Best XI of the 1980's (interactive voting thread)

Remove this Banner Ad

May 5, 2016
43,480
48,516
AFL Club
Geelong
If it was down to pure wicket keeping then Bari's reputation gets him in the side, but I don't anybody will nominate him.


Waugh whipped side which lost most dead rubbers & close matches into team which won record streak of games. He should be credited for that transformation

Yes and no. Led the 1 wicket loss to the windies in 99 and the loss in the match before it where they had West Indies 4-70 in the first innings before Lara and Adam’s/Pedro Collins batted out a full day, the follow on loss to India, the 2 wicket loss that followed the next test, the dead rubber at Sydney 02-03 to England, the world record chase in a dead rubber against the windies, dead rubber loss at Kingsmead, loss to India in Adelaide after putting 500 on the board in the first innings.

in fact of the 9 test defeats he captained the only one that wasn’t either a) a dead rubber or b) a game that Australia dominated at some point, ironically it was the match where he smashed his face fielding in Sri Lanka with Jason Gillespie and took no further part in the game.

Still not really reason to question his captaincy record as he won 4 tests for every defeat so he obviously did a good job and there weren’t any of those ‘low total run chase’ defeats that Australia was semi-famous for but yeah he was probably guilty at times of either over attacking or not having an answer on the rare occasion plan A started to not work
 

Log in to remove this ad.

Aug 27, 2014
38,196
41,193
spacetime
AFL Club
Carlton
Other Teams
there are no other teams worthy
It’s the theory of a lot of people that Haynes was actually the ‘langer’ of the partnership and the one who scored the more important runs. I’ve never bothered looking at a big breakdown of it but was the more dour of the two if nothing else
Never heard such a theory.
Greenidge was just better. Haynes was very good but Greendige was just awesome.
I still rate Gooch better than Haynes. He killed us in 85(still have nightmares of it) and seemed to have a few seasons where he gave some nations trouble.
1989, he was walking wicket for Terry Alderman, but Alderman was very very special in England so unlucky to run into his kryptonite there.
Haynes never had to face Alderman in England as an example.
I like Boon as close to Gooch but feel he needed Marsh with him to make him a better opener.
 
Last edited:

Pippen94

Cancelled
Jun 12, 2019
2,670
976
AFL Club
Sydney
Yes and no. Led the 1 wicket loss to the windies in 99 and the loss in the match before it where they had West Indies 4-70 in the first innings before Lara and Adam’s/Pedro Collins batted out a full day, the follow on loss to India, the 2 wicket loss that followed the next test, the dead rubber at Sydney 02-03 to England, the world record chase in a dead rubber against the windies, dead rubber loss at Kingsmead, loss to India in Adelaide after putting 500 on the board in the first innings.

in fact of the 9 test defeats he captained the only one that wasn’t either a) a dead rubber or b) a game that Australia dominated at some point, ironically it was the match where he smashed his face fielding in Sri Lanka with Jason Gillespie and took no further part in the game.

Still not really reason to question his captaincy record as he won 4 tests for every defeat so he obviously did a good job and there weren’t any of those ‘low total run chase’ defeats that Australia was semi-famous for but yeah he was probably guilty at times of either over attacking or not having an answer on the rare occasion plan A started to not work

I don't count 1999 series vs west indies & sri Lanka, as Waugh hadn't stamped his personality on team yet. Under Taylor team was world's best but won around only 50% & appeared vulnerable often. It was with Waugh as captain that team developed ruthless, seemingly invincible aura which put them in line with 80's west indies - when you think of that dominant team it's Waugh's one.
The all out attack approach of this team led to it's aura but was also a weakest. Against India they enforced the follow on, set ultra attacking fields even in face of dravid - laxman onslaught & never fielded more than 4 bowlers - not even contemplating not being able to bowl out opposition.
 

CliffMcTainshaw

Premiership Player
Apr 11, 2015
4,113
4,973
AFL Club
Hawthorn
Other Teams
Cill Chainnigh
If it was down to pure wicket keeping then Bari's reputation gets him in the side, but I don't anybody will nominate him.
I'd be inclined to select Ian Smith before Bari. A much better batsman and played for the duration of the 80's. Bari played until 84, the same year as Marsh but Marsh had more dismissals per game and almost twice the number of dismissal in about a dozen more games. Dujon was a very competent wicketkeeper to any type of bowler.
 
Aug 27, 2014
38,196
41,193
spacetime
AFL Club
Carlton
Other Teams
there are no other teams worthy
I've always put Richards in the same category as Ponting and Waugh. When you're captaining an established, amazing side you don't have to make too many tough decisions.
Correct. I probably take a few marks off Viv as captain as their was a touch of arrogance at times where not flexible in this thinking as others. The team was already set up. He just had to keep them on similar path. AB had nothing to work with so he really built something over time. Imran as a bowler, it tougher to be a captain so a lot of kudos to him for keeping Pakistan dangerous to play. You could go anyway on three of them but I thought 70's team had better captain options. Lloyd and Ian Chappell were super captains to have a choice from.
 
Aug 27, 2014
38,196
41,193
spacetime
AFL Club
Carlton
Other Teams
there are no other teams worthy
Bruce Reid is the worst I have seen, but on that evidence it would appear Higgs possibly has him covered in the worst batsman stakes. That is barely district level standard that batting.

Also, how about Chappelli saying that it was umpiring for women?
ha ha
This is virtually 40 years ago so not surprising but shows how times have changed.
Even at that point it was still a good 15 years or more before Zoe Goss would bowl Lara out.
 
Aug 27, 2014
38,196
41,193
spacetime
AFL Club
Carlton
Other Teams
there are no other teams worthy
Gooch averaged in the high 30s so the only argument you could make for him is that he had the face the West Indies bowlers and Haynes didn’t.
More like 44 as an opener. More than Haynes and as you said, Haynes had luxury of never having to face West Indies bowlers in his Test career.
It is one of reasons why I personally voted for Gooch over Haynes. My decision in my own mind was seeing if Boon had enough credits as opener to kick voted for ahead of Gooch. But Gooch had to play on English conditions more so than Boony so in end Gooch got my vote as he had to face West Indies, Aussies and bat a lot in English conditions so great opening average, all things considered.
Graham Gooch (England) - Test Cricket​

[TD valign="top"]Performance Analysis by Batting Position
PositionInnsNO100s50s0sHS RunsAvgS/RCaSt
184​
6​
18​
41​
9​
333​
7811​
43.88​
49.96​
85​
0​
[/TD]



David Boon (Australia) - Test Cricket​

[TD valign="top"]Performance Analysis by Batting Position
PositionInnsNO100s50s0sHS RunsAvgS/RCaSt
63​
5​
8​
10​
5​
200​
2614​
45.07
43.26​
31​
0​
[/TD]
 
May 5, 2016
43,480
48,516
AFL Club
Geelong
More like 44 as an opener. More than Haynes and as you said, Haynes had luxury of never having to face West Indies bowlers in his Test career.
It is one of reasons why I personally voted for Gooch over Haynes. My decision in my own mind was seeing if Boon had enough credits as opener to kick voted for ahead of Gooch. But Gooch had to play on English conditions more so than Boony so in end Gooch got my vote as he had to face West Indies, Aussies and bat a lot in English conditions so great opening average, all things considered.
Graham Gooch (England) - Test Cricket​

[TD valign="top"]Performance Analysis by Batting Position
PositionInnsNO100s50s0sHS RunsAvgS/RCaSt
184​
6​
18​
41​
9​
333​
7811​
43.88​
49.96​
85​
0​
[/TD]



David Boon (Australia) - Test Cricket​

[TD valign="top"]Performance Analysis by Batting Position
PositionInnsNO100s50s0sHS RunsAvgS/RCaSt
63​
5​
8​
10​
5​
200​
2614​
45.07
43.26​
31​
0​
[/TD]

1980s it was 38
 

jle101

Club Legend
Sep 3, 2015
1,101
878
AFL Club
Carlton
Other Teams
Williamstown Seagulls
1980's All-star XI

01 CG Greenidge
02 DL Haynes
03 IVA Richards
04 Javed Miandad
05 AR Border
06 IT Botham
07 Imran Khan*
08 PJL Dujon+
09 RJ Hadlee
10 MD Marshall
11 Abdul Qadir

Ian "Golden Bollocks" Botham (as Bob Willis used to call him) is a near-unanimous choice, whilst Imran gets the nod for the captaincy with four votes (Viv 2, AB 1). Another great side which may very well trump the team from the 70's. Incredibly, we have aggressive batting all the way down to #11. Three of the fab four all-rounders make it in, making it very tough for a whole bunch of quality paceman from around the world to get a look in.

A quick look at the bench strength tells a real story... Gooch, Boon, Gower, Jones, Richardson, Crowe, Amarnath, Vengsarkar, Wessels, Kapil, Rice, Holding, Garner, Croft, Patterson, Reid, McDermott, Alderman, Hughes. Crazy.

So if it's cool with everyone I'd like to hang back in the 1980's for a while yet to select an Australian team of the decade, purely because I feel there's going be a lot of excitement around the competition for spots again. There's really no-one I can think of who is a complete lock for the side apart from AB.

1980's Australia XI

01
02
03
04 AR Border*
05
06
07
08
09
10
11

So to kick things off again I now ask you to forward nominations for the two OPENING BATSMEN. Hopefully this will prove to be very enjoyable!
 
Jan 13, 2015
1,521
904
AFL Club
Sydney
1980's All-star XI

01 CG Greenidge
02 DL Haynes
03 IVA Richards
04 Javed Miandad
05 AR Border
06 IT Botham
07 Imran Khan*
08 PJL Dujon+
09 RJ Hadlee
10 MD Marshall
11 Abdul Qadir

Ian "Golden Bollocks" Botham (as Bob Willis used to call him) is a near-unanimous choice, whilst Imran gets the nod for the captaincy with four votes (Viv 2, AB 1). Another great side which may very well trump the team from the 70's. Incredibly, we have aggressive batting all the way down to #11. Three of the fab four all-rounders make it in, making it very tough for a whole bunch of quality paceman from around the world to get a look in.

A quick look at the bench strength tells a real story... Gooch, Boon, Gower, Jones, Richardson, Crowe, Amarnath, Vengsarkar, Wessels, Kapil, Rice, Holding, Garner, Croft, Patterson, Reid, McDermott, Alderman, Hughes. Crazy.

So if it's cool with everyone I'd like to hang back in the 1980's for a while yet to select an Australian team of the decade, purely because I feel there's going be a lot of excitement around the competition for spots again. There's really no-one I can think of who is a complete lock for the side apart from AB.

1980's Australia XI

01
02
03
04 AR Border*
05
06
07
08
09
10
11

So to kick things off again I now ask you to forward nominations for the two OPENING BATSMEN. Hopefully this will prove to be very enjoyable!


NICE!

are g.chappell, lillee and marsh eligible ?

while their careers basically aligned 1970-84, they did play half their careers (in matches) in the 80's and maintained their averages.
 

Pippen94

Cancelled
Jun 12, 2019
2,670
976
AFL Club
Sydney
NICE!

are g.chappell, lillee and marsh eligible ?

while their careers basically aligned 1970-84, they did play half their careers (in matches) in the 80's and maintained their averages.

They all make my team. Mark Taylor doesn't despite a great 1989, it was his only year in 80's.

My openers are Boon & G. Marsh
 

(Log in to remove this ad.)

Aug 27, 2014
38,196
41,193
spacetime
AFL Club
Carlton
Other Teams
there are no other teams worthy
1980's All-star XI

01 CG Greenidge
02 DL Haynes
03 IVA Richards
04 Javed Miandad
05 AR Border
06 IT Botham
07 Imran Khan*
08 PJL Dujon+
09 RJ Hadlee
10 MD Marshall
11 Abdul Qadir

Ian "Golden Bollocks" Botham (as Bob Willis used to call him) is a near-unanimous choice, whilst Imran gets the nod for the captaincy with four votes (Viv 2, AB 1). Another great side which may very well trump the team from the 70's. Incredibly, we have aggressive batting all the way down to #11. Three of the fab four all-rounders make it in, making it very tough for a whole bunch of quality paceman from around the world to get a look in.

A quick look at the bench strength tells a real story... Gooch, Boon, Gower, Jones, Richardson, Crowe, Amarnath, Vengsarkar, Wessels, Kapil, Rice, Holding, Garner, Croft, Patterson, Reid, McDermott, Alderman, Hughes. Crazy.

So if it's cool with everyone I'd like to hang back in the 1980's for a while yet to select an Australian team of the decade, purely because I feel there's going be a lot of excitement around the competition for spots again. There's really no-one I can think of who is a complete lock for the side apart from AB.

1980's Australia XI

01
02
03
04 AR Border*
05
06
07
08
09
10
11

So to kick things off again I now ask you to forward nominations for the two OPENING BATSMEN. Hopefully this will prove to be very enjoyable!
FMD, I hated most of our openers in 1980's.
Given I had Boon in the mix for opening in 80's world side guess I nominate him to open for 80's team.
Trying to remember from start of 1980's which was after World Series Cricket ended, so we started off decade with Bruce Laird, Stumpy from World Series Cricket side back with us. He tended to open with people like run out merchant and compulsive hooker, Graeme Wood. There was Julien Wiener too from Victoria but do not remember him being there long. Rick Darling probably only opened before the WSC guys were back so discount him. I think I only saw him in a few ODI's in the 80's. Andrew Hiditch and John Dyson opened a bit and then Kepler Wessels after coming from World Series Cricket side had to do a few years for Queensland Shield side before selectors allowed him to qualify for Australian Test side selection. On debut I remember he made 162, but had one of weirdest batting stances ever so caused him issues, especially against Joel Garner. Then we got to middle of 1980's and some of players got banned because they went on a South Africa tour so AB was captain by then and he had to rebuild our whole Test side through the mid 80's. Wayne Phillips was good opener until they decided to turn him into a keeper. Steve Smith whom was more an ODI opener got a run to open in West Indies which is not the place you want that to happen. So until mid 80's you only got Bruce Laird , but he probably retired in about 81 so that cannot happen here.
So by about 1986 Border somehow allowed Boon and Geoff Marsh that had not opened before to start to do it. I cannot remember if that started in 1987 ODI team first or Test side first but they became an established and decent partnership for a couple of seasons and by end of 1989 I think I remember Mark Taylor and Slater on Ashes tour providing us with a quality opening pair to actually knock of the Poms in England after we had been hopeless through most of the mid to later 80's Boon returned to about 4 in batting order or first drop and Marsh had retired I guess or lost form. The problem with Taylor and Slater is they were more a 90's partnership that teamed up in last year of 80's so guess I cannot have them.
Leaves me thinking I got to vote for Boon and someone else. Time to do some research to help myself decide.
 
Last edited:
Aug 27, 2014
38,196
41,193
spacetime
AFL Club
Carlton
Other Teams
there are no other teams worthy
NICE!

are g.chappell, lillee and marsh eligible ?

while their careers basically aligned 1970-84, they did play half their careers (in matches) in the 80's and maintained their averages.
Lillee and Chappell retired in 82 so they cannot make it and in the 70's team. Marsh only played in ODI's after 1982 from memory and retired from Test cricket when Lillee and Chappell did but do not think he had made the decision until months later.
 

Pippen94

Cancelled
Jun 12, 2019
2,670
976
AFL Club
Sydney
1980's All-star XI

01 CG Greenidge
02 DL Haynes
03 IVA Richards
04 Javed Miandad
05 AR Border
06 IT Botham
07 Imran Khan*
08 PJL Dujon+
09 RJ Hadlee
10 MD Marshall
11 Abdul Qadir

Ian "Golden Bollocks" Botham (as Bob Willis used to call him) is a near-unanimous choice, whilst Imran gets the nod for the captaincy with four votes (Viv 2, AB 1). Another great side which may very well trump the team from the 70's. Incredibly, we have aggressive batting all the way down to #11. Three of the fab four all-rounders make it in, making it very tough for a whole bunch of quality paceman from around the world to get a look in.

A quick look at the bench strength tells a real story... Gooch, Boon, Gower, Jones, Richardson, Crowe, Amarnath, Vengsarkar, Wessels, Kapil, Rice, Holding, Garner, Croft, Patterson, Reid, McDermott, Alderman, Hughes. Crazy.

This team really has feel of all star team with ridiculously long batting lineup & simply some of the most dynamic players in the history of the game teamed together. To think Kapil & Clive Rice could've been worked in team as well - next spinner in terms of most wickets was Ravi Shastri
 

Pippen94

Cancelled
Jun 12, 2019
2,670
976
AFL Club
Sydney
Lillee and Chappell retired in 82 so they cannot make it and in the 70's team. Marsh only played in ODI's after 1982 from memory and retired from Test cricket when Lillee and Chappell did but do not think he had made the decision until months later.

Pretty certain they retired start of 1984
 
Aug 27, 2014
38,196
41,193
spacetime
AFL Club
Carlton
Other Teams
there are no other teams worthy
Wessels looked like he might have averaged closer to 40 but last tour of West Indies they destroyed him.
He would score big hundreds if he did get past 50 though which maybe others did less.
Man, just in general tough decade to open with class of bowlers to face in first half of decade when we seemed to play Windies a lot.


[TD valign="top"] K C Wessels - Batting Analysis for Innings Batting as Opener
Progressive
DateVersusGroundInnsHow DismissedRunsB/FAggrAvg
England​
Brisbane Cricket Ground​
1st​
b R G D Willis​
162​
343​
162​
162.00​
2nd​
b E E Hemmings​
46​
81​
208​
104.00​
England​
Adelaide Oval​
1st​
c †R W Taylor b I T Botham​
44​
89​
252​
84.00​
2nd​
c †R W Taylor b I T Botham​
1​
7​
253​
63.25​
England​
Melbourne Cricket Ground​
1st​
b R G D Willis​
47​
64​
300​
60.00​
2nd​
b N G Cowans​
14​
30​
314​
52.33​
England​
Sydney Cricket Ground​
1st​
c R G D Willis b I T Botham​
19​
47​
333​
47.57​
2nd​
lbw b I T Botham​
53​
89​
386​
48.25​
Sri Lanka​
Asgiriya Stadium​
1st​
c R L Dias b D S De Silva​
141​
188​
527​
58.56​
Pakistan​
WACA Ground​
1st​
c †Wasim Bari b Azeem Hafeez​
12​
35​
539​
53.90​
Pakistan​
Brisbane Cricket Ground​
1st​
c Qasim Omar b Azeem Hafeez​
35​
58​
574​
52.18​
Pakistan​
Adelaide Oval​
1st​
c Zaheer Abbas b Abdul Qadir​
179​
233​
753​
62.75​
2nd​
c †Wasim Bari b Sarfraz Nawaz​
2​
8​
755​
58.08​
Pakistan​
Melbourne Cricket Ground​
1st​
c †Wasim Bari b Azeem Hafeez​
11​
25​
766​
54.71​
Pakistan​
Sydney Cricket Ground​
1st​
c †Wasim Bari b Azeem Hafeez​
3​
18​
769​
51.27​
2nd​
not out​
14*​
13​
783​
52.20​
West Indies​
Bourda​
1st​
c C H Lloyd b J Garner​
4​
23​
787​
49.19​
2nd​
c C H Lloyd b W W Daniel​
20​
56​
807​
47.47​
West Indies​
Queen's Park Oval​
1st​
c H A Gomes b J Garner​
4​
5​
811​
45.06​
2nd​
lbw b J Garner​
4​
36​
815​
42.89​
West Indies​
WACA Ground​
1st​
c M A Holding b J Garner​
13​
28​
828​
41.40​
2nd​
c C H Lloyd b J Garner​
0​
6​
828​
39.43​
West Indies​
Brisbane Cricket Ground​
1st​
b J Garner​
0​
2​
828​
37.64​
2nd​
c H A Gomes b C A Walsh​
61​
90​
889​
38.65​
West Indies​
Adelaide Oval​
2nd​
c †P J L Dujon b R A Harper​
70​
87​
959​
39.96​
England​
Old Trafford​
1st​
c I T Botham b J E Emburey​
34​
61​
993​
39.72​
New Zealand​
Brisbane Cricket Ground​
1st​
lbw b R J Hadlee​
70​
186​
1063​
40.88​
2nd​
c V R Brown b E J Chatfield​
3​
10​
1066​
39.48​
[/TD]
 
Aug 27, 2014
38,196
41,193
spacetime
AFL Club
Carlton
Other Teams
there are no other teams worthy
Boon and Marsh pick themselves they were the only stable opening partnership of the decade. We gave some real duds a go before we found them.
Marsh only averages around 33... I not going to just pick him by brand name with Boon, like people did with Haynes.
Going to look deeper before I just go that path. He still in contention in my mind but looking for something more compelling to vote for and so far it not easy...
 
Aug 27, 2014
38,196
41,193
spacetime
AFL Club
Carlton
Other Teams
there are no other teams worthy
Andrew Hiditch was an opener in series I never saw in late 70's as I was only watching the World Series Cricket then.
But around mid 80's he got a small run at opening again and these were the results.. with scores from before 1980's removed...



[TD valign="top"]
Test Cricket - Batting Records and Statistics - Miscellaneous​

[TD valign="top"] A M J Hilditch - Batting Analysis for Innings Batting as Opener
Progressive
DateVersusGroundInnsHow DismissedRunsB/FAggrAvg
West Indies​
Melbourne Cricket Ground​
1st​
b R A Harper​
70​
143​
522​
27.47​
2nd​
b H A Gomes​
113​
272​
635​
31.75​
West Indies​
Sydney Cricket Ground​
1st​
c †P J L Dujon b M A Holding​
2​
17​
637​
30.33​
England​
Headingley​
1st​
c †P R Downton b G A Gooch​
119​
183​
756​
34.36​
2nd​
c R T Robinson b J E Emburey​
80​
156​
836​
36.35​
England​
Lord's​
1st​
b N A Foster​
14​
35​
850​
35.42​
2nd​
c A J Lamb b I T Botham​
0​
4​
850​
34.00​
England​
Trent Bridge​
1st​
lbw b P J W Allott​
47​
89​
897​
34.50​
England​
Old Trafford​
1st​
c D I Gower b P H Edmonds​
49​
93​
946​
35.04​
2nd​
b J E Emburey​
40​
84​
986​
35.21​
England​
Edgbaston​
1st​
c †P R Downton b P H Edmonds​
39​
71​
1025​
35.34​
2nd​
c R M Ellison b I T Botham​
10​
51​
1035​
34.50​
England​
Kennington Oval​
1st​
c G A Gooch b I T Botham​
17​
32​
1052​
33.94​
2nd​
c D I Gower b L B Taylor​
9​
27​
1061​
33.16​
New Zealand​
Brisbane Cricket Ground​
1st​
c E J Chatfield b R J Hadlee​
0​
4​
1061​
32.15​
2nd​
c E J Chatfield b R J Hadlee​
12​
16​
1073​
31.56​
[/TD]
[/TD]
 
Marsh only averages around 33... I not going to just pick him by brand name with Boon, like people did with Haynes.
Going to look deeper before I just go that path. He still in contention in my mind but looking for something more compelling to vote for and so far it not easy...
I'd argue as vice captain Marsh brought a fair bit to the side. Being AB's sounding board in the mid 80s can't have been much fun at times.
 

Remove this Banner Ad

Back