Queensland Bulls
1994-95 - 2001-02: five Sheffield Shield and Pura Cup (four-day) wins, two Mercantile Mutual Cups (50 overs)
By Peter English

For a state worn down by the country's longest first-class trophy drought, the transformation of Queensland Bulls into Australia's best domestic outfit was unbelievable. But this was not just any group. Over the previous two decades imports had been tried and celebrated but ultimately failed to win a first Sheffield Shield trophy, a gap unfulfilled since 1926-27. What Viv Richards, Ian Botham, Graeme Hick, Greg Chappell and many others couldn't do was achieved by a bunch of players almost exclusively home-grown.

After a delirious week at the Gabba in 1994-95, when a Queensland side including the autumnal Allan Border and Carl Rackemann finally lifted the Shield, those rampaging Bulls were almost unstoppable. That success was the spark for a run that not only delivered for Queensland but provided valuable service for an Australian team that would become the world's best for more than a decade.

When flicking through old scorecards, few will consider the Queensland names with big numbers to be true world-beaters. There were certainly no Waughs, McGraths or Warnes. But this squad stood out like a frisky bull in a paddock. In an era where true professionalism - on and off the field - came to the game in Australia, Queensland were the innovators, transferring new skills both within the squad and up to the national team.

Due to the rise in internationals, the 1990s were a time when the A-listers were usually on Test or one-day duty, paying only infrequent visits to the Shield dressing rooms. A short step down from the national level sat Queensland's best generation of talent. For much of this time, those Bulls were not often invited to baggy-green engagements. This desperation for higher honours, in combination with groundbreaking coaching methods and a mix of experienced men and green shoots, mustered most to greater heights.

At the helm was Stuart Law, surely the best player to appear in only one Test. In the dressing room, experimenting with masterful theories and crackpot concoctions, was John Buchanan, soon to be the most successful coach in Test history. The muscles and appetite that would eventually drive Matthew Hayden to international domination were on show for years at state level, as he was painfully but conveniently ignored. Hayden's fishing and flat-track partner was often Andrew Symonds, a man whose acts of brutality in echoing stadiums are still recalled.

With the ball stood Michael Kasprowicz and Andy Bichel, a duo who managed to remain mates despite a revolving door of national appearances. Their double acts and record-breaking allowed Queensland to fire, but there was usually only one Australian space for both of them at a time. In support of these leaders was a cast of willing and capable followers.

What Viv Richards, Ian Botham, Graeme Hick, Greg Chappell and many others couldn't do was achieved by a bunch of players almost exclusively home-grown

Martin Love, James Hopes, Ashley Noffke, Trevor Barsby, Jimmy Maher and Adam Dale made regular valuable contributions towards trophy-winning success. Behind the stumps was the game's best understudy in Wade Seccombe. He was raised with the supple hands of Ian Healy, who himself would crouch down when Australian duty allowed.

That first Shield success was part of five first-class trophies in eight years. After they won three in a row, ending in 2001-02, Wisden noted the state's "domination of domestic cricket". There had also been two domestic one-day titles in that period, along with another four runner-up places in both competitions.

The results fall well short of New South Wales' streak of nine Shields between 1953-54 and 1961-62. Those line-ups included Sid Barnes, Alan Davidson, Richie Benaud, Ray Lindwall, Keith Miller and Neil Harvey. They were different times. When professionalism arrived in full force in Australia, Queensland Bulls roared, and the barren decades were replaced by a flood of accolades. And this vote for the best first-class side of all-time.

Best XI: Matthew Hayden, Trevor Barsby, Martin Love, Stuart Law (capt), Allan Border, Jimmy Maher, Andrew Symonds, Wade Seccombe (wk), Andy Bichel, Michael Kasprowicz, Carl Rackemann

Peter English is a journalism lecturer at the University of the Sunshine Coast, Queensland

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Middlesex
1976-1982: four County Championships (three-day), two Gillette Cups (60 overs)
By Martin Williamson

Growing up learning to love cricket in the 1970s meant watching county cricket as much as possible. TV coverage was limited to England home internationals and a smattering of one-day county matches but such was the quality of overseas talent at counties that it was possible to see some of the world's best players in action in otherwise low-key contests.

Days of wine and roses: Middlesex celebrate their 1976 County Championship win. From left: Mike Smith, Roland Butcher, Mike Selvey, Mike Brearley. From right: Graham Barlow and Phil Edmonds © Getty Images

South Africa's isolation from the international fold meant that most of their best cricketers headed to English counties; they were supplemented by a swathe of West Indians and a smattering from other countries.

When I started following Middlesex - my father's county (I was never given a choice) - they had not won any silverware in a quarter of a century. But under Mike Brearley - and in North London we knew how good a captain he was long before England did - they had become a powerful side from the mid-'70s onwards, a blend of diehard Londoners, second-generation West Indians and cannily picked overseas talent.

For me, the best outfit of the Brearley years, and possibly for one season the best county team of all, was the Championship and Gillette Cup-winning side of 1980. Surrey dominated domestic cricket in the 1950s, Yorkshire before that. But Middlesex were so well balanced, and when one facet of the side failed, another stepped up.

The batting was a mix of the solid and the carefree. At the top Mike Smith and Brearley rarely set pulses racing but rarely failed. Many worse players than Smith were capped for England, and while Brearley was always out of his depth internationally, at county level he was comfortable, finishing the summer as Middlesex's leading run scorer. It was no coincidence Middlesex won three titles (1976, 1980 and 1982; they shared the title with Kent in 1977) in the years he wasn't captaining England.

Another veteran at one-down, Clive Radley, scampered and scurried between the wickets, eking out runs and wearing down opponents. Then came the fireworks, with Graham Barlow, Mike Gatting and Roland Butcher. By inclination, Barlow attacked. Gatting, in and out of the England side, was merciless on weaker county attacks. But the one to watch was Butcher.

On off days - and he had too many - he was wretched. But when in touch he was breathtaking, savage on anything short and eyeing a boundary every ball, in a style that owed much to Barbados, his land of birth. Recalled after being dropped mid-season, he smashed a match-winning 153 in 144 minutes against Hampshire and then went better with 179 in 177 minutes in Scarborough. His unbeaten 50 in the Gillette Cup final was a taster of what he could do and secured him a place on that winter's trip to the Caribbean. His fielding was sublime.

Paul Downton, recently signed from Kent, eased out Ian Gould behind the stumps during the summer and provided important runs and safe gloves. But the team was really made by its bowlers.

In any other era, Wayne Daniel would have been a West Indies regular, but such was their fast bowling depth, he only played ten Tests. Built like a navvy and with a chest as wide as a bodybuilder, he looked frightening. He had the pace and necessary nastiness with ball to match. And what he got that year was someone every bit as good to share the new ball with - the giant, balding South African Vintcent van der Bijl.

Lured to England for one year near the end of his career, the popular van der Bijl's height, control and deceptive pace secured him 85 wickets and selection as a Wisden Cricketer of the Year. Mike Selvey, Simon Hughes and Bill Merry made up the seam attack, picking up whatever scraps were left for them.

Add two complementary England spinners - the left-arm awkwardness of Phil Edmonds and the nagging offspin of John Emburey - and there was no weak link. Brearley even coaxed 48-year-old spinner Fred Titmus into playing five times near the end of the season when the pitches were dry and turning and his regulars were on England duty.

Best XI: Graham Barlow, Mike Smith, Mike Brearley (capt), Clive Radley, Mike Gatting, Roland Butcher, Paul Downton (wk), John Emburey, Vintcent van der Bijl, Mike Selvey, Wayne Daniel

Martin Williamson is executive editor ESPNcricinfo, and managing editor ESPN Digital Media in Europe, the Middle East and Africa

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Barbados
1965-66 - 1966-67: two Shell Shields (four-day)
By Tony Cozier

Barbados is - at least was - a unique cricketing phenomenon. Until its standards, and by extension West Indies', went into an unchecked nosedive as global commercialism and professionalism overtook the sport, it was indisputably the strongest domestic team in regional cricket.

Come out and flay: Seymour Nurse and Garry Sobers walk out to take on MCC at Kensington Oval © Getty Images

A host of exceptional players rolled out from the hundreds of unexceptional club grounds dotting the island's 166 square miles. Barbados have won the annual regional tournament - in all of its guises since its launch in 1966 as the Shell Shield - more times than all other territories combined (22 out of 48). Of the 297 men who have represented West Indies, 78 were born within its narrow confines. Knighthoods have recognised the six most eminent.

Prior to World War II, when Test and first-class matches were spasmodic, club cricket was the alternative. It was not uncommon for sides to include as many as six first-class players, among them a few Test men. Thousands would turn out for the key clashes; rivalry was intense.

Pitches painstakingly prepared by diligent ground staff encouraged the audacious batting and fast bowling on which Barbados' cricketing reputation was constructed. The presence of the three premier schools in the top division revealed talent and temperament at an early age - if not in my case. I found opening the Lodge School batting against Wes Hall at 17 well beyond my capacity. Not so Derek Sealy, who had to forgo lessons at Combermere School to appear in a Test against England in 1930.

Barbados were at their most formidable when capturing the first Shield almost 50 years ago. The incomparable Garry Sobers was captain; five of the 13 players under him had been in the Test series against Australia a year earlier (opener Conrad Hunte, middle-order batsman Seymour Nurse, allrounder Tony White, wicketkeeper David Allan, and the fearsome fast bowler Charlie Griffith).

Hunte's partner, Robin Bynoe, and left-hander Peter Lashley were already Test players; Sobers' first cousin David Holford, a capable batsman and authentic legspinner, would play the first of his 24 Tests on the subsequent summer's tour of England.

Left-hander Rawle Brancker earned his place in that squad through strong all-round showings in the Shield but never played a Test. Call-ups to the West Indies would come a few years later for fast bowler Richard Edwards and offspinner Tony Howard.

Barbados were at their most formidable when capturing the first Shield almost 50 years ago. Garry Sobers was captain; under him were the likes of Conrad Hunte, Seymour Nurse, Tony White, David Allan and Charlie Griffith

All four had been spotted performing for their schools. While only Sobers, Hunte, Nurse, Griffith and Holford of the class of '66 ended their careers with more than 20 Tests, Bynoe, Lashley, Brancker and Howard thrived against regional opponents.

It was a confident team of almost perfect balance. It would have been even more daunting had Wes Hall linked with Griffith; he turned out instead for Trinidad and Tobago where he, a non-smoker, was working with a tobacco company.

Betting in the press box did not involve the result but simply Barbados' margin of victory. British Guiana and Trinidad and Tobago were both crushed by an innings, Jamaica by seven wickets; Barbados were 255 ahead on first innings with five wickets intact against the newly formed Combined Windwards and Leewards Islands when two days of rain ended the bullying.

Barbados amassed totals in the four matches of 396 for 5, 559 for 9 declared, 427 and 421 for 4 declared; they conceded one over 300, British Guiana's 317. While their batsmen counted seven hundreds between them, Clive Lloyd's 107, his first, was the only counter.

Sobers was, inevitably, to the fore. He duly claimed 6 for 56 against British Guiana and followed it with 204 in his first innings of the tournament. He topped the overall batting averages (145.00); Brancker was second, Lashley third, Nurse fifth and Bynoe seventh.

Holford headed the bowling with 18 wickets, and Griffith was just behind with 15 at 13.73. Brancker and Sobers, in both his styles, were among the top as well. Those who once would have been fighting for Barbados places in strong, intense contests on Saturday afternoons are now scattered across the planet on lucrative contracts in the T20 leagues.

Best XI: Conrad Hunte, Robin Bynoe, Seymour Nurse, Peter Lashley, Garry Sobers (capt), Rawle Brancker, David Holford, David Allan (wk), Wes Hall, Charlie Griffith, Richard Edwards

Tony Cozier is a veteran writer and commentator on Caribbean cricket

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Transvaal
1982-83 - 1987-88: five Currie Cups (four-day), two Benson & Hedges Series wins (45 overs)
By Luke Alfred

Provincial cricket power in South Africa has traditionally resided in the hands of the big three: Transvaal, Western Province and Natal. All three have long runs of domestic domination (Natal won the Currie Cup six times between 1959-60 and 1967-68; they shared the title with Transvaal in 1965-66) but for the sheer brilliance of their play - not to mention the occasional spite of their personnel - the title of the best domestic South African side has to go to the Transvaal team of the early and mid-1980s.

Clive Rice: mean machine gunner © Getty Images

Dubbed the "Mean Machine", the side, which won the first of its five Currie Cup titles in that period in 1982-83, was an almost perfect combination of home-grown Transvaalers like Clive Rice, Kevin McKenzie (Neil's dad), Jimmy Cook, Ray Jennings, Alan Kourie and imports from elsewhere. Graeme Pollock came up to Johannesburg from Port Elizabeth in 1978, joining fellow Eastern Province player Rupert "Spook" Hanley, an underrated fast bowler. Henry Fotheringham, the elegant right-hander who became Cook's opening partner, moved to the Highveld from Natal around the same time.

In its pomp, the side even recruited from overseas: Alvin Kallicharran, the little Guyanese left-hander, played through the early '80s, and their fast bowling resources were given a huge lift by the recruitment of Sylvester Clarke, the dangerous, barrel-chested Caribbean quick. Doug Neilson, Neal Radford and Hugh Page made up the pace resources and Kourie, a left-arm spinner who was more of a roller, was given occasional help by Kevin Kerr, a big-turning offspinner, particularly when Transvaal travelled down to the Cape for the New Year's fixture against Western Province.

Province weren't half-bad themselves, winning the Currie Cup in 1981-82 and, annoyingly for the Transvaalers, spoiling the possibility of a fourth consecutive title by winning in 1985-86. For Province it was the age of the exquisitely nimble Peter Kirsten, the more pugnacious talents of Allan Lamb and the mean pace of Garth Le Roux and Stephen Jefferies. New Year's fixtures between the two powerhouses would invariably feature an appearance on centre stage for their legspinner, Denys Hobson, who would trundle away into the wind in prolonged duels with Kourie and Kerr.

Despite Province's talent, Pollock believes that Transvaal side was the second-best team he was part of - the best being the national side of 1969-70, led by Ali Bacher. "I remember travelling to Kingsmead for a game against Natal that everyone was getting excited about," he muses. "Don't forget they had a pretty handy attack with Mike Procter, Vince van der Bijl and Kenny Cooper. We scored heavily against them and bowled them out twice. It was all over in less than two days."

It says much for the spirit of the side that when Pollock held his 70th birthday party last February, most of that Transvaal side celebrated with him. Rice and McKenzie were invited to the occasion, as were Hanley and Page. The organisers even made special dispensation for outsiders, and Graeme's brother Peter was a surprise guest. "People forget things about that Transvaal side," says Graeme. "Kourie had incredible flight and variation. He was never a big spinner of the ball but he would do the job when the quickies couldn't get through in Cape Town. He was tough, had an arm ball, and he could get you wickets. We were also a good catching side: Alan was at first slip, I was at second and Ricey was at third; Kevin would field in the gully. We didn't miss much."

They were a proud and deeply competitive side, well led by Rice and egged on by Jennings behind the stumps. Natal and Province would regularly go head to head with them and more often than not come off second-best. It was enough to wonder what might have transpired if the Mean Machine, wearing the green cap of South Africa rather than the dark blue of Transvaal, had taken on, say, Clive Lloyd's West Indies in the period.

Best XI: Jimmy Cook, Henry Fotheringham, Alvin Kallicharran, Graeme Pollock, Kevin McKenzie, Clive Rice (capt), Ray Jennings (wk), Alan Kourie, Neal Radford, Rupert Hanley, Sylvester Clarke

Luke Alfred is a journalist and author based in Johannesburg. His latest book is When the Lions Came To Town

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Karnataka
1973-74 - 1982-83: three Ranji Trophies (and runners-up finishes), one Irani Trophy
By V Ramnarayan

As someone who rubbed shoulders with some of the most charismatic personalities in 1970s Indian domestic cricket, I loved the Hyderabad team of the period. The 1975-76 season, when I made my first-class debut, was particularly memorable. My team-mates included MAK Pataudi and Abbas Ali Baig in their last season. Our captain ML Jaisimha and Syed Abid Ali were each fantastic cricketers and fabulous characters. Still, we failed to win the Ranji Trophy in the two decades Jaisimha led us.

Gundappa Viswanath starred with 247 in Karnataka's Ranji Trophy win in 1978 © Getty Images

My respect and admiration, therefore, went to another glamorous side in the South Zone, Karnataka, which actually won the title a few times, toppling Bombay from their perch for the first time a couple of seasons before my first. In March 1974, they prevailed over Bombay in the semi-final by virtue of a 78-run first innings lead. Two master batsmen, the wristy GR Viswanath (162), and that king of domestic cricket, Brijesh Patel (106), starred in that triumph, while spin twins Erapalli Prasanna and Bhagwath Chandrasekhar were outstanding defending 385. Prasanna's floater to remove Sunil Gavaskar's off bail was the magical delivery. The victory was no mean achievement, as Bombay's batting included the likes of Ajit Wadekar, run out for 62, and Ashok Mankad, who made 84.

In the final that season, Karnataka beat Rajasthan fairly easily, but not without a few alarms early on. Both Viswanath and Patel failed, but their dashing allrounders came to the fore: VS Vijayakumar, who opened the batting and bowling, left-arm spinner and hard-hitting batsman B Vijayakrishna, and medium-pacer and batsman AV Jayaprakash in the middle. Each of them was considered Test material at one time.

In addition to these youngsters, who formed the nucleus of the '70s team, others came good during the decade. Sudhakar Rao's 200 against Hyderabad in 1975-76 won him a berth on the West Indies tour that season; Roger Binny arrived soon; Sanjay Desai became a solid opening batsman. He was kept out of the wicketkeeper's spot only by Syed Kirmani, who was also frequently a batting thorn in the flesh of opponents, just when they thought they had got rid of the cream of Karnataka's order.

Karnataka were to win the Ranji Trophy once again in that decade, in 1977-78, when Viswanath hammered a magnificent double-century in the final against Uttar Pradesh, following a hundred in the semi-final against Delhi after a newspaper reporter made the mistake of dubbing him Bishan Bedi's bunny.

If the honour of leading the team to their first two triumphs went to Prasanna, Viswanath was the unfortunate captain to lose two finals - once after Karnataka made 705 in the first innings only for Delhi to gain a lead. Patel was the captain the next season, in 1982-83, when Karnataka beat Bombay in a gruelling final in Bombay. Significantly, the winning XI had as many as five players from the champion side of a decade earlier - Viswanath, Patel, Rao, Jayaprakash, Vijayakrishna. Kirmani had been eclipsed by Sadanand Viswanath - who played a winning hand - but made a comeback a few years later.

Prasanna and Chandrasekhar, of course, spun a great web around batsmen for well over a decade, but amazingly the team always found a place for another spinner like Vijayakrishna, besides some excellent seam bowlers like Vijayakumar, Jayaprakash and Binny. Each of them could be counted upon for hundreds or five-wicket hauls in times of need.

Prasanna and Patel were astute leaders, and Viswanath a thoughtful one with a softer touch. The men under them somehow managed to play consistently winning but rarely boring or defensive cricket. With one of the world's finest middle-order batsmen in Viswanath, a great keeper-batsman in Kirmani, and two members of India's famed spin quartet, Karnataka were an attractive, entertaining outfit throughout the time I watched them at close quarters.

Best XI: VS Vijayakumar, S Desai, Roger Binny, Brijesh Patel, Gundappa Viswanath, R Sudhakar Rao, AV Jayaprakash, Syed Kirmani (wk), B Vijayakrishna, EAS Prasanna (capt), BS Chandrasekhar

V Ramnarayan is a Chennai-born offspinner who represented Hyderabad and South Zone in the 1970s, and is now a columnist and blogger

© ESPN Sports Media Ltd.

 

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