Jeremy

Roar Rookie

Joined July 2021

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I would say it’s a fair team, but I would make a some amendments. I would say there are a few players from the 1980s that need to be included. Many people seem to look at statistics and averages, but in the 1980s NZ was mainly amateur’s vs professionals, and there were no ‘easy-beats’ like Zimbabwe etc. Maybe Sri Lanka but this was brief compared to the heavyweights NZ played such as West Indies (with fast bowlers Marshall, Garner, Holding, Roberts etc.) where life and limb were in danger with a battery of short balls bowled all day every day. Nowadays, there are also other advantages such as short boundaries, better wickets, better bats, ability to review umpire decisions, all of which combined help to improve averages, especially for batters. I’ve based my selection on the years I watched cricket as an 18 year old onwards from 1980 onwards. Edgar and Wright were patient/gutsy in the face of hostile attacks, Smith was the best keeper who conceded less byes and dropped less catches than anyone else and was known as the world’s No 1 keeper, Coney was a match winner/saver with the bat in test and ODI (especially in tandem with Hadlee), Bracewell was an excellent spin bowler (who had no ‘easy’ wickets vs lesser opposition and usually has to operate on seamer wickets) and balances the attack plus he could bat with a century to his name – so this line up bats to No 9, and to open the attack with Hadlee and Bond would have been awesome – a serious rival to Australia’s Lille and Thompson. I have included Jamieson, as he offers variety into the seam attack and is wroth the ‘risk’ even at this point in his career. Coney (slow swing/seam) and Crowe (medium-slow swing/seam) adds variety in the attack. I selected John Reid as 12th man as I would have him in my team – he only played 19 tests but had a mid-40s ave. and Crowe said he learned to concentrate better due to top tips from Reid. I like Andrew Jones too – unorthodox but effective especially vs pace. Chatfield was a tryer with some excellent performances especially when Hadlees was out (injured) and very popular with the public, but misses out to Jamieson. I have chosen Williamson as Captain as he has excellent attributes. My best 11 pick would be as below. PS. I’m sure many of these batsmen would have better averages than the batsmen these days based on the shorter boundaries nowadays alone. What do you think?
1. John Wright
2. Bruce Edgar
3. Glenn Turner
4. Martin Crowe
5. Kane Williamson (C)
6. Jeremy Coney
7. Richard Hadlee
8. Ian Smith
9. John Bracewell
10. Kyle Jamieson
11. Shane Bond
12: John F Reid

The best New Zealand Test cricket side of the last 50 years

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