2008-A great year for cricket

[Chalks]

No mention of South Africa chasing down 414 in Perth? Glaring oversight there.

[Feed]

Tendulkar, Dhoni, Gambhir and Ishant in 'Herald Sun' world team TWO years ago, selecting a cricket team to represent Earth against the might of Mars on New Year's Day would have presented one major problem. More... Ponting, Johnson left to fly the flag Ron Reed January 01, 2009 12:00am TWO years ago, selecting a cricket team to represent Earth against the might of Mars on New Year's Day would have presented one major problem. That would be accommodating all the Australians who would have been walk-up starts and still finding room for Sachin Tendulkar, Brian Lara and Muthiah Muralidaran. But the times, they are a'changing. Now the worry is finding any - yes, any - Australians who can be considered automatic selections. Come to think of it, if the flak directed at Andrew Hilditch and his panel this week is any guide, just finding enough Australians capable of playing for Australia - let alone the world - isn't as easy as it looks. In the good old days, the World XI would almost certainly include Ricky Ponting, Shane Warne, Glenn McGrath, Adam Gilchrist and Matthew Hayden, with Brett Lee and Justin Langer somewhere around the fringes. Now, with Australia's golden era indisputably at an end, it has become a popular source of amusement in newspapers and websites around the world to pick composite sides and see how few Aussies you can justify picking. Even one Melbourne paper - yes, the other one - had a go last week and found room for only Mitchell Johnson. Less than one week later, Ricky Ponting had scored his 37th Test century and added a 99 in the second innings, making his omission from that particular combination look a little, er, premature perhaps. Since then, one venerable English Sunday paper, The Observer, went one better in the Aussie-bashing stakes when cricket columnist Vic Marks, a former England Test player of little distinction, managed to find no room for anyone wearing a baggy green cap. But he did manage to include not one Pom but two, current captain Kevin Pietersen and a former one, Andrew Flintoff. Pietersen is fair enough - he scored more than 1000 runs at an average of better than 50, but Flintoff? Marks justifies him by saying he bowled well in India recently, but for the year he played only five Tests and took just 16 wickets. "Flintoff may seem an Anglo-centric selection..." writes Marks. You can say that again, Victor. Like we said, this is no easy assignment. But the editor-in-chief of the Herald Sun, a hard taskmaster at the best of times and impossible to argue with when he's got something to gloat about, has insisted that we have a crack at it. And because he is not only a cricket know-all but a South African to boot there is only one place to start - with a South African as the boss. That means Graeme Smith is, literally, the first player picked. He opens the batting and is captain. On both scores, he has justified that over the past two weeks alone, but his team hasn't lost a series all year, and he has scored more runs than anybody - 1656 at 72. He has got them when they counted, too, against both England and Australia, and on the road. His partner could be either of the big-scoring Indians, Virender Sehwag or Gautam Gambhir. Sehwag is the more eye-catching option, especially as he has a triple-century and has taken 15 wickets with his off-spin. But Gambhir has averaged 70.87 for his 1134 runs and there is something about him that suggests he is a fierce competitor. He's in. Ponting bats at three - no correspondence entered into. It hasn't been his best year, true, but he is still the third highest run-getter behind Smith and Sehwag with 1182 at 47.28. Like Ponting, Sachin Tendulkar is simply non-negotiable in any team. His 41st century to lead India's remarkable chase after 387 against England last month was said by some to have been his finest moment - enough said. West Indian Shivnarine Chanderpaul has averaged better than 100 in an ordinary team, so he's at five, while the young South African A. B. De Villiers' matchwinning innings in Perth confirms that he has, at 24, completed the transition from talented prodigy to mature star. He's at six. India's M. S. Dhoni is the wicketkeeper, not necessarily because he is the best at that job, but because he scores plenty of important runs - he is replacing Gilchrist, after all - and has demonstrated great leadership qualities. He is vice-captain. South Africa's Dale Steyn has just demonstrated in Melbourne why he is the standout pace bowler, with 74 scalps for the year. Johnson is second with 63, and his superb 8-61 in Perth, the best figures ever by a left-arm quick, makes him Australia's second representative. The third spot has many claimants, notably Indian left-armers Ishant Sharma and Zaheer Khan, England's Ryan Sidebottom, South Africa's ageless Makhaya Ntini and even Lee, for all his recent troubles, still took 57 wickets. But like Johnson, Sharma looks to have something special, so even though he took a relatively modest 38 wickets in 13 matches he's the man. The one spinner's spot is extremely difficult, with India's Harbhajan Singh and New Zealand captain Daniel Vettori, these days an all-rounder, challenging hard with 63 and 54 wickets respectively. Murali took only 43 wickets because he played just six Tests, but that's seven per outing, a strike-rate that far outstrips the others. And of course, he is the only bowler in history with more wickets than Warne. Pietersen is 12th man. He is very hard to leave out, but probably the only way to squeeze him in is to omit Tendulkar, and we're just not going to do that. And let's face it, if the Poms can't find room for an Aussie, we're not going to lose any sleep about not picking an Englishman - even if he is really a South African.

[Lord]

notably Indian left-armers Ishant Sharma and Zaheer Khan,

:omg:

[SachDan]

TWO years ago, selecting a cricket team to represent Earth against the might of Mars on New Year's Day would have presented one major problem. More... Ponting, Johnson left to fly the flag Ron Reed January 01, 2009 12:00am And let's face it, if the Poms can't find room for an Aussie, we're not going to lose any sleep about not picking an Englishman - even if he is really a South African.

:cantstop::cantstop:

[Chandan]

notably Indian left-armers Ishant Sharma and Zaheer Khan,

:omg:

He has been bagged a lot for these mistakes. He also said that Chanderpaul is the skipper. He isn't anymore. Would you like to read the comments on this article and how the author defended himself after each comment? Well, you have to go here: LINK I wish our sites had this provision where readers could communicate with the author!!

[DomainK]

Interesting. Though i think Sehwag should be picked over Gambo for the simple fact that Sehwag has proved himself equally effective in different countries, differetnt pitches and different situations. Something that defines greatness and something that Gambhir is yet to prove. And also I would pick ZAK over Ishant. And I agree with the author- people like Vic have been too harsh on the Aussies.....they may not be the best anymore, but they are certainly not the worst.

[Rajan]

good list. agree with most of it. liked the bit about the comparison between world XI a couple ofn years back and the current one. his replies to reader's comments were also justified.

[CSK Fan]

Interesting. Though i think Sehwag should be picked over Gambo for the simple fact that Sehwag has proved himself equally effective in different countries, differetnt pitches and different situations. Something that defines greatness and something that Gambhir is yet to prove. .

Its the tets team of the year buddy, so performances in this year count where Gambhir has eclipsed Sehwag. mean an average of 70+?