Good-in-Tests-rubbish-in-ODIs XI - part one

Fed up of Vaughan's one-day ineptitude, the ECB allowed him to use a metal bat - though, only a miniature version - in the format, hoping it would change things around. It didn't
© Getty Images



Welcome to part one of the official and unarguable Confectionery Stall Good-In-One-Format-But-Rubbish-In-Another XIs.

England’s coach, guru, spiritual leader, bicker-mediator, and ego-guidance-counsellor Andy Flower suggested after the World Twenty20 that international players would increasingly specialise in one format or another, as the time-guzzling hydra that is the world cricket calendar, and its increasingly numerous and ravenous heads, make more and more demands of Planet Earth’s leading cricketers.

Several top-level cricketers have pre-empted this by failing to replicate world-beating performances in one format of the game in another. Garfield Sobers, for example, who appears on no one’s list of Most Useless Test Cricketers Of All Time – he is, at the very worst, approximately the 2675th Rubbishest Ever Test Cricketer, and some argue that he even challenges Don Bradman for the currently-prestigious 2682nd spot on that hotly-contested chart. However, the Bajan Beethoven had an ODI batting average of 0 – worse than the heroically, indefatigably inept Chris Martin.

Admittedly, Sobers played in just one ODI, compared with Martin’s 20, and batted just once, compared to Martin’s seven glorious innings, so can perhaps be forgiven for falling an agonising eight runs short of the Kiwi’s career total. Sobers’ solitary one-dayer was West Indies’ first, and he compounded his duck by conceding the winning runs to England batting legend Bob Willis. Had the West Indian not made the crucial error of almost completely pre-dating the ODI era, however, I think it is fair to assume he would have proved a more than useful ODI operator, and that batting average of 0 would have risen. Significantly. It is also fair to assume that, had Martin not been congenitally allergic to willow and with a lifelong phobia of having padding strapped to his legs, he might have had a more productive batting career.

Some ground rules for these XIs:

● I have ignored T20Is due to lack of evidence. When more T20Is have been played, I may revisit this. However, a third corner to this selectorial see-saw would complicate matters considerably – XIs of players who were adequate in Tests, awesome in ODIs and atrocious in T20Is, plus all the vices and versas involved, is a project for a very rainy day. Or the next Ice Age.

● Players must preferably have definitively failed in one format and unquestionably succeeded in the other, rather than just being significantly better in one. Lance Klusener, for example, was one of the most effective ODI allrounders ever, averaging 41 with the bat and 29 with the ball, and, whilst his equivalent Test averages of 32 and 37 are not in the same league, they still qualify him as a decent Test cricketer. Saqlain Mushtaq, Brett Lee and Andrew Flintoff were all statistically far more effective with the ball in the shorter game, but still formidable Test bowlers. Amongst the numerous top-class Test batsmen who did not fully replicate their five-day successes in the one-day arena, Allan Border (Test average: 50), David Gower (44) and VVS Laxman (almost 46) all averaged 30 in ODIs,
but cannot be said to have completely failed as one-day players. Leonardo da Vinci was notoriously good at drawing. He made an adequate spaghetti bolognese. Probably. That did not make him an appalling chef.

● Minimum Test appearances: 10. Minimum ODI appearances: 20.

● The above rules can be flouted at the discretion of the selectors if, for example, they are struggling to find a wicketkeeper who completely flunked his Test career but was a one-day superstar.

● The selectors’ decision is final and legally binding. All selected players must report for winter endurance training in Verkhoyansk, Siberia, next Monday.

We begin with the Test-Stars-But-One-Day-Flops XI, a keenly contested selection, for which many players have made persuasive cases through years of dedicatedly failing to replicate their five-day form in the one-day arena.