The Hundred: 50 to 41

 50: Imran Khan

Martin Crowe may have enjoyed a great 1992 World Cup, but it was 39 year-old Imran Khan who ultimately held the trophy aloft. In the mid-‘70s I remember him as a top-class batsman for Oxford University and Worcestershire but he quickly developed his fast bowling with no adverse effect on his ability to score runs. I saw him only once, bowling Gooch for a duck at Chelmsford for the Pakistan tourists in ’87. In his thirties his pace and control were as superb as ever and history should recognise him as one of the top three Test all-rounders of the past fifty years. 

49: Tony Cottey

Harry Pilling may have been shorter but, at 5 foot 4, Tony Cottey was the superior batsman. He even played pro football for his home club, too (but not as West Ham’s Tony Cottee!). The son of Swansea was a vital cog in the Glamorgan middle-order through most of the Nineties, helping them to the County Championship in 1997. I enjoyed watching him at the crease, including his sprightly 20 not out in a 40-over rout of Hampshire at Sophia Gardens in ’95. He saw out his career at Sussex where he won another league title, but missed out on an England call-up. 

48: Glenn McGrath

OK, so he wasn’t as exciting to watch as fellow Aussies Lillee, Thomson, Johnson or Hughes, but Glenn McGrath was the finest seam bowler of his generation. His metronomic accuracy rendered him almost impossible to score from, and until Anderson pipped him recently, had more Test wickets than any other paceman in history. His career average of 21.64 is, however, considerably better than the Englishman’s and achieved in thirty fewer matches. I witnessed first-hand his 8-38 at Lord’s in 1997 when in his absolute pomp. 

47: Moeen Ali

I feel a bit sorry for Moeen Ali. As a youngster playing in the second flight initially for Warwickshire he won plaudits for his stylish batsmanship but it was only when he produced outstanding stats as a slow bowler in one Championship game (he was in my Fantasy side) that England began to take note. Forced to focus more on his twirling, his red-ball batting suffered although he remains devastating in limited over cricket. Observing him in an ODI at Cardiff I was touched by the huge affection in which he was held by fans, but only Pakistani fans! At least they recognise his talent. 

46: Curtly Ambrose

It was hard not to admire Curtly. You certainly couldn’t miss him. At 6 foot 8 his stride ate up the ground and his ability to routinely dig ‘em in just short of a length and extract unseemly bounce was legendary. I remember enjoying him tickle the ribs of Nasser Hussain at Chelmsford in ’91 with astonishing consistency and accuracy. I doubt that the Essex captain felt the same. Two years later he claimed 7-1 in a single spell against the Aussies, one of the most remarkable ever. Forget the extraordinary bowling figures: Curtly was the ultimate cool icon in a frantic world. 

45: Brian Lara

Had BC Lara been born twenty years earlier he’d probably have topped this list but his heyday fell in the era in which my exposure to cricket was abysmally low. However, in 1994, there was no avoiding him. In April he broke the world Test innings record then, at Warwickshire, he enjoyed a patch so purple Prince would have sued out of jealousy. He scored six centuries in seven innings before thrashing the highest score in any professional cricket, 501 not out. Sadly in the only time I saw him play in the flesh he made just , but merely the sight of his distinctive follow-through flourish made it memorable. 

44: Steve Smith

In contrast, Steve Smith’s batting technique seems to have been plucked from the pages of a joke book. And yet in the past few years, apart from his twelve months in enforced exile, the Aussie skipper has been the most prolific Test batsman in the world, keeping his nation in the 2019 Ashes series almost singlehandedly. Originally he was just a gangly leg-spinner who could bat a bit. I was in the Oval crowd in 2013 when Steve scored his maiden century with a straight six, and he hasn’t looked back. 

43: Mike Smith

Over the years there have been three of my namesakes in county cricket. MJK had been England’s captain but I recall his bespectacled face batting for Warwickshire in the ‘70s, while MJ opened for Middlesex for ages. Then in the Nineties came AM. This Mike Smith bowled left-arm fast-medium for Gloucestershire and, being only 5 foot 9, relied on skiddy swing to worry batsmen. His county form finally won him an Ashes appearance in ’97 but he went wicketless and that was that. An unsung hero of county cricket. 

42: Wasim Akram

There’s nothing unsung about Wasim Akram. He was initially the apprentice to Imran’s master before eclipsing him, at least in the one-day format. I once saw him accompany his old skipper against Essex, in which he produced a typical all-round performance. A devastating batsman he was primarily a fast left-arm bowler whose run-up suggested a befuddled schoolboy but once the ball left his hand….. The ‘Sultan of Swing’ could move it both ways, produce a brutal bouncer or a lethal yorker, making him one of the most complete fast bowlers in my lifetime. 

41: Allan Border

I wasn’t particularly enamoured of his legendary rude bloody-mindedness as Aussie captain but there’s no denying Allan Border’s effective innings building or his success at turning the Baggy Greens into the best cricketing outfit in the world. However, before he became the infamous grouch, I remember him best as a fresh 25 year-old whose refusal to lose his wicket made his team-mates look awful during the 1981 Ashes tour, where he averaged 59 batting at six. People remember Botham but I haven’t forgotten the gutsy little left-hander and his short-arm pull shots.

The Hundred - Introducing my 100 favourite cricketers of all time

There has been precious little to cheer during this year’s Covid-19 pandemic. From the appalling loss of life to the crippling impact on services and businesses, it’s been a seemingly endless stream of grim headlines since the beginning of March. Sport, too, has taken a horrendous hit, but it’s encouraging to see England playing the West Indies this week and to hear news that recreational cricket has also been given a green light. Amidst all the event cancellations and postponements, from the Euros and Olympics to Wimbledon and IPL, one beacon of positivity has shone brightly: we have been spared the horrors of The Hundred! 

In its place I have decided to create my own Hundred. Instead of a number of meaningless franchises thrashing out a series of contests adopting a pointless - sorry, ‘innovative and exciting’ – format, I shall be revealing my 100 favourite cricketers from five decades of following cricket. 

There have been all sorts of challenges like this during lockdown but this is less a review of all-time greats, more a list of personal favourites based on my own subjective opinion. I haven’t compared career averages, strike or economy rates, World Cups won, wickets taken or centuries scored.  Rather I’ve thrown into the mix hundreds of players I’ve watched live or on telly, or merely followed via the pages of newspapers or the internet. 

Much of the list is a roll-call of cricketers from the Seventies, the decade when I first became excited by the sport and most of the world’s stars, particularly those from the West Indies and Pakistan, appeared regularly on free-to-air TV, whether for their countries or counties. Before the days of year-round international cricket, the top names turned out every season, throughout the summer so you could become familiar with their faces (no helmets!), batting stances and bowling actions.

It wasn’t only the overseas contingent. BBC coverage of the Sunday League and one-day cups offered a shop window to millions of fans (not the mere thousands who dip into a T20 Blast fixture on Sky) for English players. It wasn’t all about the current Test stars, those who were heading for retirement or the hot young talent but also the rank-and-file players capable of fine performances without consistently grabbing the attention of selectors. I won’t belittle them with the disparaging description of ‘journeymen’ but they were as much part of my cricket viewing as the internationals. 

I make no apology either for allowing my Somerset affections to skew my selections, right up to the present day. There were times in the Nineties and Noughties, when Sky started to hoover up all the broadcasting, that my relationship with cricket started to show cracks. Without regular exposure to live action, I felt unable to feel close to the players. The wearing of increasingly bulky headguards also made it harder to identify the men lurking beneath..

Galloping to the rescue in the mid-Nineties came the concept of Fantasy Cricket. A chance flick through my uncle’s Daily Telegraph, not my own family’s choice of newspaper, introduced me to Fantasy Football, and a few years later they branched out into Fantasy Cricket. With virtual budget constraints, it was essential to consider the relative merits of lesser-known, ‘cheaper’ players. That focussed the mind more intensely on the daily scorecards, increasingly online. For a few months a year, previously anonymous medium-pace seamers from Derbyshire or opening bats for Sussex became the most important sportsmen in my, and my Dad’s lives. We were very competitive! 

Following Dad’s death five years ago, my interest in Fantasy Cricket waned somewhat. The recent chaotic structure of county cricket and profusion of short-term contracts finished it off. Fortunately my move to Cardiff and subsequent early retirement have made attending top-class cricket matches easier. Two Champions Trophy tournaments, assorted ODIs and domestic T20s and my first taste of the Women’s Ashes have all helped revive my enthusiasm for the summer sport.

The Hundred need no longer be an exercise in pure nostalgia. There will be major  megastars rubbing shoulders with minor all-rounders you may never have heard of. Some are famously thrilling strokemakers or barnstorming pacemen while others appeal thanks to their ready smiles or infectious enthusiasm for the game. A few have been chosen for no reason other than a flurry of Fantasy points, a memorable name or nationality or perhaps no obvious reason at all. So what? It’s my list!

I shall reveal my choices in parcels of ten, beginning with 100-91. I guarantee surprises…..