Alternative World Cricket XIs

The Invincibles of 1948, captained by Bradman (seated centre)

As stated earlier Cricinfo are selecting an All Time World Cicket XI. If half of my eleven guys don't make the list I might just pack in this sports blogging thing altogether.

In the run up to the announcement of what could be the best cricket team ever imagined, the panel of selectors are releasing some of their alternative teams - each centred around a theme.

I know. Calm down.

In choosing this All Time XI the selectors are limited to those players who have been previously selected by the Cricinfo team to represent their own All Time National XIs.

The selection panel this time around is similar to the previous ones and includes past players, captains, cricketing historians, blah blah blah... Basically all the guys with a unique and deep knowledge of the sound made by the crack of leather on Chris Martin. (A list of the Cricinfo All Time National XIs is at the bottom of the post.)

Anyone can have a go at picking their own World XI, so why not give it a whirl.

Here are three teams for the moment to whet your appetite (although of course you could just look at mine...).

The Excluded (Gideon Haigh)
Not one player on the team selected by Gideon Haigh is on the list of nominations. So yeah he's going a bit left field but after all that is the point. He's confident enough though: "Bring on those showponies. We'll give them a game." I agree.

Thrill-a-minute XI (Ian Chappell)
Ian Chappell with his typically aggressive manner has chosen a team "on talent, their ability to entertain, and a desire to dictate to the opposition." Cricky.

Poetry in motion (Suresh Menon)
Suresh Menon (again perhaps typically) has chosen a team that may have more style than substance. That's ok in my book and (as he says) these XI players "couldn't be graceless if they tried."

The Excluded	Thrill-a-Minute-XI	Poetry in Motion
Wilfred Rhodes	Virender Sehwag	Victor Trumper
Herbert Sutcliffe	Roy Fredericks	Frank Worrell (capt)
Ricky Ponting	Viv Richards	David Gower
Neil Harvey (capt)	Brian Lara	Gundappa Viswanath
Everton Weekes	Doug Walters	Ranji
Rohan Kanhai	Garfield Sobers (capt)	Frank Woolley
Ian Healy (wk)	Adam Gilchrist (wk)	Alan Knott (wk)
Ray Lindwall	Shane Warne	Jim Laker
Joel Garner	Dennis Lillee	Michael Holding
Jim Laker	Wes Hall	Ray Lindwall
Ted McDonald	Bill O'Reilly	Bishan Bedi
Bishan Bedi (12th man)

Victorious West Indies 1975 World Cup Team. Possibly the greatest ever genuine team?

Not sure about all that but it makes for interesting reading none the less. *Cough* Did I mention you can see my world XI? No? Oh right just click here.

Here is a list of all the national XIs. Again it's all interesting reading although using these teams as the basis for nominating a World XI is a little head stratching after a moment's thought (read comments [if you can bear]).

Australia All Time XI
Victor Trumper, Arthur Morri, Don Bradman, Greg Chappell, Allan Border, Keith Miller, Adam Gilchrist, Shane Warne, Bill O'Reilly, Dennis Lillee, Glenn McGrath.

England All Time XI
Jack Hobbs, Len Hutton, Wally Hammond, Ken Barrington, Kevin Pietersen, Ian Botham, Alan Knott, Derek Underwood, Harold Larwood, Fred Trueman, Sydney Barnes.

India All Time XI
Virender Sehwag, Sunil Gavaskar, Rahul Dravid, Sachin Tendulkar, Vijay Hazare, Vinoo Mankad, MS Dhoni, Kapil Dev, Anil Kumble, Javagal Srinath, Erapalli Prasanna.

New Zealand All Time XI
Glenn Turner, Stewie Dempster, Bert Sutcliffe, Martin Crowe, Martin Donnelly, John R Reid, Richard Hadlee, Daniel Vettori, Ian Smith, Shane Bond, Jack Cowie.

Pakistan All Time XI
Saeed Anwar, Hanif Mohammad, Zaheer Abbas, Javed Miandad, Inzamam-ul-Haq, Imran Khan, Rashid Latif, Wasim Akram, Fazal Mahmood, Abdul Qadir, Waqar Younis.

South Africa All Time XI
Barry Richards, Graeme Smith, Jacques Kallis, Graeme Pollock, Dudley Nourse, Aubrey Faulkner, Shaun Pollock, Mike Procter, John Waite, Hugh Tayfield, Allan Donald.

Sri Lanka All Time XI
Marvan Atapattu, Sanath Jayasuriya, Kumar Sangakkara, Aravinda de Silva, Mahela Jayawardene, Arjuna Ranatunga, Chaminda Vaas, Rumesh Ratnayake, Ashantha de Mel, Somachandra de Silva, Muttiah Muralitharan.

West Indies All Time XI
Gordon Greenidge, Conrad Hunte, George Headley, Viv Richards, Brian Lara, Garry Sobers, Malcolm Marshall, Jackie Hendriks,Michael Holding, Curtly Ambrose, Lance Gibbs.

Click here to see my selection for the greatest ever cricket team. (It's not just Chris Gayle and Trent Johnson.)