The RDT likes / dislikes thread...

[Rachael]

OK: on the BBC messageboard lots of people seem to pick my favourite XIs and least favourite XIs for me pretty regularly.. so I thought I'd try and sort them out for myself.

The recent XI I'd most like to have seen: a kind of "dream team" of my cricket-watching days - Tendulkar, Dravid, Gower, S. Waugh, Laxman, Rhodes, Russell, Kumble, Pollock, Ambrose, Walsh

The recent XI I'd have like to see them beat: players I rate highly but have never really warmed to - Hayden, Gibbs, Ponting, Lara, Inzi, Kallis, Gilchrist, Warne, Gillespie, McGrath, Murali

An XI that have won my admiration for their approach to the game: people I can't help applauding - Gooch, Atherton, Kirsten, Hussain, Chanderpaul, Russell, Croft, Streak, Khan, Vaas, Fraser.

An XI I'd love to see them beat: guys who get the plaudits the above team deserve... without doing anything like as much to earn them - Graeme Smith, Gayle, Jayasuria, Afridi, Symonds, Boucher, Flintoff, Klusenor, Lee, Sami, Jones

An XI of other personal favourites I've loved watching / whose character and personality have appealed to me: guys who will never get into lists of "greats" but who have intrigued / interested / inspired me through the years - Knight, Crawley, Ramprakash, Fairbrother, Reeve, Alleyne, Lewis, Bicknell, Caddick, Fraser, Tufnell.

[Rachael]

OK - my thoughts on my top-team to watch" nominations are as follows:

Tendulkar & Dravid: the most technically correct and temperamentally sound players of the modern era (and in Tendulkar a passable second spinner). Though generally deployed in the middle order... they are as comfortable playing a ball on its merits as any opening bat ever has been.

Gower and Laxman: the most sublime middle order batsmen of the modern era... routinely managing with effortless timing and exquisite touch to make the game just look far, far to easy. Added to which: true gents.

Steve Waugh: the most gritty batsman I've ever seen... the ultimate "glue" to hold a batting performance together... a man to raise his game when the team really needs him... and a versatile additional bowler as well.

Johnty Rhodes: the only outfielder I've ever seen that I'd pick for his fielding 1st and batting 2nd... a joy to behold in the field of play... the best stealer of singles I've ever seen.. and possibly the nicest bloke to ever play test cricket.

Jack Russell - the best 'keeper I've seen... an always entertaining batsman (who would drive teams crazy stealing singles with Rhodes) and by far and away the most appealing "character" of my cricket-watching days.

Anil Kumble - a master of the subtler arts... who wins out over other spinners as much as anything for what he brings to the field of play in terms of character and temperament: he'll play anywhere, on any pitch, under any conditions... cheerfully... and he'll persist with saint-like patience, probing endlessly. Good bat as well.

Shaun Pollock - character, stamina and determination linked to sublime talent for control and variation: seam bowling's Anil Kumble... adds a bit of batting... and another thoroughly likeable guy.

Curtley Ambrose - what needs to be said? The best fast bowler I've ever seen... stacks of heart, character, determination... a talismanic figure with literally towering presence whose control, accuracy and subtlety in later life, combined with he seeming tirelessness, imprints him in my mind in ways that no other bowler has managed.

Courtney Walsh - the most lovable man to ever take to the field of play, the most towering servant of a Test nation in the history of cricket... the workhorse to carry a team through even the toughest situations... and the most memorable no 11 bat I've ever had the joy to behold

[CJ D]

I would like to see a 6 a side game between Gilchrist, Flintoff, Afridi, Klusener, Sami and Shoaib vs. Viv Richards, Botham, Alec Stewart, Imran Khan, Richard Hadlee and Malcolm Marshall (obviously want to go back 15 years for the second team).

Oh my god - I think I just turned into a poster on the International board of TMS.