21/07/2009

A ‘listing’ controversy

Cricket is a game where it is impossible to get two fans to agree on a team composition. The same dysfunction arises when it comes to getting fans to agree on the best players of an era. So imagine the controversy a definitive search on the best players of all time will create.

That is why one believes this is an exercise designed to get eyeballs and with an eye at controversy.

One can say they (Cricinfo) have achieved their ends. For starters, the Western Australian media are already playing up the omission of Ponting. Some have trumpeted gleefully that Ponting is the 12th man. Similarly, the exclusion of Steve Waugh and the inclusion of Gilchrist will draw the ire of their fans.

These ‘lists’ are subjective and hence never definitive. This gives room for controversies that will draw cricket fans to the Cricinfo site in the same mesmerizing manner as a firefly’s luminescence draws its prey.
Cricinfo's Australian All-Time XI:

Victor Trumper, Arthur Morris, Don Bradman, Greg Chappell, Allan Border, Keith Miller, Adam Gilchrist, Shane Warne, Bill O'Reilly, Dennis Lillee, Glenn McGrath, Ricky Ponting (12th man).

2 comments:

LVISS said...

THOUGH GENERALLY I DONT READ MUCH INTO THESE THINGS I THINK PONTING BY SHEER WEIGHT OF HIS PERFORMANCE SHOULD BE "IN". HE IS A FIT AND GOOD FIELDER ,HAS SCORED THE MAXIMUM NO OF RUNS AND HEHEHE HE IS MUCH YOUNGER THAN MANY NAMED.

Viswanathan said...

Do you think there ever could be best XI from across the ages?