All Time Test Cricket's XI - Greatest Basketcases...

That guy who set people on fire.

Brass Monkey wrote:Aye, Jimmy Adams. Ian Bell to some extents. But Jimmy actually had a pair of bollocks and scored some tough runs. Did throw it away a lot.

If Ian Bell, EVER gets to No1 in the World Rankings then you can compare them.

He certainly did. Never pretty but effective. Can't help thinking multiple fractures of the cheekbone from the loony toon Van Troost didn't help in a decline in him.

Roy Gilchrist fronted up at the Oval in 1957 demanding a net, eyeballing Harry Bland the groundsman who had been there since Stoddart, saying 'Me Roy Gilchrist, you bowl, want practice batting,, to which Bland responded, 'Me Harry Bland, you f!@# off, or me practise ramming bat up your arse'.

Re Zoehrer: The last bloke you'd want on tour in England as second keeper, ie never playing but hanging around the rooms a lot, would be a Light Fingers but he did that gig twice. Doesn't add up. Mind you, he was plenty mad/stupid enough to brag too loudly for too long about bonking Bobby Simpson's daughter, whether or not he actually did said deed, which is not certain or even considered particularly likely.

Zoehrer allegedly nicked the club kit from one of the Wozzie Clubs ...South Perth from memory ....and pawned it ...

A Club official bought it back thinking he was replacing the stolen gear and then realised it had the club markings on it

He finished his career at Midland Guildford

tac wrote:

freddled gruntbuggly wrote:Surely Slats fits the bill - there have been few greater headcases out on the field.

Bit low to pick on someone with a mental illness . . .

Erm, isn't that just the PC way of saying someone is a headcase?

Australia, as elsewhere, has had a long line of disapointments.

Someone mentioned Ian Craig. O'Reilly reckoned that Craig, at 17, was a more complete batsman than Bradman at the same age. He made 53 and 47 on Test debut at that age, toured England in 1953 but scarcely made a run. He did much better there three years later and was promoted to the captaincy ahead of Benaud and Harvey in 1957-58. He captained the side well [which may simply mean he listened to his experienced players] but again made very few runs. Then he withdrew from the captaincy sick with hepatitis. He made good runs for several more years in Shield cricket and narrowly missed a third tour of England in 1961, when he was still only 25.

Garry Gilmour managed only 15 Tests, for various reasons, chiefly to do with unfitness and an apparent lack of commitment. However, he did enough to suggest that Australia had found a worthy successor to the great Alan Davidson. He performed better than Davidson at the same age, but sadly did not go on with it in the way Davidson did.

Contemporary with Davidson and Benaud was Ron Archer, who died recently. He was lost to Test cricket aged 23, through the sort of injury which would no3 mean a couple of months away from training. At the time he had had a more substantial Test career than either Benaud or Davidson, as a lively fast medium swing bowler and lower middle order batsmen. Like the other two he was an excellent fielder. Australia were a strong side without him but had he played . say in place of Meckiff - then the team would have been still stronger and much controversy would have been avoided.
On the other hand, perhaps he would have put an end to the career of Ken Mackay, which would have been a shame.

One more. Trevor Chappell was thought by his coaches - and I think by his father - to have been the best of the three brothers. Had he indeed been better than Greg, Australia in the dismal 80's would have been rather stronger. AB would have had some support.

I suspect Trevor would have been better off if his name had been Brown or Jones.

He shifted States twice and got the 51st and last Australian WSC spot (Was that an afterthought? Would there have been a 51st signing at all if he hadn't been the captain's brother?) but it made him as a cricketer and post-WSC he turned out to have a good career, which didn't look likely in 1977.

kim hughes never lived up to expectations, bung lee has yet to live up to the expectations of his own publicity machine, michael bevan and simon katich both remarkably similar (aloof, poor fieldsman, underperforming batsmen at test level and ordinairy chinamen bowlers), mike brearley - surely the most poorly performed english regular, hick,

Still on Australians, a few batsmen in recent decades fell short of widely predicted greatness whilst still having far from negligible Test careers. Sheahan, Hookes, Mark Waugh, Lehmann...

boof was selected too late in his career
koala jnr was the biggest disappointment among players to have played so many games
agree re sheehan
hookes agree too

Greg Ritchie?

Well judging on the basketcase criterion alone, Shane Warne should come into the frame.

One more. Trevor Chappell was thought by his coaches - and I think by his father - to have been the best of the three brothers.

IIRC his run scoring at school was better than the other two as well.

taipan wrote:Well judging on the basketcase criterion alone, Shane Warne should come into the frame.

aye & throw in his mum at the same time.

Henry wrote:Greg Ritchie?

nah! dickhead rather than basket case.

Mick Sawyer wrote:

taipan wrote:Well judging on the basketcase criterion alone, Shane Warne should come into the frame.

aye & throw in his mum at the same time.

Yep, she cost him the captaincy.

taipan wrote:

Mick Sawyer wrote:

taipan wrote:Well judging on the basketcase criterion alone, Shane Warne should come into the frame.

aye & throw in his mum at the same time.

Yep, she cost him the captaincy.

.................... & confirmed that her boy is rooooly rooooly feckin thick!

Mick Sawyer wrote:

taipan wrote:

Mick Sawyer wrote:

taipan wrote:Well judging on the basketcase criterion alone, Shane Warne should come into the frame.

aye & throw in his mum at the same time.

Yep, she cost him the captaincy.

.................... & confirmed that her boy is rooooly rooooly feckin thick!

Isn't that why he took the tabs?

OI you lot he is still TGM and no basket case

taipan wrote:

Mick Sawyer wrote:

taipan wrote:

Mick Sawyer wrote:

taipan wrote:Well judging on the basketcase criterion alone, Shane Warne should come into the frame.

aye & throw in his mum at the same time.

Yep, she cost him the captaincy.

.................... & confirmed that her boy is rooooly rooooly feckin thick!

Isn't that why he took the tabs?

Only to clear up the last remnants of his flabby chin to he would look nice on the telly the next day ............. moron!

horace wrote:OI you lot he is still TGM and no basket case

He's a grub and a dunce!

Mick Sawyer wrote:

taipan wrote:

Mick Sawyer wrote:

taipan wrote:

Mick Sawyer wrote:

taipan wrote:Well judging on the basketcase criterion alone, Shane Warne should come into the frame.

aye & throw in his mum at the same time.

Yep, she cost him the captaincy.

.................... & confirmed that her boy is rooooly rooooly feckin thick!

Isn't that why he took the tabs?

Only to clear up the last remnants of his flabby chin to he would look nice on the telly the next day ............. moron!

Well since he had a hair transplant why not go all the way and have a face lift?

taipan wrote:

Mick Sawyer wrote:

taipan wrote:

Mick Sawyer wrote:

taipan wrote:

Mick Sawyer wrote:

taipan wrote:Well judging on the basketcase criterion alone, Shane Warne should come into the frame.

aye & throw in his mum at the same time.

Yep, she cost him the captaincy.

.................... & confirmed that her boy is rooooly rooooly feckin thick!

Isn't that why he took the tabs?

Only to clear up the last remnants of his flabby chin to he would look nice on the telly the next day ............. moron!

Well since he had a hair transplant why not go all the way and have a face lift?

Looks like he could use full body liposuction - the left over folds could be sliced off & fed to to the dogs.

speaking of fatsos...i see robert key has been restored to the england squad - for cricket and not guttony

Mick Sawyer wrote:

taipan wrote:

Mick Sawyer wrote:

taipan wrote:

Mick Sawyer wrote:

taipan wrote:

Mick Sawyer wrote:

taipan wrote:Well judging on the basketcase criterion alone, Shane Warne should come into the frame.

aye & throw in his mum at the same time.

Yep, she cost him the captaincy.

.................... & confirmed that her boy is rooooly rooooly feckin thick!

Isn't that why he took the tabs?

Only to clear up the last remnants of his flabby chin to he would look nice on the telly the next day ............. moron!

Well since he had a hair transplant why not go all the way and have a face lift?

Looks like he could use full body liposuction - the left over folds could be sliced off & fed to to the dogs.

Geeez you're a bitter little cunut, MS . . . did Warnie bang the missus?