MY DREAM XI
Welcome to our expanded, illustrated presentation with statistical summaries of the selected players 1. Simon Katich 2. Shivnarine Chanderpaul 3. Stuart Law 4. VVS Laxman 5. Ashwell Prince
His raw talent was the thing that stood out most about him and he was just really focused in every game. A few times I saw him get off the mark hitting a six over extra-cover, which I don’t think I’d ever seen from anyone before! He’s somebody that’s quite unorthodox and difficult to bowl at, and if you don’t get him out early, you’re in trouble. He’s shown that throughout his career – if he gets in, he goes on and gets big scores. He’s probably the batsman that I looked up to most when I was growing up, someone that I really wanted to try and emulate. He was great to watch and somebody that scored a lot of big hundreds for Lancs, and I was lucky enough to see quite a few of them. I didn’t play loads of games with him but the ones I did, you could really see why he’s done so well at international level. He’s just somebody that’s so difficult to bowl at. If you bowled straight at him, he’d hit you for four and it was as simple as that, really. He had a really calm head as well. Under pressure or not on a good wicket; he never seemed to be fazed by anything. I played a lot of cricket with Ashwell and he’s probably the most competitive bloke I’ve ever met! He’s just somebody that you really want in your team. As a player, that gritty determination shone through and he was somebody that scored a lot of runs for Lancs, and was a top bloke to have around the squad as well.
6. Andrew Flintoff
Everybody knows what he’s like from seeing him on TV and he’s pretty similar when you play with him – he’s not putting it on for the cameras! I think if I was picking a World XI, he’d be in that as well, so that just shows how good a player he was.
7. Gareth Cross
He’s somebody that I got on really well with and is one of my best mates from cricket, so I have to put him in there! To start with, he was a really aggressive wicket-keeper/batsman and towards the end of his first-class career, he rarely made any mistakes and that went unnoticed a little bit. He was probably underestimated as a player.
8. James Faulkner
He was somebody that I felt could get wickets from nowhere. Quite a few times, when he played in Championship cricket, he got back-to-back wickets. He had the ability to bowl at the stumps and knock people over – he was a matchwinner.
9. Glen Chapple
He’s obviously a Lancs legend. He’s a brilliant bowler – one of the best I’ve ever seen – and I don’t think people realised how much he chipped in with the bat as well. He was a genuine allrounder in my eyes, which goes a bit unnoticed as people saw him as more of a bowler.
10. Stephen Parry
Steve’ll go in as a spinner. He’s another one of my best mates in cricket and, more in white-ball cricket, he’s been one of the best bowlers in the country over the last seven or eight years. He thoroughly deserved his chance in the England team when it came.
11. James Anderson
He’s unreal. He doesn’t really change his action no matter what he’s bowling, which makes him so difficult to face. I think he’ll go down as best bowler England have ever had.