I'm going to play safe and work on the principle that you can't do much from the pavillion: a Test Team of players likely to play every game.

Smith
Trescothick
Strauss
Vaughan
Thorpe
GO Jones (wk)
Pollock (capt)
Giles
Hoggard
Harmison
Ntini

Tresco
Smith
Strauss
Vaghan
Thorpe
Flintoff
Jones G
Harmison
Ntini
Giles
Hoggard

Thats tougher than looks, as I'd pick kallis for purely on batting and pollock purely on bowling. Stick it in for all 3

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Nothing says "Obey Me" like a bloody head on a fence post!

Interestingly.. I couldn't come up with XI players that I expected to be seriously effective who I could reasonably expect to see in the Tests AND the ODI competitions. I could come up with 4 all-rounders (including Hall) and a 'keeper... but not the specialists:

Batsmen: Tresco, Smith, Strauss, Vaughan.. plus Rudolph if he gets his act together...
Bowlers: Harmison, Ntini...

Reasoning: Hoggard and Butcher will still get overlooked for the ODI.. as (with more justification) will Simon Jones... Anderson may not (given his dire form) play in either format... and Giles might well find he's purely a containing bowler in this series....

An ideal XI for the Test and ODI series combined would, to my mind, involve the following XI: Tresco, Smith, Strauss, Vaughan, Kallis, Flintoff, Hall, Pollock, G.O. Jones, Harmison, Ntini

That's only 4 specialist batsmen and 2 specialist bowlers.. which Richard rightly outlaws!

I'll have:

Trescothick
Smith
Vaughan
Thorpe
Rudolph
Flintoff (c)
Jones (w) (I wish I didn't have to though :-) )
Giles
Hoggard
Ntini
Harmison

Tests only

There's nothing to stop you picking Read! At least he's on the tour (unlike Jamie Foster) and you never know, he might get a game is GO Jones gets injured! Go on, be stubborn and pick Chris Read - I'm still going for Gibbs even though he's been dropped! Make a stand!

Come on Andy! Not even I am mad enough to suggest that Read will take any partin the series! I'd have Boucher but I'm not convinced he'll get in until maybe after the Cape Town test. Tsolekile should be given a chance and Newlands is his home ground.

LOL.. I wonder if we could actually get together a credible XI of current / recent squad players that will not actually get a game in either format.

I'll kick off with Gibbs, Key, Bell, Read, Batty, Petersen, Ali, Anderson

Do you mean England's Pietersen or South Africa's Robin Petersen.... or both!

Gibbs
Key
Bell
Pietersen
Prior
Read
Ontong (not convinced he'll get a game after poor performance in India and SA pitches not suiting him)
Kabir Ali
Nel
Petersen
Anderson

That team seems to have a very long tail though!! It depends how far you go back I suppose, but all of these have played fairly recently. This also assumes that Butcher will automatically get his place back and retain it - which I'm not convinced about.

Butcher will play in the first test, play two scratchy innnings and will be dropped for the second test for rob key.

I've an inkling the infamour Mystic RBLC hat and cape might make a return..............

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Nothing says "Obey Me" like a bloody head on a fence post!

Thanks for offering to run this Rich. My team, captained by Flintoff is:

1. de Villiers
2. Strauss
3. Rudolph
4. Vaughan
5. Thorpe
6. Flintoff
7. G Jones
8. Hoggard
9. Steyn
10. Harmison
11. Ntini

Tests only please.