Worst team to tour Australia

[G.I.Joe]

Originally Posted by Edged&Taken

MSK Prasad†
VVS Laxman
R Dravid
SR Tendulkar*
SC Ganguly
HH Kanitkar
R Vijay Bharadwaj
A Kumble
AB Agarkar
J Srinath
BKV Prasad

seems ok, what happened to this team back then ?

It looks okay on paper, but it wasn't. The mediocre half of the team didn't have enough to even play a supporting role to the quality half, not that the latter put in great performances themselves. Tendulkar and Laxman were the only ones to score a century. The team was so dire that the BCCI secretary predicted a 3-0 whitewash even before the team left Indian shores

[Craig]

Originally Posted by Sir Alex

Dravid was dire in that series. Laxman was dire till the Sydney test where he played a gem. Prasad, Agarkar were generally poor bowlers and Kumble did not get much returns from the Aussie pitces.

Our rather Laxman only played a good innings when the pressure was off. Mind you he was forced to open, so that didn't help his cause.

[Sir Alex]

Originally Posted by Craig

Our rather Laxman only played a good innings when the pressure was off. Mind you he was forced to open, so that didn't help his cause.

That is another way of putting it. Tendulkar played magnificiently in that series. But for atleast one terrible lbw decision and an unsuppoting lower order which meant he invariably went on aggressive and lost his wicket, he would have finished with much better figures. Still it was good enough to fetch him Man of the Series award.

[Jono]

It was Tendulkar vs. Australia really. Ganguly was okay.

[Burgey]

Originally Posted by Sir Alex

That is another way of putting it. Tendulkar played magnificiently in that series. But for atleast one terrible lbw decision and an unsuppoting lower order which meant he invariably went on aggressive and lost his wicket, he would have finished with much better figures. Still it was good enough to fetch him Man of the Series award.

I feel the same about Warne in India - lack of support in 98, was injured, a few bad calls. What do you think mate, or is it just making excuses? I think as a forum we need to discuss it more

[Sir Alex]

Originally Posted by Burgey

I feel the same about Warne in India - lack of support in 98, was injured, a few bad calls. What do you think mate, or is it just making excuses? I think as a forum we need to discuss it more

No.

[Johnners]

Don't think the worst team to tour is necessarily the team who has performed the worst whilst on tour, if you catch my drift? I would say the Indian team of 00, WI of 00 and England 06/07 were better teams than WI 09, but their performances in the series in question were pitiful.

[wfdu_ben91]

Graeme Smith 2005/06.

[Julian87]

Hahaha MSK Prasad....the launching pad for Brett Lee's test career.

[Craig]

Originally Posted by Clapo

Don't think the worst team to tour is necessarily the team who has performed the worst whilst on tour, if you catch my drift? I would say the Indian team of 00, WI of 00 and England 06/07 were better teams than WI 09, but their performances in the series in question were pitiful.

After their hiding in Brisbane, I really did think the West Indies played well in the series(after Brisbane, I watched most of the Adelaide Test, and bits and pieces of the Perth Test). Certainly Adelaide they played very well.

[Noble One]

West Indies in 2000/2001 by far the worst visiting team.

Put up a fight during a number of periods, but were completely woeful for the vast majority of the five Test series. Ganga and Cambell provided a guaranteed early breakthrough. Lara was in shocking form (bar one innings), and was totally disinterested in the game. The middle order of Hinds, Samuals, Sarwan and Adams consisted of zero fight or run scoring ability the entire series, and Marlon Black and Nixon Mclean ended up bowling the vast majority of overs during the series. Walsh was brave, but was bowling at best low 130k's.

Prefer to never think of that series again. Good watching for a Funky Miller fan though.

[Richard]

Is this worst team or worst performance? As pointed-out, the India team of 1999/2000 was certainly a far from poor side - only MSK Prasad and Vijay Bharadwaj were genuine "prank" Test cricketers who clearly didn't deserve to be there. But for a team so packed with quality, their performance was diabolical.

In terms of the worst side, the WI side of 2005/06 was comfortably lesser than that of 2000/01 - the only difference is it was a five-Test series in the former and merely three in the latter. A three-nil whitewash with all three games back-to-back is over much quicker than a five-nil one and is thus more promptly forgotten. The 2000/01 side, while poor, had plenty of players who had been real quality and were still to some extent so (Campbell, Lara, Walsh), as well as some who were completely past it (Adams). The only players who simply did not belong at all in 2000/01 were Marlon Black and Daren Ganga - and even Ganga went on to have his moments and has the mitigation of being pushed out of position in that series.

Worst performance the 2000/01 WI and 1999/2000 India sides are probably contenders, but so is the 2006/07 England one. Purely because they were bettered but far from completely outclassed and should not have lost by such large margins as they ended-up doing. But worst side, has to be WI 2005/06 or Pak 2009/10 (with the Pakistani fielding playing a considerable part in that).

[G.I.Joe]

Originally Posted by Julian87

Hahaha MSK Prasad....the launching pad for Brett Lee's test career.

I remember watching an emerging players' tournament being played out in Los Angeles just before that series. Lee was terrifyingly quick and accurate. Knew he was going to run through the side as soon as the Indian and Australian sides were announced. I think he ended up with an average of 16 or thereabouts.

[Richard]

Lee averaged 16.07 in his first 7(?) Tests. Perhaps not coincidentally, 4 of those 7 came in the aforementioned India 1999/2000 and WI 2000/01 series'. I've always wished I'd watched those series', however, because it really fascinates me whether Lee honestly did bowl superlatively and then just lost it completely after his elbow injury, or whether he was just bowling every bit as woefully as he generally did 2001-2006/07 and getting bad batting flattering his figures.

[GIMH]

Originally Posted by Lostman

ha ha the thing i found most amusing is that 06 is almost non-existent in the media.
Its like the ashes are every 4 years, 05 and 09.

They are.

The title says 'worst team' so I don't think either our 06-07 effort, or Pakistan's this year can come into it. I also find it a little simplistic to say that 5-0 takes some beating, as we were up against arguably the best team ever and they happened to be up for it more than ever.

I don't know which team is the worst I've seen in Australia but I've seen plenty of teams worse than those two. Pretty poor performances though, particularly from England in Melbourne and Sydney. The players should have been forced to pay the fans' airfare after that shambles.