Last week, I was asked, in an online poll, to name a World Cricket XI of all time. To select such a team is literally impossible. With my cricketing experiences, as a player and as one who has covered the game everywhere since 1994, I know that I can give an objective overview of the best that have ever played the game, so here it is. Many serious, exciting players had to be left out. Also, I have selected a "proper" and "real" cricket team, with as much balance, including a "real" wicket-keeper, without any substitutions for positions or criteria. Notice that Donald Bradman and George Headley are omitted. I even expect that this could get me fully ex-communicated, if I am not that already, in the West Indies' case, from the annals of Australian and West Indies cricket. My selectees played extensively around the cricket world, against all countries. Bradman and Headley had not.
They mainly played in a time when cricket was quite limited. Both of these batsmen have been highly favoured because they made their marks against England, and have been highly touted by the English. However, I ask you this. When, in the annals of cricket, had England been the world's best cricket team? England may have invented the game, and its scribes may have conjured up their heroes, but overall, England has been very poor indeed. To date, they are still trying to win a contemporary international competition, despite all of the sycophantic rhetoric! Bradman and Headley were great for their time, but, for me, not of all time. Bradman made 6,996 runs; 52 Tests, avg. 99.94, mostly against England and South Africa. Headley, with very limited outings, due to the West Indies only being admitted to Test cricket in 1928, was also great, and played mainly against England and Australia; only 22 Tests, making 2,190 runs, average 60.83.
My "World's Best XI of All Time"
1. Sunil Gavaskar
2. Sachin Tendulkar
3. Brian Lara
4. Vivian Richards
5. Jacques Kallis
6. Garfield Sobers
7. Alan Knott
8. Shane Warne
9. Muttiah Muralitheran
10. Joel Garner
11. Dennis Lillee
It is only coincidental that my team comprises players who have all played since WWII. No 1, Sunil Gavaskar is easily the best opener to play cricket. He made copious amounts of runs against the two best fast bowling combinations of all time; West Indies and Australia; 1970' and 1980's. No-one else, from any Test country, has ever done this! Facing West Indies' Michael Holding, Andy Roberts, Joel Garner, Wayne Daniel, Colin Croft, Sylvester Clarke and Malcolm Marshall, and Australia's Dennis Lillee, Jeff Thompson, Lennie Pascoe, Max Walker and Gary Gilmour, could not have been easy. "The Little Master" made 10122 runs in 125 Tests, average 51.1, with those fast bowling attacks coming at him non-stop. He also played 108 ODI's, making 3,092 runs; the best pure opening batsman ever.
No 2, Sachin Tendulkar has done in the 1990's and 2000's what Gavaskar started earlier. No one seems to be more focused on batsmanship, and to enjoy the honor of representing his country, as Sachin. His efforts were completed over a 20-year spell when spin had become the most successful bowling style around the world. He made runs against both fast bowlers and the two best spinners, perhaps ever, the world has seen; Shane Warne of Australia and Sri Lanka's Muttiah Muralitheran. No batsman has been able to command each stroke, on leg side or off, more deliberately or completely, more evenly balanced, than the soft-spoken Sachin. Added to that, no one has taken on the mantle of real icon as honorably.
He has already scored 13,447 runs in 166 Tests, at an average of 55.56 and an overwhelming 17,598 runs in 442 ODI's. No 3, Brian Lara ignited the cricket world with his style and batting panache as few had. Few would appreciate how delicate his batsmanship was, with his shot placements. Like Tendulkar, perhaps even more than Tendulkar, Lara played spin with such ease, such balance, that the best two spinners in his time, the previously mentioned Warne and Murali, have to acknowledge that he is very special. While Lara holds the record of 400 runs in a Test innings, his 688 in 3 Tests, against Sri Lanka in 2001, with Murali at his best, is probably the most legendary effort. The generally unsuccessful West Indies captaincy stints could well have debilitated his desire and longevity. He made 11,953 runs, in 131 Tests, average 52.88, complemented by 10,405 runs from 299 ODI's.
In my team, Lara takes the place of Bradman. That is not because Lara is West Indian. It is that he has made runs against all of the bowling attacks around the world, including Australia and Sri Lanka; Warne and Muralitheran. No 4, (Sir) Vivian Richards could be contentious. There were other considerations. The combative Ian and prolific Greg Chappell, and Steve Waugh, of Australia, England's David Gower, one of the coolest, classiest batsmen ever, West Indies' Everton Weekes, who seldom hit the ball airborne, and Ricky Ponting, (Australia), were also considered. No batsman has ever evoked more fear to opposing bowlers than "Uncle Smokie." His swagger and build allowed great bowlers, fast or slow, to cower from his power. Viv emanated total poise, fearlessness, arrogance too and was also destructive and productive.
His onfield wars with Australia's Lille and Thompson were the stuff from which legends are made. His 8,540 runs in 121 Tests came at 50.23 average. Augment that with 6,721 runs in 187 ODI's, average 47.00 to complete the picture of very high class productivity.
Part II next week
