MY DREAM XI
Welcome to our new, expanded, illustrated presentation with statistical summaries of the selected players
1. Michael Vaughan
Michael will open the batting and be my captain – his record in charge of England stands up against almost every other England skipper. Picking opening batsmen was probably the hardest for me, I played a lot with Geoffrey Boycott but I enjoyed my time at the end with Vaughany and trying to pass on a bit of my knowledge.
2. Graham Gooch
Gooch was a match-winner – plain and simple. The way that he could take apart a bowling attack was so impressive. Openers are so tough to choose from – but his record of scoring runs regardless of the conditions probably just edges it.
3. Sachin Tendulkar
Probably not very hard to guess that I was going to get him in the side. When he came over as our first overseas players he was very young but you could tell he was special. I am not saying we knew quite how good he was going to become but he was fantastic and, on top of that, a great bloke – very down to earth.
4. Darren Lehmann
Darren is a guy with an unbelievable record for Yorkshire who probably didn’t play as much international cricket as he should have. There were other contenders in the middle order for my team like David Gower but ‘Boof’ was the best at just putting the ball where the fielders weren’t. He’s also a lovely bloke who you could tell was going to make a great coach.
5. Mike Gatting
Again this could have been any number of players, but I am going with Gatting, a great player but also someone with a great attitude. When I first got into the England team he was the one guy who went out of his way to make me feel welcome and looked out for me.
6. David Bairstow
For Yorkshire David was always the man for a crisis. When you were in trouble, he would always seem to come up trumps. Like Gatting with England, ‘Blue’ was the man to take me under his wing at Yorkshire and I will be forever grateful to him for that.
7. Ian Botham
This selection probably does not need too much explaining – an unbelievable talent and a match-winner. It’s tough to argue against him being England’s greatest ever and he was another that was good in the dressing room – always welcoming the younger players and putting them at ease.
8. Arnie Sidebottom
He may have only played one Test match for England but for Yorkshire, Arnie was outstanding. A superb fast bowler who also made valuable runs in the lower order. He gave his all every day with the ball.
9. Graham Stevenson
He didn’t play very much for England – like Arnie – but ‘Stevo’ was the most outstanding natural talent that I ever played with. He had good pace as a bowler but also good skills – he could swing and seam the ball both ways. He gave the ball a good whack with the bat as well and in the dressing room he was quality – the real joker in the pack.
10. John Emburey
John is my spinner; he has a fine record and I played with him for England and against him at Middlesex. I found him the most challenging to face of the many spinners I could have chosen from, so that is why he gets the nod in this team.
11. Darren Gough
I was captain for Darren Gough’s early years. He won’t be happy about batting down at No.11 – but that is only because of the strength in depth in the batting this side has got. Really anyone from No.8-11 can interchange here. Darren would be in my team for his enthusiasm and love of the game alone. But he was also an incredible, skilled bowler who could bowl every different type of delivery. Sometimes that was a nightmare to captain!