The Old vs the New

It's the favourite pastime of cricket nuts all over the globe, it's probably been done since the 1800s - even when only two countries played the game - and it will continue to delight, divide and opinionate fans in equal measure. But for sheer fun, nothing beats selecting an all-time eleven in cricket (except perhaps if you're Sachin Tendulkar and are on the doorstep of a 100th international century). And with the 2000th Test about to be played, it is the perfect time to pick an all time eleven.

The difficulty - the only and primary difficulty - with the exercise is of who to exclude. The selection feels like a cop-out if you select more than eleven players, but at the same time, which selector - even an armchair one - would fancy a decision where he has to select only one of Viv Richards and Brian Lara and drop the other? It can't be done and therefore, this exercise will pick two all-time elevens: one modern, comprising players that I have seen and the other classical, comprising players whom I've not had the privilege to watch live...

Full article at Cricbuzz here: The Old versus the New.