Is this the best domestic team of all?

In today's Telegraph is a list of NSW Hall of Famers. Eligibility is based on when making your debut it must have been for NSW.

Morris
Simpson
Bradman
Trumper
Macartney
S Waugh
Murdoch (WK)
Benaud
Davidson
Lindwall
Turner
O'Reilly

I'm not sure who 12th man is though.

Gilly and Pidge will make that team eventually . . .

Barbados would have a decent team.

In past discussions who did we decide on for the keeper of NSW?

I think most of us went for Oldfield.

eah, peterg, I think he was the one . . .

I'd reckon it's an awfully strong side that can leave out McGrath, or else a badly chosen one.

I'm also disappointed McCabe did not make it, but competition is immense - Border also misses out, and Sid Barnes.

The candidates for 12th man would appear to be Steve Waugh or Macartney among batsmen, or Benaud or Turner from the bowlers. It would depend on the desired balance, but five of these batsmen should be adequate even if we reinstate Oldfield. If Benaud drops out, O'Reilly's spin could be complemented by Macartney or Simpson, if needed.

Peter

Is Oldfield better than Billy?

In addition to Barbados (already mentioned), Yorkshire and Surrey would have strong teams.

I had thought Murdoch was primarily a batsman, and one of the best of the 19th Century.


I've come up with a Second Twelve for NSW, scraping the barrel only with the support pace bowler to McGrath.


Barnes, Bardsley, McCabe, Border, O'Neill or Kippax, Walters, Noble, Oldfield or Gilchrist, Hordern, Lawson, McGrath, Mailey.

How about Jeff Thomson over Lawson?

Thanks lardy,

How could I forget him? Improves the side no end.

Where's Nashy?

embee wrote:Where's Nashy?

In the 8ths, with MacGill

You could make a pretty useful team out of NSW players who left the state for some or most of their careers.

It would include Bradman, Border, Simpson, Gilchrist, Lindwall, Thomson, possibly Bevan. You could probably fill the side with expatriates like Bill Alley who flocked to English league and county cricket after NSW

Notable NSW imports seem fewer - Harvey, Miller and...?

At any rate, the historic strength of NSW cricket should be clear even to those who beat the tiresome drum of NSW selectorial dominance.

Probably no other two Australian states combined could hope to match NSW on thie criterion adopted.

peterg wrote:You could make a pretty useful team out of NSW players who left the state for some or most of their careers.

It would include Bradman, Border, Simpson, Gilchrist, Lindwall, Thomson, possibly Bevan. You could probably fill the side with expatriates like Bill Alley who flocked to English league and county cricket after NSW

Notable NSW imports seem fewer - Harvey, Miller and...?

Katich, Imran ...

peterg wrote:At any rate, the historic strength of NSW cricket should be clear even to those who beat the tiresome drum of NSW selectorial dominance.

Probably no other two Australian states combined could hope to match NSW on thie criterion adopted.

Barring the brilliance of Bradman, which is sufficient on its own to make your statement true, I think WA and Vic combined could have a side to match NSW.

Katich doesn't seem in the class of Miller or Harvey, unless he now begins a spectacular twilight in Test cricket [he's already 32]

Imran's in a different category, in every sense.

I also think we could get the suckiest Australian Test side that ever sucked out of sucky NSW caps ... suckier than any combination from any other two State sides.

Bruce Francis, John Watkins, Dave Renneberg ... for starters

The best domestic team of one time is undoubtedly the Transvaal Mean machine of the early 80's

Watkins won a Test with the bat, even if he couldn't pitch his leggies on the cut portion.

Agree about Francis. Renneberg was in a dire period.

What about your combined Vic/WA side?

Presumably Lillee, Miller Warne, Ponsford, Harvey....? Rod Marsh? Bill Lawry?

That second team is barely weaker than the first (other than Bradman).

Bevan doesn't count for the "who you first played for team" anyway.


FWIW - McGrath would be my second bowler picked after Tiger and Oldfield has to be the keeper.

Murdoch was more a batsman-keeper from what I have read. The great keeper of the time was Blackham.

I'm old enough to have seen all those players in action, Peter, and I remember the Watkins/Massie stand (both in their last Test as it turned out) just like it was yesterday (and Walker's follow-up performance). I was in WA at the time, on holiday, and I remember the back page of the WA paper had (on the last day of the game) a photo of the Pakistani players toasting their impending victory, allegedly with milk. The next day's headline predictably had something like 'Panikstan' in it ...

Francis infuriated the hell out of me. He shouldn't have been in the team in 1971-2 v ROW, and God knows how he got chosen for the 1972 tour. Bradman was still punishing Lawry for his stance on player payments a year earlier, and Ashley Woodcock also missed a boat he could have caught, and perhaps done well. Francis was a crab and a liability in the field (famously trod on his own hand while picking a ball up). On the 1972 tour he made runs v the Universities, just before the first Test, but virtually no other runs all tour. He was virtually never seen again after 1972, even at state level.

I'll get back to you on the best WA Vic combination, but you've named most of the obvious suspects already ...

taipan wrote:The best domestic team of one time is undoubtedly the Transvaal Mean machine of the early 80's

Maybe, but would an all-time Transvaal team compete with an all-time NSW, Barbados, or Yorkshire team?