The ATG Teams General arguing/discussing thread

[Coronis]

A real surfeit of bowlers and Blackham is much too high at 7. Replace Hugh Trumble and Monty Noble with Clem Hill and Arthur Shrewsbury. These additions would dramatically improve the calibre, depth and solidity of the batting. Even though it would remove two bowling options, you would still have Barnes, Lohmann, Spofforth, Rhodes, Faulkner and Grace which is an outstanding and varied bowling attack. Lohmann should bat above Barnes as well. I know his Test record is poor but unlike Barnes he was actually a decent batsman as evidenced by his first class record.

Thanks. I knew I forgot something obvious in that one, how the hell did I blank Clem Hill.

 

[jimmy101]

Was chatting to my grandpa this morning about cricket. The bloke was born in 1933 & considers Arthur Morris to be the second best batsman he ever saw (behind the Don obvs.)

Thought that was rather interesting, as I'm pretty sure Bradman himself rated Morris very highly.

 

[mr_mister]

Was chatting to my grandpa this morning about cricket. The bloke was born in 1933 & considers Arthur Morris to be the second best batsman he ever saw (behind the Don obvs.)

Thought that was rather interesting, as I'm pretty sure Bradman himself rated Morris very highly.

Yeah had him in his all time XI as opening partner to Barry Richards

Bit rough on Hutton who Bradman saw plenty of I thought

 

[Coronis]

Was chatting to my grandpa this morning about cricket. The bloke was born in 1933 & considers Arthur Morris to be the second best batsman he ever saw (behind the Don obvs.)

Thought that was rather interesting, as I'm pretty sure Bradman himself rated Morris very highly.

Morris did have an extremely strong start to his career. Bradman might’ve preferred the left hand style too who knows.

Morris first 23 tests: 2097 runs @ 61.67 with 10 centuries
second 23 tests: 1436 runs @ 34.19 with 2 centuries

No disrespect to the great Don either, but he played with or against 7 members of his XI (including the 12th man) plus himself. I’m sure there is a bit of bias in there.

 

[h_hurricane]

Bradman's ATG XI was one of the weakest and strangest XIs ever picked. One has to bear in mind that he was around 90 at that time though.

 

[mr_mister]

Bradman's ATG XI was one of the weakest and strangest XIs ever picked. One has to bear in mind that he was around 90 at that time though.

Lol. Dementia based selection

 

[Coronis]

Individuals XI’s seem to generally be pretty flawed. Take Dickie Bird’s for example.

Gavaskar
B.Richards
V.Richards
Chappell
Sobers
Pollock
Knott
Imran
Lillee
Warne
Gibbs

 

[a massive zebra]

Bradman never officially put his name to that XI during his lifetime. It was announced by Roland Perry after Bradman's death as a tool to sell his new book. It could well have been Perry's best guess as to what Bradman's All Time XI might have been. If it had really been selected by Bradman himself, why the need for the secrecy in the years between the selection of the XI and Bradman's death?

 

[h_hurricane]

On the contrary, Benaud's XI was quite good. One sore note being none of the WI quick bowlers making it.

 

[Coronis]

Something interesting I just stumbled onto, no set criteria but some interesting viewing for sure https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLMnF7vW2Mvk4VbPMCi4gmMQBDgleGW0mF

 

[h_hurricane]

Something interesting I just stumbled onto, no set criteria but some interesting viewing for sure https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLMnF7vW2Mvk4VbPMCi4gmMQBDgleGW0mF

A lot of "Broad"mindedness there.

 

[Red]

Individuals XI’s seem to generally be pretty flawed. Take Dickie Bird’s for example.

Gavaskar
B.Richards
V.Richards
Chappell
Sobers
Pollock
Knott
Imran
Lillee
Warne
Gibbs

Bird's was only players he'd watched, I think.

 

[jimmy101]

Seems to be a bit of a trend that when former players are asked to name an ATG XI they usually favour the players that they encountered personally. Here's Allan Donald's all-time XI.

Matthew Hayden (Australia), Justin Langer (Australia), Jacques Kallis (South Africa), Brian Lara (West Indies), Sir Viv Richards (West Indies – captain), AB de Villiers (South Africa), Adam Gilchrist (Australia – wicketkeeper), Shane Warne (Australia), Malcolm Marshall (West Indies), Curtly Ambrose (West Indies), Glenn McGrath (Australia)

 

[jimmy101]

Phil Tufnell's XI...

Desmond Haynes, Graham Gooch, Viv Richards (c), Brian Lara, Sachin Tendulkar, Jacques Kallis, Adam Gilchrist (wk), Wasim Akram, Shane Warne, Curtly Ambrose, Glenn McGrath.

 

[NUFAN]

Thats perfectly normal I think. Why would you want to hear whether Tuffers considers Hobbs and Hutton to be better than anything he has watched or played with/against. Its much more interesting (IMO) to see a name like Haynes appear. Same with Donald and Dickie too. I recall a thread where people posted cricketers atg xis, there will be a big list there.

 

[mr_mister]

Bradman never officially put his name to that XI during his lifetime. It was announced by Roland Perry after Bradman's death as a tool to sell his new book. It could well have been Perry's best guess as to what Bradman's All Time XI might have been. If it had really been selected by Bradman himself, why the need for the secrecy in the years between the selection of the XI and Bradman's death?

Unless Roland is lying, he states in the book that Bradman either mailed/handed him his XI on a piece of paper a few weeks or something after Roland had asked him. He added that he didn't want an argument or felt any need to justify his choices

 

[mr_mister]

I also think, despite a seemingly weak batting order with Tallon 6 and Lindwall 7, Bradman at 3 is essentially worth 2 batsman and his 6 man bowling attack is nothing if not varied.

Two quicks in Lindwall and Lillee, a very skillful medium pacer in Bedser, the multi purpose Sobers and O'Reilly and Grimmet as leggies boasting very different weapons. They'd have no challenge bowling sides out at least

Roland speculates all this in the book

 

[SillyCowCorner1]

Surprisingly, no Pollock in Donald's XI

 

[Coronis]

Funniest thing I saw was Chris Rogers picking Ramprakash.

My favourite i saw so far (Bob Willis)
Hobbs
Richards
Bradman
Richards
Kallis
Sanga
Sobers
Imran
Warne
Marshall
McGrath

 

[harsh.ag]

Thought Donald loved Tendulkar, based on some of his interviews. But left him out of the XI. Strange.