What, no Bert?
Jamie Alter
25-Feb-2013
Huw John/ESPNcricinfo Ltd
Brent Edwards, the former sports editor of the Otago Daily Times, is a little miffed that Wellington-based author Joseph Romanos has omitted Bert Sutcliffe from his top test team in his just-released book, Cricket Portraits, A Century of New Zealand's Best. In fact, he thinks it counts as heresy.
Romanos profiles 100 of New Zealand's best cricketers and, while he is effusive in his praise of Sutcliffe, he does not select him in his top test side. He chooses Glenn Turner and Stewie Dempster as his opening batsmen and Andrew Jones as his No 3. The other specialist batsmen are Martin Crowe, Martin Donnelly and John Reid.
The averages of Dempster, Turner and Jones are better than Sutcliffe's, marginally in the case of Turner and Jones, but it should be remembered Sutcliffe propped up a weak New Zealand batting order for much of his career. And what can't be measured in statistics is the charm and grace with which Sutcliffe thrilled crowds throughout the cricket world.
I would have opened with Turner and Dempster, batted Crowe at No 3 and Sutcliffe at No 4.
Jamie Alter is a senior sub-editor at ESPNcricinfo