As part of a debate that developed downstream from a team listing put together by Brad Hodge and tweeted by @7cricket a few days ago (see below), I have assembled a hypothetical Sydney Thunder squad of players from the pre-T20 era.
Criteria for inclusion:
- They must have played for a club (or a predecessor) that competes in the Thunder Conference of the 2018-19 Kingsgrove Sports T20 competition in NSW Premier Cricket (that is: Bankstown, Blacktown, Campbelltown-Camden, Fairfield-Liverpool, Hawkesbury, Northern District, Parramatta, Penrith, Sydney University, Western Suburbs, ACT, Central Coast)
- They must not have played in a major T20 tournament since the birth of the format in 2003. (I have included the ICL in this definition, which disqualifies Michael Bevan)
Starting eleven has been named as part of a full squad of eighteen, including two overseas players (and I have placed a third on standby)
The starting XI:
- Bob Simpson (Western Suburbs)
- Mark Waugh (Bankstown)
- Steve Waugh (Bankstown)
- Doug Walters (Cumberland, now Parramatta)
- Richie Benaud (Cumberland) capt
- Imran Khan (Sydney University) overseas player
- Greg Matthews (Northern Districts, Sydney University, Western Suburbs)
- Ross Edwards (Northern Districts) wk
- Alan Davidson (Central Coast, Western Suburbs)
- Angus Fraser (Western Suburbs) overseas player
- Bob Holland (Bankstown)
The bench:
- Frank Iredale (Cumberland) player/general manager
- Warren Bardsley (Western Suburbs)
- Mark Taylor (Northern Districts)
- Neil Harvey (Northern Districts)
- Jeff Thomson (Bankstown)
- Len Pascoe (Bankstown)
- Jack Massie (Sydney University)
Standby overseas player: Derek Pringle (Campbelltown)
Jack Massie is the only member of the squad who didn’t play international cricket. Massie was a left-arm fast bowler who took 99 wickets in sixteen games for NSW immediately prior to the First World War. Wounds received while on active service in Europe prevented Captain Massie from playing once the war was concluded.
(In case you’re wondering, Don Bradman played for St George and North Sydney who are both in the Sixers Conference.)
A fun idea from our man @bradhodge007.
Anyone have any other suggestions for players? pic.twitter.com/VKnK197Ppd
— 7Cricket (@7Cricket) December 12, 2018
As posted to Twitter on 15 December 2018 as a follow-up, my hypothetical Sydney Sixers pre-T20 team:
VT Trumper, AR Morris, DG Bradman, AR Border, MA Noble (c), KR Miller, AW Greig, RR Lindwall, HB Taber (wk), EAS Prasanna, WJ O’Reilly.
additional squad: CG Macartney, CV Grimmett, H Ironmonger, A Cotter, NC O’Neill, GF Lawson, S Lee.