"Best ever" teams selected by former players or experts- whose is best?

[kyear2]

Barry Richards is just a aspecial case, he was without doubt seen as the best batsman in the world between the end of Sobers career and the start of Viv's dominance circa 1976. Lillee placed him above Gavaskar and Greenidge (as do many who played with/against them at Hamshire) and on par with IVA and Sobers. Barry was with his namesake and Chappell the best batsmen by some fair distance in WSC and he dominated first class cricket the world over.
If Wasim can gain selection based more than a little based on his ODI career and Grace based on FSC, then Barry can be as well.

Definitely one of the very few contenders to open alongside Hobbs, along with Hutton and Gavaskar. Sutcliffe factors in there as well, especially considering he and Hobbs formed perhaps the greatest opening partnership of all time, but he was also clearly the No. 2 partner and was quite a slow scorer even by standards back then. What Barry brings to the team would be immaculate technique mixed with the ability to score at a fast rate and dominate an attack, along with pre War Hobbs, Greenidge and possibly Morris there have not been too many of those in history and he was clearly better than the last two mentioned. He was also a superb slip fielder and somewhat useful part time bowler.

With everything factored in, for me it's him of Hutton for me to partner the original master at the top of the lineup.

 

[fredfertang]

Barry Richards is just a aspecial case, he was without doubt seen as the best batsman in the world between the end of Sobers career and the start of Viv's dominance circa 1976. Lillee placed him above Gavaskar and Greenidge (as do many who played with/against them at Hamshire) and on par with IVA and Sobers. Barry was with his namesake and Chappell the best batsmen by some fair distance in WSC and he dominated first class cricket the world over.
If Wasim can gain selection based more than a little based on his ODI career and Grace based on FSC, then Barry can be as well.

Definitely one of the very few contenders to open alongside Hobbs, along with Hutton and Gavaskar. Sutcliffe factors in there as well, especially considering he and Hobbs formed perhaps the greatest opening partnership of all time, but he was also clearly the No. 2 partner and was quite a slow scorer even by standards back then. What Barry brings to the team would be immaculate technique mixed with the ability to score at a fast rate and dominate an attack, along with pre War Hobbs, Greenidge and possibly Morris there have not been too many of those in history and he was clearly better than the last two mentioned. He was also a superb slip fielder and somewhat useful part time bowler.

With everything factored in, for me it's him of Hutton for me to partner the original master at the top of the lineup.

Barry Richards was certainly the best batsman I have seen - I've written a feature about him which will appear in the not too distant future

 

[smash84]

Who knows maybe Barry Richards would have choked at the international level too

 

[OverratedSanity]

Barry Richards was quite obviously a great batsman... Most people who've seen him bat rank him among the very best, my dad included. Growing up I always heard about this great batsman who combined technical perfection with an aggressive, dominating style and was also wonderful aesthetically. That last bit has always bothered me about Barry Richards.... After being hyped endlessly as an extremely pleasing batsman to watch, I remember being a tad disappointed when watching an old tape of Richards playing county. It was awesome batting but purely from an aesthetic standpoint I was underwhelmed. I think it's the back lift that I don't like... It's such a high, slow windup but unlike someone like Sobers the follow through wasn't as thrilling as I'd hoped. I don't know, I always found Pollock's strokeplay to be far more pleasing to watcg

 

[The Battlers Prince]

Barry Richards was quite obviously a great batsman... Most people who've seen him bat rank him among the very best, my dad included. Growing up I always heard about this great batsman who combined technical perfection with an aggressive, dominating style and was also wonderful aesthetically. That last bit has always bothered me about Barry Richards.... After being hyped endlessly as an extremely pleasing batsman to watch, I remember being a tad disappointed when watching an old tape of Richards playing county. It was awesome batting but purely from an aesthetic standpoint I was underwhelmed. I think it's the back lift that I don't like... It's such a high, slow windup but unlike someone like Sobers the follow through wasn't as thrilling as I'd hoped. I don't know, I always found Pollock's strokeplay to be far more pleasing to watcg

I guess it's a different strokes for different folks situation because I really enjoy watching some of his innings. The timing always seemed so technically good and the power was there too.

 

[watson]

Just flicked through a new purchase entitled - 'In a League of their own: 100 Cricket Legends Select Their World XI'. It's edited by Richard Sydenham and published in 2010.

The book begins with Abdul Qadir's selection and ends with Zaheer Abbas. There are some interesting names inbetween like Bob Appleyard, Neil Adcock, and Bert Sutcliffe. Sobers' Foreword/introduction is full of excellent insights and is probably the best part of the book. The most unusual selection was Bruce Dooland. Alec Bedser though he was the best leg-spinner of the 1948-53 era.

Unfortunately, 47 participants chose to select World XIs only made-up of players that they have played with, against, or have seen. But I guess that is fair enough.

Here are the players who picked up the most votes, and it's nice that an actual team can be constructed from the top XI;

01. Sunil Gavaskar (58 votes)
02. Gordon Greenidge (26 votes)
03. Donald Bradman (53 votes)
04. Viv Richards (64 votes)
05. Sachin Tendulkar (42 votes)
06. Garfield Sobers (73 votes)
07. Alan Knott (34 votes)
08. Shane Warne (61 votes)
09. Wasim Akram (27 votes)
10. Malcolm Marshall (35 votes)
11. Dennis Lillee (53 votes)

Reserves:
Adam Gilchrist (26 votes)
Brian Lara (25 votes)
Len Hutton (21 votes)
Imran Khan (21 votes)
Jim Laker (12 votes)

After reading the comments with each selection it is obvious that Bradman and Sobers are the most revered cricketers of all time. Dennis Lillee remains a perennial favourite and is a full 18 votes ahead of his nearest fast-bowling rival Malcolm Marshall. Of the modern batsman, Gavaskar and Viv Richards are significantly ahead of everyone else. Curiously, Murali compiled only 7 votes, while Warne was streets ahead of his nearest rival Laker. Knott is an oft picked favourite by those who played with or against him.

Out of all the ATG teams selected my personal favourite is Ray Illingworth's XI;

01. Leonard Hutton
02. Jack Hobbs
03. Donald Bradman
04. Viv Richards
05. Peter May
06. Garfield Sobers
07. Keith Miller
08. Alan Knott
09. Richie Benaud
10. Michael Holding
11. Curtly Ambrose

Or perhaps John Snow's;

01. Barry Richards
02. Sunil Gavaskar
03. Donald Bradman
04. Viv Richards
05. Graeme Pollock
06. Garfield Sobers
07. Richard Hadlee
08. Alan Knott
09. Shane Warne
10. Dennis Lillee
11. Glenn McGrath

I find Clive Lloyd's team interesting because of its distinct lack of fast bowlers;

01. Leonard Hutton
02. Sunil Gavaskar
03. Donald Bradman
04. Viv Richards
05. Allan Border
06. Garfield Sobers
07. Richie Benaud
08. Alan Knott
09. Malcolm Marshall
10. Jim Laker
11. Dennis Lillee

 

[smash84]

great post.....especially Clive Lloyd's team

 

[Chrish]

Excellent thread.. Any new entries?

 

[Burgey]

Clive Lloyd a man of great taste with his middle order selections

 

[Lillian Thomson]

The ICC XI chosen in 2016 was the most comical. Good side of course and all great players, but even so............

Virender Sehwag,
Sunil Gavaskar,
Sir Don Bradman
Sachin Tendulkar
Brian Lara
Adam Gilchrist
Kapil Dev
Shane Warne
Wasim Akram
Glenn McGrath
Curtly Ambrose.

 

[karan_fromthestands]

I think Ponting and Steyn not being added to most of these XIs is hard to digest for me(of course, it's my personal opinion and some of the ATG lists were created before he burst into the scene), but Ponting, Lara and Tendulkar were such great players and people generally pick one(or rarely two) out of the three as if that's some sort of a rule.

At the end of the day, these kind of picks(even from cricketers or journalists who try to show that they are neutral) are heavily biased. And there's no other way tbh, there are so many great players, how many can you ignore.

 

[Chrish]

Steyn is a recent player and most of these lists are quite old. Same reason McGrath didn’t get much love even though he was fair bit before Steyn.

For Punter, awesome player but there have been better ones (IMO of course).

 

[Line and Length]

Cricketers publishing their best XIs will often include the rider "that I played with or against". This can be both restrictive but an insight into an era. Alan Lamb played 79 Tests between 1982 and 1992 and his team selection from this era is a squad of 13:
Gordon Greenidge
Graham Gooch
Greg Chappell
Viv Richards
Javed Miandad
Allan Border
Ian Botham
Richard Hadlee
Malcolm Marshall
Bob Taylor
Dennis Lillee
Abdul Qadir
Wasim Akram

Who would miss out? I suspect one of the quicks (or all rounder/quicks) and a batsman.
Allan Border would be safe as Lamb nominates him as the best captain. "... a lively dressing room, and I want someone who would face down any star name who shot his mouth off. I have picked seven Test captains, but my choice is Allan Border."

Lamb goes on to select a South African team picked from players he played with or against between 1972 and 1995. Once again he nominates a squad of 13.
Eddie Barlow
Barry Richards
Peter Kirsten
Graeme Pollock
Lee Irvine
Kenny McEwan
Clive Rice
Mike Procter
Denys Hobson
Vintcent van der Bill
John Traicos
Garth LeRoux
Allan Donald

He indicares that, if he picked two spinners, Le Roux would have to go and he couldn't split Barlow or Rice as his choice for captain.

 

[h_hurricane]

Bob Willis picked up a great team a few years back isn't it ? Except Barry Richards (who shouldn't have been there given his career was only 4 tests), it was a pretty good team.

Jack Hobbs
Barry Richards
Don Bradman(c)
Viv RIchards
Jacques Kallis
Kumar Sangakkara(wk)
Garry Sobers
Imran Khan
Shane Warne
Malcolm Marshall
Glenn Mcgrath

 

[Chrish]

Willis must have played lots of county cricket against Richards.

 

[Lillian Thomson]

The video of him picking this XI is on YouTube and it's just an All Time Cricketing XI. No mention of any Test criteria. Barry Richards absolutely belongs up there with the best. I'm more surprised by his choices of Kallis and Sanga. I would have expected him to pick a proper wicketkeeper, unless he was just trying to be hip.

 

[Chrish]

Willis never rated Tendulkar. Iirc he has mentioned in interviews something along the line of, “come talk to me when scores on wickets that aren’t flat”.

But that’s what I loved about him. He was honest and unapologetic in his views. And like Boycott, always entertaining to listen to.