Who will be in the best ODI team of all time?
Roar Guru By Jason Cave, 24 Dec 2010 The Crowd is a Roar Guru
- Tagged:
- 50 over cricket, Adam Gilchrist, Allan Border, Cricket, Dean Jones, Glenn McGrath, ICC, International Cricket Council, Matthew Hayden, ODI, one-day internationals, Sachin Tendulkar, Shane Warne
With the 40th anniversary of the first one-day international fast approaching, the International Cricket Council (ICC) is going to name the best ODI team of all time.
What’s interesting is not only the naming of the team but also the timing of it, seeing that the ODI format is under serious threat thanks to the new kid on the block, the hugely popular Twenty20 format.
So who should be in the greatest ODI team?
This is my team:
Sachin Tendulkar (India).
Matthew Hayden (Australia).
Dean Jones (Australia).
Allan Border (Australia – Captain).
Martin Crowe (New Zealand).
Sir Richard Hadlee (New Zealand).
Adam Gilchrist (Australia).
Shane Warne (Australia).
Malcolm Marshall (West Indies).
Michael Holding (West Indies).
Glenn McGrath (Australia).
12th man: Allan Donald (South Africa).
Who is in yours?
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December 24th 2010 @ 2:46am
Stu said | December 24th 2010 @ 2:46am | Report comment
Go Hayden! A great opener and a great man. His ODI average went largely unrecognized when he “retired”. Then he went in to be the highest scorer in the following IPL with gilly. Was teaching some mathematics and analyzed his final 20 innings in ODI against the 20 innings of his successors, Matt came out on top by some margin.
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December 24th 2010 @ 5:14am
Seiran said | December 24th 2010 @ 5:14am | Report comment
Kallis and Gibbs would have to go somewhere in my team. Based on your team, it would probably be at the expense of Border and Crowe.
I would also want to stick Freddie Flintoff in the team too, but with Kallis already in the team, it would be hard to fit him in there.
December 24th 2010 @ 5:44am
Tony said | December 24th 2010 @ 5:44am | Report comment
Joel Garner?
December 24th 2010 @ 6:39am
Jason Cave said | December 24th 2010 @ 6:39am | Report comment
The reason why NZ’s Martin Crowe is in my best ODI team is not just because of the way he performed in the 1992 World Cup, but also if something happened to Allan Border would also be acting captain. And it was as captain of NZ in that Cup that his tactics came into play. When Australia came out to bat in the opening match of the ’92 World Cup, they expected to see the usual ‘two fast bowlers open innings’ procedure. Not so, according to Crowe. One of the opening bowlers was spinner Dipak Patel, which caught the Australians off-guard. Australia never recovered from that loss and missed out on the semi finals, while NZ made the semis but lost to eventual cup winners Pakistan.
December 24th 2010 @ 7:33am
The Special One said | December 24th 2010 @ 7:33am | Report comment
No Viv Richards?? What a laugh. He is the first name on anyone’s list.
Anyway this is the short list of players who made it from the ICC,
Opening batsmen (two to be selected) – Saeed Anwar, Sourav Ganguly, Gordon Greenidge, Matthew Hayden, Sanath Jayasuriya, Virender Sehwag, Sachin Tendulkar, Glenn Turner.
Middle-order batsmen (three to be selected) – Michael Bevan, Martin Crowe, Aravinda de Silva, Inzamam-ul Haq, Brian Lara, Javed Miandad, Ricky Ponting, Viv Richards.
All-rounder (only one to be selected) – Ian Botham, Kapil Dev, Andrew Flintoff, Richard Hadlee, Jacques Kallis, Imran Khan, Lance Klusener, Shaun Pollock.
Wicketkeeper (only one to be selected) – Mark Boucher, MS Dhoni, Andy Flower, Adam Gilchrist, Romesh Kaluwitharana, Moin Khan, Alec Stewart, Kumar Sangakkara.
Fast bowlers (three to be selected) – Wasim Akram, Allan Donald, Joel Garner, Michael Holding, Dennis Lillee, Glenn McGrath, Chaminda Vaas, Waqar Younis.
Spinners (only one to be selected) – Shahid Afridi, Carl Hooper, Anil Kumble, Muttiah Muralitharan, Saqlain Mushtaq, Harbhajan Singh, Shane Warne, Daniel Vettori.
December 24th 2010 @ 8:04am
Rusty said | December 24th 2010 @ 8:04am | Report comment
I have gone for out and out brutality
Sehwag
Jayasuriya
Viv
Lara
Bevan
Klusener
Gilchrist
Akram
McGrath
Donald
Warne
December 24th 2010 @ 3:58pm
Oracle said | December 24th 2010 @ 3:58pm | Report comment
VIV (unconditionally the first picked)
Cuthbert Gordon Greenidge Joel Garner, Adam Gilchrist and Shane Warne are absolutely undisputed musts.
From the Back line: Greenidge, Gilchrist, IVA Richards, Javed Miandad, Lara, Lloyd, Imran. Akram, Hadlee, Warne, Garner.
Yes the WIndies were that good!!!!!!!!!!!
December 24th 2010 @ 4:01pm
Oracle said | December 24th 2010 @ 4:01pm | Report comment
Sorry, Lillee ahead of Akram, who would be 12th man
December 24th 2010 @ 9:17am
jameswm said | December 24th 2010 @ 9:17am | Report comment
Waqar basically invented the reverse in-swining yorker – at high speed. Akram delivered some of the best swing bowling spells I have ever seen in one-dayers. Control and speed. McGrath wasn’t always a great one-day bowler – there were games where he looked pedestrian.
The spinner’s a tough one. Warnie did get hit around occasionally, but he was such a huge wicket-taking threat. Saqlain was fantastic. Afridi can be a brilliant wicket-taking bowler.
The only obvious one for me is Gilly as keeper. But I’d probably open with him – and Sehwag. Tendulkar at 3.
I don’t know I’d pick Kallis – I don’t rate his one-day batting as highly. Lara and Ponting were great one-day batsmen. Hard to keep Viv out too.
My 12 would be something like this :
Gilchrist
Sehwag
Tendulkar
Richards
Ponting
Lara
Afridi
Akram
Warne
Waqar
Garner
12th – Klusener
Aust 3, Pak 3, WInd 3, India 2, SA 1, Eng, SL, NZ all 0. Only 2 Poms made the top 48!
December 24th 2010 @ 10:52am
Sars said | December 24th 2010 @ 10:52am | Report comment
Agree TSO, this seems to be a very Aussie centric line-up. I don’t think our dominance over just the last 10 years merits 6 out of 11 spots, with only 1 player from the sub-continent. I do think Warne, McGrath and Gilchrist pick themselves though.
I have tended to slightly favour performances in World Cups, as the real stars shine when it really matters IMO. My team would be:
Jayasuriya, look no further than the 96 World Cup for reasons for his inclusion. Like Warnie, a revolutionary player who along with Kaluwitharana paved the way for the Gilchrist’s and Sehwag’s. Still holds the record for fastest 50 and 150 in this format. Plus a rather useful left-arm spinner.
Tendulkar, his records speak for themselves.
Viv Richards (C), one the five cricketers of the century, enough said.
Martin Crowe, because the kiwis deserve someone in there, and was instrumental in there run to the semis in 92.
Michael Bevan, no could engineer a fightback with the tail like he could, and he did it repeatedly, including two crucial rescues against England and NZ in the 2003 WC and who could ever forget that last ball four to win against the Windies?
Kapil Dev (VC) – I will admit this was far and away the hardest position to decide. Dev shades Botham and Imran for his exploits as captain in 83 in stopping the all conquering Windies team. Kallis’ record is impressive but he never struck me as a match-winner that could ‘take the game away’ by dominating the opposition with either bat or ball, where as both Botham and Dev did it with both bat and/or ball. Hadlee is unlucky as he is probably the best bowler of the group but his batting lets him down. Khan was a great bowler who’s bowling dropped off with age as his batting picked up. Flintoff? In this company? You’re havin’ a laugh…
Gilly, wicketkeepers can no longer just be ‘good behind the stumps’ because of this man.
Fast bowlers are McGrath, Holding and Akram. Holding gets the nod for sheer speed and terror. Wasim, for his unparralled ability to bowl at the death with the old ball, plus some useful power hitting down the order.
Warne. Murali a tad unlucky but Warnie was also a useful bat and and a reliable slipper.
Just realised that there are no really outstanding fielders in that lineup, maybe Punter to edge Crowe out so there is someone to prowl around the cover-point region effecting a few runouts??
December 24th 2010 @ 1:03pm
Frank O'Keeffe said | December 24th 2010 @ 1:03pm | Report comment
Hayden over Gilchrist? I remember a few years ago Gilchrist was voted Australia’s best one-day player ever. Personally I didn’t agree with that, but he was such a great opener.
The Australians I see as contenders are:
Dean Jones
- He wrote the manual on one-day cricket.
Michael Bevan
- Had an amazing ability to time his innings, pace himself, read the game, sneak in singles, bat with tail-enders. If you wanted to win a one-day game from a tight situation, then he’s your man.
Mark Waugh
- It’s incredibly sad how people forget what an amazing ODI player he was from 1995-1996. He was something else.
Adam Gilchrist
- When he scored ODI centuries, Australia never lost.
Glenn McGrath
- For his accuracy, especially at the death.
Shane Warne
- The best cricketer I’ve ever seen.
It’s hard to pick an all-time ODI side, but I’d go with
1. Sachin Tendulkar
- The best batsman, test and ODI, that I’ve ever seen.
2. Adam Gilchrist
- As noted above.
3. Dean Jones
- I remember a famous game against New Zealand where Australia had a huge amount of runs to make, few wickets remaining, and it was just Dean Jones batting. He pulled out the most inventive, amazing strokes ever, and got Australia to the point where they needed two runs to win with more balls remaining. Bloody Mike Whitney went for a stupid shot and got out. Dean Jones was a ODI cult hero, and people forget that. I’d take him over Ponting anyday.
4. Sir IVA Richards
- Nough said.
5. Mark Waugh
6. Lance Klusener
- The guy scared the life out of me during the 1999 World Cup. He was amazing.
7. Michael Bevan
For his fielding, which was Ponting like. For his batting, which saved games.
8. Wasim Akram
- Maybe the best ODI bowler ever. He was even better in ODI’s than he was in Tests.
9. Shane Warne
- A champion who played his best when it counted. People forget some famous ODI performances from Warnie. There was the 1995 World Cup semi-final against the West Indies, which the WI should have won, but for Warnie. The 1999 Semi-Final was his all-time best ever performance, and he backed that up in the 1999 Final. I remember in the mid 90s you couldn’t watch an Aussie ODI without Warne getting MOTM.
10. Joel Garner
- He can send down those amazing yorkers at the end of each innings.
11. Muttiah Muralitharan
- It’s tough to rate Murali in ODI’s. I saw so many ODI’s where teams didn’t try to score off him because they didn’t need to. Sri Lanka weren’t always a strong side, and when they didn’t make a big score, teams backed off Murali. Why risk losing your wicket by trying to score runs? Just block him out. That said, he was incredible at the death for a spinner – just amazing.
December 24th 2010 @ 1:19pm
Frank O'Keeffe said | December 24th 2010 @ 1:19pm | Report comment
It’s annoying, I went to the ICC website to vote and I couldn’t vote for the side I chose above. For example, Gilchrist was an opener, but you can’t select him as an opener. You can only choose one spinner too!
I went with:
1. Tendulkar
2. Hayden
3. Ponting
4. Richards
5. Bevan
6. Klusener (I felt bad leaving Imran Kahn out)
7. Gilchrist
8. Wasim Akram
9. Shane Warne
10. Dennis Lillee (the best fast bowler ever, but maybe I should have gone for Alan Donald)
11. Joel Garner
Still a good side. I felt a bit bad picking six Aussies, but I guess you don’t win four World Cups without being a good side.
It’s a crying shame Dean Jones wasn’t shortlisted for this side.
December 24th 2010 @ 2:11pm
jameswm said | December 24th 2010 @ 2:11pm | Report comment
To be honest, a best ever Aussie ODI team would give the best ever world team a run for their money
1. Gilchrist
2. Hayden
3. Ponting
4. Jones
5. MWaugh (could also open)
6. Bevan
7. Watson – we do struggle a bit for an all-rounder but he’s pretty damn good these days. Steve Waugh’s bowling is only good enough to be a 6th bowler, not a 5th.
8. Warne
9. One more quick here with no real standouts. The rest of the team (except possibly the all rounder) picked itself. Brett Lee I should think is the next best, though wouldn’t you love having Taity and Thommo together at full cry?
10. Lillee
11. McGrath
Not even a place for SWaugh or MHussey! How strong is that? Or else MWaugh opens and you leave Haydos out, and bring in SWaugh or MHussey at 5. Could you have both Hussey and Bevan in the same side? They carried out a similar role.