My favorite cricketing Eleven

For the past year or so I have been having this seemingly ludicrous feeling that my interest in the sport that I have lived and breathed for 24 years of my rather profligate life has been dwindling. I am not able to put my finger as to why that it- It could be because of any of the below:

a) Retirement of Brian Lara- I grew up watching this genius. The man is an absolute sorcerer with the bat. He can do things that lesser mortals like Sehwag can only dream of. (Ok that’s a cheap shot- but he came mighty close to stealing god’s record). It cant be the reason for I have always believed that the game is larger than the sum total of all it players
b) Me living in Bermuda –No longer do I sit on the parapet wall in Pattamal Street arguing with my mates (with the veins popping out of my forehead) about the technique /competence of who’s who of world Cricket- Cant be the case as I still have controversial opinions about the sport and have a good argument with M and K in bermuda
c) Football- It’s hard to be so passionate about 2 sports given that my passion involves sulking for 2 days if Manchester United loses a derby game. That is just too much effort!
d) The advent of 20-20- As much as I love watching a game of 20-20, I am too old fashioned and have developed an inherent dislike for the game since the 20-20 has started taking over the way the game is played.

So I have decided to re-ignite my love for the game and have entrusted myself with the rather unenviable task of picking an all time eleven. I know it’s impossible to do such a thing so I have drawn up some constraints to make the job relatively easier:

a) I should have watched the guy play
b) I am going to pick a Test XI
c) I do not give a rat’s a** about statistics

So here goes:

Sunil Gavaskar -. Was the rock of the Indian batting line up when we were forced to live with the mediocrity of Ashok Malhota and Sandip Patil. (Absolute shame that man is such a cricketing genius yet spouts so much rubbish as a columnist)

Gordon Greenidge- I was a huge fan of Australian cricket and I used to begrudgingly watch him plunder runs against England and Australia. Chalk and Cheese with Sunny Gavaskar

Brian Charles Lara- Nothing has given more joy than watch God bat. I have to admit that I was up until 4 am in the morning when he made the brilliant 153* against Australia and had my economics board exam at half nine that morning- Enough Said

Sachin Tendulkar- The fact that I was a Lara fan had me blinkered so much that I have questioned his big game temperament. Thanks Brian for retiring atleast a couple of years before Sachin so that I can appreciate yet another cricketing genius

Viv Richards- There is only one Viv Richards

Javed Miandad- The man embodies the passion with which the sport should be played. He is not in the same league as Jacques Kallis/Rahul Dravid when it comes to technique but supersedes all of them with the will to win.

Adam Gilchrist- Has single handedly redefined the definition of a wicket keeper

Richard Hadlee- Has to be the sultan of swing bowling.

Shane Warne- Despite all his failing as a human being he is the wizard of the Oz.

Curtly Amborse- If the bowler is to earn a wicket every time he beats the batsman outside the offstump the man would have atleast 15,000 test wickets. Some batsmen were just too ordinary to even get a nick.

Glenn Mcgrath- Unerring accuracy. The fact that he dismissed Brian so many times has probably has swung the tide in his favor over the likes of Wasim Akram and Courtney Walsh

I owe a huge apology to the likes of Kapil Dev/Wasim Akram/Imran Khan/Muttiah Muralitharan/Allan Donald/Allan Border et all for I could not fit them into my favorite eleven

I am not saying that my eleven would be good enough to beat anytime team put against them. But I think I would be willing to pay a fortune to go and watch these guys play a game together.

Looking forward to hearing from you folks about your favorite eleven.

Cheers
S