Posted by   on (April 4, 2010, 23:54 GMT)

Coincidently when the All-time XI: Sri Lanka picked Sanga for the wicket keeping duties, the kings XI in IPL dropped Sanga from the Wicket Keeping duties. If the specialist keeper can bat well, then that is a bonus. Malinga was dropped by All-time XI: Sri Lanka when he is wearing the purple cap (Award to the bowler with highest number of wickets) in the IPL. In my opinion, Ashantha be replaced with Mahes (WK) and Rumesh be replaced with Malinga. Somachandra or Ajith, this is a toss of a coin, both will complement Murali. I still think Ajith and Murali will form a right arm and left arm combination just like Malinga and Vaas. 4 bowlers is Sri Lanka's successful formula. Each nation has their own formula of bowlers (WI 5 quick's, Aus 3 quick's and 1 spinner etc.). Santah/Aravinda can bowl. If we have 4 bowlers, this is less than 25 overs per day per bowler. With plenty of variety (Malinga left arm quick, Vaas right arm swing, Murali right are off spin, Ajith left arm orthodox spin).

How did they leave out Ajit De Silva. He is top class

How someone can discard the undisputed best batsman from Sri Lanka in pre-De Silva era (the era before Aravinda came into prominence I mean) is beyond me. True, the legendary Mahadevan Sathasivam wouldn't have played any tests, but is it his fault ? Can you keep this man out from all time SL XI ?. Forget about all others much hyped (but certainly not upto the level of hype) pre-test era players like Stanley Jayasinghe, Micheal Thissera, .... You may even forget the likes of Roy Dias, Duleep Mendis, ... who may have played a bit of test & ODI cricket, would have been clearly the better players we had during their times, YET no way the best the world had during their times. There may have been few older yet very decent ones in FC De Seram, CI Gunasekara, Clive Inman & Anura Tennakoon, but since this would (supposed to) be the all time best XI for SL, you may forget them too. But I'm not sure anyone can do the same for true legend S'sivam, to me the Steve Tikolo of then Ceylonese Cricket.

Dear "mykey_d" FYI This was my team in an earlier post, I was just trying to make a point clear which certainly you havent grasped.. 1.Roy Dias 2.Jayasuriya 3.Sangakkara 4.A.De silva 5.Mahela J 6.Duleep Mendis 7. Arjuna 8.Vass 9.R.Ratnayake 10.Muralitahran 11.D.S.De silva

If you are posting your comments and are (at least) in your early 30s try not to romanticise the past. This is a best XI not a walk through the pages of history. The lures of yesteryear do not make up for mediocrity. IanJF, just stick to what you know, which clearly is not picking a cricket team nor making jokes.

1st off - the chemistry is wrong. Since Murali does so much of the bowling work, is having five bowlers justified? IMO, no. And since the rest of the bowling isn't too great (IOW - its a comparitively weak team to other all time teams) - its MUCH BETTER to go in with 6 batsmen. I'd have Sangakarra as a pure batsmen and add a P. Jayawardena as keeper. for bowling - three pacers and Murali, and who to back up Murali's spin? I'd go with part timers. Jayasuria, Aravinda and Dilshan can all be decent tweakers (don't know the other spinners nominated, but they all have poor records). In any case, IT DOESN'T MATTER much as Murali's the key. Finally, Ranatunga I disagree with. He scored 4 centuries in about a 100 tests - thats not good enough. Tillakartne was a much better player

Using the selection formula of 5batsman,WK,3pacemen,2spinners I submitted a team that is the same as Crickinfo readers XI but not the team selected by jury. Interestingly some of the jurors picked only 4 bowlers. The selection process is flawed when selecting the BEST TEAM. The formula makes it difficult to pick a specialist WK as 6 batsmen are needed and there is no genuine allrounder. This necessitates selection of SANGA as a WKbatsman. Only solution was to use 3 pacemen, 1spinner and parttimers such as Sanath and Aravinda. Prasanna is a world class WK with batting average of 30 and Sanga bats better when he is not WK. Arjuna deserves his spot but Thilan could be substituted as he can bowl spin. Apart from Vaas and Murali there is no great bowler and DeMel and DS will be the bowlers unlikely to be picked in a future XI. MY revised team 1.Sanath 2.Marvan 3.Sanga 4.Aravinda 5.Mahela 6.Arjuna or Thilan 7.Prasanna [WK] 8.Vaas 9.Rumesh 10.Malinga 11.Murali 12.Mendis.

Posted by   on (April 2, 2010, 13:25 GMT)

@ sachintha81 - All i got to say about you is that cricket was not played this much intensively as well as professionally so My friend hate to say but you have to admit that you are in love with the good old days but the reality is that they are not good & probably may not make in to todays 11 in any case

I doubt about Sanga as Keeper. He is great player but as Keeper he is worst. This is my personal feeling. But remember if he doesn't miss chance of stumping for Symond in SF of WC'03 then.......you know that.

No matter what is argued on these pages the fact remains that this is a hugely gifted team. I personally believe Jayawardene could walk into any team of the past 10 years - including Australia's and India's. To my mind there is no question about Ranatunga being the best captain for Sri Lanka. He single-handedly brought strength of character and belief to the Sri Lankan nation - not just the team that won a world cup. He got under the noses of opposition teams who had previously regarded Sri Lanka and Sri Lankans as a soft touch. He may not be popular and he may not have the cricket brain of others around him but he could bat and he was a leader amongst men. I love the way the Sri Lanka team goes about its business. They must be the most respected and well liked teams in the game.