Can you think of a more left-field decision than Pattinson?

Seriously.

If you were given the line up for the last test at the start of the season you would have gone WTF!!??? And if you were English I doubt you would have heard of him.

The only other one I can recall is Peter 'Who' Taylor in 86/7 at Sydney....

No, I can't really think of one involving England or Australia. It has happened in Pakistan & West Indies.

However, back in 1988, an Australian team was being selected to tour Pakistan. It was obvious that the incumbent wicketkeeper, Greg Dyer, was on shaky ground & cricket fans in Queensland were hoping that our gloveman, Peter Anderson, would get the gig. Late in the afternoon, one of the headlines for the 5 o'clock news on the radio was "Queensland wicketkeeper selected for Pakistan tour". Everyone thought that Anderson had been chosen but when they got to the sports section, we were shocked to find it was our reserve keeper, a bloke called Ian Healy. He had only played 6 FC games & most of those were Ian Botham's fault.

And then there are unusual situations such as Pigott in New Zealand when England were hit by injuries.

Not really more left-field (is there a right field?) but wasn't George Headley restored to the West Indies team by force of public opinion (who campaigned and raised funds for him to play) - when both Headley and the selectors knew he was past it. Faced with such overwhelming public support Headley then felt that he had to play.

If we're talking Graveney then his best would have to be Chris Schofield, who was totally gash and not even a First Class cricketer really if truth be told. I dare say Pattinson deserved his shot at Test cricket more than Schofield.

Gary 111 wrote:If we're talking Graveney then his best would have to be Chris Schofield, who was totally gash and not even a First Class cricketer really if truth be told. I dare say Pattinson deserved his shot at Test cricket more than Schofield.

Who ended up at the world 20/20 didnt he? And still looked 'gash' when he got there.

Gary 111 wrote:If we're talking Graveney then his best would have to be Chris Schofield, who was totally gash and not even a First Class cricketer really if truth be told. I dare say Pattinson deserved his shot at Test cricket more than Schofield.

A couple of things in Schofield's favour compared to Pattinson is that he was young when he was picked, so they were taking a gamble on someone for the future, and he was a leg-spinner which is very rare in England as opposed to a fast-medium seamer which there are dozens of in county cricket.

Still a terrible pick but there were at least two bits of logic to it that Pattinson's selection didn't have.

Arnie Sidebottom

John Watkins for Australia is part of folklore, he couldn't hit the pitch. He failed in the last test against Pakistan but had already been picked for the tour of the Caribbean. Suffice to say he didn't play a test.

Australia picked Luke Pomersbach out of the crowd for a T20 game last year (He was at the game with his gf) after Brad Hodge slipped and fell over in the Aus dressing room 30 mins before the start of the match.

Henry wrote:Australia picked Luke Pomersbach out of the crowd for a T20 game last year (He was at the game with his gf) after Brad Hodge slipped and fell over in the Aus dressing room 30 mins before the start of the match.

Oh yeah. That was pretty funny. He didn't even have any kit.

I hope he goes on to have a good international career just so that can always be remembered.

Re Healy - while unexpected, Healy was a junior star and an obvious future Aust keeper.


Pattinson's age makes his selection as bizarre as I have ever seen.

Richard Blakey

Basil wrote:Richard Blakey

Was that such an outrageous selection though.

Ok he was crap but he'd been touted a s a future England player for a good 5 years

JKLever wrote:

Basil wrote:Richard Blakey

Was that such an outrageous selection though.

Ok he was crap but he'd been touted a s a future England player for a good 5 years

I guess he is a product of the same era that produced such luminaries as John Stephenson and Tim Curtis. I really shouldn't slag off Curtis as I was at the same school as him - but what the heck!

Ok, Joey Benjamin then or Neil Williams

JGK wrote:


Pattinson's age makes his selection as bizarre as I have ever seen.

The wheelie bin for the first 2 06/07 Ashes tests