England Our England

So, after a nip and tuck South African affair, Norm and I finish the week by selecting our teams to represent a post-1945 England. As always, players need only have played for England after 1945 to be eligible for inclusion and the merits of their inclusion are to be judged on the totality of their career, not just the part of it that took place after Hitler's War. As alaways, you can follow the action here or at Norm's Place

That being so, I'll take Wally Hammond with my first pick.

Norm responds with Len Hutton. Not a bad choice by any means. Why do I have the feeling that there won't be many players from the past 15 years selected?

Next up: the best English fast bowler of the post-war period: Fred Trueman

Norm matches fire with fire, however, selecting  Frank Tyson with his second pick.

That permits me to choose Denis Compton with my third selection.

Next up for Norm? Ken Barrington, who might be more often remembered as a great batsman if his record in England had been as impressive as his performances overseas. 

Ian Botham was a better player than his figures might suggest. His first 200 test wickets came at around 23 runs apiece, before back injuries dramatically reduced his effectiveness. The figures, of course, cannot explain the explosiveness with which Botham, at his best, performed. And we'll always have 1981, won't we? Apologies to Trevor Bailey, but (unless I've forgotten someone) there's no real rival for the all-rounder spot.

Norm adds some elegant biffing to his batting order with Ted Dexter

Which permits me to select PBH May to fill out my own middle-order.

Alas, Norm has beaten me to the selection of "Sir" Geoffrey Boycott.

It is not all doom and gloom, however, since I can now select England's greatest off-spinner of the modern era, Jim Laker.

Norm's next selection? Derek Underwood.

Wicket-keeper is a dilemma here: on the one hand there's much to be said for taking Godfrey Evans, perhaps the best pure stumper of them all, on the other Alan Knott was a better batsman while hardly being a slouch with the gloves on either? In the end, Knott averaed 32 in tests to Evans' 20 so, on this occasion, I'll select Knott. (Alec Stewart, another possible candidate, aberages 34 as keeper but ain't the stumper Knott was).

Tom Graveney is the next fellow selected for Norm's XI. 

Since I've already selected Trueman, it's only fitting to also pick his great partner Brian Statham who edges out Bedser, Willis and Snow for a spot in my side.

Norm counters by picking, of course, Alec Bedser.

Opening the innings for me is John Edrich, who, rather unusually for an Englishman, scored more heavily against Australia than anyone else.

I suspected Norm might take Johnny Wardle rather than Tony Lock and so he has. 

With my tenth selection I take advantage of Hammond's medium-pacers to select an erratic, but potentially match-winning bowler for my side: Kent's Doug Wright. His quick leg-spinners were much admired by both Bradman and Hammond and while his test figures are not especially flattering, but he was a finer and certainly more dangerous bowler than his figures might suggest. And he was the last good English leg-spinner, so there's some sad romance there too. And he did the hat-trick seven times - still a record...

Norm's penultimate selection is Andrew Flintoff.

Though I never cared for him one bit, I think I don't have much option but to select Graham Gooch to open the batting. Here's hoping he remembers to bat as though he were playing the West Indies, not Australia.

Norm completes his line-up with Alec Stewart

Teams, in order of selection:

Alex: Wally Hammond, Fred Trueman, Denis Compton, Ian Botham, Peter May (Capt), Jim Laker, Alan Knott (Wkt), Brian Statham, John Edrich, Doug Wright, Graham Gooch.

Norm: Len Hutton, Frank Tyson, Ken Barrington, Ted Dexter, Geoffrey Boycott, Derek Underwood, Tom Graveney, Alec Bedser, Johnny Wardle, Andrew Flintoff, Alec Stewart.

So there you have it: Norm has an advantage at the top of the order and, perhaps, in spin bowling. My keeper is better and I think that, whatever the numbers say, my middle-order and quick bowling has a greater upside than his. That is to say, that though Tyson's wickets cost less than Trueman's, I think it reasonable to argue that Fred was the greater bowler. Equally, though Freddy Flintoff enjoyed two excellent years in 2004-5, he's not a bowler who has shown that he can take the five or six wickets in an innings that, ideally, you'd want. In the batting, Dexter and May have similar records, but the classical judgement has always been that May was the greater batsman. For that matter, the numbers say Barrington was a more successful batsman than Compton. But is this really so? Compton was touched by genius; few would say Barrington, for all his qualities, was so endowed.

A close game, then, and one in which each of us may have grounds for backing our selection.

My batting order: Gooch, Edrich, Hammond, Compton, May, Botham, Knott, Trueman, Laker, Statham, Wright.

Comments

[Ken]

Let's not be too generous to ITB, Alex. Remember that Botham started off his career at the height of the World Series Cricket problems...

[Tim]

I think you might have an extra advantage here in that two of Norm's bowlers - Bedser and Underwood - were very difficult to keep to. Stewart was a competent keeper, but not known for standing up to medium pacers, and Underwood, although a spinner, certainly bowled at nearly medium pace.