The one-day side England could have had...

The recent retirement of KP from white ball international cricket got me thinking about how our ODI team has consistently failed over the years despite having more than enough talented players, who were just not all performing or even making themselves available at the same time. So, based on the last decade, what sort of a side could we have had if they had all been fit and firing at once?

Trescothick
Strauss
Pietersen
Morgan
Flintoff
Collingwood
AN Other Keeper
Swann
Broad
Gough
Anderson

Tresco would pick himself at the top of the order, everything has been said about the premature end to his England career. Picking another opener isn't that easy but Strauss never really let anyone down in his ODI career, and we would need someone to play more of an anchor role. Then the middle order - imagine KP and Freddie firing in tandem with the bat, which they rarely did, Morgan playing the unorthodox shots and Colly as the middle order finisher, star fielder and useful (in this side) sixth bowler.

The keeper slot is tough as nobody has really nailed it down since Stewart, and I thought his prime was so long ago as to be pushing it a bit to include him. The same could be said of Gough but his late career ODI form was excellent, add to that the young Anderson when he was good in ODIs and crap in Tests rather than vice versa, add in the present day Broad and Swann and of course Flintoff already there to lead the attack.

That team could easily have challenged for a World Cup (outside the subcontinent) but when did we ever have more than a handful of them producing at once?

Strauss would still put men back on the boundary when the opposition are 60-4

Which KP are we picking? the one who started and finished his ODI career with a bang or the one who seemed to produce very little end product?

JKLever wrote:Strauss would still put men back on the boundary when the opposition are 60-4

Which KP are we picking? the one who started and finished his ODI career with a bang or the one who seemed to produce very little end product?

Well, we're picking each player at the peak of their powers... so I guess it would be the '05 version. And Strauss wouldn't necessarily have to be captain, though not sure any of the alternatives would be better...

Aye, KP flattered to deceive - but then he had 'The Ian Bell Millstone' around his neck. He was forced to get on with it and not allow himself the luxury of playing himself in for the simple reason that Bell had taken up 50 balls for 27 and we were already two runs down on the required run rate.

Surely Belfohl would make a fohl Pomgolian XI ...give him the gloves and make him the 'keeper

Any other bowler for Anderson, surely. Very good test performer, but highly spankable in ODIs.

I was going to suggest Craig White just to annoy Boof. But his record does actually stack up

Henry wrote:Any other bowler for Anderson, surely. Very good test performer, but highly spankable in ODIs.

I meant the version who tore in taking hat-tricks in about 2003...

beamer wrote:

Henry wrote:Any other bowler for Anderson, surely. Very good test performer, but highly spankable in ODIs.

I meant the version who tore in taking hat-tricks in about 2003...

Well if you're assembling a team based on the stellar times of each player, undoubtedly every other country could follow suit. There would be lots of players who have been inconsistent save for a purple patch.

So, we're ignoring Ronnie Irani then?

Alls I know is if we're doing some 'oo err we could've been great' bullshit, then every team could do it and theoretically shit all over us from a huge, massive height. I don't like these sort of 'could've been' threads - I'd challenge our other countries to dick us with their teams. If we're going for 'in a perfect world' rather than what actually happened - which was shitty imperfection .

Well it's just showing that we really have had some quality, but never produced a team, in 20 years or so. Really frustrating, but rather this way round than in the Tests I suppose. And I guess the 80s and 90s were much the same in that format, though we had very few bowlers of genuine international quality.

If 50 over cricket does have a future (if so we have to start playing it at county level again, and not just in April, May and September but that's another story) we need to have a plan. Sure, injuries, loss of form and unscheduled retirements can't be avoided but just stop picking the deadwood and making short sighted picks, and identify a core of players to win a World Cup.

I'm just glad we don't let ourselves down in the field anymore. That rankled the most. Although selfish batting comes close.

Does anyone even bother about what one-day side plays who anymore? For all I care, BCCI can send film stars, nude girls and even whores to play T20 or one day cricket to 'spread the game around more and make it attractive commercially' and it wouldn't really matter anymore.

I am beginning to think that despite having an army of match-fixers, Azhar's India team had more integrity then the present bunch led by Dhoni, Pawar and Srinivasan and thats saying a lot.

I always thought Adam Hollioake should have achieved more as an ODI player. On paper he was a very useful cricketer.

Ben too, for that matter. And he was showing signs of becoming more consistent before his tragic death in 2002.

The Hollioakes were our great hope in 1997. Came into the ODI side when we won what was then the three-match Texaco Trophy curtain-raiser for the Test series (a schedule that really should have remained!) which England won convincingly as they made major contributions. Obviously then came pressure to put them in the Test side as we struggled, which happened, and they weren't up to it. Their international stars soon waned despite Adam having a spell captaining the ODI side, as Flintoff took over the TNB mantle (and eventually became the only one to come close to justifying it, though it took a while!) But yeah, Ben was starting to come back into the picture and fulfil his potential just before his tragic death, and of course Adam was one of the leading county captains of the early 2000s with a dominant Surrey before understandably calling it a day prematurely to be with his family in Australia (and less understandably taking up cage fighting at 40-odd!)

Adam should have been picked for the 2003 World Cup. He had come off a stellar one day season in England where he had just been smashing the ball out of the park consistently, taking handy wickets with the ball, and captaining Surrey cleverly. He was clearly motivated to do well that season following Ben's death. But old grumpy pants Fletcher spotted some sort of attitude/personality problem that meant Adam and his red hot form stayed on the sidelines.

Anyway, with the first game on Saturday, why wasn't the JAMODI squad out today? Are they waiting for Bell to make that match-saving 60 not out to justify picking him for the shorter game again?

beamer wrote:The Hollioakes were our great hope in 1997. Came into the ODI side when we won what was then the three-match Texaco Trophy curtain-raiser for the Test series (a schedule that really should have remained!) which England won convincingly as they made major contributions. Obviously then came pressure to put them in the Test side as we struggled, which happened, and they weren't up to it. Their international stars soon waned despite Adam having a spell captaining the ODI side, as Flintoff took over the TNB mantle (and eventually became the only one to come close to justifying it, though it took a while!) But yeah, Ben was starting to come back into the picture and fulfil his potential just before his tragic death, and of course Adam was one of the leading county captains of the early 2000s with a dominant Surrey before understandably calling it a day prematurely to be with his family in Australia (and less understandably taking up cage fighting at 40-odd!)

I remember the Holiokes leading the charge and beating both India and Pakistan in a four-nation series in Sharjah also involving WI was it, where they should have lost in slow spin friendly conditions? Won all 4 games including final, in their first ever experiment of a separate one day side with a separate captain? That was one terrific series as also a dawn of false hope for England's one day fortunes. Reckon they didn't really play as well after that series.