My dream team After 50 years as a commentator, Henry Blofeld picks the best international cricketers ever for his unbeatable XI
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ixing the perfect cricketer cocktail quickly becomes a barman’s nightmare. This human pick-me-up would have to be able to bat and bowl right-handed and left-handed with equal facility, which would not be easy. But even trickier would be the need for this team of one to develop jack-in-thebox qualities that would enable it to keep wicket to its own bowling. This composite player would also have to be the captain, and placing the field would mean he or she would need to be in 11 different places at the same time without spilling a drop – or, it must be hoped, a catch. This imaginary, liquid figure would be, for a start, distinctly Bradmanesque. Don Bradman was the most successful batter ever, averaging 99.94 in his 52 Test Matches. He scored 309 runs in a single day in the Headingley Test in 1934 and, although the quality of his batting was exemplary, he will be remembered for the quantity of his runs rather than for the strokes that produced them. This cocktail of a cricketer starts therefore with a double measure of Bradman, which will be flavoured with a dash of many other alluring ingredients. The irresistible taste of Ranjitsinhji playing his famous leg glance when making 154 not out in his first Test for England, against Australia in 1896, plus the sparkle of Victor Trumper, never better seen than in the Old Trafford Test in 1902 when he made 104 on the first morning. The classic vintage precision of ‘The Master’, Jack Hobbs, who made 197 first-class hundreds and was perhaps the best cover point of all, as well as the piquant flavour of Walter Hammond’s cover drive as he scored that 240 against Australia at Lord’s in 1938, must both be there. There should be a squeeze, too, of the twinkling improvisation of Denis Compton, which brought him 3,816 runs in 1947 – a record which will never be broken. Then a good drop of the all-round, mercurial 16 The Oldie October 2021
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(1) Don Bradman (2) Jack Hobbs (3) Garry Sobers (4) Viv Richards (5) Ian Botham (6) Shane Warne (7) Fred Spofforth (8) Fred Trueman (9) Jim Laker (10) Clive Lloyd (11) Alan Knott
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left-handed sumptuousness of Garry Sobers, who made the then highest-ever Test score of 365 not out against Pakistan at the age of 21. Mix in a measure of the merciless authority of Viv Richards, blended with more than a dash of the left-handed elegance of Graeme Pollock, at his best at Trent Bridge in 1965, when he made an unforgettable 125. Then a good measure of the do-or-die might of Ian Botham, as seen best in his 149 not out against Australia at Headingley in 1981; and finally a hint of Brian Lara (400 against England in Antigua in 2004/05) and a pinch of the Sachin Tendulkar who made 136 against Pakistan in Madras in 1999. Maybe it is too much to expect this mythical cricketer also to be the bowler of all time, so let us give him a bowling twin in another glass. Shane Warne must be the dominating ingredient in this second aperitif. He must be the best bowler of all time – but I can already see a look of dismay on the face of the great S F Barnes. Off a short
run, Barnes was well above medium pace and in 27 Tests, between 1901 and 1914, he took 189 wickets at 16.43, moving the ball in the air and off the seam. Now we come to the fast bowlers. A good splash of ‘The Demon’, Fred Spofforth, who made W G Grace’s life acutely uncomfortable, is essential. Then add a little bit of any, or all, of Harold Larwood, Alec Bedser, Fred Trueman, Dennis Lillee, Michael Holding, Allan Donald, Wasim Akram, Malcolm Marshall, Curtly Ambrose, Richard Hadlee and Imran Khan and our multi-faceted bowler will have an unputdownable taste. Warne is a unique leg-spinner, yet there should be a taste of B J T Bosanquet, the inventor of the googly (and the father of versatile newsreader Reggie Bosanquet). We need to add a mixture of off spin from Jim Laker, Lance Gibbs and Graeme Swann. Then there is the slow left-arm brigade led by Wilfred Rhodes, who helped bowl out Australia at the Oval in 1926 when he was 48. We must also have a taste of Hedley Verity, 10 for 10 for Yorkshire against Nottinghamshire, and Derek Underwood, whose sharp medium-paced spin made Australian batsmen wince. Our two aperitifs need to be up to it in the field. A dash of Bob Simpson, Ian Chappell and Walter Hammond in the slips, together with important zest from Colin Bland, Jonty Rhodes (South Africa), Paul Sheahan (Australia) and Clive Lloyd (West Indies), would make quick singles hard to come by. Which leaves the wicketkeeper – and here the taste of Alan Knott alone is enough. He is that twist of lemon peel so essential to the perfect dry Martini. And so we have two ideal cricketing cocktails which now need to be stirred and not shaken (sic). Henry Blofeld’s Ten to Win … and the Last Man In: My Pick of Test Match Cliffhangers is out on 16th September (Hodder & Stoughton, £20)
