An all time England XI

Since 1970 ish

Boycott
Cook
Root
Gower
Stokes
Botham
Knott
Underwood
Flintoff
Broad
Anderson

No Pope? Crazy

Presumably this is all time England 11 post about the late 60s but cricket did exist before we were born.
So how about Hammond,Hobbs,Hutton,Rhodes etc. Wisdens do exist for those years

Herbert Sutcliffe and SF Barnes of course, Frank Tyson?

I think comingupthehill has made a good stab

Pietersen over Gower
Willis over Broad for me

inho

Anderson makes the cut in my all time xl

Not sure of the bowling line up

Probably APE Knott gets in. Botham.

Underwood, Laker or Swann? I am not sure

Fiery Fred? Again not qualified to argue his case

I don’t think Root makes the cut

Whisper,

I thought I had Willis in,yeah drop flintoff for Willis.
Defo laker for underwood,if going back that far.
Then has to be trueman a for broad.

Disagree over Petierson for gower.left handed edged it.plus think petierson seemed to disrupt the dressing room.different cultural upbringing,didn’t get English banter,so they doubled down on him.

Given the strong batting line up,think knott keeping ok batter edges bairstow ,who is great when he’s great,but hit and miss,plus no where near as good a keeper.

The op,seems young,Swann no way,and flintoff botham isn’t a toss of a coin.botham everyday.

Gooch very close,but just misses out.

I have it seen much footage of Laker or read about his bowling.

I thought Willis held his own in a time of not jus5 great bowlers but great batsmen too.

Keeping internal politic out of it I loved watching KP

I am edging Cook because of his record. Gooch faced the best probably of all time so hard to compare his record.  Many  in the know would have him. It doesn’t help that I don’t like his style, captaincy or people skills.

I think Flintoff was an under achiever. Amazing but had so much more to give. Special, I saw him hit the ball into the crowd to his dad!

I’ve not seen laker,but 19 wickets in a test presumably makes him decent.

We’ve never really had a top class,long term spinner.theres so few.

In the list of top bowlers ,there’s not many English ones.

Hobbs
Cook
Hammond
Root
Cowdrey
Botham
Knott
Trueman
Underwood
Willis
Anderson

Godfrey Evans is (i think) the best keeper ever but APE Knott ran him very close and because Knotty was a better batsman i plumped for him.

Deadly Derek Underwood was unique for a spinner being able to bowl at almost medium pace. Unplayable on certain surfaces and able to tie down an end if conditions did not suit.

Jack Hobbs is a no brainer at the top of the order, the most prolific batsman of all time in FC cricket and also holds the record for centuries scored with 199.
A wonderful player.

It’s like every sport,it’s of their time.
Plus who was around against them

For batters
The big 3 bowling attacks.
Lille,Thompson era
The West Indies fast bowlers
The warne team.

We’ve never really had a full great attack,odd bowlers etc.

Then vica versa
There’s been great batting teams,so bowlers got punished.
2 great Aussie sides
The West Indies greenidge,Richard’s side.
Tendulkas side.

A few great players who weren’t in great sides
Richard hadlee
Barry Richard’s,one of the greatest batters ever,but apartheid stopped.
Mauriltarun.

OMG COOK


NOOOOOOOOOO!


Hobbs and Sutcliffe is a no brainer!

You also have to throw Leonard Hutton in there probably at 3

Wally Hammond

Presumably The Doctor does not get selected

Maybe Root at 5 I might have to bite the bullet over KP

Botham

Knott ( can’t comment on Godfrey Evans …..Evans did not concede any byes, with Wisden commenting he 'kept wicket magnificently' )

Now it gets difficult

SF Barnes is a shoe in and no need of Underwood.
Frank Tyson for speed
Anderson the Magician

Jim Laker as the spinner

I think I can stand by that selection. Don’t know enough about Dennis Compton sadly.

How many goes at this do you want WD ?!

Cook is in my team over Sutcliffe purely due to being a left hander, have always liked a left/right opening partnership to disrupt opposition bowlers.


No need of Underwood  ?  Give your head a wobble ! a unique bowler.

Syd Barnes was very impressive but (through no fault of his own) did not play enough tests to confirm his place in an all time eleven imo.

Same goes for Typhoon Tyson, great bowler and unbelievably quick but only played 17 tests - fiery Fred played 67.

Take it from me, there has never been a better keeper than Godfrey Evans.

Dennis Compton was a superb all round sportsman, would be a worthy inclusion in any eleven. Once forgot his bat before a test match at Old Trafford, borrowed one from the museum there and scored 158 ! also won the FA Cup in 1950 with the gooners.

some cricketers not mentioned in what is an impossible task to give some food for thought......

jonn snow- pretty damb good fast bowler and we have not had many of them. brian statham another one in similiar mold.

colin milburn a natural but his eyesight did for him.

john edrich - solid opener and good test record- prob not quite good enough.

basil doleveria decent bat and bowler.

dont think anyone will get near alan knott for stumper but jack rusell never let anybody down.

ian bell had a very good record but again prob not make the first 11

All very decent players Dragon, i only saw John snow play live once but he was rapid.
Brian Statham bowled some missiles too, shame he and fiery fred aren't available for the Ashes this winter, they'd make the Aussie batsmen hop around !

Colin Milburn would have had a really good test career but for his accident, real shame.

Basil was a very good all rounder but not quite up to Beefy's class. His batting was much better than his bowling imo.

Knotty is the best keeper i have ever seen live, but my grandad told me all about Godfrey Evans, absolute top notcher and wish i could have seen him in action.

Not sure about Ian Bell - i think he is about 35th in the averages on the list of England batsman who played 20 tests or more., so nowhere near the all time list for me.

all about opinions of course - keep them coming !

Think the modern game started around the 80s,90s.

More tests,full time England players etc.

Plus ,as with every sport.most newer players are better,fitness,technology,analysis all better.

But it’s,OF THEIR TIME,AGAINST THEIR PIERS.

As most didn’t really see the 50/60/70s players,can’t really assess them.

So it’s only fair to select players that have been seen,by a lot of people.

W.G.GRACE ETC,so pointless including older players,as comparison too difficult.

The fact Denis Compton won f.a.cup,tells me,was cricket even his first sport,effectively a part timer.

So I believe my first list is the best 11,bar flintoff for Willis.

It’s not always about opinions.

Cook
Root
Stokes
Botham
Broad
Anderson
Willis

Are all unmoveable

Boycott
Knott
Underwood
Hard to move

Gower
Maybe

well im going to disagree cuth.

i saw the test players of 60s and 70s along with some of the lancashire players as my dad took me to old trafford throughout that era. we watched lanky and test cricket.

obviously i have followed cricket in all its formats ever since.

of the modern era my certs wd defo be.

Stokes
Root
Peterson
Anderson.
Botham
Gooch
broad

of the older generation that i remember or saw

Knott
Snow
Brearley (best captain ever - but not so good at batting but worth his place)
Underwood

very interesting conjecture....  maybe an inteesting one wd be to turn it on its head and do worst 11 ever to play for england

Brearley

Average 22,
Read classics at Oxford ,after attending harrow.

After completing the times crossword,he asked botham,which end do you want to bowl from.

Fantastic guy,a classic English gentleman.but wasn’t really a cricketer.

always good th throw a red herring in cuth

Think because all the press felt inferior around him,they just presumed he was out thinking everyone else,in reality,just needed to keep botham happy.

cuth - it was not uncommon for cricketers to play football too back in those days.

Denis Compton scored 39k runs in over 500 FC matches, hardly a part timer !!  He is 9th on the list of averages of batsmen who played at least 20 tests for England .

Just so happened that Denis was a decent footballer too.

Derek Ufton kept wicket for Kent in the 50s as well as making 277 appearances at centre half for Charlton.

Stuart Leary played 450 matches for Kent in the 50s and 60s , he also played for Charlton and QPR as a centre forward, scoring 182 goals in 470 appearances.

There are plenty of other examples like the above.

Dragon - we'd certainly be spoilt for choice compiling our worst 11's and that's just from recent memory !  Might give it a go.

6ft7in from Essex

put a new thread up dixie and ill follow your lead

Just for the record and to annoy a few

Cook does not even make it into my all time England 3rd xl

I love this game Dixie. Good to reminisce and also learn from others. D’Olly played for England well past his pea and also interestingly was part of process that ended Apartheid in South Africa

Phil Neville was meant to be a top class batsman,

Checked wages,decided he loved football.

Botham,Scunthorpe.

Cook would not be my favourite batsman to watch either WD but he averaged 45 after 161 test matches and was invaluable to the team. Those stats swayed me.

Going back to Stuart Leary, he was good enough as a footballer to play for England U23's and would have no doubt have become a full international but for the fact he was born in South Africa and was therefore ineligible. Would have had no problem on that score nowadays.

Tragically, Stuart died in 1988 at the age of just 55, committing suicide by throwing himself from a cable car on Table Mountain.

Johnny Bairstow's dad David also played a few games for Bradford City before choosing to play full time for Yorkshire.

Another who sadly took his own life.

Dixiedean.
Ever wondered why your invites to parties have dried up.

cuth - They hadn't, until my social circle found out i was sad enough to be posting on an anonymous forum.

Yeah,betfair forum is the anecdote to social media.

Where everyone is desperate for likes and shares,it’s a race to the bottom on here,

20k posts ,no replies.is a sign of success.

cook nor strauss wd be in my top ten

ales stewart as a batsmen and stumper is defo someone to consider

dont do social media

I don't either Dragon, unless this qualifies !

Alec Stewart might have been in contention if he had just stuck to batting. He was a decent keeper but not a great one.
He averaged nearly 47 in 51 tests as a specialist opener, that's top class. However in 82 tests as a keeper/batsman his average dipped to 35, which is still pretty good but just shows the effect taking on a dual role has.

great stats dixieand very interesting . alex s was a top player for sure

Would be a bit unfair to call the following a worst eleven, but a good few turkeys in there. Have only considered Test matches as most of these were very good county players and indeed some did well in ODI's.  I also only went back about 40 years.

Jason Roy
Wayne Larkins
Matthew Maynard
Neil Fairbrother
Chris Cowdrey
Chris Adams
Eddie Hemmings
Jonathan Agnew
Greg Thomas
Ian Salisbury
Simon Kerrigan

Matt Maynard would keep wicket as i  couldn't think of any Test keeper  that was that bad, although Jos Butler came close.

Greg Thomas was the great white hope, could bowl as fast as the West Indians but tended to spray the ball all over the place. Loved that tete a tete with Viv Richards in a county game when Greg beat Viv a few times in a row outside off stump "It's red, round and weighs about five ounces in case you were wondering" said the frustrated bowler. Next ball was dispatched out of the ground in to the river by Viv who turned and said "Greg, you know what it looks like , now go and find it !".


Almost as good as Eddo Brandes response to Glen McGrath's jibe, but not as crude.

Anybody else have any under performers to add to the above ?

Still contemplating my best and worst X1.

In my worst X1 i'd put forward Derek Pringle whilst thinking about the other X , playing for Essex may make me biased but am i missing something with this guy , i stand to be corrected if so.

Couple of trivia bits with Derek , born in Kenya and was an extra in Chariots of Fire.

Don't do social media either Dragon , not registered on any platform and a million to ever do so     

ok giving the worst ones some thought but heres a few as a starter for 10.

Nick Verity Knight
Jason Roy
Ed Smith
Brian Close
Ray illingworth
Samit Patel
Mike Delvey
David Steele
John Embury

Mike selvey

Phil Tufnell

John Emburey was a very decent player Dragon, his test stats dropped off in the latter part of his career but earlier on he was more than useful for England.
You know i love my stats - Emburey is the player who has scored the most runs for England without compiling a century.
Alec Stewart has scored the most runs in test history without scoring a double ton. Remarkable really given he scored over 8000 runs in his test career.

David Steele, aka the Bank Clerk,  is a bit of a harsh pick imo, he only played 8 tests but averaged 42 in them ! Was shafted by the selectors. Became a cult hero in 1975 and ended up winning BBC Sports Personality of the year and was one of the Wisden cricketers of the year in 1976.

Fat Sam indeed deserves his place on the list, hardly scored a run and bowled pies !

Jim Standen won the FA Cup and County Championship in 1964 ! Had a half decent first class cricket career.

Yes the football/cricket thing was relatively common back in the day TC, Jim Cumbes and Chris Balderstone spring to mind, saw both playing against Kent.

Balderstone made history in 1975 when he was playing for Leicestershire against Derbyshire in a 3 day championship game, he was 51 not out at stumps on Day 2, then shot off to Brentford FC for an evening kick off and played against the hosts for Doncaster Rovers in a 1-1 draw. Remarkable stuff. The next day at chesterfield he carried on batting and completed his century. A very talented guy.

I recall Balderstone was one of many older players 'thrown in' to give it a go against the all conquering West Indies attack during the 70s. Fortunately his career at Leicestershire fared a lot better and they were very successful under Illingworth.

Arnold sidebottom

Yorkshire,England

And man united

Can’t get much better than that

Popped into Bradford Park Avenue one sunny saturday afternoon in 1976 and watched Yorkshire 2nds batting for a couple of hours. A young lad hit a quick ton. I was told later it was Arnie Sidebottom although I never confirmed this. He had just moved from Utd to Huddersfield Town.

Kept George best out of the side once.

Poor old Derek Pringle, even Hayden's got it in for him !

He usually did a reasonable job for England but of course during his time the Test team was always chopping and changing with players only being given a game of two before being dropped. He was in and out like a yo-yo but he must have had something about him as even Spitting Image immortalised him.

I think proctor and gamble immortalised him,naming their crisps after,
One in the eye for lineker.

Thanks for mentioning the word Procter cuth , despite the spelling difference my first thought was a horrible memory of Mike Procter taking 4 in 5 balls against Hampshire in the B & H cup SF in 1977 including a hat trick , 48 years ago and it still hurts.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=25EcIdBAikM&t=29s

Mike Procter was a cracking all rounder, had a bit of stardust about him. Shame he was a Saffer so played little test cricket. All 7 tests he played were against the Aussies, took 41 wickets in them.

Over 1400 FC wickets in his career at just 19 apiece shows what a fine bowler he was.

Proctor bowling 90 mph at 8.50 pm against Jack Bond in the Gillette. Now that was a match !

Can't believe i remember that game TC albeit pretty young , just found the scorecard from July 28th 1971 , David Hughes got MOM.   

https://www.espncricinfo.com/series/gillette-cup-england-1971-368807/lancash...

Hughes hit 23, I think, in an over off John Mortimer. In those days it was a 60 over competition and there had been a rain delay.

1971 Gillette final was the first i remember watching when my Kent boys were on course to win with Asif Iqbal playing like a dream.
Then Jack Bond pulled off that sensational catch to send Asif on his way for 89,  cue the Kent collapse to lose by 24 runs.

Jack Bond always looked about 20 years older than he actually was to me, but he was a fine fielder.

Jack Bond was Lancashire's equivalent to Mike Brearley except he couldn't do the Times crossword. An excellent captain who batted low down the order, didn't bowl but, as you say was a fine fielder. Asif probably still has sleepless nights after that catch !

gosh some golden memories on this thread  and of course lanky had atop 1 day team back in those days ...some terrific nail biting games. A far cry from the bish bash of todays glitz

Kent got their revenge on Lancs 3 years later in the 1974 Gillette final. The game went in to a second day due to the weather and finished on the Monday as no Sunday play scheduled.   

Conditions for batting were difficult.  Lancs batted first and made just 118 all out in their full 60 overs ! Clive Lloyd top scorer with 25 before being run out.

Kent also struggled in reply and were 89 for 6 when Bob Woolmer joined Alan Knott to see Kent home by 4 wickets.
Not a bad pairing for the seventh wicket with 8 Test Match centuries between them.

Crikey i'd never have thought or remembered that Dixie , Woolmer coming in as low as eight.

Yes quite remarkable Hayden, but Kent had such a strong side in those days. There are still conspiracy theories about Bob's untimely demise, i doubt we will ever know the full truth although it was probably natural causes.

Amazingly low scoring game, cannot ever remember a team batting their overs out and only scoring at 2 an over.

Knotty got Man Of The Match and he only scored 18 not out ! Mind you he was brilliant behind the stumps that day, took 2 catches and a stumping standing up to the medium pace of the lesser spotted James Graham-Brown who hardly ever played for Kent. J G-B is actually now an award winning playwright under the name of Dougie Blaxland, a lot of his stuff is cricket related including a play about Colin Milburn, When the Eye Has Gone.

wow you are a mine of info dixie-- will check jgb books out ..ta

just found he was involved in  and produced in association with Live Wire Theatre, Our Little Hour is based on the inspirational life story of of the legendary pioneering hero Walter Tull.

Award winning playwright Dougie Blaxland and celebrated composer Chris Anthony bring his story to the stage, exploring how Walter Tull – grandson of a Barbadian slave, orphaned at eight years old – rose to prominence against all odds.

The first black footballer to play at the highest level of the domestic game in the UK he went on to achieve yet another historic breakthrough as the first man of his heritage to be commissioned as an Officer in the British Army.

Tragically killed in action just a few weeks before the end of World War 1, Walter Tull’s pioneering achievements have earned him a distinguished place in British history and in the hearts of everyone who knows his story.

im going to see that as its touring again nationwide in 2026

I heard that story.

Also the Plymouth or Portsmouth footballer who was selected for England and was then sent home because they found out he was black!

You gotta feel sorry for the current crop who get called names on Social Meja! John Barnes had the right idea.

James G-B was with Kent for 6 years but hardly played a game , but in that final he took 2 for 15 in his 12 overs, remarkable economy.
He went to Derby for a couple of years but didn't really feature there either. Must have been seen as talented but never really broke through.

In that final  Norman "giraffe" Graham took 2-14 in 11 overs, equally miserly. Has to be one of the tallest players in memory standing at 6ft 8 .
Norm was a very fine seam bowler but an absolute rabbit with the bat, always number 11 on the scorecard.
He only scored 400 runs in his entire 189 match FC career but took over 600 wickets !

my wife is of Jamacian heritage- her  dad was born in Kingston so was brought up on cricket as a young girl.. Total magic that we both love cricket.

all our kids love it too . will take them all to watch the production.its on in Salford in FEB 2026- thanks for the Dixie wd never had known about it but for your post -- the forum at its finest

working on the grandkids

eng v west indies is a major event in our house

In another low scoring final John Abrahams won the man of the match award in the Benson and Hedges Cup final at Lords in 1984 for his captaincy, despite not bowling and scoring a duck. Warwickshire scored 139 in 50.4 overs and Lancashire knocked them off in 42.4 overs.

Glad to be of service Dragon, hope you and the family enjoy the play.

It's amazing some of the facts that you can find out about former players etc when you go digging, something i enjoy doing

James G-B aka Dougie is a very interesting character, i would never have guessed that he would have become something of a social justice warrior, given that he came from a privileged background and went to public school (the prestigious Sevenoaks School in Kent). He's written acclaimed plays on such diverse subjects as homelessness and also the disgraced  former cricketer Chris Lewis.  Obviously a talented guy.

Sevenoaks of course became "one oak" overnight in October 87 after the hurricane when six of the mighty trees in The Vine were felled. Maybe Dougie should base a play around that memorable night, i could give him a tale or two

Dragon,

Not sure if I told you but a couple of girls at my school had a Jamaican father. One of them moved back and had a beautiful house in the Blue mountains. I went with the other sister for a holiday and to visit the sister. Being a small Island the social scene was integrated into the cricket and we were given tickets for the Members Stand for each day. I was introduced to their friends one of whom was an officer in the Jamaican Defence Force and he got us the tickets. The thing I remember most about that Test even more than the ending of 30 years of hurt and Harmison getting 8 wickets was on the second morning of the Test one of the Stewards came up to our host with the bar bill for the previous day and on presenting it to him he said I am so sorry Sir I forgot to give you your bill yesterday. I thought that was such a cool way of telling someone they were drunk out of their tiny mind the previous evening and incapable of standing straight let alone accepting a bar bill!

I had a great holiday and went back for the 2007 World Cup and went on to Barbados for the Final. We stayed at Frenchman's Cove for a couple of days and had crabs in the South on a black sand beach, can't remember the place and also went inland to Mandeville. I have to say I had a great time there.

Crabs in the South WD ? i wouldn't recommend that

amazing story WD -what a wonderful experience