Much like the present Essex side, my fantasy team is stacked with
all-rounders. I was disappointed not to pick more players from the past 20
years, for all the pleasure they have given me and the trophies they have
won for Essex, but in the final reckoning of the averages it was hard to
choose an Irani over a Bailey, a Such over a Mead, a Foster over a Farnes.
All XI selected have been named Wisden Cricketer of the Year, which suggests
that although it took Essex until 1979 to find a side capable of winning the
championship, they have had some top-class players along the way. This side
is also low on overseas players, given the good ones that we have had over
the years, but I have picked on county records rather than international
honours. Just three get in, so the likes of Waugh, Malik and Kaneria will
have to battle it out for the second XI.
1. Graham Gooch: far and away the best batsman that Essex have ever had
- if not England. Scored 94 first-class hundreds for Essex and averaged
almost 52, scoring more than 2,000 runs in a first-class season five times
(and twice making it past 1,900). More than just a talismanic batsman, he
captained Essex to the championship three times and was a fine fielder as
well as a more than useful medium-pace bowler.
2. Jack Russell: not the eccentric Gloucestershire wicketkeeper but a
Leytonstone man, like Gooch, who shone for club and country. It is
astonishing that he played only ten Tests given that he hit five hundreds
and had a Test average of 56.87 (even more so when you consider he made only
ten runs in his first four Test innings) but England preferred Hobbs and
Sutcliffe for some reason. For Essex, he exceeded 1,000 runs in a season 13
times and had an average of 40.91. His cousin was the great England leg
spinner Tich Freeman.
3. Ken McEwan: Brian Hardie and Gooch usually kept him away from the
new ball, but McEwan could open for Essex if called upon and his average of
43 with 52 hundreds for Essex far outshines Hardie's more modest figures of
34 and 27. The South African joined Essex in 1974 and stayed for 12 seasons.
4. Stuart Law: it's hard to ignore Keith Fletcher, the Gnome who
captained Essex to their first silverware, but his career average of 36.88
for Essex was unspectacular and means that Law, who averaged nearly 59 in
his six seasons with the county, gets the nod. It's a pity as Fletcher was
the ultimate club man, while Law ran off to Lancashire after falling out
with too many people in the dressing-room.
5. Andy Flower: it was difficult to overlook Brian "Tonker" Taylor, who
revolutionised the club as captain in the 1960s and early 1970s, or David
East, now the chief executive and the wicketkeeper during the three
championship success in the 1980s, but none of them could hold a candle to
Flower as a batsman. Although he is being asked to take the gloves in this
side, Flower often let James Foster, the local boy, do the job for Essex but
needs must when it comes to playing Mars. The former Zimbabwe captain joined
Essex in 2002 and hit 18 centuries in 81 matches, averaging more than 54. He
has also been a successful batting coach of the younger generation, skills
that England are now exploiting.
6. Stan Nichols: Nichols played 14 Tests for England in the 1930s and
achieved the important landmark of having a higher average with the bat than
he did with the ball (29.5 to 28). For Essex, he made 20 hundreds and had 22
ten-wicket matches, batting left-handed and bowling right. Picked originally
as a batsman, he became better known for his fast bowling, which got him 100
wickets in a season on a county-record 11 occasions, the most being 160 at
an average of 18.31 in 1938. Four times he took nine wickets in an innings.
In the winter, he was a goalkeeper for Queens Park Rangers.
7. Trevor Bailey: "Barnacle" Bailey, as he became known for his
resolute and often tedious defence when batting, was an outstanding
fast-medium bowler and brilliant fielder who played 61 times for England and
was instrumental in the 1953 Ashes success. For Essex, he made 1,000 runs in
a season ten times after his debut in 1945 and took 100 wickets on four
occasions. With 22 hundreds for Essex, he is possibly batting a place too
low in this side, but his bowling average of 21.99 was just as impressive.
8. JWHT Douglas: "Johnny Won't Hit Today" Douglas, as the Australians
dubbed the haughty Essex captain, was not an easy man to get on with but his
courage was never in doubt, not least at the end of his life when he drowned
trying to save his father in a shipwreck. Until Andrew Flintoff last winter,
Douglas was the last captain to lead England to a 5-0 Ashes defeat in
1920-21 - although he had been captain when England won the Ashes nine years
earlier. His record for his country was modest (962 runs and 45 wickets in
23 Tests), but for many years he was Essex's leading player, particularly
with his fast-medium bowling, taking 1,443 wickets at an average of 23. He
was the Olympic middleweight boxing champion in 1908.
9. Ken Farnes: what could have been? Farnes was only 30 when he crashed
his plane flying for the RAF during the Second World War and while the
conflict would have robbed him of the best years of his career anyway, his
early death was mourned. In 15 Tests for England he had taken 60 wickets,
ten of them in his debut match against the 1934 Australians. A tall fast
bowler, Farnes was discovered by Essex as a 19-year-old, took five for 36
against Kent in his second county match and, after taking 113 wickets at an
average of 20 in three years at Cambridge University, was always a welcome
part of the Essex attack even though he was that rarity: an amateur fast
bowler. In his final Test series, in South Africa in 1938-39, he was second
in the averages to Hedley Verity, another talent taken early by war.
10. John Lever: the most famous "JK" until Harry Potter came along,
Lever was Essex's workhorse in the 1970s, a tireless left-armer who could be
relied upon to bowl all day without losing line, length or spirit. His
England career may not have maintained the high of his debut Test in India
when he took ten wickets, but he never let up over 23 years with Essex. His
haul of 1,473 wickets is the third most by a quick bowler, behind Nichols
and Bailey, and he took more than 100 wickets in four season, which is
impressive given the reduced fixture list when he played.
11. Walter Mead: Danish Kaneria, the mainstay bowler in the present
side, is unlucky to miss out on the spinner's berth, as is Peter Smith, who
took 1,610 wickets with his leg spin for Essex in the 1930s and 1940s, but I
go for Mead, the oldest member of this side and a Wisden cricketer of the
year in 1904. His haul of 1,472 wickets for Essex at an average of 19.30
came from a mixture of off and leg breaks and he twice took 17 in a match -
one of them against the 1893 Australians. Played only one Test and took one
wicket. Not noted as a batsman, but his finest hour may have been at
Sheffield in 1893 when, with no other player making 20, he came in at No 10
and made 66 not out - then took four for eight in Yorkshire's first innings.
My favourite XI
A purely personal team based on the players who have given me pleasure over
the past 20 years.
1. Graham Gooch: tubby and mustachioed but a legend in the team. His
glory years from 1989-1992 were particularly astounding. Gave me many hours
of pleasure. If you want to know more, read
this article
2. Alastair Cook: the next Essex (and England) batting hero.
Classically elegant with an astonishingly mature temperament. Made his mark
with a double hundred against the 2005 Australians
3. Nasser Hussain: an aggressive batsman and a successful captain who
scored almost 12,000 runs for Essex at an average of 44. Very Australian in
the way that he refused ever to buckle or be bullied
4. Mark Waugh: a toss up between the Australian and Salim Malik, who
had two excellent seasons at Essex, but Waugh wins for his average of
nearly 60 in four and a bit seasons with the county. In particular, his
performance in 1992, when he averaged 77 and we won the championship for the
sixth (and most recent) time, stands out.
5. Mike McEvoy: not much cop as a county player (he averaged only 18.75
in 43 matches for Essex in the late 1970s and early 1980s) but I hope you'll
forgive a personal hat-tip to the man who went on to become cricket master
at my old school in Colchester and who, more importantly, got me a ticket
for the first day of the 2005 Ashes at Lord's. If this side actually had to
play for my life, I'd drop him for Ravi Bopara.
6. Ronnie Irani: it's impossible for an Essex fan not to love Ronnie,
not least because he gets up everyone else's noses. An underrated
all-rounder (as Wisden has recently pointed out, his first-class batting and
bowling averages are better than Andrew Flintoff's), he never quite did it
for England but his pugnacious batting (he'd open if this was a one-day
side) and ebullient bowling are vote-winners. Shame about his captaincy,
which was so laidback he was almost lying down on the long-on fence on many
occasions
7. James Foster: there haven't been many top-class wicketkeepers in my
time of supporting Essex and having forced Andy Flower to take up the gloves
in my "greatest XI", I think I have to go for someone who kept more often in
this side. David East and Mike Garnham were the ones I remember as a child,
but they were nothing better than tidy. Robert Rollins, who came between
Garnham and Foster, was fairly anonymous. Foster gets the nod because when
he was picked by England back in 2001 he looked like the answer to our
prayers. If it wasn't for a broken arm, he rather than Geraint Jones could
have been the Ashes wicketkeeper in 2005. Only 27, he may get another call
and recently made his maiden double hundred against Nottinghamshire
8. Derek Pringle: two things endeared Pring to me - the fact that he
had to cut a hole in the end of his shoes so that his big toe could stick
out and his wholehearted play in the 1992 World Cup final, which almost won
the trophy for England.
9. Don Topley: another vote for portly men with facial hair. Australia
had Merv Hughes, we had Don Topley. They looked similar but that was about
it. Topley was not a great player (batting average of under 16, bowling
average of 28) but he had a huge fanbase in Essex. Shame that he made those
match-fixing allegations. I remember him once being savaged by a stray dog
on the outfield at Colchester
10. Neil Foster: always looked terribly frail when he ran in to bowl -
and he certainly had more than his fair share of injuries (nine knee
operations in all) - but when he worked he could be magnificent. Little
known fact: Foster is the only man to get both Javed Miandad and Viv
Richards out for ducks. Took 100 wickets for Essex in 1986 and 1991
11. Peter Such: they laughed at him for looking a bit effeminate but he
was the scourge of Australian Test cricketers - he took six for 67 against
them on debut in 1993 and five for 81 in Sydney in 1999. Wins the nod ahead
of John Childs for the way he used to skip in to the wicket,
Fotherington-Thomas style, and then appeal oh-so-politely to the umpire.
Wrote the wittily-titled "Such's Life" column for the local newspaper.
