batting for a year or two around this above time was probably equally impressive.

 

[Mister Wright]

All those sides are quality, and it is unfortunate these days that the test players don't play so much for their states or after retirement only play a season. There were some quality domestic games around that time, but unfortunately not a lot of pressure on the Aus XI given their winning dominance.

 

[PhoenixFire]

Reckon all of those sides would give the current England team a good beating.

 

[Manee]

Would not want to mess with that NSW side.

 

[Richard]

Or the Qld, Vic or WA ones.

Yeah those three would certainly have a damn good chance (less so SA and Tas) of beating plenty of international teams at the current time, though perhaps not those of their own time or close-to.

 

[Richard]

Reckon all of those sides would give the current England team a good beating.

Not sure about the SA and Tassie ones, as I say - the bowling of both is relatively weak, with the outstanding Gillespie and the reasonable Saker and Wright, but not that much besides. The batting is also notably weaker than the other states - though Ponting, Lehmann, Blewett, Cox and di Venuto were all excellent players and Hills a damn good one, the rest isn't terribly convincing.

 

[Uppercut]

That's massive quality (although it's exaggerated by the fact that a lot of the players are better now than they were then). Also funny to see Hussey opening with Langer in the middle order for WA. I wonder how the English domestic circuit would look if you concentrated the best players into six teams...

 

[Flem274*]

Thats amazing depth. Really good depth. Whats it like now may I ask?

I wonder what other countries domestic sides would look like if they had all their internationals back? I definitely want Black Caps to play domestic cricket more often (as most of the teams would then have quite a bit of quality, especially OD teams). Any other domestic teams around the world have stupidly good teams with their internationals back? It would be interesting to list the lot.

 

[dontcloseyoureyes]

Now.

NSW
P Jaques
P Hughes
S Katich
M Clarke
D Thornley
(there's a million players who could play here, would probably be Steve Smith or Henriques)
B Haddin+
B Lee
N Bracken
S Clark
D Bollinger

VIC
C Rogers
N Jewell
B Hodge
D Hussey
C White
R Quiney
M Wade+
A MacDonald
B McGain
P Siddle
D Nannes

QLD
M Hayden
R Broad
M Love
S Watson
A Symonds
C Simpson
J Hopes
A Noffke
C Hartley+
R Harris
C Swann

WA
M Hussey
S Marsh
M North
L Pomersbach
A Voges
T Doropoulos
L Ronchi+
M Johnson
B Dorey
S Magoffin
B Edmondson

SA
D Harris
T Plant
M Klinger
Y Khan
C Fergusen
A O'Brien
G Manou+
M Cleary
D Cullen
S Tait
A Wise

TAS
T Birt
R Lockyear
R Ponting
G Bailey
D Marsh
T Paine+
L Butterworth
J Krejza
B Geeves
G Denton
B Hilfenhaus

That's in FC cricket.

 

[Simon]

Would say McGain in the victorian side for one of the quicks, still though even with McGain thats only a spinner making 3 out of 6 FC teams.

 

[dontcloseyoureyes]

Ah yeah forgot McGain.

 

[NUFAN]

Qld:
Jimmy Maher
Matthew Hayden
Martin Love
Stuart Law
Andrew Symonds
Wade Seccombe
Andrew Bichel
Ashley Noffke
Michael Kasprowicz
Adam Dale
Joe Dawes
Reserves: Lee Carseldine; Brendan Nash

Never, ever saw a QLD side with Wade Seccombe at number 6!! Add in Clinton Perren I suppose and get rid of one of the excellent bowlers.

Also Ryan Campbell opening is pretty ugly.

 

[morgieb]

NSW:
Michael Slater
Greg Mail \ Matthew Phelps
Michael Bevan
Mark Waugh
Stephen Waugh
Brad Haddin
Shane Lee
Brett Lee
Nathan Bracken
Stuart MacGill
Glenn McGrath
Reserves: Stuart Clark; Mark Higgs; Michael Clarke; Phelps \ Mail; Phil Jaques; Don Nash; Corey Richards

**** that's a good side. NSW would be the best side in the world if it divided from Australia.

 

[NUFAN]

I would have opened the batting with Corey Richards ahead of Mail and Phelps.

At around the 2000 mark a fair few judges had him near as a future Australian player. What year was it that he made 100 for Australia A at Bellrieve?

 

[Mister Wright]

Still think Love would get selected ahead of Carseldine if the full strength side was available tomorrow.

 

[NUFAN]

DCYE - Would you pick Nannes and Harewood over Siddle, or did you just forget him?

 

[dontcloseyoureyes]

Forgot tbh. I'd probably drop Harwood as I don't think there's much between them and Nannes gives some variety.

**** Victoria have a ****load of good bowlers though.

 

[vic_orthdox]

Setup isn't right for Victoria, McDonald bats at 6 not 8. Quiney would be stiff, but has to miss out.

Rogers
Jewell
Hodge
Hussey
White*
McDonald
Wade+
Harwood
McGain
Siddle
Nannes

 

[dontcloseyoureyes]

Fair enough then. I did it off the top of my head, I feel it gives an accurate enough representation for Flem without ****loads of nagging.

But of course, feel free...

 

[NUFAN]

So what teams are better?

I think the Victorian side now has a better batting lineup, but it is hard to say the bowling is better.

Tasmania have a better bowling 08 over 00.

QLD have dropped off.

WA's bowling is as good now, however the batting is not at the same level.

SA - May be weaker, although apart from Lehmann, Blewett, Gillespie and I guess Wilson that 2000 team doesn't look that flash.

NSW - Look terrific on paper at both times, I don't think the gap is that big really.