updating names for test draft


Deffo
TeamTrousers
ashley12
uncle_chopchop
NoJacket


Maybe
Badminton
DonkDonkDonkDonk

Add your name to the list if you want to do this, sign up by Feb 29^th, starts March 1^st

To get more participants you could either;

start an interest thread

or

find the ODI draft thread and pm the people that entered that.

Off the top of my head those that were in the odi draft

me
jamee999
Tt
Andy
the artist formerly known as isura now muttiah
64

Also as i mentioned before we should seriously eliminate the obv number 1 from the draft

Going on runs scored, averages and strike rate KP is the best player. It's easy to forget that even the top players spend a lot of the time out of form. That's why they average fifty and not a hundred.

I don't see how you can say pietersen is the best player in any format over the last 2 or 5 years or currently.

nearly all that is good in recent times have come as a result of the work of trott and cook at the top of the order. in terms of strokeplay and variety pietersen obviously destroys these two but batting is more than that. cook and trott are strong mentally and solid defensively and have scored runs in all formats in all wickets. they might not be as talented as pietersen but there the two players that the rest of the england batsman look upto and on which most of englands victories are based upon.

Grinders might end up with a higher average but no serious judge of cricket will claim that Ken Barrington was England's greatest all-time batsman despite the fact that his test average is higher than Wally Hammond's. I don't rate Trott at all. He looks like an efficient nurdler in the Simon Katich mould but hardly a great batsman. He has cashed in against some woeful bowling attacks from the Ashes tour onwards until Pakistan one. It wouldn't surprise me if he was eventually dropped.

Obviously in. (this is Isura)

Also ill havent seen him irl in ages but Rebecca twigley would be in

I dunno if AB could be considered underrated at this point in his career, but I think he's probably the best player in the world IMO

Yeah that really was a superb century.

(SA easily beat NZ)

It's not like it was a tiny total, though. Amla, Smith, and Kallis all went cheaply. I think Kallis will have to face the same situation that Ponting, KP, and Sachin are facing in their respective countries

Possibly. SA certainly have the quality to come through and replace him. Would be a huge miss for the Test side though.

"@OptaJim: 10 - @ABdeVilliers17 has scored 10 ODI centuries in his last 34 knocks, having scored 3 in his previous 87. Improvement."

After digging into CricInfo for a while, I honestly can't say that SA should drop any of Amla, Smith, Kallis, or De Villiers. Since they're still rocking Steyn and Morkel at the top of their attack, I can't see the flaw in SA, either in tests or ODI's.

Choking?

That may be. Maybe it's a lack of balance in the 6-9 positions that the stronger countries have been able to fill over the last decade or so. Maybe it's the lack of a class spinner. SA just seems like a team with so much firepower that they should be able to run over >66% of ODI's.

Their ODI ranking points total is average and they have never had a really top spinner. A seam attack is OK for tours like New Zealand but may not be effective in the subcontinent.

South Africa are the perenial second best side. Their problem atm is that whilst Morkal, Steyn, Amla, Kallis, Devilliers, Smith are all a-listers everyone else is crap. Thats why England are better, they have a much more even side, less stars but no weaknesses either. Also not having a decent keeper batsman has hurt them a lot. Surely they could have dug up someone more capable than Boucher in the last decade.

edit: also even though Morkal and Steyn are the clear best opening combo in the world if one of them gets injured SA are finished. If an Englishg quick goes down they always have one of Tremlett, Finn or Bresnan to come in who are all good test bowlers.

& Englands tail enders are good bats. & they have a decent spinner

SA are and will always be one of the top 3 best sides without even being number #1. Must be thier diet or something.

seems like there were plenty of incidents last night in the indiaaus game. no idea who was in the wrong or right. india seem to be involved in plenty of incidents recently.

dhoni pretty terrible tho. 14 of 49 is woeful in a runchase. sehwag, tendulkar, gambhir all fail again

Lol india

anti lol my bet of Sri Lanka at 14/1

I think David Hussey really got away with one. I mean, wtf was he thinking? India should've accepted the decision and moved on tho - in game is not the time to question umpiring decisions.

Fire in Babylon is on tonight on BBC4 at 10pm UK time - it is supposed to be pretty decent.

yeah its good, highly recommend.

Allegations of fixing in BPL

I, for one, am shocked and appalled....


Deffo gonna try and watch this if I can. Thx for the headsup

I mean teams cost $1m there, I could probably fix matches in the BPL.