An Aussie to pick Murali in a greatest ever team?? I'd like to see that!!
Highly unlikely in this century though............They just hate his SL
guts.
Laz
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Murali misses out in Benaud's Greatest XI
Wisden Cricinfo staff
August 23, 2004
Richie Benaud, the former Australian captain and current doyen of television
commentators, has named his World XI of the 20th century. Jack Hobbs, whose
England career spanned 23 years, and Sunil Gavaskar, who scored 34 Test
centuries for India, open the batting for a team that is made up of four
Australians, two West Indians, two Indians, two Englishmen, and one player
from Pakistan.
Don Bradman makes an appearance at No. 3, followed by Sachin Tendulkar, who
is one of three cricketers in the team still playing international cricket,
at No.3 and Viv Richards at No. 4. Pakistan's Imran Khan and the West Indian
Garfield Sobers are the two allrounders in the side.
Australia's Adam Gilchrist is the side's wicketkeeper, batting at No. 8. Rod
Marsh may have been more acrobatic, and Ian Healy had more finesse behind
the stumps, but Gilchrist's contribution as a top-class batsman earned him a
place in the side: he averages 15 runs per innings more than any other
keeper in history, and has a strike-rate of 82 per 100 balls faced in Tests.
Shane Warne squeezed into the side, somewhat controversially perhaps, ahead
of Muttiah Muralitharan, Sri Lanka's prodigious offspinner, as the side's
only specialist spinner. Warne is only just behind Muralitharan in the Test
bowling record stakes with 527 wickets to Murali's 532, but Murali has taken
his wickets in 21 fewer Tests.
Sydney Barnes, who remains the only man to be picked for England while
playing league and minor cricket, is one of two specialist fast bowlers in
the squad. He took 1432 wickets for Staffordshire at less that nine runs
each, and played for the county until he was over 60. The other is Dennis
Lillee, who took 355 Test wickets for Australia between 1971 and 1984.
Apart from Muralitharan, some notable exceptions from the World XI include
Graeme Pollock, the South African batsman, his fast-bowling nephew, Shaun,
and New Zealand's leading wicket-taker Richard Hadlee. Benaud himself would
arguably have been in the running for a place in the side himself. As a
legspinning allrounder, he took 248 Test wickets at an average of 27.03 in
63 Tests and retired as Australia's leading wicket-taker at the time.
Benaud, 73, is chairman of a five-man selection panel for next month's ICC
Awards that will choose the best World one-day international XI and World
Test XI of the year.
Benaud's Greatest XI
1 Jack Hobbs, 2 Sunil Gavaskar, 3 Don Bradman, 4 Sachin Tendulkar, 5 Viv
Richards, 6 Imran Khan, 7 Garfield Sobers, 8 Adam Gilchrist, 9 Shane Warne,
10 Sydney Barnes, 11 Dennis Lillee.