So when will the Aus v World XI games.........

.......be stripped of test status?

It would be extremely funny to see Matthew Hayden's average drop below 50 after he's retired.

About the same time as the Asia v Africa matches and the tsunami relief matches are stripped of their ODI status.

It won't happen.

And nice to see you're working on becoming as bitter as horrie.

It won't because Murali will fall below 800.

Was Hayden even born at the time of the World XI tour?

Fred Nerk wrote: Was Hayden even born at the time of the World XI tour?

At the risk of NSR I think Trev is referring to the ones a couple of years back

TO be fair to Fred, the fact that Trev referred to "games" being stripped of Test status is confusing.

I know, that's why I wasn't sure if Fred was leading him on or not.

Anyway, English players lost test caps for the same reason.

JGK wrote:It won't because Murali will fall below 800.

That's a too and a shay.

and MacGill would be on 199 Test wickets

Hehehe, nice work, Nath.

Those matches should be stripped of test status - otherwise it would only be fair for England V R o W in 1970 and Aus V R o W to be given test status - Alan Jones can then have his England cap back.

Yep, that's the guy I was referring to Bas

Still, wouldn't it stuff up trivia quizzes all over the world - most FC runs without a test and all that.

Or does someone else have that record. I know Michael Divenuto is high on that list.

Off the top of my head there are no Australians from 71-72 in the Alan Jones position, but granting Test status to that series would get Garth McKenzie over 250 wickets (as well as Ross Duncan off 0),

It would also posthumously make Hylton Ackerman senior a Test player, and give Garry Sobers the full set of centuries at Australian venues. Tony Greig's appearance in that series six months before he started fpr England would also mean his feat of three half-centuries in his first three innings for England would be null and void.

It would bump up DKL from 355 Test wickets and ruin the symmetry between him and Rod Marsh.

Mind you it would give Marsh 101 Tests, making him the first Aussie and second worldwide to play a hundred. It would also reduce by about three-ffifths the length of time the Most Tests for Oz record was held by Neil 'Giggles' Harvey.

Incredibly, Bruce Francis' Test record would look worse.

Would TOGM's 8/29 be the best test figures at Perth? Or did Pidge beat that against Pak a few years ago?

Zat wrote:It would bump up DKL from 355 Test wickets and ruin the symmetry between him and Rod Marsh.

But it would add Sobers to his list of test victims.

Bob Massie would have three 7fors in a career of 9 Tests.

McGrath v Pak in Perth 04-05: 8-24.

It seems Sunny G's test average would have slipped dangerously close to sub 50.

Also, with the Aust and England ROW games - do you have any summary stats? It seems that G Pollock did OK but if they had been counted as tests his 60+ average may have ended up in the mid to low 50s.

And Ian Chappell's record would look a lot better - his batting average as captain would be approaching high 50s I reckon.

Pollock as I recall was pretty ordinary in England up to the last match at the Oval where he made a century. In Oz he played only three 'Tests' and five innings including 136 at Adelaide, and averaged 41, but 7 OK games added to a 23-match career is more than enough to dull the stats.

Both Chappells scroed a ton in each innings during the series - Ian in Bris, Greg in Syd (in what would only have been his 7th Test). Bearing in mind that in Jan 1972 Lawrence Rowe was still only playing for his island, would GC (albeit only for a few weeks) have been the least experienced bat ever to 'double up'?

Umpire Lou Rowan calls the chapter about the ROW series in his autobiog 'My Last Series''.

Not hard to see why he gives the ROW games full rank. If not, Sydney Ashes Feb 71 where he had his stouch with Illy and Snow was his last Test.

A few randon stats from that series:

Sobers: 588 runs @ 73, and 21 wickets @ 22
Pollock: 250 runs @ 31
Barlow: 353 runs @ 39, and 20 wicket @ 20