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[lukemannionzimbabwe]

Just a thought I had. What would be your best all time XI for each of the following countries? And, if put in a league situation, what would the order be? (Test or Limited Overs)

Australia
Bangladesh
England
India
New Zealand
Pakistan
South Africa
Sri Lanka
West Indies
Zimbabwe


Thoughts?

[lukemannionzimbabwe]

I'll start, my Zimbabwean All Time XI

1. Grant Flower
2. Alastair Campbell
3. Murray Goodwin
4. Andy Flower
5. Brendan Taylor
6. Dave Houghton
7. Tatenda Taibu
8. Neil Johnson
9. Heath Streak
10. Ray Price
11. Henry Olonga/Eddo Brandes

[joeljonno]

I'll start, my Zimbabwean All Time XI

1. Grant Flower
2. Alastair Campbell
3. Murray Goodwin
4. Andy Flower
5. Brendan Taylor
6. Dave Houghton
7. Tatenda Taibu
8. Neil Johnson
9. Heath Streak
10. Ray Price
11. Henry Olonga/Eddo Brandes

Eddo Brandes should be in the team just for that alleged response to Glenn McGrath.

[jamielsn15]

Difficult to do all time when you're solely basing it on stats and going on the word of those who saw them play. There's something about seeing the players yourself that makes you prefer some over others and that's something that isn't necessarily quantifiable and is personal to you. It would be interesting to get thoughts on players you've seen, live or on TV. With that in mind and fornwhat its worth, here's my England XI since I started watching and playing, around 1985.

1. Graham Gooch
2. Alastair Cook
3. David Gower
4. Kevin Pietersen
5. Graham Thorpe
6. Alec Stewart (wk)
7. Ian Botham
8. Andrew Flintoff
9. Graeme Swann
10. Stuart Broad
11. James Anderson

[JTtaylor145]

Beginning with England (Test and One Day). I have not seen all of these players actually play!

Test

1. Hobbs
2. Sutcliffe
3. Hutton
4. Hammond
5. Barrington
6. Botham
7. Ames
8. Trueman
9. Laker
10.G A Lohmann
11. S F Barnes

ODI

1. Trescothick
2. Gooch
3. KP
4. Lamb
5. Fairbrother
6. Botham
7. Butler
8. Swann
9. Broad
10. Anderson
11. Gough

[Manormanic]

Eek, this is tricky.  For tests, I think the strongest would be the Australians, followed by the West Indies, then England and South Africa. 

I usually select teams from the post war era only, on the basis that those players have at least some footage available to compare.  That being the case I think the big four would line up:

England:
Hutton
Gooch
Root
Pietersen
Gower
Botham
Stewart
Flintoff
Swann
Trueman
Gough

[Manormanic]

Australia:
Hayden
Gilchrist
Bradman
Ponting
G Chappell
S Waugh
Miller
Davidson
Warne
Lillee
McGrath

Gilly has to open to balance the side unfortunately.

West Indies:
Greenidge
Haynes
Richards
Lara
Lloyd
Sobers
Dujon
Marshall
Holding
Ambrose or Hall
Roberts

[JB]

No Allan Border in the Aussie side???

[smilley792]

No Allan Border in the Aussie side???

No maxwell either..........

[Manormanic]

South Africa:
Jimmy Cook
B Richards
G Pollock
Kallis
Bland or Barlow
De Villiers
Rice
Proctor
Donald
Tayfield
Steyn

Seems harsh on Shaun Pollock and Hashim Amla, though in fairness the latter could possibly come in for Clive Rice because Donald/Steyn/Proctor/Kallis/Barlow is not a bad seam attack in itself.  I also considered Vincent van der Bijl but it was too difficult with no test record at all to go on.

[lukemannionzimbabwe]

Difficult to do all time when you're solely basing it on stats and going on the word of those who saw them play. There's something about seeing the players yourself that makes you prefer some over others and that's something that isn't necessarily quantifiable and is personal to you. It would be interesting to get thoughts on players you've seen, live or on TV. With that in mind and fornwhat its worth, here's my England XI since I started watching and playing, around 1985.

1. Graham Gooch
2. Alastair Cook
3. David Gower
4. Kevin Pietersen
5. Graham Thorpe
6. Alec Stewart (wk)
7. Ian Botham
8. Andrew Flintoff
9. Graeme Swann
10. Stuart Broad
11. James Anderson

Wouldn't have Swann or Broad, Pietersen debatable. Agree otherwise pretty much. All a very personal though

[Manormanic]

No Allan Border in the Aussie side???

Who would you leave out?  Bradman and Chappell were obvious, Ponting and Steve Waugh only slightly less...

[Manormanic]

Same with the West Indies side - Walcott, Worrall and Weekes, Gibbs, Walsh, Rohan Kanhai, Kallicharan...

[Felix Tito]

Indian Test side:

1. Gavaskar
2. Sehwag
3. Merchant
4. Tendulkar
5. Hazare
6. Dravid
7. Engineer (w/k)
8. Kapil Dev (c)
9. Kumble
10. Bedi
11. Srinath

Notable omissions Chandrasekhar, Vishwantha, Vengsarkar, Azharuddin, Laxman, Zaheer Khan, Harbhajan Singh, Dhoni 

[singapore rookie]

India ODI

Tendulkar
Ganguly
Kohli
Dravid
Rahane
Dhoni
R Ashwin
Kapil Dev
Anil Kumble
Javagal Srinath
Zaheer Khan