I think you know yourself this is really no chance of happening. The only rumours circulating about either Munster or DCE are extremely airy and the small concrete details that exist only specify the new Brisbane team. The two clearly want to only associate themselves with a clean slate rather than the existing basket case of a franchise that the Broncos are currently.

I also think your valuations of players are a bit off. Carrigan at only 200k? I mean he’s been off the boil a bit this year, but he was captain last year. He got called into the Qld origin squad. Clearly he’s better than a tick over minimum wage. Asiata isn’t even close to minimum wage either. He literally moved to the Broncos for more money. He’s currently on twice that at least. And Haas for 500k? At his level? He’d need to find a new manager if the Broncos gave him that deal. That’s a downgrade on what he currently earns and he clearly deserves more than what he’s at now.

Except for the fact that there will be 8 clubs who have to do it and 8 clubs who don’t??

Among the various issues with this idea, I have particular qualms with the following:
– The Storm would monopolise that non-Sydney division so badly it’s not funny.
– Conversely, in the strange case the Storm has a bad year, there is no one in that non-Sydney conference who can currently compete with that Sydney division. So in theory, the very best two teams of the year may not make the grand final together. The Sydney teams who would ordinarily be top 2 under the current system, would now have to play each other in the semis and proceed to play the grand final against the Cowboys who have Ben Hampton at halfback.
– We would never see a Roosters vs Rabbitohs, Manly vs Eels or Broncos vs Cowboys grand final. Rivalries go out the window for the grand final.
– Travel. There will be no travel, and subsequently, travel fatigue, for anyone in the Sydney conference, you can sleep in your own house every night. Whereas there would be consistent weekly travel for literally everyone in the non-Sydney team. It could also potentially lead to burn-out come the big dance for the non-Sydney team that makes it.
– I live in Queensland. Aside from the 1970s-80s generation who stuck with their Sydney club pre-Broncos, there is very little general interest in Sydney clubs from north of the border. In the new generation there is essentially none. Viewership would reduce rapidly in Queensland if they’re always broadcasting a Tigers vs Sharks-esque match every week, for example.

Too many issues for me. Sorry. Keep it as it is.

Doesn’t look too bad, but just my take.

Warner should open over Stoinis. Form is temporary, class is permanent. Self-explanatory.

Smith has to be 3. In T20 cricket, your anchor has to be in as early as possible as they’re generally your best all-round batsman. 95% of the time that is no.3, and the exception is when you have players like Kohli and Azam – who open. There’s too few balls to waste without your best bat in T20 cricket. Given Smith is arguably the most defensive of the lineup, you must not introduce him too late.

You seem to be placing a lot of weight in Sams’ batting, when his BBL last year was shocking with the bat. From memory, he averaged less than 10! But the solution to that problem is pretty easy, and comes in your no.3 pick. Carey was outstanding as a finisher during the world cup and would be well-equipped bat 5-6 (push Maxwell to 4).

We probably missed a trick by not bringing along Jonathan Wells to the tour, because he’s easily been the best BBL middle order bat over the last 3 years.

Bowling attack largely looks pretty good but Hazlewood is a brilliant death bowler – he’s got a great slower ball and he bowls a lot of bouncers in the last few overs, a point of variation from Starc’s yorkers. Richardson is really good T20 bowler, don’t get me wrong, but just doesn’t have the international calibre that the Hoff does.

There’s only been 20 years this century. Good chance he knows the best ones by heart, like the rest of us

Agreed. Out of all the rookie coaches I’d probably trust Ryles the most given his history under Bellamy, but I’m happier to stick with Hannay over Payten. Woolf and Payten obviously have history up in NQ but Woolf has just gone to St Helens and I don’t think Payten is the defensive coach we need.

Wane has been talked about as well, and has had plenty of praise for what he’s done in England. He might be a solid option.

Out of all the experienced NRL coaches around, Griffin will probably be the best in terms of results, but you’re gonna be sacrificing a lot in man-management if you want to take that route.

Really good comment this.

Back in the early days of England’s T20 blast, it was a real trend to see specialist keepers get picked for their work behind the stumps, like Chris Read, James Foster, and more recently (and interestingly) Michael Bates, who generally batted 10 and definitely didn’t have the international prestige of the former two. Bates in particular was a sensation and regularly went up to the stumps no matter who was bowling. Sadly, his county decided to sign a point fielder with gloves and that was the end of that, but Bates’ example showed that it could work.

Given the propensity for pace bowlers to bowl slower balls at the death, the idea of an exceptional keeper standing up to the stumps to stop last over byes is a very shrewd one.

The 2000s Australian and 1980s Windies players are all products of their own environment.

Of the team that Peter selected, only S Waugh I can remember ever wearing a cap going out to bat (maybe Junior might have been briefly in that era too), so I don’t think you can use the argument that the Aussies wouldn’t be great without helmets – after all, we not only never got the chance to see them in floppies, but they were literally bred through the system as helmet-wearers, because that’s where the sport was at the time.

We can romanticise over Viv potentially defying the norm in today’s game and batting in a cap, but at the end of the day, ICC laws compel players to wear sufficient protective equipment. If Viv was around in the 2000s, he would be forced to wear a helmet, just like Ponting et al were.

Times change.

I live in Townsville and there hasn’t been a T20 fixture hosted here since the old big bash. That’s well over 10 years ago. Townsville can host the odd shield game because hardly anyone attends them anyway – but there are literally only 1000 seats at the stadium and a scattering of a grassy areas either side of it. Is that a good venue proposal for a league you want to become more serious than the CPL?

The PNG/Pacific idea is too unsustainable for mine – you’re asking for two countries with zero cricketing history, grounding and most importantly, money, to try and fund the development of players for a professional league? PNG only became an associate member 3 years ago. The Vanuatu inclusion seems a bit flavour of the month, probably seeing as they were the only cricket league still going on during Covid. What achievements have they had on the international cricket stage? Who are these “potential T20 stars” you speak of and why are you so sure of their quality when they’ve had zero full member opposition?

Tim David, the Scorchers player, is a superstar in associate matches. He averages 93 in List A matches and 47 in T20s for Singapore. He can’t even get a run in the BBL. There’s a huge disparity between associate competitions and professional T20 leagues.

Papua and the Pacific islands are distinctly rugby league territory. The limited diaspora scattered across North Queensland already have a sport they follow. Remember the failure of the NQ Fury?

And how can Townsville get behind a team that isn’t even theirs to begin with? Not sure if this is the best idea mate.

Great series with a great (if surprising) finale. Looks like you did a lot of research for this, and I 100% applaud the inclusion of Richards and Procter despite them not meeting the minimum games requirements. Both would easily walk into an all-time RSA team.
That being said, including them might open up a can of worms with regard to others who didn’t play much due to political issues – I’d say a few unfortunates who would have played during WW2 might have been worth a mention as well.
But overall though, excellent stuff

All good haha, there’s Mustafizur Rahman in the Bangladesh team too – too many Rahmans and Rahims I say!

Shouldn’t it be Mushfiqur Rahim?

Great article Jon. Look forward to seeing the rest of the series.

Based on a lot of the conversations in the comments, Sydney seems to be insurmountably strong. Have you considered adding a Sydney 2 or Sydney 3 to your list?

It’ll be interesting to see who places near the top. From my knowledge Barbados has had a fair few handy cricketers, the majority I’d assume would come from Bridgetown, the capital? Could be a potential 2nd place option if so. We’ll see if I’m on the money soon!

Warnie reckons Meredith would be a great pick if we wanted some variation in the attack with his 145+ clicks. Thing is, we already have 4 145+ click bowlers in Starc, Cummins, Hazlewood and Pattinson – so the only variation Meredith brings to the attack is his first-class economy of nearly 4.

You can probably connect the dots as to why there’s not a single other soul supporting him.

Yeah sorry mate this one’s a bit of a mess

As many have pointed out, your very first line is particularly damning as your entire article proves the opposite.

I decided to give you a chance after that, but I was out pretty soon after, when you called Daniel Hughes a no.3 (he opens) and Doran an opener (he’s never opened).

As for your picks, Hughes is a bit of a no-brainer and Green is quality, but otherwise pretty contentious.

I’d have thought seeing as Neser’s become the new Bichel in terms of 12th man selections, he’d be the first man considered. But obviously not, seeing as Swepson’s first-class average of 35 is too difficult to pass up.

Your choice for Victoria is quite frankly, bizarre. You’re picking McGurk due to him being a player for the future, yet you’re missing the guy that Australia’s hyped the most, Pucovski? Otherwise, you could have chosen two of the most consistent Shield bowlers of the past decade in Boland (225 wkts at 27) and Tremain (244 wkts at 24)?

Tasmania is always going to be difficult, but I think you should have really outlined that in your spiel about Doran, because hyping up a first-class batting average of 27 for an opening spot does not do your article any favours. Neither does talking about Kumara and Pradeep as “some of the best Test bowlers”. I’d have said Gabe Bell. Small sample size, but 83 wickets at less than 25 in 22 first class games is pretty solid.

And South Australia, lol. Heard of Carey? The guy who out of everyone is literally guaranteed to get a baggy green?

Not Hogg’s fault no one could pick his wrong’un. Also at the time that Chappelli reckons he faced Hogg, Hogg was 25, and was a batting all-rounder at the time, hardly the seasoned veteran wrist spinner he was when people raved about him

Quiney very stiff to miss out, excellent top order for the Stars though

Huh? Talk about totally missing the point

Yeah, definitely Green over Nair, Green has had genuine success for the Thunder and has been a BBL made star. Green has literally been recruited by CPL as an overseas player and even earnt an IPL contract. Nair isn’t even a certainty in the Thunder now.
Vince is a good shout too. Really don’t remember Lumb being all that flash to be honest. I disagree that there’s a strong case for Hales, I’d be much happier including another overseas player like Kallis or Morgan, who were world class. Hales was good, but hot and cold.
Lyon would be my other question, yes he’s been great when called upon, but gee, you can’t be leaving out Brett Lee.

This is a pretty good selection of players I think. Haven’t actually heard of that Jackson fellow, I’d probably have tried to fit Shreyas Iyer in that Indian team myself – he does have a first class average of 52 and has already been excellent in ODIs.

For the Australians though, not sure about Gotch as a specialist bat. While his FC average is solid he’s never actually played as a pure batsman until briefly earlier this season. In terms of batsmen Tom Cooper is probably the strongest.

While I love both Solway and Street it’s probably a little premature for them too. I’d go for slightly more experienced first class players, like Weatherald and Turner, even though I’d probably have neither in the frame for test selection.

Huh? How? Anderson’s had persistent injuries since 2018. Pretty difficult to fulfill your potential when your body fails you.

You’ve sold that T20 team very short. For starters, Ross is far from an Australian player, he’s spent his entire career shipped around by clubs who didn’t want him? T20 is Stoinis and Maxwell’s best format, so they should easily swap with Ross and probably Henriques. Handscomb and Head should replace them in the ODI team.

Kane Richardson’s excellent big bash record should easily award him a spot in the T20 team and should replace Ahmed, who’s too slow and too much of a liability in the field. In place of Sams, who’s no Australian cricketer either, I’d play Agar, who’s tried and proven as a solid T20I performer.

Burns is also stiff to miss out. Warner is most needed in the ODI format (he’s our best player) so I’d happily replace Hughes with Davey and then slot Burns into the test team. Might be a bit premature for Maddinson yet, even though I rate him. Stick with Wade at 6.

Law is an easy decision for Australia but I strongly disagree with Borthwick. Borthwick was lucky to get one test at all. At the time, he was an out of the blue pick because Panesar and Swann were unavailable, and they had literally no one else to bowl spin. Borthwick was picked only because he was in the country at the time playing grade cricket, where he was averaging 50 with the ball.

He wasn’t even a bowler either, he’s a batting all-rounder. Man is a top order batsman for Surrey, and he’s most recently been batting 3 and since young spinner Amar Virdi has come into the side he’s hardly bowled at all. He averages 39 in first class cricket with the ball and only 36 with the bat, which isn’t exactly compelling evidence.

Charles Marriott would be a much more suitable one-test wonder. He took 11 wickets in his only test, and took 711 first class wickets at 20.11 between 1919 and 1937.

Most of my points have already been made by others but just a few things:
1. Swap Labs and Kanos – pretty self-explanatory, Kane should be batting higher because he’s simply more Test proven, and he bats 3 anyway.
2. Perera ain’t much of a keeper, Rahim is a considerably better option
3. There are plenty of superior openers to Masood at this point, Agarwal, Karunaratne, Iqbal, and honestly Masood isn’t even the best opener in his own team, Azhar Ali is (remember his 302 against WI?), idk if you did enough research here
4. Would definitely rather have Boult or Hoff over Abbott, yeah Kyle’s had a good county season but after so long out of the test arena he’s probably naturally going to be a bit off the pace
5. Shami would have to be close to Broad as well, him and Ishant are in excellent form; there’s also nothing wrong with having both Ashwin and Jadeja in the same team, especially when you have Stokes to bowl his meds

Otherwise though, a good effort.

Stats in what though? Batting? That really shouldn’t be your major qualification for a keeper. Bari was the best keeper out of them all, but if you wanted to minimise the shortfall in batting I’d pick Latif. Excellent keeper, probably 2nd tidiest for Pakistan after Bari, plus he averages a perfectly serviceable 29. Also, I’d hardly claim that Ahmed has much of a career ahead of him. He’s 32, was unceremoniously dropped last year and Rizwan seems to have taken over his role pretty well so far.