Best players in England and Wales (2006)

[Rachael]

Any thoughts on a "Best players playing in England and Wales" for 2006? Can be international players (Mohammed Yousuf springs to mind, as does Muralitharan, but Pietersen and Cook did OK) or domestic players (Ramprakash and Mushtaq Ahmed for instance). If anyone with any prospect of playing for England can make the list that would be cute... but I'm not holding my breath!

A County Championship XI might look as follows:

Jaques
Goodwin
Crawley
Lehman
Ramprakash
Pothas+ / Flower+
?????
Warne
Naved-ul-Hasan
Mushtaq Ahmed
? Silverwood ?

Any other obvious contenders? How do their performances measure up with the best performances from around the world (Test and Domestic) over the last 6 months?

[Vrock]

Flower really is out of the question as a 'keeper because he doesn't 'keep wicket anymore. James Foster playing the whole season kind of puts that one to bed.

Just looking at your XI I wouldn't have Ealham; great for a bit of control when the ball is dead but you've already got Warne and Mushy for the later overs.

[Rachael]

My error: I misread Ealham's batting average as 49.66 (which is merely his strike rate). Not sure who plays in his place though.....

[Moss]

Pothas has certainly been quietly prolific both in front of and behind the stumps this season.
The couple of times I've seen Hampshire live, he's been good.

Is he going to be England qualified soon, or have I got the wrong end of the stick?

[Vrock]

Originally Posted by Moss

Is he going to be England qualified soon, or have I got the wrong end of the stick?

He sure is Moss. Although I can't see him getting into the current England set up he certainly would be a perfect one-off if there was a dodgy food bug going around in Australia or the WC.

As for Ealham's replacement: I'd have a batsman as Mushy & Warne can bowl 30+ overs each out of the 90 for the new ball. Butch has had a quiet but healthy scoring season with an average of just under 60 so I'll put his name forward; yes, it's been in division 2 but you can only score runs against the opposition put in front of you.

Silverwood... I'd have Jon Lewis instead of him; better average, better strike rate and a very good economy for some of the rubbish pitches he'll have had to bowl on.

I think most of the players in this XI would certainly rank up there as the top performers in domestic cricket and certainly Ramps, Mushy and Lehmann (definites) could be rated up there with some of the top test performances this year.

[adamberry]

Could I point everyone in the direction of Matt Walker? Playing in the first division he averaged 62, a fact that everyone outside of Kent seems to have failed to notice.

I can't offer any complaints for the rest of the side though.

[Ernest]

Jaques
Goodwin
Loye
Crawley
Lehman/Law
Ramprakash
Pothas+
Warne
Kartick
Tom Smith
?????

[flanflinger]

Originally Posted by Rachael

If anyone with any prospect of playing for England can make the list that would be cute... but I'm not holding my breath!

A County Championship XI might look as follows

I think you are being grossly unfair on England selected players as they tend not to play in the Championship!!

As it is for me a good case should be made for Panesar getting into the XI

8 matches 42 wickets at 26.14..plus some exceptional Test performances to boot (Warne played 13 games, with 58 wickets at 27.08 - so Panesar compares very well)

[Maranello]

Originally Posted by Rachael

Any thoughts on a "Best players playing in England and Wales" for 2006? Can be international players (Mohammed Yousuf springs to mind, as does Muralitharan,

If we can include international players, then surely Ian Bell deserves an honourable mention at the very least?! As do Panesar and Cook, as has already been pointed out.

[flanflinger]

Too Right M...

Bell, Panesar, Cook, and even Pietersen should be included, and what about Yusuf or Murali!!

For me it is difficult to compare Tests with First Class performance, as the standard in Tests is so much higher. In county cricket a batter is probably facing one at the most top quality bowler and two average bowlers. While a Bowler might be facing two or three good batters, the rest are average.

This is not the case in Tests. I wonder how many runs Ramps would have scored if he had played half the first class games he played and seven Tests?