TOPIC:

Beasley Hutton wrote: M.Hayden
W.Ponsford
D.Bradman (C)
G.Chappell
R.Ponting
S.Waugh
A.Gilchrist
K.Miller
S.Warne
D.Lillee
G.McGrath
T.Alderman (12th man) tho to replace Miller if playing in England.

Far too many Poms in that side of yours AR, we have had the wood on them for most of the last 140 years for a good reason despite us having less than a third of their "available" population to choose from!

BH could your team beat Clive LLoyds 84-85 on the Waca or Gabba..

gtr: yep, saw Knott towards the end of his career. They did not really pick him after he played WSC with Tony Greig. Ian Chappell alhe had ways said he was the best keeper he had seen. England also had another great keeper, Bob Taylor, whom replaced Knott from memory.

Anch: I think Donny Tallon has always been regarded as our best keeper. One could also have picked Les Ames, whom scorred 8 test hundreds at an average of 40.00. He also made 102 first class centuries. Kent seems to have had a knack of producing good keepers, as both Ames and Knott hale from the country.

Here are some of Ames' achievements as a keeper batsman:

Wisden Cricketer of the Year 1929
Walter Lawrence Trophy 1936
Walter Lawrence Trophy 1939
Most dismissals in an English season (127 in 1929)
Most stumpings (64) in an English season
Achieved wicketkeeper's double (1000 runs and 100 dismissals) in each of three seasons (only achieved one other time in English cricket)
Only wicket-keeper to score 100 centuries
Made 3000 runs in 1933 season, 2000 runs 5 times, 1000 17 times
Record 8th wicket partnership in all tests of 246 with GO Allen
Made 123 in the pre-lunch session of the 1923 test against South Africa (a record for runs in a session)
Scored centuries against every first-class county apart from Kent

Rod Marsh (AUS) & Alan Knott (ENG) could well have been the first keepers from their respective countries to score a Test century maybe 2nd in Knott's case after Ames thanks AR.
Not surprisingly both countries struggled to find a permanent replacement after their respective retirements with Australia using the likes of Rixon, Woolley, Phillips, Zoehrer, & Dyer before settling on Healy who was a fine keeper and handy batsman whilst Healy's replacement 11 years later in Gilchrist took the keeper/batsman to another level altogether.
Whilst the Poms used Bob Taylor, David Bairstow (father of the current gloveman Jonny), Paul Downton, Jack Richards, Bruce French & Jack Russell before settling long term on Alec Stewart (more so for his batting) in the early 90s.

BH: correct -- both countries were lucky to have Marsh and Knott as giftted batsmen and keepers. We were really lucky to have Gilchrist, whom was a batsman. I dislike it when the selectors try and manufacture such a cricketer, as in the case of Phillips, Stewart and Bairstow. As you know, England went even further at one point, and made Stewart captain of the bloody team. How many jobs does the bloke have to do?

I always liked Stewart because of his connexion to Midland-Guilford.

He spent about 10 years coming out to play for MGCC in the English off season AR before winning a regular England cap and scored a lot of runs for them too.
We were pretty lucky to have Marsh, Healy, Gilchrist & Haddin keep for the majority of the time betwen 1970-2015 and it really hits home when you are left with Wade & Nevill as their replacements!!