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The Best XI
 
 

The Best XI (Hardcover)

by Geoffrey Boycott (Author)
5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
RRP: £20.00
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Product details

  • Hardcover: 368 pages
  • Publisher: Michael Joseph (28 Aug 2008)
  • Language English
  • ISBN-10: 0718154363
  • ISBN-13: 978-0718154363
  • Product Dimensions: 23.2 x 16 x 4.2 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 162,581 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Product Description

Product Description
Who'd make it into the best England team ever? And you can chose anyone, regardless of when they might have played. Would W.G. Grace be playing alongside Denis Compton and David Gower? Or Kevin Pieterson? The debate could be endless, so who better to make the selection than Geoffrey Boycott, himself one of England's all-time highest scoring Test batsmen and now the game's most forthright, shrewd and iconoclastic commentator.Based on his own fresh analysis amd interpretation of the statistics, Boycs has come up with his own, sometimes surprising Best Eleven of all time. And he's not just cast a critical eye over England's finest either. Every other test-playing nation comes under the spotlight. You may not agree - in fact, you're almost certain not to - but each player has been carefully chosen and the case for his inclusion forcefully argued in what is sure to be the most entertaining, thought-provoking and memorable cricket books of the year from one of the game's most outspoken and enduring characters.

From the Inside Flap
Who'd make it into the best England team ever? And you can choose anyone, regardless of when they might have played. Would W.G Grace be playing alongside Denis Compton and David Gower? Or Kevin Pietersen? Would Harold Larwood be in the bowling attack alongside Fred Trueman? Would there be space for Bob Willis? What about Beefy or Freddie? Who would keep wicket?

The debate could be endless, so who better to make the selection than Geoffrey Boycott, one of England's greatest Test batsmen and now the game's most forthright, shrewd and challengin commentator?

Based on his own fresh analysis and interpretation of the statistics, Boycs has come up with his own sometimes surprising Best Eleven of all time. And he's not just cast a critical eye over England's finest either. Every other Test-playing nation comes under the spotlight.

Taking the same in-depth approach, Boycs has made his own selection of the best ever teams from Australia, West Indies, South Africa, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and New Zealand, pausing to consider both Bangladesh and Zimbabwe, before deciding who might be selected for the best team ever.

You may not agree - in fact, you're almost certain not to - but each player has been carefully chosen and the case for his inclusion forcefully argued in what is sure to be the most entertaining, thought-provoking and memorable cricket book of the year, from one of the game's most outspoken and enduring characters.

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Customer Reviews

2 Reviews
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Average Customer Review
5.0 out of 5 stars (2 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent Read by Boycs, 16 Sep 2008
By Krishna Jagannath "KrishnaJaga" (London,UK) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
Was planning to place an order through Amazon.uk to India and Was very surprised to see Boycs latest offering hit the Indian bookstores so quickly and bought it w/o hesitation.

All of Boycs earlier works have been extremely detailed and readable esp "In the Fast Lane Eng tour of Wi 1981" and "Put to the test- Eng tour of Aus"

- in this latest book , Boycs selects his best possible test sides of 13 players and a reserve list of players from all the major test playing countries and gives his "opinionated" view of the players he has played with and his personal observations on selected players from the beginning of test cricket in 1877 itself .

He also throws in a reserve list of players for each country and for good measure refuses to rate players from Bangladesh and Zimbabwe "as not good enough" .A late 90's Zimbabwe side would have given many sides a rumble. His selection for England has a few quirks with so many pre war greats available - hence a possible post war survey of players would have done better justice.

I could not find much fault with other test sides proposed as some of them includes many pre war champs whom we can't judge- but no mention of Allan Border even on the reserve list for AUS or Duleep Mendis from Sri Lanka are baffling.

Also the choice of Andrew Jones for NZ ahead of Geoff Howarth and Jeremy Coney is interesting . Australia in typically Pommie style is not covered as well as it should have .Like the debate of whether Arthur Morris qualifies as a better opener than Mathew Hayden never comes up. Nor does he discuss reserve Australian bastman unlike other teams he covered .

Boycs uses a lot statistics and personal figures to show his selections _ although at times these are not very convincing - but most of the choices are anyway automatic and not new to the discerning follower

All in all a good read - in similar mould to Botham's 100 and Armstrong's Lavish Australian work on the 100 Greatest Players- but dont expect anything unique here.

I would also reccommend Bob Willis 1996 Six of the Best as an excellent read esp post 70 period and definitely a bit better .

Still 5 on 5 for an excellent handling of a vast arena of riches to choose from.



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2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Thought Provoking, 15 Sep 2008
Boycott is, as usuual, forthright and thought provoking but I liked the touches of humour about his personal experiences of some of the greats of the game. Well researched, one could argue with some of his choices (for instance, no Herbert Sutcliffe in the England team?)but overall it's a really good read with none of the waffle that fills up so many sports books
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