England’s best-ever Test XI – ECB survey

[Pratters]

I am not extremely comfortable with Botham in the XI, I must say, would much rather have some one else. His peak was obviously great but he was average after the injury. You would think you could replace him with some one else given a history of 140 years of test cricket..

 

[Bolo]

Body line is to Larwood's credit, not discredit. It wasn't some thing every one could execute. Because Larwood and Voce were such great bowlers, they could go ahead and then execute it well.

Bodyline is to his credit as a series. But as a strategy, it was single use. He was only going to get to play it for one series. Because that one series was nearly a quarter of his career (partly as a consequence of having used it), he gets a lot of impact out of it on his numbers, but one series wouldn't define a long career as much.

 

[The Battlers Prince]

I am not extremely comfortable with Botham in the XI, I must say, would much rather have some one else. His peak was obviously great but he was average after the injury. You would think you could replace him with some one else given a history of 140 years of test cricket..

Agreed fwiw I usually go between having him in my England XI and out. He’s not one of the best five bowlers or batsmen and with WG or Hammond in the XI I’m not sure I need extra overs from anyone as a backup bowler

 

[wpdavid]

I suppose it raises the the question of how long a peak needs to last for the purposes of where we rank people. Tyson's peak was far too short, even though his performances down under in 1954/55 are some of my favourites ever. In a sense, it wasn't Botham's fault that he kept being selected simply because there weren't viable alternatives whereas, If he was born in Australia he'd have been retired earlier. But even if you limit him to the 1977 to 1982 period, that's still a pretty high number of tests. And it's not as if there weren't other worthy contributions up to the summer of 1985.

 

[Pratters]

Larwood, Tyson and Botham raise the same question essentially in different ways. I think reputation of the player goes a long way here. Larwood was not just about Bodyline, he had a substantially great FC career as well. At what point does one draw the line.. Barry Richards would make an All time South African XI for me as from all accords he was a great player. It is quite subjective whom one selects when faced with such scenarios.

 

[The Battlers Prince]

Subjective it might be, but I’m still right