For such a momentous one-off game, this team has to be utterly brilliant but
also authentic and representative of the club and its history. There is,
therefore, a bias towards those who gave their best while wearing a bear on
their chest. So no overseas stars who flitted in and out. (OK, two, but no
more.) Some big names don’t make it. England’s second greatest Test wicket
taker (Bob Willis) and the first spinner to 300 Test wickets (Lance Gibbs)
for two.
Apart from their stellar abilities as individuals, two things stand out about
this XII. First, they are all winners. Ten won the county championship with
Warwickshire, the other two picked up a Gillette and a B&H winners’
medal respectively. Second, they have played in every decade since the
1890s. In fact, apart from a three-year hiatus in 1929-31, they were on the
staff continuously from 1894-2005. They are the real thing.
1. Dennis Amiss: Mr Warwickshire and the first name on the team sheet.
The stats say it all: twelfth highest first -class run scorer in history
(43,423), 102 hundreds, 1,500 runs in a season 16 times, Warwickshire’s
highest run scorer (35,146), he made at least one century and more than
1,000 runs against every other county. Test average of 46.30.
2. WG ‘Billy’ Quaife: Three decades of unparalleled service
(until Amiss turned up) means he’s ingrained in county lore. Scored 1,000
runs a season 24 times. He was nimble on his feet (there are advantages to
being about 5ft 2in) and a razor sharp cover point. Pressure for middle
order places means he’ll have to open. With 900 wickets to his name, he’s
also a second spinner.
3. Brian Lara: Part of me wants to leave him out. His claim to Warwicks
fame is based on a single season (his second was genuinely pedestrian),
during which, among other things, he split the dressing room. But what a
season: five centuries on the trot (nine altogether), the highest
first-class score (501*), an average of 89.82, and, for the team, an
unprecedented treble. So he scrapes in.
4. Rohan Kanhai: Lara’s influence may have been dramatic, but when
talking county legends, he’s not even top of the list of West Indians. That
would be this man. Of all Warwicks’ overseas batsmen, Kanhai’s contribution
has been the greatest. For ten years, up to 1977, he scored 11,615
first-class runs for the county. His average, 51.62, is the highest for
anyone from anywhere with serious service under their belt.
5. MJK Smith: Given the number of Warwickshire Smiths down the years –
an entire XI - it would be odd if there were not one in this team. MJK
strolls in. Apart from being a good trivia answer - the highest first class
run scorer who fell short of 100 hundreds - he’s utterly dependable. He
scored more than 2,000 runs a season six years on the trot. Captaincy
appeared to burden him. He’s free to score runs in this team.
6. Dermot Reeve (capt): The traditionalists may splutter, but it’s
obvious. His bowling is underestimated (avg 24.77 for Warwicks), his big
game batting often match-winning, (again, significantly better when playing
for Warwicks, avg 39.06). And his leadership was always inspirational,
innovative and, for the opposition, infuriating. Warwicks won six trophies
in three purple seasons under Reeve. No other captain comes close.
7. Tom Cartwright: He is the only Warwicks all-rounder to do the double
of 10,000 runs and 1,000 wickets in club colours. His greatest claim to fame
in English cricket may have been going to Somerset and inventing Ian Botham,
but that was an afterthought. He walks into this team. He’ll bowl all day
while giving nothing away (Warwicks bowling avg, 18.75), allowing Donald and
Pollock to act as strike bowlers.
8. Shaun Pollock: Last name to make it into the team. He’s lucky,
because he wasn’t around for long and his greatest exploits were not for
Warwickshire. Neither, though, were Bob Willis’s. And Jack Bannister,
despite 1,181 wkts at 21.94, fails to make the grade. Pollock’s batting is
needed for balance. And it’s hard to ignore the eighth highest Test wicket
taker and his 416 Test wickets.
9. Keith Piper (wkt): There are keepers with Test records, more
dismissals and many more runs, but Piper was a genius behind the stumps. His
craftsmanship was breathtaking and his agility astounding. Neither is this
purely subjective. He also has more dismissals per game for Warwicks (2.66)
than any rival. Sorry Deryck Murray, Smiths AC and Tiger, and Dick Lilley,
you’re not good enough for this team.
10. Allan Donald: He arrived at Edgbaston in 1987 as a foreigner and
left, 13 years later, as one of us. No one removes an opener or knocks over
a tail like him. Almost always bowled with venom and lethal accuracy. His
county record - 536 wickets, avg 20.82, was awesome.
11. Eric Hollies: Best known to the world for denying Bradman a Test
average of 100, but better known in Birmingham for taking nearly twice the
number of wickets as his nearest rival: 2,201 over 20 seasons at an average
of 20.45, including 100 wickets in a season 14 times. Tough on Gibbs, who
has 265 more Test wickets, but it has to be Hollies. He is, by the by, one
of the very few players who took more first-class wickets (2,323) than he
scored runs (1,673), which gives Donald a rare taste of life up the order.
12th man: Trevor Penney: For 14 years, Warwickshire had the finest
fielder on the planet. He may have lacked the showmanship of Jonty Rhodes,
but he didn’t need it. He was fast as a gazelle, clinical and deadly. A
batting average of 39.29 was worth about 60.00 given the runs he saved and
the runs his run-out victims never scored. Hard to believe there has ever
been anyone better.
My favourite XI:
This team is a lot tougher to pick. Amiss and Kanhai were boyhood heroes. They
are icons, though, to be watched in awe, and have to step aside. This XI is
picked from the heart, a team to stir the spirit. On a good day it would
beat all-comers. It is also capable of being skittled at the crease and
flailed dismally in the field. But it would be spectacularly well worth
watching. The chances are, someone will come up with the goods. And it will
be memorable.
1. Andy Moles: late starting roly-poly club cricketer who became a cult
hero by making the most of every ounce of his talent. With what’s to follow,
someone will need to stick around, and he’s the man.
2. John Jameson: unlikely to be too many quick singles in this opening
partnership. But when Jameson hit the ball it tended to go for four anyway.
Elder statesman of this line-up.
3. Alvin Kallicharran: there can have been few greater sights at
Edgbaston down the years than pint-sized Kalli hooking, pulling and cutting.
He’ll take the attack to anyone. And he has a wonderful arm from the deep.
4. Geoff Humpage: he holds many county wicketkeeping records, but he’s
playing here as one of the more aptly named batsman. When his eye’s in he
can take any attack apart.
5. Asif Din: for two reasons: his NatWest final century in 1993 to
overhaul Sussex’s 321; and with so many perceived bad boys in this team, it
needs some good guys. He can also send down some leg breaks, which should be
fun.
6. Paul Smith: given his natural talent, he may have frustrated more
than satisfied. But when he got it right, he could turn a game with stylish
batting or aggressive bowling, despite the handicap of a ridiculous action.
7. Dermot Reeve (capt): a joker and a genius rolled into one. Subtle
bowler, innovative batsman. And his personality drove the opposition
crackers. Take your eyes off him and you’ll miss something good.
8.Trevor Penney: with Moles, Jameson and Humpage rolling around the
place, Penney can take care of the entire off side.
9. Keith Piper (wkt): Just because there’s no spinner, doesn’t mean he
won’t get any stumpings. Watching him take cleanly down the leg side while
standing up to the quicks is breathtaking.
10. Gladstone Small: the nicest man ever to bowl a bouncer. Actually,
did he ever bowl a bouncer? Lovely action, lovely athlete. And he clinched
the Ashes the last time we won Down Under. And what a smile. And what a
cover drive!
11. Allan Donald: at his best when at his meanest, when you almost felt
sorry for the batsman. Never less than exhilarating to watch.
