On the occasion of 8 years of my BLOG ( my first blog was on March 29,2017) I was thinking for quite some time to select a team that would present - raw uniqueness . A list of talented and controverisal bunch who under normal circumtances may not have made into Wisden or any other all time TEST XI ( my list has only 2 ) but because they died early it presents me an opportunity to analyse those who if they had lived more would have contributed more meaningfully to the world of cricket. I then got down to check a list of handful cricketers who died early, some very prematurely and some a little later but still young , much younger than others and after quite a bit of research came up with 13 names . It could have been 16 but I decided to stick to 11 plus two subs. My team has one serious flaw- it is devoid of a world class wicket keeper and a world class allrounder - I couldn't find either of them who died early. My indepth research couldn't produce satisfactory result. The youngest in my team died at 25 and the oldest died at 57 - sufficing it to say its a team which can be called GONE TOO SOON . And of course , any all time XI always leaves room for debate and am sure mine will too. I am happy to select my 13 who died young but left quite a bit of impression even at such an age - just makes me think what would have happened if they lived well past 75.
Lets get down to the business of the selection . I have 4 Australians, 3 Carribeans, 3 Englishman, 1 each from Newzealand , South Africa and Zimbabwe.
Openers : My openar with whom I will open the discussion is one of the 2 in my team who died while he was still a player ( the other one was technically not a player but well within his playing age ) .
Seldom in the history of Sports has any player raked up so much emotion like Phillip Joel Hughes upon his fateful passing away , 3 days short of his 26 th birthday . The Cricketing and the Sporting world came to a standstill with his tragic and untimely demise. The late Phil Hughes is my openar in this team.
Phil Hughes was quite a talent destined to play long for Australia , till fate decided otherwise brutally. Making his debut for Australia in March 2009, aged 20, he scored his first test century in his second test match opening the batting and hitting 115 in the 1st innings at Durban against the Proteas. This made him the youngest test centurion for the Aussies since Doug Walters in 1965. In the second innings of the same match , he scored 160, becoming the youngest cricketer to score centuries in both innings of a test . On January 11,2013 he became the the first Aussie batsman to score a century on debut in an ODI - against Srilanka in MCG.
During the 2009 Ashes campaign , Hughes was exploited badly by English bowlers who targetted his upper body and avoided bowling wide outside off stump , restricting his opportunity to play through offside - thereby limiting his scoring shots. He was dropped from the 3rd test at Edgbaston in favour of Shane Watson who opened the batting in his place and provided the Aussies with an extra bowling option. Hughes was a fringe player for the next year playing here and there as injury replacements. He played 2 home test against Pakistan covering for injured Ricky Ponting and then for Simon Katich. He was then called up to replace Shane Watson in the first test vs Newzealand in Newzealand.
Hughes was dropped from the 2010 -11 Ashes squad but was called for the 3rd test as replacement to Katich who was injured. He was a regular in the team for the following year playing in the last 3 ashes test, tours of Srilanka & South Africa and then a home series against the Kiwis. His weakness outside the off stump was badly exposed now , and apart from a 126 in Colombo & and 88in Jo'berg he failed miserably. He came under heavy criticism for his performance in the home series against the Kiwis and was dismissed the same way in all 4 innings. He was dropped from the Australian team following the series.
Hughes was determined to make it big and make a big comeback and in a stint with Worcestershire he made huge adjustments to his technique resulting in a more expansive range of strokes with more stress on legside play. Once he returned to Australia he moved to South Australia from his home state of NSW. This resulted in a much desired return to form and runs and an eventual recall to TEST side to face Srilanka in Hobert in Dec 2012. Coming back to the side after quite some time , he made an impressive 86 batting at 3. He had a great series against the Lankans , with a new-found confidence and much tighter technique. He was set to receive a $1 million contract with CA and was to be selected in Australia's ODI and T20 squads. Upon selection he scored a solid 112 (129 balls) in his ODI debut , becoming the first Aussie to do so. He scored his second ODI 100 - this time a 138* off 154 balls in the 5th ODI of the same series.
Following his succesful summer in Australia in 2012/13 , he was selected to play in the test series in India but he struggled in the dustbowls scoring only a paltry 147 in 8 innings. Further he played the first two tests of the 2013 Ashes, but was dropped for the 3rd test. He never played in tests for Australia again. He did play an ODI series in India in Oct 2013, against Zimbabwe and South Africa in Zimbabwe in Sept 2014 & against Pakistan in UAE in Oct 2014.
On 25th November 2014, in a Sheffield Shield Match against NSW at the SCG , while batting on 63, he was struck in the neck by the ball after missing an attempted hook to a bouncer from NSW pacer Sean Abbott. Hughes was wearing a helmet but the ball struck an unprotected area just below the left ear. He collapsed on the ground immediately and received mouth-to-mouth resuscitation and was taken to St. Vincent's Hospital Sydney where he underwent surgery and was placed in an induced coma. He never came out of the coma again and died on Thursday , November 27 ,2014 succumbing to the injury that he had sustained 2 days earlier.
Hughes played 26 tests and 25 ODI's for Australia scoring 1535 and 826 runs respectively at an average of 32.66 and 35.91 . He scored 3 hundreds in test and 2 in ODI's.
Thus ended tragically and very prematurely one of the most promising career in Australian and World Cricket - that he was being groomed for all 3 formats was not unknown. One of the most sad events ever to have happened on a sporting field.
Partnering Hughes in this GONE TOO SOON XI, is another great openar - the Late Roy Fredericks. Fredericks who died of Cancer in 2000 at the age of 57 only ,was a pillar of West Indian batting from 1968-1977.
He made 4334 test runs from 59 matches @42.49 and 311 ODI runs from 12 matches @25.91 . He scored 8 test hundreds and 1 ODI hundred.
He had a number of opening partners in his test team before settling down with Gordon Greenidge in the mid 70's. He was an aggressive batsman who liked to counter attack the fast bowlers , but also could accumulate runs traditionally.
His Highest test score was 169 against Australia at Perth which was a swashbuckling counter attacking innings against the fearsome Lillee and Thomson.
In the inaugural ICC CWC in 1975 , Fredericks became the 1st player in ODI history to be dismissed for being hit wicket and also became the first player to be dismissed for being hit wicket in WC history.
A gutsy cricketer who never lost his way in the madness of Carribean legends at their peak.
The middle order probably is the strongest in my XI - starting with a legend who died way too young.
Kenneth Frank Barrington - or Ken Barrington the first of my four middle order batters died at the age of 51 , in Barbados where he was touring with the visiting English side as Manager. Of Players with completed career only Sir Don had an better average than Ken with more than Ken's 6806 test runs. Barrington twice made centuries in 4 successive tests & was the first England batsman to make hundreds on all 6 test grounds : Old Trafford, Edgbaston, Headingley,Lords, Trentbridge and Oval.
Making his debut against South Africa in 1955 , he made a duck. He was kept in the second test at Lords where he made 34 and 18. He was dropped after that. After 4 years he made a come back to the England side against a very weak touring Indian side , scoring 56 at Trentbridge , 80 at Lords & Headingley and 87 at Old Trafford. He scored 8 in the final test at Oval but England completed a 5-0 whitewash. Barrington made 357 runs in the series , more than anybody else and was an automatic choice for the tour of West Indies in 1959-60.
At Kensington Oval, Barrington scored his maiden test hundred against a fiery Wes Hall and Chester Watson - 128 out of England's 482. The second test at Queens Park Oval was a very fiery affair with Hall & Watson bouncing all English batsmen, but Barrington using his skills scored his second consecutive hundred .
The last 3 tests were drawn and Barrington didn't do much of note & he was targeted by Hall for his seeming discomfort against short balls. England won the series 1-0 and Barrington's 420 runs @ 46.66 was an important part of this victory.
Against South Africa and Australia , the next two series he returned 227 @ 37.83 and 364 @45.5 which were enough to consolidate his position as one of England's premier batsman of the late 50 to late 60's.
Barrington had to curtail his flourishing career in 1968 with several years ahead of him , due to his failing heart conditions and one heart attack already taking place.
He died from a second heart attack while he was touring with the English team in West Indies as Manager.
Kenneth Frank Barrington - one of the greatest English batsmen of all times scored 6806 runs from 82 test matches at an astonishing average of 58.67 with 20 hundreds. His FC career was equally brilliant , scoring 31000+ runs from 573 matches @ 45.63 with 76 hundreds.
My next batsmen in this team is a maverick - had he been alive , he would have spelt magic in the world of cricket - one of the early masters of world Cricket - Victor Thomas Trumper.
A surreal genius who died prematurely at the age of 37, had captivated one and sundry with his imaginative , stylish and classical versatility . Trumper scored 3163 runs from 48 test matches @39.04 with 8 test hundreds - but his numbers are not a judge of the enromous influence he had on world cricket and his contemporaries.
His ability as a batsman is not valued by his average or the number of runs he scored . His craftsmanship was shown on bad wickets where he was able to time the ball and execute strokes all around.
His greatest season was against England in 1902 - where he scored 2570 runs in one of the wettest summers when pitches were not covered and no helmets around. That called for tremendous skill and deftness . Clearly Trumper was the greatest batsmen of his era without an iota of doubt. In 1902 , he became the first player to achieve the rare feat of making a century on the first morning of a test match , scoring 103 before lunch against England at Old Trafford.
Trumper died of Bright's disease at a very young age of 37 - a monumental loss to Cricket.
At no 5, Cricket's eternal philanthropist - the great Sir Frank Mortimer Maglinne Worrell . Known world wide , for saving Indian Captain Nari Contractor's life in 1962 when Nari was hit on the head by a life threatening bouncer from famed quickie Charlie Griffith.
Sir Frank Worrell played 51 tests scoring 3860 runs @ 49.48. - 9 hundreds and 22 fifties. He also picked 69 test wickets . But Sir Worrell one of the 3 W's was famous for his articulate captaincy and shrewd tactical skills - he was the worthy predecessor to Clive Lloyd.
Worrell made his debut in 1948 against England. He made his highest test score of 261 against England in 1950 and was a Wisden Cricketer of the year in 1951. Following a succesful campaign by famous scribe CLR James , the period of white captaincy came to an end in West Indies and Worrell became the first Black Cricketer to captain West Indies for an entire series. Regarded often as the NELSON MANDELLA of Cricket, Sir Frank Worrell was associated with some watershed events of cricket. The first TIED TEST played ever , he was a part of it.
On February 3, 1962 - Nari Contractor the captain of the visiting Indian team received a career ending head injury from a bouncer bowled by West Indian quickie Charlie Griffith. Worrell was the first player from both sides to donate blood ,which saved Contractor's life. This was one of the great events of World Cricket - a camaradarie never heard before. Contractor survived never to play for India again.
Worrell retired after the 1963 tour of England. He was knighted for his services to cricket in 1964. While serving as tour manager in India in 1967 he was disgnosed of Leukaemia and died shortly after returning to West Indies in 1967 March.
At the pivotal no.6 , one of my personal favorites and whose passing away really shocked me - one of the stylish batsmen of the mid 80's to early 90's - a visionary , a supreme commander of classy batting and a great innovator, probably the father of future T20 - Martin Crowe.
According to the legendary Wasim Akram, Crowe was the most difficult batsman he bowled to and not any one else - high praise considering it came from the SULTAN OF SWING.
Crowe gathered 5444 runs from 77 tests @ 45.36 scoring 17 hundreds. In ODI where his skills were spectacular for the day, from 143 ODI's he scored 4704 runs @ 38.55 with 4 hundreds - remember this was during late 80's . In first class arena , he was equally flashy - from 247 matches he scored 19608 runs @56.02 with 71 hundreds.
Crowe made his international debut well below the age of 20 , and was one of the youngest KIWI to do so - a measure of his precocious talent. He scored his first test century against England in 1984. The next year he made two scores of 188 - one against the West Indies and the second one against Australia.
He was the second highest run scorer for NZ in the 1983 world cup and the highest run scorer for NZ in the 1987 World Cup - that was staged for the first time outside England . In both the tourney's Crowe left indelible impression of his unbelievable strokeplay and his wonderful ability to rotate the strike.
The highpoint of Crowe's career was the 1992 world cup where Newzealand surprised everyone by reaching the SF as a darkhorse before narrowly losing to the eventual winner Pakistan. His revolutionary idea of sending Mark Greatbatch to open the innings , asking Deepak Patel to open the bowling - ideas which later was applied by captains like Arjuna Ranatunga in 1996 and Steve Waugh in 1999 - Crowe was the flag bearer of innovative ideas and quite likely is now called the Father of T20 thinking. He was a brilliant tactical captain. Crowe finished as the highest run scorer of the tourney and was declared MAN OF THE TOURNAMENT.
Martin Crowe was an immensely gifted batsman - one of the most elegant the world ever saw. He was upright, orthodox and had a tremendous head position. His grace of footwork made him very eyecatching.
Martin Crowe died from Lymphoma after battling it for 4 years - a massive and irreparable loss to the Cricketing world. There would never be another Martin Crowe.
At no.7 - a position earmarked for allrounders /wicketkeepers , my choice is the lone warrior from a team that was rising in the late 90's and early 2000. Heath Hilton Streak who died of Cancer very prematurely at the age of 49 in 2023, fits the bill here .
Streak played 65 test matches and scored 1990 runs with 1 test hundred and took 216 test wickets - in the shorter format he scored 2942 runs from 189 matches and took 239 wickets - he didnt score a hundred in the ODI's.
Streak represented a country which was still a rising force in cricket and that which was marred by political instability and issues - as a result the growth he would have envisaged for himself and his team didnt happen.
One of Zimbabwe's greatest cricketers' - he was the first Zimbo to claim 100 wickets in both test and ODI. He is also the only cricketer to complete the double of 100 wickets and 1000 test runs and the only one from the country to score 2000 runs and claim 200 wickets in ODIs.
Streak made his ODI debut in 1993 Nov and test debut in Dec 1993 . In 1996 January, he became the fastest Zimbabwean to take 50 scalps in tests. In a test match in 2000 at Lords , he picked up 6/87 against England and became the 1st from his country to take a fifer at Lords - and till date is the only Zimbabwean to be on the Lords' honours board.
Streak was appointed captain for both Test and ODI in 2000. However he had to contend with a major issue as soon as he became captain.
According to an interview given in THE OBSERVER , this is what Streak had said at that time : " I was fed up telling top players that they didnt deserve to be in the team which was a lie. The real trouble began in March when we were told that the team will play in Bangladesh and it was announced in the Press.The then Director of Integration, Ozias Bvute ,under pressure from one of the provinces ordered the reselection of the team. There were only two players in the side and he wanted 5. I demanded action from ZCU ( Zimbabwe Cricket Union ) . I was fed up telling quality players that they didnt deserve to be in the team when we all knew that was false. Selection policy was inconsistent and discriminatory. Selectors were not even bothered to go to matches,it wasn't just racial , it was beyond that. Two weeks later I was fired."
After a heroic fight with Cancer for couple of years , Streak finally succumbed to it in Sept 2023 - one of the greats of a developing cricket nation eclipsed way too early.
My no.8 and no.9 are two of the greatest bowlers ever to have graced the game and both unfortunately died very early. Both left an indelible impression on the game and both were seminal, mercurial craftman of their times . I wont discuss much about them since I am not qualified enough . Both part of Wisden's all time Test XI - Malcom Denzil Marshall and Shane Keith Warne - cricket is incomplete without them. I will not dwell much about them here since the essence of this discussion is GONE TOO SOON and these two are indeed superstars of the game (irrespective of their premature death) which cannot be said may be about the other 9 in the team except Trumper and Worrell.
Malcolm Denzil Marshall - 81 tests , 1810 runs @18.85 - no hundreds , 376 wickets @20.94 ( second best bowling average of anyone more than 200 test wickets). 136 ODI , 955 runs @14.92 - no hundreds, 157 wickets@26.96.
Colon Cancer took him away only at 41 and he had much to offer .. A Loss still not fathomed across the world even after 26 years .
Shane Keith Warne - 145 tests , 3154 runs @17.32 - no hundreds, 708 wickets@25.41 . 194 ODI, 1018 runs @13.05, 293 wickets@25.73 .
A Sudden death while on vacationing took away the life of the Maestro only at 52 , but his legacy lives on and on. He was a true magician and one of its kind.
As I said in the beginning of this blog , my team suffers from one serious blow - a super allrounder and a champion wicketkeeper. Unfortunately or fortunately as you would put it , neither of the two we have any instances where we find someone passing away so young . Good for cricket !
At no. 10 my choice of wicketkeeper is one gentleman who played for Australia long back.
Arthur Theodore Wallace Grout or Wally Grout as he was popularly called was one of the finest keepers in the world in the 50's. He played 51 test matches between 1957 & 1966.
He died suddenly from a heart attack at the age of 41 , 3 years after ending his career. Let us now look at ATW Grout as to how he merits a place in this side.
Due to DON TALLON & LEN MADDOCKS , Grout had to wait till 30 years when he made his test debut at the Wanderers against the Proteas. He got off to a bad start giving 8 byes in the first innings but made up for this in the second innings with a then record 6 catches behind the stumps. Grout played his first home test in Dec 1958. In that Ashes Series he picked up 20 dismissals which was a joint record then for the Ashes series.
Although his career was a start and stop career due to Tallon , Maddocks and Barry Jorman all of whom played in turn to deny him higher returns ( else Grout would have finished playing 80 tests) , he was a very nimble footed player and earned admiration from Sir Don Bradman and Neil Harvey both of whom liked his keeping prowess.
Wally Grout : 51 tests , 890 runs @ 15.08, 163/24 ( catches/stumpings).
My 11 gets completed with a very skilled and resourceful bowler. He lived for only 38 years but by then had established himself as one of the premier left hand bowlers of all times. He was Wisden cricketer of the year 1932. Of all bowlers of all times , he had the best record against the DON !!!
You got it right , we are talking of the one and only Hedley Verity.
Verity played 40 tests for England taking 144 wickets @24.37 and scored 669 runs @20.9 ,66* being his highest. His FC record is unbelievable : 378 matches ,1956 wickets @ 14.90. He was also a lower order handy batsman scoring 5603 runs @ 18.07
Verity after an year of impressive FC , made his test debut in 1931 against the touring Kiwis and immediately picked up 4 wickets. In the next test he was not required to bowl as the match was rained off when it came to his bowling.
Next he was selected to play for England in the famous Bodyline series . In the first test he bowled 17 overs and failed to take a wicket. Dropped for the second test , he was brought back for the 3rd. He took one wicket in the 3rd test - that of Sir Don Bradman. In the 4th test he took 2 wickets , and saved his best for the last where he took 8 wickets inclding his first five-for - he dismissed Bradman again.
In this infamous series Verity took 11 wickets @ 24.65 . He then went onto play against West Indies , India , Australia , South Africa and again Australia.
As a bowler Verity bowled faster than a spinner , almost at medium pace. His greatest strength was bowling straight and with great accuracy. His most effective ball was one that curved in air, pitched on middle and leg and spun away from the batsmen , causing them to nick in the slips. On rain affected pitches he was unplayable and deadly. He in general, never spun the ball very far and concentrated on bowling a good length and restricting the batsmen. However critics thought he never posed any threat to the batsmen and inffective on good batting pitches. Thats why he was dropped some times from the team.
Verity earned the respect of Bradman many a time, regarded as the greatest batsmen of all times and enjoyed bowling at him. During the 17 tests they faced each other , Verity dismissed Bradman eight times, more than any other bowler. Verity is often cited as one of the best slow left armers to play the game. Bradman spoke highly of him , " Undoubtedly he was one of the greatest slow lefthanded spinners of all time . His record testifies to that. "
Verity had enlisted in the army and served it with great tenacity and pugnaciousness from 1940 till his death in Italy in 1943 . Cricket lost another of its great sons unexpectedly and prematurely.
So my final team stands as follows :
1. Phil Hughes age 25 at the time of death , reason of death - hit by ball while batting
2. Roy Fredericks age 57 at the time of death , reason of death - Cancer
3. Ken Barrington age 50 at the time of death , reason of death - Heart Attack
4. Victor Trumper age 37 at the time of death , reason of death - Bright's disease
5. Frank Worrell age 42 at the time of death , reason of death - Cancer
6. Martin Crowe age 53 at the time of death , reason of death - Cancer
7. Heath Streak age 49 at the time of death , reason of death - Cancer
8. Malcolm Marshall age 41 at the time of death , reason of death - Cancer
9. Shane Warne age 52 at the time of death , reason of death - Heart Attack
10. Wally Grout age 41 at the time of death , reason of death - Heart Attack
11. Hedley Verity age 38 at the time of death , reason of death - Killed in War
The two subs are : Graham Thorpe ( age 55 at the time of death , Suicide ) and Hansie Cronje ( age 32 at the time of death , killed in a aircrash).
The team comprises of 4 Australians, 3 Englishmen , 3 West Indians , 1 Newzealand , 1 South Africa & 1 Zimbabwe. Frank Worrell leads the team without any doubt with Martin Crowe as the Vice Captain.
I have tried to do justice to the GONE TOO SOON XI with players per position , after a lot of research. The weak area in the team has been absence of a quality wicket keeper and a quality all rounder - I couldn't find any player from the above category who died young and who had made an impact in the test arena !! Do let me know if you know anyone .
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