Do Over

[BeeGee]

Ken Rutherford.

NZ selectors: "This young 19 year old has got some talent, let's ease him into test cricket by forcing him to open the batting on a tour of the West Indies. I'm sure he'll enjoy facing Marshall, Holding and Garner." He never recovered.

The poor bloke probably still has nightmares.

 

[Coronis]

Would have loved to have seen Bruce Reid with a body that held up for 70-100 tests. Would have contended for the title of best left arm quick ever, and would be considered to be one of Australia's top 5 quicks of all time.

On a more personal note, I would have loved to see Martin Love play about 100 more tests than he did. Really enjoyed watching him play cricket. He reminded me of Greg Chappell. Tall stance, elegant stroke play and brilliant slip catching.

Other obvious ones are the SAs that missed so much test cricket. Barry Richards, Graeme Pollock and Mike Procter. It's quite possible that they'd have been the greatest opening batsman, the greatest middle order batsman (Bradman aside) and the greatest bowling all-rounder ever. And that's not even hyperbole. Just a fact. Such a shame.

Not to mention Clive Rice, Garth le Roux and Vince van der Bijl.

 

[Zinzan]

Ken Rutherford.

NZ selectors: "This young 19 year old has got some talent, let's ease him into test cricket by forcing him to open the batting on a tour of the West Indies. I'm sure he'll enjoy facing Marshall, Holding and Garner." He never recovered.

The poor bloke probably still has nightmares.

^ Stole my thunder there.


Other NZ'ders who spring to mind are from recent times are;

Jamie How
Matthew Sinclair
Andre Adams
Iain O'Brien &
Lou Vincent

I believe all of them could have had much better test careers if they could start over again if it wasn't for poor selection policy, depression & other issues.

 

[Son Of Coco]

Hmm, Lehmann or a ****?

Agreed. Bevan was a tosser.

 

[HeathDavisSpeed]

David Lawrence.

Loved the energy and effort he put in in his few chances for England. Until he blew his kneecap at the Basin, he was developing into quite the decent player; beginning to ally control with pace.

Shame.

 

[nexxus]

Mfuneko Ngam & Monde Zondeki. Ngammy especially as he seems like an all round good egg.

If one or both had made it close to anything like the level Ntini it would have been great for SA cricket.

 

[the big bambino]

Law, Lehmann, Bevan, Elliot, Siddons, Jamie Cox. Boy our cast offs then would make a tidy side now.

 

[flibbertyjibber]

Martin Bicknell will always be the one for me, picked to play against an Aussie side who crushed us then ignored for 10 years before coming back and proving his quality against SA. In the 10 years he was ignored he was always among the leading wicket takers in England and we decided that muppets like Peter Martin were a better option.

One that looked the part and was denied by injury was Dean Headley.

 

[MyLord]

Virat Kholi

"I would do him over and over and over again ... wait, what?"
- juno :P

 

[Bahnz]

^ Stole my thunder there.


Other NZ'ders who spring to mind are from recent times are;

Jamie How
Matthew Sinclair
Andre Adams
Iain O'Brien &
Lou Vincent

I believe all of them could have had much better test careers if they could start over again if it wasn't for poor selection policy, depression & other issues.

Disagree with How's inclusion in that list. Got a fair go in the national side, but was a poor judge of when to leave and was almost always out caught in the slips or played on. Since then he hasn't really ever threatened scoring enough runs in PS to make it back into the team.

He was mentally soft, but I would've loved to have seen Shane Thompson make another go at test cricket. Played some excellent innings against good bowling attacks before completely losing it after the 96 World Cup.

Agree about Rutherford. I reckon if he'd been left to develop in domestix until his early 20's, and if he hadn't been axed (unfairly in my mind) from the side in 1995, he would've finished his career with a respectable mid-30's average.

 

[Jono]

"I would do him over and over and over again ... wait, what?"
- juno :P

in the back seat of his car

 

[uvelocity]

no turned up cuffs or stupid sox. clearly unfashionable

 

[Son Of Coco]

Law, Lehmann, Bevan, Elliot, Siddons, Jamie Cox. Boy our cast offs then would make a tidy side now.

Would add Martin Love to that, and more games for Kasper and Bichel.

 

[Dan]

Law, Lehmann, Bevan, Elliot, Siddons, Jamie Cox. Boy our cast offs then would make a tidy side now.

Elliott
Cox
Love
Law
Lehmann
Bevan
Berry
Bichel
Kasprowicz
Miller
Dale

Pretty handy side right there.

 

[the big bambino]

Bump Dale and Love for Pattinson and Clarke and you'd have a 9/2 split in favour of then over now in a composite team. Harris 12th man.