Vote for England's greatest all time uncapped XI

[Lillian Thomson]

65 players to choose from...not too many were particularly unlucky though.

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Short list

 

[zaremba]

I'm surprised to see John Langridge omitted.

Ali Brown is the unluckiest from that list I think.

 

[Prince EWS]

How to enter]

Haha, the poll question on the Wisden site ATM is awesome:

Do you trust Giles Clarke to do a good job as re-elected chairman of the ECB?
Yes 12.90%
No 87.10%

 

[Goughy]

The first 2 that sprang to mind before reading the thread were Malcolm Nash and Phil Carrick. Happy to see both shortlisted.

 

[fredfertang]

I'm surprised to see John Langridge omitted.

Ali Brown is the unluckiest from that list I think.

They omitted Langridge on the basis they regarded him as predominantly a pre WW2 player

 

[Richard]

Haha, the poll question on the Wisden site ATM is awesome:

Do you trust Giles Clarke to do a good job as re-elected chairman of the ECB?
Yes 12.90%
No 87.10%

I think the no is at least 5% too low for my liking.

Not only do I not like Giles Clarke at all I think he's done the English game plenty of damage due, in part, to not knowing enough about the subject matter.

Thank God Hugh Morris adds a buffer between him and the team.

 

[zaremba]

They omitted Langridge on the basis they regarded him as predominantly a pre WW2 player

Ah, I see. Mind you he did play on till 1955.

 

[iamdavid]

Where's Mark Nicholas lol

 

[BoyBrumby]

Tony Nicholson must be there or thereabouts. Few more runs & a few less pounds and he should've played.

 

[Manee]

I am happy to see Jason Lewry there, Sussex have had a fair few games televised over the years and he looked a very handy bowler.

 

[Richard]

Lewry's often been in the wrong place at the wrong time, but it was interesting to hear RMJ write about him either last year or the one before, and say that he simply doesn't like the limelight. While others craved England A tours over the winter, he was quite happy to be down his local with a pint and a game of darts. He neither craved England Tests nor one-day games.

 

[zaremba]

Lewry's often been in the wrong place at the wrong time, but it was interesting to hear RMJ write about him either last year or the one before, and say that he simply doesn't like the limelight. While others craved England A tours over the winter, he was quite happy to be down his local with a pint and a game of darts. He neither craved England Tests nor one-day games.

Well spotted, Dick (sorry couldn't resist). I read that article and found it pretty revealing.

Lewry has been a wonderful bowler for many years. And even now that he's 55 and needs a wheelchair to get to the crease due to his bust knees, he's still a really high class fast-medium swing bowler. Different class to Kirtley, who got a couple of Tests. And he gets top-order batsmen out regularly.

After ye crims played against Sussex on the 2001 tour of England Gilchrist said something along the lines of "well it's taken us 3 months but we've finally faced a really good bowler."

 

[Richard]

Yeah, the first time I saw him bowl was in his opening spell in this game. His eventual figures were merely adaquete, but in his opening spell he was quite sensational. Swung the ball as much as I've ever seen anyone swing it. All right, it was an evening, but it was a sunny July evening which offered no more assistance than a sunny July afternoon would.

I thought "jeesh, this chap can bowl" - but he was already 30 by that time, so I knew that was basically that as far as anything else was concerned. Not long after I noticed he hardly played much OD cricket, then eventually I read that RMJ piece, which explained a lot.

Along with the fact that Lewry, as I say, has often bowled at his best on those not-extraordinarily-common occasions when England's seam attack has been going well in the home Tests. And has had a few injuries.

He's not a superman by any stretch - he's had his ineffective, and downright expensive, seasons as well as his brilliant ones. But all career, clearly, he's been the sort of bowler who when on-song, which has certainly not been irregular, you walk out to bat hoping rather than expecting.