It’s been a decade since since sixteen eminent Australian ex-cricketers and commentators, plus four international ex-cricketers, selected Australian cricket’s ‘Team Of The Century’.
It was as follows:
Arthur Morris
Bill Ponsford
Don Bradman(c)
Neil Harvey
Greg Chappell
Keith Miller(vc)
Ian Healy(k)
Ray Lindwall
Shane Warne
Dennis Lillee
Bill O’Reilly
Allan Border(12th man)
The SMH ran an accompanying reader’s poll and the team differed slightly.
Trumper, Border and Tallon came into the XI for Ponsford, O’Reilly and Healy, respectively, while Waugh became 12th man. Here is the readers team, with percentages of readers preferences per player:
Arthur Morris – 65%
Victor Trumper – 46% (Ponsford 35%)
Don Bradman (c) – 100%
Neil Harvey – 62%
Greg Chappell – 73%
Allan Border – 58%
Keith Miller – 77%
Don Tallon(k) – 46% (Healy 31%)
Ray Lindwall – 85%
Shane Warne – 69% (O’Reilly 42%)
Dennis Lillee – 100%
Steve Waugh (12th man) – 50%
You will note that only Bradman and Lillee polled 100%, while next popular in order were Lindwall (85%), Miller (77%), G.Chappell (73%), Warne (69%) and Morris (65%).
Other luminaries polled as follows: Benaud, only 19%, Davidson 31%, Grimmett 8%, McGrath 19%.
Nineteenth century heroes Fred Spofforth, Bill Murdoch, Jack Blackham, Charles Turner, Hugh Trumble and George Giffen are all but forgotten (who speaks for them).
Remember, this was January 1999, and Gilchrist had not made his Test debut, while Hayden, Ponting and MacGrath had yet to add value to their illustrious careers.
So, if picking Australian cricket’s greatest ever team in March 2009, how would it differ from 10 years ago?
Well, here’s my team for what it’s worth:
Matt Hayden
Victor Trumper
Don Bradman (c)
Ricky Ponting (vc)
Greg Chappell
Keith Miller
Adam Gilchrist (k)
Ray Lindwall
Shane Warne
Dennis Lillee
Bill O’Reilly
Steve Waugh (12th man)
Okay, before anyone screams “what about McGrath?”, seriously, who are you going to drop out of Lillee or Lindwall?
And “what about Border,” I hear you say? Again, who are you going to drop out of Ponting, Chappell and Waugh?
My team is designed to take on all-comers in all conditions. It has five specialist batsmen, a keeper-batsman and five specialist bowlers (of which Miller is also a specialist bat).
There are three pacemen and two spinners (although both are leggies, they are entirely different types of bowlers). There are two lefties in the top seven (Hayden and Gilchrist).
Backup players for a touring team of 16 would be:
Charlie Macartney – opener and top order cover (also slow left arm spinner)
Ian Healy – backup keeper
Alan Davidson – leftarm pace bowling all-rounder
Glenn McGrath – backup paceman
An all-time second XI would look as follows:
A.Morris, W.Ponsford, C.Macartney, N.Harvey, A.Border (vc), S.Waugh (c), I.Healy (k), A.Davidson, C.Grimmett, F.Spofforth, G.McGrath.
What do Roar readers think?
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March 27th 2009 @ 1:22pm
southernwaratah said | March 27th 2009 @ 1:22pm | Report comment
My problem is how do I judge someone like Morris who played on uncovered pitches in unmodern times in terms of equipment and fitness compared to Hayden who really didn’t start his career until some of the modern greats retired (Ambrose, Walsh, Donald, Akram). The cricketers of the 30’s – 50’s had it so much tougher, I can’t begin to imagine how many runs Harvey, Bradman, Morris, Barnes & co would have pumped out. Border for me should be in the side as he scored runs against the greatest attacks of all time. Don’t get me wrong I’m a Hayden fan but the comparisons are uneven to Morris I feel.
March 27th 2009 @ 4:16pm
dan85 said | March 27th 2009 @ 4:16pm | Report comment
Ponsford
Hayden
Bradman
Ponting
G. Chappell
Miller
Gilchrist
Warne (c)
Lindwall
Lillee
McGrath
Harvey 12th
March 30th 2009 @ 1:05pm
Kirby said | March 30th 2009 @ 1:05pm | Report comment
Ponsford
Morris
Bradman (c)
Harvery
Chappell
Miller
Gilchrist (wk)
Davidson
Warne
Lillee
O’Reilly
Ponting (12th man)
April 9th 2009 @ 10:25am
Greg Russell said | April 9th 2009 @ 10:25am | Report comment
Profound is The Sheek when he asks which out of Lindwall or Lillee should be dropped for McGrath.
I cannot possibly answer this question because, being born in 1963, I never saw Lindwall bowl.
What this has made me realise is that I have no right to select an all-time Australian team, simply because I have not seen so many of the contenders play. Rather, all I may legitimately do is to select the best Australian team from my lifetime of watching cricket, which began with the English tour of 1970/1.
This is a reasonably easy exercise, because I believe that 9 selections are incontrovertible:
M Hayden, opener #2, Ponting, G Chappell, A Border, S Waugh, A Gilchrist, S Warne, D Lillee, pace bowler #3, spinner #2, G McGrath.
Notice that I select 12 players, not just because this is usual practice, but also because there is no clearcut selection as 4th bowler.
Now I will discuss the open-ended positions.
1. OPENER #2. First let me discuss batsmen in general. Without question Kim Hughes was the most talented of all other Australian batsmen from the last 40 years, but for obvious reasons he does not come into reckoning. I would rate Ian Chappell, Mark Waugh, Damien Martyn and possibly Doug Walters as the best of the rest in general. Waugh and Chappell both averaged only 42 over their test careers, but one can probably add about 4 or 5 to this because of their unselfishness: rather than accumulating easy runs, they were both happy to sacrifice their wickets in the team cause and/or throw their wicket away once the job was done, as opposed to converting 100 into 200. Martyn may seem out of place, but he was pure silk, he averaged 46, he had to wait a long time to get a chance, he had periods where he was the best batsman in the world, and his career was really only ended by a series of appalling umpiring decisions against him in England in 2005 (notwithstanding a brief comeback during which he scored arguably the best Australian century of the last decade in Johannesburg).
Whatever, none of these players could be considered an opener. Possibly (probably?) we will allocate this position to Phillip Hughes in the future, but for now it must be given to one of Keith Stackpole, Mark Taylor, Michael Slater or Justin Langer. Stacky was my first cricketing hero and was the best Australian exponent of the hook shot until Hayden and Ponting came along. Taylor stands out as the best of a lineup above of excellent captains, so he may be worth selecting for his captaincy. Slater had breathtaking talent – remember, it was he who kept the young Hayden out of the Australian side – and let’s not forget that he scored 14 centuries and 9 nineties. Langer was arguably the best performed, but he had the considerable advantage of opening with Hayden the Colossus.
It wouldn’t be Stackpole, but I find I cannot choose between the other three for this position.
2. SPINNER #2. This would have to be either Ashley Mallett or Stuart MacGill. The leggie took more wickets (208 vs 132) at a phenomenal strike rate (4.72 per test vs 3.47) and slightly lower average (29 vs 30). But wouldn’t it be wonderful to see Warne operate with a high quality finger spinner like Mallett?
Once again I find this very hard to call.
3. FAST BOWLER #3. There would be many contenders here: the swing of Max Walker, the brutal speed and hostility of Jeff Thomson, the excellence and sheer class of the injury-prone Bruce Reid, the bluster of the much under-rated Merv Hughes (who is rarely given the credit he deserves for being able to lead an attack – just ask Allan Border), the athleticism and the statistics of Craig McDermott, and the athleticism and speed of Brett Lee. And in five years it may be clearcut that this position should go to Mitchell Johnson, given his batting and the left-hand option that he brings.
But for now I find it relatively easy to say that this position must go to Jason Gillespie. He is similar in many ways to Damien Martyn: a phenomenal natural talent who enjoyed periods where he was the best in the world and who was mysteriously undone by poor form in England 2005 that came out of nowhere. Gillespie’s overall test record 259 wickets at an average of 26 more than matches that of the other candidates for this position. Perhaps even more importantly, he was a brilliant partnership bowler, which is what is being looked for here, as opposed to an attack leader: whether bowling with McGrath or Warne, Dizzy really added to the quality of their work. And of course Gillespie’s determination with the bat marked him as a real cricketer’s cricketer, a virtue that should not be underestimated.
So there is my Australian XII for 1970-2009: 10 selections and 2 positions that fellow selectors may assist me with.
May 6th 2009 @ 2:59am
Ironbelly said | May 6th 2009 @ 2:59am | Report comment
1 Hayden
2 Ponsford
3 Bradman
4 Ponting
5 G.Chappell
6 Walters
7 Gilchrist
8 Warne
9 Lindwall
10 Lillee
11 McGrath
12 take your pick? (Young Thommo ?)
Ive picked Walters at 6 for three reasons
1 His batting would be perfect after coming in after the onslaught from further up the order.
2 His bowling wasn’t that bad, (one of his nicknames was golden arm) but against that bowling lineup would he be needed? Ponting and Chappell can loose the arm as well!
3 He would be the glue to hold the team together, a team needs somebody to keep them together. A team of champions does not make a champion team!!! The windies proved it in the early eighties under Clive.
At least this team would not be intimidated
January 7th 2010 @ 7:01pm
Smiddie said | January 7th 2010 @ 7:01pm | Report comment
1. Watson (next bradman)
2. Hayden
3. Bradman(c)
4. Pointing
5. S.Waugh
6. Chappell
7. Gilchrist
8. Warne
9. Lindwall
10. Lillee
11. McGrath
Playing At there best… Pointing needs to retire he is done… Sorry
January 7th 2010 @ 7:12pm
Smiddie said | January 7th 2010 @ 7:12pm | Report comment
1. Watson (next bradman)
2. Hayden
3. Bradman(c)
4. Pointing
5. S.Waugh
6. M.Hussey
7. Chappell
8. Gilchrist
9. Warne
10. Lillee
11. McGrath
12. Lindwall
i went for an extra batsman, you got 3 ballers plus watson, stephen, amd hussey can do abit of balling
Cant believe no one choose hussey…
Playing At there best… Pointing needs to retire he is done… Sorry
January 7th 2010 @ 8:11pm
bever fever said | January 7th 2010 @ 8:11pm | Report comment
Problem is, that not a lot of people who are still alive that have seen test cricket before the second world war can make a informed judgement on it as they were probably to young.
But seriously Keith Miller has to be the second chosen after Bradman.
G Chappell, Lilliee, Lindwall, Taylor and Warne must also be in the team.
I would say players such as Spofforth, Bannerman, McCabe, O’reilly, Grimmett, Armstrong etc etc etc are comparable to modern day players such as players Slater, Walters, I chappell, Hayden etc.
BTW i noticed that no-one has included L Hassett or R Benaud proving that memory plays a very important part of peoples picks.
December 11th 2010 @ 3:43pm
Sean Keenan said | December 11th 2010 @ 3:43pm | Report comment
Woohoo!!!!!! Another chance to stake my team! Indeed what about Spofforth? McGrath is better than Lindwall. Lindwall could bat and made 2 hundreds, had a great bowling average and was part of the ‘best ever’ aussie side: the 1948 invincables. However, McGrath was good from the mid 90′s to 2007 and kept up his brilliance the entire time, and is the key reason Australia has become the grestest winning team ever. Lindwall fell away in his career and his Strike Rate, bowling average and wickets per match is worse than McGrath’s. There are many other grests in Harvey and McCabe, Hill, Murdoch etc, but the team I’ve got here is at least to me, very difficult to change. Also Miller career is slightly overated I should say, the stats don’t lie. Either way I’d pick him everytime, my favourite cricketer from days gone by.
Trumper
Hayden
Bradman
Chappell
Border
Miller
Gilchrist
Warne
Lillee
Spofforth
McGrath
What do you think?
April 12th 2011 @ 3:05pm
Carnef said | April 12th 2011 @ 3:05pm | Report comment
For Me your side is a strong one but there are some things that need explanation, the first being that if you make a side that is from all time and then claim its the all time side to verse any other side then the other sides must also be allowed to include there best. Now having a wicket keeper who isn’t the best of glove men isn’t an option for me in that scenario. Gilchrist ended with 379 catches and 37 stumpings from 96 matches only because one of the best bowling attacks since the west indies was bowling to him giving him so many chances, chances that in this scenario can’t afford to be dropped, mcgrath warne dizzy kasper lee even macgill were all phenomenal wicket takers but it ends up that he dropped so many chances through his career and if he isn’t good enough to make the side as a batsman then he doesn’t make the side. He ripped apart bowling attacks I hear you say? No he didn’t the attacks were sunk before he got there, he never dug Australia out of a hole.
So Healy, marsh or tallon go in.
i give it to healy as this thread is based on people you’ve seen play. Also if the chips are down in the field then a catch can turn the momentum and can have as much affect as a quick fire fifty probably more.
other than that I think Border deserve a start in place of harvey due to his grit and determination when the chips are down. Also if the wicket is green another pace man is needed, so lindwall lillee mcgrath all get a gurnsey with miller and warne
August 9th 2011 @ 10:45am
sean said | August 9th 2011 @ 10:45am | Report comment
are you replying to me or…?