Dream Team
Welcome to our new, expanded, illustrated presentation with statistical summaries of the selected players
Former Derbyshire batsman Steve Stubbings picks his top XI
1. Michael Di Venuto
A fantastic player and the only danger with someone like that is you try to emulate what he’s doing, which leads you into mistakes. He got to know me pretty well as an opening partner. too, and kept me in line with chats between overs. He wouldn’t let me go back to the crease until I’d calmed down and stopped trying to play every shot in the book. He was capable of most of them himself and was one of those guys who seemed to draw bad balls. An incredible player of the short ball, too.
2. Matthew Mott
He was an exciting batter and an excellent leader – a great captain. When I was a young player he had so many good qualities and was a great player to learn from, so I’d definitely have him in at the top of the order.
3. Chris Rogers
As an U19, I didn’t like him much. I was in a Victoria side which won the Australian U19 championships and after that, they picked an Australian U19 side. The selectors chose this ginger kid from Western Australia instead of me – I had no idea who he was or why they picked him! But as it turned out, it probably wasn’t a bad selection. Chris was a fine player with so much patience, and I was so pleased that towards the end of his career, he got the opportunity with Australia and did brilliantly in a couple of Ashes series.
4. Simon Katich
He was very good at scoring runs in all conditions.We had a bit of a strange relationship at the crease, as we’d bat together for hours and hours and hardly say a word to each other! He’s just a very naturally able player, he’d time the ball so well and he’s a very good player to watch. His determination is great, too, he’s a very good char- acter and plays the game with the minimum of fuss.
5. Mohammad Kaif
He was really talented, a really hard worker and a really nice guy to boot. He practised all day, every day and you he was such a dedicated professional the way he went about his business.
6. Hassan Adnan
Hassan was a brilliant player of spin – I batted with him quite a lot when we played for Derbyshire and we built some excellent partnerships. He’s another brilliant all-round player and he deservedly won Derbyshire’s Player of the Year in the mid-Noughties.
7. Dominic Cork
He was the ultimate competitor. He ran himself into the ground trying to get people out and carry the side to victory, and was very skilful with the ball. He brought an extra bit of class to matches.
8. Karl Krikken
Karl was a very good wicket-keeper, great behind the stumps and I thought he was unlucky never to get international recognition. He was a very safe pair of gloves, and was unorthodox with the bat too, but could still play a match-winning innings from time to time.
9. Phil DeFreitas
He had an unbelievable set of skills and deservedly represented England on so many occasions. He was such a talented cricketer with both bat and ball.
10. Graeme Welch
Graeme was a great bowler and could run in from one end for a long time, as well as being a very talented cricketer. He was also a great team-mate and I really enjoyed playing with him.
11. Kevin Dean