Shady Slim
International Coach
so all the crawley talk has got me thinking... let's make some All Time Undeserving XIs for decades from the nineties to the modern era. four decades that gives us!
the reason i specifically say undeserving rather than bad - if you just say bad, you'll find that, eg, the xi for the 2000s might be just clogged up with bangladesh JAGs, or whatever, who aren't very good at cricket, but more a function of being generally just less good at the game - even though they full well deserved their spot in the team. which is to say if you frame it as "bad players", you will just get guys from teams with talent dearths.
however!
by framing it as undeserving, you focus it on the crawleys, marcus harrises and so on who aren't just bad per se however also really don't deserve to have been selected.
let's throw in a minimum of ten tests in the relevant decade
the reason i specifically say undeserving rather than bad - if you just say bad, you'll find that, eg, the xi for the 2000s might be just clogged up with bangladesh JAGs, or whatever, who aren't very good at cricket, but more a function of being generally just less good at the game - even though they full well deserved their spot in the team. which is to say if you frame it as "bad players", you will just get guys from teams with talent dearths.
however!
by framing it as undeserving, you focus it on the crawleys, marcus harrises and so on who aren't just bad per se however also really don't deserve to have been selected.
let's throw in a minimum of ten tests in the relevant decade