Sunil Gavaskar in all time 1-day XI!! No way! Only in the year when he was getting retired, he started getting man of the match awards in ODI's. Took such a long time to learn batting in ODIs.
I haven't read your all-time great but here is mine.
Test or ODI
1) Hanyes
2) Greendige
These guys are will and were the best openers in the world of cricket.
They will open for me even if they are a 100 years old.
3)Boycott - Slow player true, but as Sobers says, once in Boycott was extremely hard to get out.
A stable batsman that no presnet team has at the momment.
4) Javed Miandad - The greatest batsman after the Sir Garfield Sobers!!!
5) Sir Sobers - No all time great is complete with out him.
6) I need a wicket keeper, the only two that come to mind are Moin Khan and Ian Healy.
Bowlers:
7) Malcome Marshall
8) Dennis Lillee
9) Imran Khan
10)Abdul Qadir
11)Sir Frank
What do you guys think of this line up?
I do not think grinidge and heynes will be all time test XI. But ODI XI, yes. In time of Grinidge and Heynes the best bowlkers were west Indian which they of course never faced, followed by Austarlians with which they do not have such a great record. Both have rather low average (42 avg. 7287 runs Haynes, 44 avg 7558 runs Grinidge) So in terms of quality of bowling faced as well as average Gavaskar (10122 runs 51 avg.)is best opener in that period in tests. Best fast bowlers were windies that times. And it need not be told again the success SMG had against windies (averaging 65 against likes of Holding and Marshall).
Then you have sutcliffe (60 avg, 4555 runs), Hobbs (57 avg. 5410 runs) which mnust be considered.
In fact I would say that for tests greenidge-Haynes do not stand chance. But for ODI, there is no competition to this pair.
ALL time TEST XI
Sutcliffe
Gavaskar
Sobers
Bradman
Richards
Healy (wk)
Imran
Lillee
Holding
Warne
Hadlee/Chandra/Waqar/Thompson/Botham/ (on their best day)
Taking Border in place of Lara may puzzle some. But in my opinion Border has many great fighting ODI inninings which Lara does not have. Warne's record is not so great in ODI. Some people may think Saqlain is too young to put in all time greats. But he has played enough ODI's.
Lillee, richards and Imran are in both lists of me. I think people will agree with that.
[This message has been edited by ZZ (edited September 30, 1999).]
ZZ first thing I see is that no sobers in your team.
Bradman is a good choice i forgot about him.
"I do not think grinidge and heynes will be all time test XI. But ODI XI, yes. In time of Grinidge and Heynes the best bowlkers were west Indian which they of course never faced, followed by Austarlians with which they do not have such a great record."
Facing top bowling and talent plus skill are two different things.
These to are talented and skilled players.
Averages do matter much in the real aspect of the game.
Wasim Akram has a average of 15.67 as batsman and every one knows he is a good lower order batsman.
nope.. as a test opener.. compare Gavaskar with Greenidge-Haynes on fast pitches, spinning pitches, against whichever bowlers (and again as I said Greenidge /Haynes did not play the best bowling of WI so compare performance against Australia which was second best) SMG is way ahead. Richards/ Sobers/ Imran/ Holding everyone says that Gavaskar was the best opener of they have seen. Imran recalls him as most difficult batsman to get wicket of.
Of course, in ODIs SMG sucked. But in the year he got retired, he got 4-5 man of the match awards, started hitting sixes and we were all puzzled what is happening.
Afterall, why averages are not important? Greenidge and Haynes could be carefree. They were followed by Richards and Lloyd and Kalicharan. Even you or me could be captain of that team and win games. What SMG had in the middle? Vishvanath who was a pleasure to watch but how long he would last.