All-Time Greats World Tour

[Joe Baldwin]

Welcome to the inaugural All-Time Greats World Tour!

Over the coming weeks and months, the best players to ever play for England will walk out onto the field together and take on the greatest cricketing legends from around the world on a tour which will define who the greatest cricketers of all time really are.

The squads will be selected on the following basis:

• Only players with 50 or more Tests to their name will be eligible (with the exception of the Bangladesh and Zimbabwe squads).
• Current players are eligible to represent the All-Time Greats.
• From those, the eight best batting averages will be selected, and the two keepers with the best batting averages.
• The eight bowlers with the best bowling averages will join them to complete the squad of 18, of which at least two must be spinners.

Each series will consist of five Tests. The tour will start in Zimbabwe, before moving to Asia to face Bangladesh and Sri Lanka. Then, the touring party will travel to New Zealand and the West Indies, before heading back to face Pakistan and India in successive series. The penultimate series will take place in South Africa, and the tour will come to a grandstand finish with an All-Time Greats Ashes series in Australia.

The England touring squad has been announced:

BATSMEN
Herbert Sutcliffe
Ken Barrington
Jack Hobbs
Len Hutton
Joe Root
Wally Hammond
Denis Compton
Ted Dexter
Matt Prior (wk)
Alec Stewart (wk)

BOWLERS
Fred Trueman
Brian Statham
Alec Bedser
Bob Willis
Derek Underwood
Darren Gough
Graeme Swann
Wilfred Rhodes

Spirits are high in the England camp, but they know that Zimbabwe should not be underestimated, despite supposedly being the weakest team they'll face on the tour.

The Zimbabwe squad, which isn't limited to players with 50 Tests under their belt as there are only four players who'd be eligible otherwise, looks like this:

BATSMEN
Andy Flower (wk)
David Houghton (wk)
Craig Ervine
Tatenda Taibu (wk)
Grant Flower
Hamilton Masakadza
Alistair Campbell (wk)
Travis Friend
Guy Whittall
Paul Strang

BOWLERS
Heath Streak
Ray Price
Henry Olonga
Andy Blignaut
Tinashe Panyangara
David Brain
Pommie Mbangwa
Eddo Brandes

The bookies are suggesting that this series should be won comprehensively by the tourists, but the best players in the world will not slacken off for a moment. Over the next 45 Tests, one thing is for certain - there'll be drama and excitement on many an occasion.

[UTBash]

Really looking forward to this! May try it out myself, good idea mate

[jtaylor1409]

Excellent idea this Joe. Looking forward to seeing how it develops!

[bobbyggaming]

nice mate, cant wait

[Joe Baldwin]

#1 of 45

Zimbabwe vs England - 1st Test

Finally, after weeks of anticipation, England's All-Time Greats took to the field in Zimbabwe to begin their epic 45-Test world tour. The sun shone gloriously down on proceedings, and the wicket looked like it would be perfect for high quality Test cricket, with encouragement for the seam bowlers in particular.

The lineups for the 1st Test of the tour were as follows:

Zimbabwe	England
Grant Flower	Len Hutton
Andy Flower (wk)	Herbert Sutcliffe
Craig Ervine	Wally Hammond
David Houghton	Jack Hobbs
Guy Whittall	Joe Root
Tatenda Taibu	Matt Prior (wk)
Paul Strang	Ted Dexter
Heath Streak	Wilfred Rhodes
Eddo Brandes	Fred Trueman
Ray Price	Alec Bedser
Pommie Mbangwa	Derek Underwood

England won the toss and elected to bat first, and so, at 11 o'clock, Eddo Brandes ran in to bowl the first delivery of the inaugural All-Time Greats World Tour!

Zimbabwe struck the first blow of the Test match when Mbangwa trapped Sutcliffe LBW for just 8, but England recovered and reached 93-1 at lunch on the first morning. Indeed, Hutton and Hammond made 80 for the second wicket, with the former becoming the first man to reach 50 on the World Tour. Hutton was given out LBW to the bowling of Brandes for 57, but Hammond continued relentlessly towards a century, which he reached on the first evening - he eventually fell for 120 to the bowling of Paul Strang. England were 271-4 at the close on day one, with their two most recent stars, Root and Prior, at the crease.

A very helpful 41 from Wilfred Rhodes moved England past what could be considered a par score, and England posted 388, with the final wicket falling early in the second afternoon. Brandes and Ray Price had three wickets apiece, but both went for more than a hundred runs.

The deadly duo of Trueman (312 Test wickets at 21) and Bedser (241 at 24) was unleashed, and Trueman quickly dismissed Grant Flower for just 3. Andy Flower and Craig Ervine offered a little resistance, putting on 44 for the second wicket, but three wickets in quick succession from Dexter, Hammond and Trueman reduced Zimbabwe to 54-4: a bad start from which they never recovered. Derek Underwood proceeded to destroy the Zimbabwe lower order with his slow left arm bowling, and Zimbabwe were bowled out for 112, with Underwood taking a five-wicket haul which included numbers 7, 8, 9 and 10.

Zimbabwe were made to follow-on, and this time it was Bedser that did the early damage, removing Andy Flower for 1 just before the close of play on day two. Zimbabwe reached the close on 10-1, a mighty 266 runs behind.

Despite slumping to 62-4, the Zimbabwean middle order offered much more resistance in their second innings. Indeed, David Houghton made a half-century at number four, while the eighth wicket partnership between Heath Streak and Eddo Brandes contributed an impressive 89, with Streak top-scoring with 65. However, it wasn't enough to make England bat again - they were bowled out for 274, with Bedser (5-61) starring with the ball. England's margin of victory was an innings and 2 runs, and was completed at 5:21pm on the third day.


England 1st: 388 (Hammond 120, Hutton 57; Brandes 3-105, Price 3-106)

Zimbabwe 1st: 112 (A. Flower 27, Ervine 20; Underwood 5-16, Hammond 2-15)

Zimbabwe 2nd: 274 (Streak 65, Houghton 51; Bedser 5-61, Trueman 3-42)


Wally Hammond was voted Man of the Match after an excellent century and two wickets in Zimbabwe's first innings. Hammond proved to be England's third seamer, and it's therefore likely that the medium pace of Ted Dexter, arguably a batting all-rounder, will be replaced by a third fast bowler in the second Test - especially considering Trueman could only manage five overs of fast bowling per spell.

The victory was expected - Zimbabwe are the weakest of the ten Test nations, and it should probably finish 5-0 to England in this series. It'll be interesting to see if Zimbabwe will offer England any competitive cricket at any stage - can the hosts respond in the second Test?