Pick a team comprising of your favourite players

[MrIncredible]

Greenidge
Hayden
Ponting
V Richards
Lara
S Waugh*
A Gilchrist+
I Khan
M Marshall
S Warne
C Ambrose

 

[silentstriker]

Never understood people that go to watch players rather than watch the team or the sport. However, given the celeb culture we live in I guess I am in the minority (though of course that has been around in one form or another since Grace or even before). I still laugh at the famous occasion when Afridi got a duck and 9/10ths of the crowd just left.

It is a pretty alien concept to me given it is a team game.

For a team game, cricket is pretty much as individualistic as it gets though.

 

[G.I.Joe]

Whats wrong with going to watch the players? It has nothing to do with celebrity. If I just wanted to watch the sport, I'd pop in at the nearest municipal ground to watch the kids pottering about. You go to watch the players because you know they're an elite bunch and the best at it.

 

[HeathDavisSpeed]

Only criteria is that you had to have seen them play live

All Time:

Graham Gooch
Gordon Greenidge
Viv Richards
Brian Lara
Mark Waugh
Ryan ten Doeschate
Mike Garnham (wk)
Malcolm Marshall
Curtley Ambrose
Waqar Younis
Iain O'Brien

Current:

Graeme Smith
Will Jefferson
Jacques Kallis
Jesse Ryder
Brendan Nash
Ryan ten Doeschate
Stu Mills (wk)
Brandon Hiini
Mark Houghton
Peter Siddle James Frankin (replace with Shane Bond if not injured)
Iain O'Brien

Removed Peter Siddle as I realised I've not seen him play live. All others are fine though.

 

[bagapath]

Having seen only two days of live test cricket my pool of players is very limited. the team still looks pretty decent, though

Sehwag
Strauss
Dravid
Pietersen
Ganguly
Dhoni/ Collingwood
Gilchrist +
Flintoff
Warne
Gillespie
McGrath

from the pool of players i have seen on tv

greenidge
gavaskar
richards
tendulkar
lara
imran *
gilchrist +
hadlee
marshall
warne
mcgrath

reserves: botham, murali, ponting, ambrose, akram

 

[HeathDavisSpeed]

Picked some of mine based on domestic cricket. Should be obvious, but I don't have a Test or ODI XI, just players that are cult heroes of mine or players that I love[d] to watch play.

 

[aussie]

Having seen only two days of live test cricket my pool of players is very limited. the team still looks pretty decent, though

Sehwag
Strauss
Dravid
Pietersen
Ganguly
Dhoni/ Collingwood
Gilchrist +
Flintoff
Warne
Gillespie
McGrath

from the pool of players i have seen on tv

greenidge
gavaskar
richards
tendulkar
lara
imran *
gilchrist +
hadlee
marshall
warne
mcgrath

reserves: botham, murali, ponting, ambrose, akram

You never saw Tendy play live at a ground in India?

 

[aussie]

Never understood people that go to watch players rather than watch the team or the sport. However, given the celeb culture we live in I guess I am in the minority (though of course that has been around in one form or another since Grace or even before). I still laugh at the famous occasion when Afridi got a duck and 9/10ths of the crowd just left.

It is a pretty alien concept to me given it is a team game.

Well for international cricket matches at that i have been to here in ENG a overseas i definately sit down & watch everything never left the game before it finished. For the domestic game here for Lancashire i only used to go to see Flintoff & whatever other serious international player was present at the game etc..

 

[bagapath]

You never saw Tendy play live at a ground in India?

I have seen him field !

but I saw wayne rooney score two goals in old trafford along with 68000 others in 2005.

 

[aussie]

I have seen him field!

Ha dam well thats sad uncle bagapath. Seen Tendy bat live here in Old Trafford approximately 2 times:

- 99 WC vs PAK
- ODI 07 vs ENG

Still very annoyed that no ODI or test vs IND was held here in 2002 nor a test wasn't here in 07 instead of an ODI.

 

[aussie]

but I saw wayne rooney score two goals in old trafford along with 68000 others in 2005.

Very good.

 

[NUFAN]

I'll only include current players..

1 Ryan Broad
2 Virender Sehwag
3 Ricky Ponting
4 Kumar Sangakarra
5 George Bailey
6 AB De Villiers
7 Shakib Al Hasan
8 Daniel Vettori
9 Jerome Taylor
10 Peter Siddle
11 Dirk Nannes

AB and Kumar can take turns keeping. Rasel is out since the last time I did this, just over him.
Marcus North's stocks are rising,

 

[mohammad16]

ODIs

Saeed anwar = IMHO the most Stylish batsmen of all time
Jayasuriya
Brian Lara
Viv Richards
Ponting
Inzamam
Yuvaraj Singh
Afridi
Shane Warne
Wasim
Shoaib Akhtar

Tests

Sehwag
Gilchrist
Ponting
Lara
Viv
Jacque Kallis
Shane warne
Wasim
Waqar
Ambrose
Saqlain


These players are simply the players id just love to watch play, just players id pay the most money to see, the best entertainers.

 

[Athlai]

V Sehwag
Chris Gayle
Sachin Tendulkar
Ross Taylor
Kumar Sangakkara (wk)
Jesse Ryder
James Franklin
Daniel Vettori (c)
Mitchell Johnson
Jerome Taylor
Shane Bond

12th man Jeets

 

[GIMH]

Never understood people that go to watch players rather than watch the team or the sport. However, given the celeb culture we live in I guess I am in the minority (though of course that has been around in one form or another since Grace or even before). I still laugh at the famous occasion when Afridi got a duck and 9/10ths of the crowd just left.

It is a pretty alien concept to me given it is a team game.

What a ball it was though

 

[JBMAC]

My side for Tests only because there is no other form of Cricket just money spinners... And YES I have seen them all play

1. Sunil Gavaskar
2. Geoff Boycott
3. Don Bradman
4. Neil Harvey
5 Greg Chappell
6. Garry Sobers
7. Keith Miller (K)
8. Wasim Akram
9. Shane Warne
10. Alec Bedser
11. Don Tallon

There are a lot of names left out deserving of selection...ie Ring, Johnston,Engineer,Pollock,etc etc etc etc

 

[four_or_six]

Never understood people that go to watch players rather than watch the team or the sport. However, given the celeb culture we live in I guess I am in the minority (though of course that has been around in one form or another since Grace or even before). I still laugh at the famous occasion when Afridi got a duck and 9/10ths of the crowd just left.

It is a pretty alien concept to me given it is a team game.

I definitely do that for county matches. I'd never leave and I always enjoy the game, but I tend to look for when Middx or Surrey play teams with an overseas player I want to see, and then try to get down for one of those matches. Can be annoying when the player you want to see gets out, but it's awesome when they play well.

 

[Hit_Wicket]

1. M. Hussey
2. S. Tendulkar
3. R. Ponting
4. B. Lara
5. S. Waugh
6. J. Kallis
7. A. Gilchrist
8. S. Pollock
9. S. Warne
10. S. Bond
11. G. McGrath

12. J. Rhodes

I tinkered with the batting order a bit and Flintoff, Sangakarra, Dravid and AB were also strongly considered, but since it's subjective, there unfortunately wasn't any room.

 

[Black_Warrior]

Ok the topic title says "favourite players" so I am picking two teams based on my personal preferences, they are not necessarily the best players. For example, I believe McGrath and Ponting are fantastic players but I dont personally like them so they dont make it to my teams. I really like Abdul Razzaq as a player, so he will make it ahead of better allrounders like Flintoff and Cairns.

Test XI
Justin Langer
Virender Sehwag
Brian Lara
Sachin Tendulkar
Inzamam ul Haq
Jacques Kallis
Andrew Flower
Wasim Akram
Shoaib Akhtar
Muttiah Muralitharan
Allan Donald

ODI XI

Saeed Anwar
Sachin Tendulkar
Gautam Gambhir
Inzamam ul Haq
Michael Bevan
Adam Gilchrist
Abdul Razzaq
Wasim Akram
Saqlain Mushtaq
Waqar Younis
Allan Donald

 

[Prince EWS]

I definitely do that for county matches. I'd never leave and I always enjoy the game, but I tend to look for when Middx or Surrey play teams with an overseas player I want to see, and then try to get down for one of those matches. Can be annoying when the player you want to see gets out, but it's awesome when they play well.

Well for international cricket matches at that i have been to here in ENG a overseas i definately sit down & watch everything never left the game before it finished. For the domestic game here for Lancashire i only used to go to see Flintoff & whatever other serious international player was present at the game etc..

Strangely enough, I'm sort of the opposite to that. When I go to Tests (or even when I watch them at home, actually) I do generally hope to see certain players and hope they do well - never to the extent of actually buying tickets on a certain day depending on who's batting or leaving the game early or anything, but I still have it in mind when I go. When I go to watch New South Wales play, it's all just about the team for me.

It's probably a result of the fact that I actually have a closer tie to New South Wales from a team results perspective than any particular Test country. That's probably pretty rare in itself.