Ahead of the Times revealing its post-war XIs, Norm has made his own selection. As you’d expect, they’re pretty strong teams. It’s a little depressing to realise that selecting a Greatest Post-1945 Australian side is much, much more difficult than doing the same for England. In fact I don’t think I can disagree with any part of Norm’s England XI:
1. Len Hutton, 2. Geoffrey Boycott, 3. Ken Barrington, 4. Denis Compton, 5. Peter May, 6. Ian Botham, 7. Alan Knott, 8. Jim Laker, 9. Fred Trueman, 10. Derek Underwood, 11. Brian Statham.
You could, mind you, make a case for Frank Tyson. Alec Bedser is also unfortunate to miss-out.
(Hammond is excluded because his post-war career was a sad and limited thing.)
As for the Australians, well, it’s more difficult. For some reason Norm omits Keith Miller, leaving him with just four bowlers (perhaps this was an oversight?) This cannot stand and Nugget will bat at 6 in my team, displacing Steve Waugh from Norm’s selection.
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