Cricket Dream teams

My favorite teams in Cricket. Methodology – for each position the best player in terms of runs & average, and overall team balance

All time ODI XI

 

Sachin Tendulkar

Desmond Haynes

Viv Richards

Brian Lara

Gilchrist (wk)

Michael Bevan

Imran Khan ©

Wasim Akram

Allan Donald

Joel Garner

Muralidharan

Shane Warne (12th man)

Jayasurya had to omitted as opener because Haynes & Sachin are better batsman than him, Ponting is not here as Richards & Lara are better middle order batsman, Beavan is the most consistent at 6, Imran & Wasim are the all rounders. On pacy tracks, Garner, Donald, Wasim and Imran can decimate any order. On spinning tracks Warne in place of Donald could be lethal supporting Murali. Batting extends till No. 8.

All time Test best XI

 

Gavaskar

Sehwag

Don Bradman ©

Sachin Tendulkar

Viv Richards

Richard Hadlee

Gilchrist (wk)

Dennis Lillee

Shane Warne

Malcolm Marshall

Muralidharan

Wasim Akram (12th man)

Since No.3 is where most of best players play - Ponting, Dravid, Sobers, Hammond had to be unfortunately excluded in favor of the Don. Sehwag’s inclusion here will be controversial, but he is the only opener in the history with two triple centuries and overall batted with much better average & strike rate than Hayden & other openers.

Sachin – the greatest (by impacting 4 decades)

Sachin had made a mark in 80s, by being one of the youngest cricketer and playing the Pakistan series with a lot of spirit & courage. He is unarguably the greatest batsman of 90s, and among the  top 3 in 2000s, and will probably be a great batsman in 10s & probably retire by 2013. How many sportsmen (cricketer or otherwise) can impact their sport for 4 decades? His records will be hard to beat for a long time to come (unless ridiculously made batting pitches become the norm).

Year of dreams

This year was not a dream year. But, it surely was a year of small dreams. Not coincidentally, I read "The Alchemist" atthe end of last year and probably that made a difference. I just pursued all the little dreams and happy that I did them. In no particular order:

1. I finised watching almost all movies listed in all of AFI's 100 year series (600 of them)

2. I biked the STP (200 mile Seattle to Portland on bicycle). It was a 3.5 year dream and afer two ligament surgeries, finally completed them this year.

3. I toured all the major national parks & monumnts in the US - Yellowstone, Glacier, Grand Canyon, Rockies, Yosemite, Arches, Wind Caves, Lassen, Mt. Rushmore, Death Valley... (20 of them)

4. I touched the Arcic ocean and drove the entire length of Alaska on a RV - for the first time

5. I rafted a frigid rapids near Glacier NP, slashedup the Class4 rapids at Yellowstone, enjoyed a day long raft in the warm Colordo and rated the Class 5 Husum waterfalls.

6. I flew in a small airplane landing on a Glacier near Mt. Mckinley and flew in a Helicopeter over Glacier NP - both firsts for me.

7. I drove 6000miles on a single trip alone for 2 weeks. I had half dozen other random drives

8. I moved back to India after 5.5 years.

9. I started my own company.

10. I learnt Scuba diving. Though I didnt get the certification, I had enough of experience une water.

11. Hiked Granite mountain and a dozen other peaks.

Now, time to achieve the bigger dreams and as we step into a new decade want to follow the path of the Alchemist and go where the heart takes me. A crucial decade in which I want to redefine my life.

New year resolution: Blog reguarly in Agni and EconJournal. :-)