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The Richie Benaud Tribute Draft

honestbharani

Whatever it takes!!!
Eddie Barlow
Hashim Amla
EVerton Weekes (c)
Bob Cowper
Steve Smith
Andy Flower (wk)
Doug Walters
Richard Hadlee
Michael Holding
Derek Underwood
Fred Trueman


Happy with the side I got finally.. Two South Africans with contrasting approaches to batting opening the innings.. Ice cool Amla with his silky strokeplay and unfrettered by either extreme pace or spin along with the dour and dogged but always effective Eddie Barlow, followed by the Genius Weekes at 3. Cowper will offer forth right strokeplay and a break from the right handed top 3. TPC at 5 with his golden bat will provide runs, slip fielding and decent parttime legspin to give the bowlers a break. And he will score his runs at a good clip with an unorthodox technique that will drive any bowling attack mad even if they think they gotten through the strong top order.


Andy Flower is an amazing batsman to come in after this varied top 5 and pile on the agony for the bowling side. And his keeping, while not top of the notch, will be more than enough given that the side is full of talented but orthodox bowlers rather than unorthodox mystery bowlers. Doug Walters will come in and bash the runs at 7 and also provide to the side as the main 5th bowler with his right arm medium pace, although Barlow and Cowper will contribute as well, alongside Steve Smith and his legbreaks. Sir Hadlee at 8 is the perfect #8 batsman for a lineup like this and Holding can hold his own and give the batter at the other end good support. A very long and deep batting line up to take on the best of the other sides.


The bowling will be led by Holding and Trueman and Hadlee with Derek "Deadly" Underwood providing the main spin option... With the back up well documented earlier in this post, this will be a line up that will bowl out most sides out for par to under par scores more often than not in almost all conditions.. Thrilled to have selected a very complete XI.. These Honest Heroes will honestly rock. :)
 
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kyear2

Cricketer Of The Year
My Team:-

01. Len Hutton.
02. Barry Richards.
03. Rohan Kanhai.
04. Javed Miandad.
05. Peter May. (*)
06. Garry Sobers. (5)
07. Denis Lindsay. (+)
08. Shaun Pollock. (2)
09. Alec Bedser. (3)
10. Allan Donald. (1)
11. Lance Gibbs. (4)
Strong batting lineup. Just don't know why everyone automatically slots Sobers in at 6. Why put your best batsman so low in the batting order.
 

Red

The normal awards that everyone else has
Strong batting lineup. Just don't know why everyone automatically slots Sobers in at 6. Why put your best batsman so low in the batting order.
That's where he batted for most of his career. Not sure why, but he did bowl a lot, and I guess he had the 3 Ws above him in the order.
 

watson

Banned
That's where he batted for most of his career. Not sure why, but he did bowl a lot, and I guess he had the 3 Ws above him in the order.
And Rohan Kanhai who nailed down the No.3 spot with an average of 50+.

It appears that Sobers was one of those batsman who didn't really settle into any one position in the order. Looking at the stats it appears that he really didn't mind where he batted - it was all good;

No.3
Innings = 17
Average = 72

No.4
Innings = 24
Average = 64

No.5
Innings = 37
Average = 59

No.6
Innings = 57
Average = 53


Assuming that Sobers wouldn't be shoulding a fair amount of bowling I think that his best positions would be No.4 or No.5 so as to get the most out his enormous talent.
 
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Red

The normal awards that everyone else has
The fact that he was an allrounder might make people forget he was such an incredible batsman. IMO he is second GOAT as a pure batsman, and a cut above Sachin, Lara, Chappell, Viv, Hammond etc as a bat.
 

kyear2

Cricketer Of The Year
That's my point. fir mine.
If you were plying him in a real series, I wouldn't have my best bat listed at 6. He would be at 4 in my line up.

Regarding why he batted so much at 6, it appears that as his bowling load increased, his batting position dropped accordingly.
 

Saint Kopite

First Class Debutant
Actually when this draft started, I had decided to bat Sobers at four. But, I was hoping to pick Worrell/Waugh/Border to bat with the tail and Sir Garry at four/five.
 

Red

The normal awards that everyone else has
Just haven't got around to it. If anyone wants to, feel free. I'll get to it when I can if no one does.
 

Shady Slim

International Coach
-only players that pietersen has played with or against
-each team has pietersen in their team automatically
-vote not only on performance but also team harmony
-you have to pick a coach

gloriously disgusting
 

Shady Slim

International Coach
just for the record team harmony is calculated:

base 100
-5/English player
-4/player that has been involved in notable sledges with KP
-20/English coach
slipping below a mark of fifty gives you team disharmony

(i hope you are not seriously considering this, my ideas are normally this bad but this is a joke and sarcasm is impossible to tell on a forum)
 

Red

The normal awards that everyone else has
(i hope you are not seriously considering this, my ideas are normally this bad but this is a joke and sarcasm is impossible to tell on a forum)
The thing I love most about it is hearing George Costanzas voice in my mind reading the rules.
 

Red

The normal awards that everyone else has
Just for something different, perhaps just the draft participants could vote on this draft in this thread. 3 votes for best team, 2 for second, one for third. Everyone who played has to vote. You can't vote for your own team. Saves clogging up the sub forum with an extra thread.

If any other observers wanna vote, they can feel free.
 

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