Pick your toughest XI ever!

[kyear2]

Len Hutton
Roy Fredricks
Viv Richards
Steve Waugh
Alan Border
Keith Miller
Jack Russell
Hedley Verity
Malcolm Marshall
Dennis Lillee
Anil Kumble

 

[Migara]

Tough and mean are different words.
Graeme Smith coming out to bat with a broken hand = Tough.
Kumble coming back to bowl with a broken jaw held together by a cloth = Tough.

I am a massive fan of Matt Hayden but I haven't seen any toughness from him. I mean he almost drowned himself and had to be saved by Symonds.

Hayden acted as a bully against medium pacers. But against pace of Shoaib there was no such antics. Can't say tough, but mean.

And Symonds and Hayden both got drowned and was pulled off by Sri Lankan coast guards on a tour to SL.

 

[Dan]

Loving the Hall-as-wicketkeeper trend. WAFG.

ODI ATG as well. PEWS to confirm.

 

[African Monkey]

Gautam Gambhir would be up there for mine. Probably not up there for others, but batting with concussion and saving a test with a broken finger against Steyn and Morkel takes some courage.

 

[Burgey]

Didn't exactly display a bucket load of ticker out here last tour

 

[African Monkey]

Didn't exactly display a bucket load of ticker out here last tour

To be fair, it was a declining team and he had lost a bit of form by then, but it would be unfair to suggest that he lacks ticker after a couple of bad series.

 

[Riggins]

Great ticker when in form and in favourable conditions. Get him in the XI.

 

[watson]

The great Australian fast bowler Tibby Cotter probably deserves a mention as he was the only Australian cricketer killed during WW1. He served at Gallipoli before being killed at Beersheba (1917) while acting as a stretcher bearer. Tibby's brother John died at Ypres, Belgium;

Cookies must be enabled. | The Australian

Incidently,

Jack Hobbs rated their opening bowler, 'Tibby' Cotter, on that tour, the fastest bowler he ever faced. He had some uneasy moments against him, but he made 94 before Clem Hill, with only a single stump to aim at from the third man boundary, hit it and ran him out. It was not a flawless innings, but an aggressive one...

From 'Hobbs - and a 'Bad Trott' by John Arlott.

Ian Collis also writes;

Classed with Harold Larwood for pace, Albert 'Tibby' Cotter of NSW was a superb physical specimen and had tremendous stamina. Cotter took 89 wickets in 21 Tests.....

'Cricket Through the Ages' p40

 

[BoyBrumby]

Kepler Wessels was a tough sort, wasn't he? Useful boxer, as one understands.

& didn't Colin Cowdrey once come out to save a test with his arm in a sling?

 

[fredfertang]

Kepler Wessels was a tough sort, wasn't he? Useful boxer, as one understands.

& didn't Colin Cowdrey once come out to save a test with his arm in a sling?

Lancs and Leicester opening bat Iain Sutcliffe got a boxing blue at Oxford, and Bill Alley was a class act till he got his jaw shattered by a cricket ball - went about 30 fights unbeaten iirc

And Kipper was a brave lad too despite the less than imposing physical presence - but I think he was always going to be at the non-strikers end in that Test

 

[Red]

Kepler Wessels was a tough sort, wasn't he? Useful boxer, as one understands.

& didn't Colin Cowdrey once come out to save a test with his arm in a sling?

Love the story of Cowdrey called up to face Lillee and Thommo at age 42 and then opening the batting!

 

[Hurricane]

Gautam Gambhir would be up there for mine. Probably not up there for others, but batting with concussion and saving a test with a broken finger against Steyn and Morkel takes some courage.

I think it is a given that Gambhir is a tough guy who asks for no quarter.