The English dilemma

England is a good cricket side. Not a great one, but a good one. They are competitive without being dominant. Efficient without being clinical. Strong without being overbearing.

In the current England v New Zealand test series, however, New Zealand, a team with few superstars to call upon, has managed to ask more questions of them than they expected. Before the series began, Michael Vaughan predicted an easy series win. That couldn’t be further from the truth.

England escaped from the first test with a draw after clearing losing the majority of the test. They managed to steal a win in the Old Trafford after Monty Panesar devastated the Kiwis to the tune of 6/37, despite being outplayed in the first innings with the bat and ball.

They go into the final test trying to prevent New Zealand from coming away with a win, despite the fact that for the majority of the series New Zealand have performed better, despite England’s better stars. Players like McCullum, Ross Taylor and Jamie How have stood up, and they have been led well by Vettori, who is taking wickets and leading with great guile.

England has access to an enviable line up of talent. It is alarming that such a lineup cannot lend itself to greater consistency. Ian Bell, like Michael Clarke, has never scored a century unless one has already been scored; KP is now averaging under 50 despite being far and away England’s best batsman.

The most frustrating aspect of England has been their bowling. Sidebottom and Panesar are both performing well, Stuart Broad has looked steady, but Jimmy Anderson has been absolutely terrible. He has a real problem with consistency, being able to deliver one good performance in one innings, then delivering 10 bad ones in a row.

My suggestion is to bring Mark Davies, the underrated Durham seamer, into the squad, or giant beanpole Chris Tremlett, who obtains good bounce. Anderson just simply isn’t good enough to maintain test quality performances.

Not only is the one fumbling for a spot, Paul Collingwood, who delivered such a wonderful 206 in the last Ashes series, is now fighting to keep out the rampant Ravi Bopara, who has set the county scene alight with his prolific run scoring. Colly needs runs to keep his spot urgently.

This series has been a frank eye opener for England, because they know with a strong South African side that has recently fought India to a standstill in India, their side will get crushed if they perform anywhere near as badly as they have this series.

My All-Time Teams

I made these to provoke some debate, hopefully my fathful readers will be moved to comment on the sides.

Australia
M. Hayden
R. Simpson
R. Ponting
D. Bradman
G. Chappell
A. Border ©
A. Gilchrist (*)
A. Davidson
S. Warne
D. Lillee
G. McGrath

12th: K. Miller

I feel this XI is straight forward, with terrific players in all positions. Noticable admissions by some fans may be that of Miller from the starting XI, Steve Waugh, or the 'Demon' Spofforth. I picked Border because Border was to face the tougher bowling and maintained his average over 50 for the majority of his career.

England
J. Hobbs
H. Sutcliffe
W. Hammond
L. Hutton ©
K. Barrington
I. Botham
A. Knott (*)
J. Laker
S. Barnes
A. Bedser
F. Trueman

12th: J. Snow

Again I feel this was fairly straight forward, although some may be bemused at the lack of George Lohmann, W. G. Grace and John Snow. Dereck Underwood narrowly missed the spinner's spot, and Maurice Tate was thought of.

India
S. Gavaskar
V. Sehwag
R. Dravid
S. Tendulkar
V. Hazare ©
M. Azharuddin
M.S. Dhoni (*)
K. Dev
A. Kumble
J. Srinath
B. Bedi

12th: B. Chandrasekar

The majority of India's best are from the modern era, India's golden age, with 7 players having played from 1990 onwards. Vinoo Mankad was a sad ommission, as was the elegant V.V.S Laxman. Vijay Merchant also missed out, as did Erapally Prasanna and Chandra.

Pakistan
S. Anwar
H. Mohammad
Y. Khan
J. Miandad
M. Yousef
Inzamam-Ul-Haq
I. Khan ©
W. Akram
A. Qadir
W. Bari (*)
F. Mahmood
W. Younis

12th: Zaheer Abbas

I felt I got this one bang on target. The only problem was that of Wasim Bari and whether it was fair to remove him for someone with a better average, perhaps Kamran Akmal. But Bari's reputation as a gloveman sealed his spot.

South Africa
G. Smith
B. Mitchell
J. Kallis
D. Nourse ©
G. Pollock
E. Barlow
M. Boucher (*)
S. Pollock
P. Pollock
H. Tayfield
A. Donald

12th: G. Faulkner

On a whim I excluded both Barry Richards and Mike Proctor for not playing enough tests, although they'd be sure to make it usually. This team is still formidable, with a good mix of old and modern players. Herbie Taylor could easily be included, as could Alan Melville and the determined Gary Kirsten. Makhaya Ntini nearly earned a spot, and Trevor Goddard was a near miss.

West Indies
G. Greenidge
C. Hunte
G. Headley
V. Richards
B. Lara
G. Sobers (C)
C. Walcott (*)
M. Marshall
J. Garner
M. Holding
C. Ambrose

12th: F. Worrell

This was the most difficult team to select, not because of a lack of players, because of too much players. Clive Lloyd and Frank Worrell, both gifted batsmen and captains, both fail to make the grade and so does Rohan Kanhai, Shiv Chanderpaul and the supremely gifted Everotn Weekes (The comment below reminded me I had forgot Sir Garfield St. Auburn Sobers, and poor Everton misses out due to my oversight!). There is no room for Courtney Walsh, Andy Roberts, Wes Hall, or Lance Gibbs. And Clyde Walcott is a surprise choice at keeper (Considering his batting record wasn't as good when he donned the gloves).

New Zealand
B. Sutcliffe
G. Turner
A. Jones
M. Donnelly
M. Crowe ©
C. Cairns
B. McCullum (*)
R. Hadlee
D. Vettori
S. Bond
J. Cowie

12th: S. Fleming

This one will get some healthy debate. As two controversial choices, I have picked devastating tyro Shane Bond and original kingpin Jack "The Bull" Cowie to partner Richard Hadlee. Cowie's choice may be a suprise, but when you consider his record and the opposition he played against, it is well deserved. Martin Donelly, the graceful left hander, was picked ahead of Fleming, who just misses out.

Sri Lanka

S. Jayasuria
M. Attapattu
A. De Silva
M. Jayawardene ©
K. Sangakarra (*)
A. Gurusinha
H. Tillakaratne
T. Dilshan
C. Vaas
C. Fernando
L. Malinga
M. Muralitharan

12th: A. Ranatunga

Probably the most modern of teams considering their first test was 1982. Their entire bowling team is post 1990, and the omission of Ranatunga may confuse some people.

Farewell MacGilla

Another test series and another high profile retirement from the Australian team. This time, Stuart MacGill, the fiery and confrontational leg spinner, hung up his boots after dismal performances in Jamaica and in the current test.

MacGill has been a good servant to Australian cricket, having to sit in the wings during Shane Warne’s dominance of spin bowling and taking wickets where he could. His career record makes impressive viewing, over 200 wickets at just over 28 and a strike rate of 53, an impressive rate for a spinner.

Unfortunately, in the twilight of his career, injuries and a disastrous loss of form put paid to his career, and hopefully people do not remember him in that way.

They will hopefully remember MacGill’s epic performance in the 1998-1999 Ashes series, where he bowled Australia to victory in Sydney with 12/107. Or when he often out-bowled his greater friend and rival, Warne, such as the ICC Supertest in 2005.

While he had many flaws in his character, including accusations of selfishness and being aloof from team mates, he was committed to keeping Australia on top and as one of the premire spinners in the world he was even at times superior to India’s Anil Kumble, another leggie.

What MacGilla’s retirement does is expose our lack of spinning depth. Australia has quality depth in other departments all around the country, from batsman, pacemen and keepers. It is our spinning stocks that have struggled, despite the popularity of Warne and MacGill.

Dan Cullen and Cullen Bailey, the South Australia boys, are struggling to break into their side, with Nathan Adcock’s off spin being more successful than Cullen’s. Aaron Heal is in need of more first class games but has talent, and the game seems to be up for Queensland’s Dan Doran and NSW’s Nathan Hauritz.

It leaves current Australian candidate Beau Casson and 36 year old Victorian leggie Bryce McGain, who showed great accuracy this Pura Cup and Ford Ranger Cup season. Casson performed well, especially late, in the Blues victorious Pura Cup campaign and deserves a shot in the next test.

However, the selectors may look to play four seamers and use Michael Clarke and Andrew Symonds as their spin options. For the sake of entertaining cricket, let’s hope they give Casson a chance to possibly become the spinner Australia has been crying out for since Warne’s retirement.