Crash Craddock's Top Ten Cricketers of the Decade

[Goughy]

Well you've done a decent job of convincing me that they wanted someone who would toe the party-line.

Yeah, two main reasons. Someone with no links to Cronje and that period of SA cricket (clean slate and all that) but more importantly someone that had no power base in the game, no friends amongst the senior players and someone that owed his position to those behind the scenes.

It significantly reduced the power of senior players in favour of the committees and put in place what was effectively a 'puppet' captain that would allow some of the more ambitious and less merit based transformational targets and quotas to be applied. Something that couldnt have happened under a captain with influence within cricket such as Pollock (who I think still may be the most successful SA captain, at least statistically)

Obviously it helped as he was a good player and an establishment guy in so much as he was an Anglo that went to a top school. He was however given the job to enable harder targets to be applied without having to deal with a strong and powerful captain.

 

[ozone]

As has been said, Sehwag probably deserves a place. Probably in for Hayden IMO, although I have no real problems with Hayden being in his top 10. Flintoff deserves his place on the basis of being such a big part of the biggest series of the decade, in addition to all the other times he stood up and carried England.

As for the order, Gilly or Kallis at the top for mine. Smith would be in my top 10, but only near the bottom of the list.