James Coyne picks out a few of the great batsmen who received no votes at all
There were just two left-handers in our 15 – a sign of the orthodoxy of English coaching methods down the years, perhaps? Among them was one stylist, David Gower – held in some suspicion by disciplinarians – and the unpretty but highly effective Alastair Cook.
Before Gower’s time, the player considered by many to be the finest English left-hander was Frank Woolley. Indeed, Woolley was included in the All-Time England XI chosen by EW Swanton, John Arlott and David Frith for The Cricketer to celebrate the Centenary Test of 1977. (Swanton was so besotted with him that, in 1996, he appeared beneath the dressing room to implore Matt Walker not to break Woolley’s record score for Kent at Canterbury; Walker carried on regardless.) Woolley scored 58,959 first-class runs – second only to Hobbs among all batsmen, English or not. But his reputation no doubt suffers for a Test record of five hundreds in 64 matches, at just 36.