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Opinion
I recently submitted an article about my best Australian XII who never played an ODI.
At the time I wrote that, I realised it had to be followed up with some opposition, so this piece is the first of three instalments, which will focus on the outstanding cricketers from other nations who never played a 50-over international.
England are the old foes and the creators of short-form cricket. As the owners of this form of the game, I assumed it would be relatively easy to come up with a strong XII to compete against my Australian XII.
I found it was far harder than I first thought, mostly because of the way England first-class cricket was played.
I was researching one of the batting candidates and came across this comment:
“(Tom) Graveney’s attacking style as a batsman did not find favour with (Len) Hutton, the captain, who (in the words of one commentator) ‘did not want flowery batsmen but fighters’.”
It seems a recurring theme, where solid, dependable and consistent cricketers were generally preferred to the more flamboyant players who are more representative of modern white-ball cricketers.
Nevertheless, I’ve come up with a team plus a 12th man and six additional players for an 18-man squad.
WG Grace
None of us can really appreciate what a great cricketer WG Grace really was. The majority of the photos we have show a man with a lot of grey in the beard and carrying more than a few extra kilos.
The reality was that for much of his career, Grace was a much slimmer version, which allowed him to be the best cricketer in the world for a very long time.
He scored more than 54,000 first-class runs and took over 2800 wickets, so his all-round skills would be perfect for this format.
(Public domain)
CB Fry
Only one other batsman in the Edwardian era topped Fry’s terrific first-class average of 50.22. He was an outstanding all-round athlete but obviously very good at cricket.
His batting was technically very correct and he was described as an enthusiastic medium-pace bowler, a skill that would be useful in white-ball cricket.
I don’t know if this pair would get England off to flying starts but they’d certainly create the platform for others to build a big total.
KS Ranjitsinhji
KS Ranjitsinhji – or more fully Colonel His Highness Shri Sir Ranjitsinhji Vibhaji, Maharajah Jam Saheb of Nawanag – was to English cricket what Victor Trumper was to Australian cricket.
A brilliant, unorthodox, attacking batsman, Ranji averaged over 56 in first-class cricket and nearly 45 in Tests, at a time when any average over 35 was seen as exceptional.
He would be the key to this team making a big total.
Ted Dexter
Lord Ted would be my choice as captain of this team. He was a great attacking batsman who was more than happy to take the attack up to any side.
He came to the wicket in one match when England were one for none and proceeded to belt Wes Hall and Charlie Griffith to all parts, making 70 off 75 deliveries – in a Test match.
Number four would be perfect for him because he could control the tempo of the innings. His handy medium pacers would be an added bonus in this format.
Eddie Paynter
Paynter was a terrific attacking batsman who came into Test cricket late, at the age of 30. He last played Tests just before World War Two and in his 20 Tests, averaged close to 60, so was right up there as a quality batsman with Wally Hammond and Patsy Hendren.
He’s perhaps best remembered for coming out of hospital in the Brisbane Bodyline Test and making 83 crucial runs. Paynter was also an outstanding fieldsman which would help this team immensely.
(Mark Kolbe/Getty Images)
Denis Compton
On the surface of it, Compton should be an automatic selection. He was arguably the best English batsman of his era and is described as an audacious stroke maker.
Compton had a problem with calling and running between wickets, which a teammate described thus: “a call for a run from Compton should be treated as no more than a basis for negotiation.”
In this format, that’s almost a recipe for disaster, but a Test average over 50 suggests he was perfectly capable of making lots of runs, poor calling or not.
Frank Woolley
A player who managed to make over 58,000 runs, take over 2000 wickets and snare more than 1000 catches suggests Frank Woolley was an exceptional all-round talent.
A left-handed bat who was more grace and style than power hitting, Woolley could easily bat higher in this line-up, while his left-arm slow mediums or spin would be crucial in the middle overs.
Les Ames
Les Ames would be the keeper in this team. He’s still arguably the best keeper-batsman England has produced.
As with the Australian side, this English attack would create plenty of chances and Ames would be almost a certainty to take what came his way. A Test average of 40 and 102 first-class hundreds suggests he’d be a potent force at number eight.
Maurice Tate
No doubt many will be wondering why I chose Maurice Tate, but here’s a player who managed to do the double – 1000 runs and 100 wickets – in seven consecutive county seasons.
Tate was a quality bowler and a hard hitting batsman who’d be perfect in the death overs with the bat and a serious problem to face with a new ball, as well as being very economical.
(Credit: Wolliwoo/CC BY-NC 2.0)
George Lohmann
the ODI format lends itself to bowlers who can employ lots of variation and that was the strength of Lohmann’s bowling.
He was viewed as the best English bowler of his era and one of the best of all time, as 112 wickets at an average just over ten would attest.
He was also no slouch with the bat, scoring three first-class hundreds, was an outstanding slip fielder and another bowler who made run scoring extremely difficult.
SF Barnes
Barnes is one of those players who would be considered an automatic selection, certainly in this English team, but in teams of the very best cricketers in the world.
He was a bowler who could do everything: use the seam effectively, swing the ball, bowl spin if need be and always with subtle changes of flight pace and direction.
I suspect opposing batsmen would be thrilled Barnes could only bowl a maximum of ten overs.
Hedley Verity
I wanted to have a genuine spin bowler and was down to two choices, Verity or Jim Laker.
There’s probably a fair chunk of personal bias in selecting Verity as the 12th player. I used to bowl the same sort of stuff, though I wasn’t close to his class. I also wanted some variety in the attack and a left-arm spinner, taking the ball away from the batsman seemed the way to go.
Verity is slightly more economical, Laker slightly more penetrating, but in this format, I’d take economy over strike rate. Both are genuine number 11s but as with the Australian team’s bunny, I’d hardly expect them to need to contribute with the bat very often.
If a squad of 18 were chosen, I’d include Gilbert Jessop, Tom Hayward, Walter Hammond, Tom Graveney, Fred Trueman and Jim Laker.
I don’t believe this team would be as dynamic as some of the others but it’s still a very strong squad. Perhaps they’d win games more through solid batting and bowling rather than the explosive batting we’ve come to expect from the current English ODI squad.
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