Mike Selvey's AT LH XI

Apparently they only started playing cricket in the 50s.

And Lloyd ahead of AB?! Bedi ahead of Verity?




Mike Selvey's Lefties XI

On the other hand
Left-handers are increasingly to the fore in cricket. What would an all-time XI composed exclusively of the species look like?
Mike Selvey
October 24, 2010

The rise of the left-hander has been relentless in the past decade or so. Once regarded as anomalous - fantasy sides of my youth ideally had a left-right opening combination, perhaps a cack-hander in the middle-order player and a left-arm slowie for balance, but that was it - they are now mainstream. Why should this be?

Perhaps, as a start, we should understand the semantic difference between being left-handed and being a left-hander. In cricket terms, the former is rarer, and for obvious reasons is the domain, almost exclusively of the left-arm bowler (although David Gower, I believe, writes left-handed but bowled, if you can call it that, right-handed). Of the five bowlers in my XI, four batted left-handed, and with the fifth it probably wouldn't have made any difference if he had as well. By contrast, six of the top seven batsmen are listed as being right-arm bowlers.

There is a reason and a logic to this. Batting at its best ought to be a top-hand-dominant game and each of these players conforms to that, none more so than Adam Gilchrist, whose right hand could scarcely get higher up the handle. With dominant eye playing its part, batting left-handed is actually the logical way to bat. At one time, I suppose, it was discouraged as not conforming to coaching stereotypes, in much the same way that left-handed children were said to have had their hands strapped in Victorian schools as discouragement. That attitude has disappeared now of course. And the more left-handers there are, the more there will be, as aspiring players seek to emulate their heroes.

In fact, with the rise also of left-arm bowlers, the game is becoming a mirror image of itself. There seem to be more pacemen now, who in particular have become an important part of limited-overs strategy. They are encouraged, too, in the past few years by the use of technology and the willingness of umpires to give slow bowlers lbw decisions where once they were declined (try a comparison between those gained by Monty Panesar, say, and Dan Vettori at equivalent stages of their careers).

How many lefties make the all-time World XI is a different matter. But they are on the march.

1 and 2. Matthew Hayden and Justin Langer Have to come as a pair. Batman and Robin, Bluebeard the Pirate and his parrot. Only Haynes and Greenidge were more prolific together.

3. Graeme Pollock. Average of 60.97, second to Bradman of those with at least 20 Test innings, is pretty special.

4. Brian Lara At his best, surpasses anyone in the modern era. Insatiable appetite for runs, incredible flair, imagination and spacial awareness.

5. Clive Lloyd (capt) Destructive as a batsman, a uniter of nations as captain.

6. Garry Sobers Best allrounder in the game's history.

7. Adam Gilchrist Incomparable wicketkeeper-batsman.

8. Wasim Akram Genius, the best left-arm paceman of them all. Could make the ball recite Shakespeare if necessary.

9. Alan Davidson Swing and cut brought him 186 Test wickets @20.53 for goodness sake. Phenomenal.

10. Bishan Bedi Should it be Bishan luring his prey like a competition angler? Or deadly Derek Underwood, indefatigable Dan Vettori, or silky Hedley Verity? By a whisker, if only for aesthetics, the man who hypnotised batsmen like a snake charmer did a cobra.

11. Johnny Wardle To bowl only the chinamen and googlies he purveyed like no other.

Former England and Middlesex bowler Mike Selvey is cricket correspondent of the Guardian

Feeds: Mike Selvey
© ESPN EMEA Ltd.

Still, that's a pretty sh!t hot side.

Agree.

Nicely written too, humour with some acuity. Selvey was never a great bowler, more a solid county pro (I should point out that I don't mean that in the worst sense), - but he knows how to write, how to entertain and, as JGK notices, also how to provoke.

Though surely BLACKbeard was more of a pirate, ... and Bluebeard more of a casanova and lord of the castle in classical music.

Selvey has nothing better to do?

1. M. Hayden G. Wood
2. J. Langer K. Wessels
3. G. Pollock Yallop
4. B. Lara N. Knight
5. C. Lloyd G. Matthews
6. G. Sobers D. Hookes
7. A. Gilchrist W. Phillips
8. W. Akram G. Gilmour
9. A. Davidson G. Dymock
10. B. Bedi R. Bright
11. J. Wardle C. Matthews
12. G. Hogg

O

M

G

I share your amazement. They would beat all comers

Only because the collective orgasms would render them uncompetitive.

PeterCS wrote:Only because the collective orgasms would render them uncompetitive.

So you, smerk and merlin are like woman who live together who coordinate their cycles?

*shrugs in gallic fashion*

G.Wood wrote:

PeterCS wrote:Only because the collective orgasms would render them uncompetitive.

So you, smerk and merlin are like woman who live together who coordinate their cycles?

You live in fear of woman, "this sex which is not one"?

"Bluebeard the Pirate and his parrot." as Haden and Langer was pretty funny even allowing as pcs points out that it should have been 'blackbeard'...the bnlg makes the perfect parrot.

awesome team selected by selvey...saw all of them play except Wardle

PeterCS wrote:

G.Wood wrote:

PeterCS wrote:Only because the collective orgasms would render them uncompetitive.

So you, smerk and merlin are like woman who live together who coordinate their cycles?

You live in fear of woman, "this sex which is not one"?

hey, I'm not Lever

Neil Harvey reckons he could have picked a better team.

Of course, picking teams was harder in his day. These modern day selectors have that interweb thingy to assist them. In his day, it was all done by eye.

WideWally wrote:Neil Harvey reckons he could have picked a better team.

Hehehe, and picking himself at 3, no doubt?

To be (very) picky, Lara presents the same problem for Selvey as does Gower - both (very) occasional RIGHT-arm bowlers, thus suspected righties gone ... errr, wrong.

So he might have to fall back on the thoroughly cack-handed grit and grummocks of Alan Mc Border, - or perhaps The Don's beloved Arthur Morris.

Harvey can carry the cans of drinks or drive the drinks tank for being cantankerous.

In response to JGK's original beefing about all selections being post-War ... that's surely Selvey's point, from which emerged the capricious X!?

That the number of players either naturally playing or choosing to play "southpaw" has grown almost exponentially since that time. It's the main focus of his musings.

There is the other point that it's a bit difficult to propose someone from, say, the 19th century, whom you have never seen in the flesh, on video or in some cases even in action in still photographs - and about whom stats may be sketchy and\or incomparable with more recent conditions. (Fuller Pilch - righthander, can't think of a lefthander offhand - batting on bumpy boggy rubbish, for example.)

In other words, can you think of many pre-War alternatives?

Clem Hill?
Warren Bardsley?
Frank Woolley?
Phil Mead?
Morris Leyland?
Eddie Paynter?

Nicholas Felix?
James Saunders?
Robert Robinson?
Thomas Marsden?
William Searle?
John Hammond?

Paynter
Mead
Leyland
Hill
Bardsley
Ransford

Verity
Rhodes
Briggs
Peel
Blythe
Ironmonger

Voce
Ferris
Hirst

Reid

[Kinnock] WELL ALL RIGHT! [/Kinnock]

Edgar Willsher?