Worst player you've ever seen?

They were really inconsistent - they could spring the odd surprise, but they could just as easily underperform or play completely horribly. They were never the worst in the world though, even though the rankings might have indicated otherwise.

Now England in the mid-to-late 80's, they were truly terrible. Losing 4-0 to an unfancied Australian side at home was the icing on the cake.
The problem with England in the 80s was the TCCB. A decent education and a posh accent was still good enough to get you a game.
 

Hellgood

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The problem with England in the 80s was the TCCB. A decent education and a posh accent was still good enough to get you a game.

Hmm everything I have read has pointed more to the fact that England literally just about tried everyone rather than exclusively from particular counties or schools.

Besides it's a pretty standard lament in The Guardian or on cricinfo articles about how it's a shame that these days making it to the Englnad cricket team basically means going through a private school, not like it used to be (in the Australian sense - I think over there it's reversed or some weird quirk).
 

corbies

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Yeah that’s fair enough, he did nothing when he got his chance. He was also well past 30 from memory though when that came.
Debuted at 24. Played his last test at 27 and last ODI at 31.
 
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Daren Ganga played some okay knocks against Australia but his sustained mediocrity over nearly 50 tests cannot be ignored.

I think with guys like this from the smaller Test nations/groups of nations, we have to consider that they probably just don't have the depth of talent available for being dropped to equate to "unspoken line through your name forever more", like it can in Australia.

So (assumedly) these guys keep presenting for Test re-selection with regular good domestic form, and there just isn't that many other options available, despite their past international failures.

The succession of mediocre openers that both the Windies and NZ (Gayle and McCullum aside) have given time to over the last 20 years is a testament to this.
 
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DaRick

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The problem with England in the 80s was the TCCB. A decent education and a posh accent was still good enough to get you a game.

Also the pitches in county cricket made it easy for mediocre medium-pacers to get bucketloads of wickets while the English players at the time were actually contracted to their counties and so the counties could make them play any county match possible. This changed when the ECB awarded their own contracts to their players.
 
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I decided to do an International Worst XI
3. Cameron Borgas

Actually, if Cam Borgas had stayed at 3, he would have been a more than useful cricketer. In his 33 Shield matches, he made 4 centuries (I think they were all at number 3) and averaged in the 30s, but then came T20 cricket. He made the mistake of walking in at No.8 and making 31 in 9 balls to win a game. From that moment, he was regarded a lower order batsman in limited over cricket, and that pretty much ended his career.
 

Hellgood

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Daren Ganga played some okay knocks against Australia but his sustained mediocrity over nearly 50 tests cannot be ignored.

I think with guys like this from the smaller Test nations/groups of nations, we have to consider that they probably just don't have the depth of talent available for being dropped to equate to "unspoken line through your name forever more", like it can in Australia.

So (assumedly) these guys keep presenting for Test re-selection with regular good domestic form, and there just isn't that many other options available, despite their past international failures.

The succession of mediocre openers that both the Windies and NZ (Gayle and McCullum aside) have given time to over the last 20 years is a testament to this.

Mediocre test batsman is a fair assessment, but it was nice to see him resurface a few years later when the T20 international leagues were starting to ramp up and emerge as a very impressive tactician and leader.
 
Interestingly Wade started getting picked ahead of him in the shield team because of their respective keeping!
Wade got the gig because he was a better bat IIRC. Wade got dropped from the Shield Final in his debut season because of his keeping
 
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