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'Teams at their Peak' XI

slowfinger

International Debutant
Ok, so I was going through 'Barry Norman's Book of Cricket' and he was talking about (in his opinion) the best teams in the World at their Peak were:

The 'Warwick Wonders' 1920-21
Bradman's 'Invincibles' 1948
The Super 'Springboks' 1970
The Windies 'Wizards' 1984-85
:ph34r:Ponting's 'Party-Poopers', 2006-7

The Warwick Wonders was England at the time of Hobbs, Jack Fearne, Frank Wolley and Wilfred Rhodes. This was probably their best ever XI. They were almost undefeatable.

The invincible was an ambition, to never be defeated in their reign. Led by the Don himself, and many other greats such as Keith Miller, Arthur Morris, Sid Barnes, Lindsay Hasset and the Bill Brown.
It was apparent they were destined for success since their first Test, V England, Australia won by 8 wickets, and in the Second, OZ won by 409 runs. This would happen a lot during the reign and they were of course truly Invincible, all the way until the Don's retirement.

The Saffies team was of course back then, heavily affected by the Apartheid system and thus possibly didn't have their best teams that the country could offer, but neigh, this team was a great, lead by the great Graeme Pollock, that would demolish and whitewash a respected Australia team.

The Windies Wizards was and is possibly the most unstoppable team to ever exist. With the likes of Clive Lloyd, Grenidge, Holding, Viv Richards, Dujon, Hayes, Walsh, Marshall, and, well, the whole team. Noone came close to beating them. Ever.

The Ponting Party Poopers was and a small part of it remains to be a feared team. The batting was amazing, the bowling was great, the fielding was great, heck, even the Keeper was great! The peak time was OZ's whitewash of England when two greats Warne and Mcgrath retired.

Now, to Pick an XI based on these players at their peaks:

1.Gordon Greenidge
2.Barry Richards
3.Don Bradman
4.Viv Richards
5.Graeme Pollock
6.Keith Miller
7.Jack Gregory
8.Adam Gilchrist (wk)
9.Shane Warne
10.Michael Holding
11.Malcolm Marshall

Your opinions?
 
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Spark

Global Moderator
Slightly confused by the XI.

If it's based on players at their peak, then Ponting is an automatic pick IMO.
 

Days of Grace

International Captain
The Warwick Wonders was England at the time of Hobbs, Jack Fearne, Frank Wolley and Wilfred Rhodes, when they would beat OZ and Whitewash them once. This is probably England's best ever side when they ruled Cricket, and when Armstrong was probably the 'big gun'.
This sentence confused me.:wacko:

Anyway, the Australian side around 2002-2004 was probably better than the 2006/07 Ashes side since Martyn was on the way out, and McWarne were on their last legs.
 

TNT

Banned
Hayden
Greenidge
Bradman
Ponting
Viv
Hussey
Gilchrist
Warne
Marshall
Holding
McGrath
 

TNT

Banned
Graeme Pollock for Hussey?
It will only weaken the team, Pollock played 41 test innings scoring 2256 runs @ 61.

Hussey in his first 41 innings he scored 2300 runs @ 70.

But having Hussey in the field makes the most sense.
 

Dan

Hall of Fame Member
Don't know much about Armstrong's 1921 side, so I'll stick the the later 4.

Arthur Morris
Barry Richards
Sir Donald Bradman
Graeme Pollock
Viv Richards
Keith Miller
Adam Gilchrist
Mike Procter
Ray Lindwall
Malcolm Marshall
Shane Warne

12th Man: Ricky Ponting

Tough on McGrath, Ambrose, S Waugh and Harve.
 

Migara

Cricketer Of The Year
Murali's peak is csertainly better than Warne's peak.

See the best ever rankings for them.

Bradman, Ponting, Murali, McGrath and Hadlee are automatic picks IIRC because they have topped 900 points.

OK here goes

Hutton (945)
Hobba (942)
Bradman (961)
Ponting (942)
May (941)
Walcott / Richards / Sangakkara (938) - Sanga most obvious because being a keeper
Sobers (938)
Imrah Khan (922)
McGrath (914)
Muralitharan (920)
SF Barnes (932)

Omitted Lohman, because he played so little cricket
 

slowfinger

International Debutant
The XI is chosen by those teams as mentioned above. Sorry if it's confusing its the book ffs. Still thought it was interesting tho.
 

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