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The Best XI | 
| Author: Geoffrey Boycott
Publisher: Michael Joseph
Category: Book
List Price: £20.00
Buy New: £12.00
You Save: £8.00 (40%)
New (23) Used (3) from £9.87
Avg. Customer Rating:  2 reviews
Sales Rank: 1677
Media: Hardcover
Pages: 368
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.8
Dimensions (in): 9.1 x 6.3 x 1.7
ISBN: 0718154363
EAN: 9780718154363
ASIN: 0718154363
Publication Date: August 28, 2008
Shipping: Eligible for Super Saver Shipping
Availability: Usually dispatched within 24 hours
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| Customer Reviews:
Excellent Read by Boycs September 16, 2008
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
Was planning to place an order through Amazon.uk to India and Was very surprised to see Boycs latest offering hit the Indian bookstores so quickly and bought it w/o hesitation.
All of Boycs earlier works have been extremely detailed and readable esp "In the Fast Lane Eng tour of Wi 1981" and "Put to the test- Eng tour of Aus"
- in this latest book , Boycs selects his best possible test sides of 13 players and a reserve list of players from all the major test playing countries and gives his "opinionated" view of the players he has played with and his personal observations on selected players from the beginning of test cricket in 1877 itself .
He also throws in a reserve list of players for each country and for good measure refuses to rate players from Bangladesh and Zimbabwe "as not good enough" .A late 90's Zimbabwe side would have given many sides a rumble. His selection for England has a few quirks with so many pre war greats available - hence a possible post war survey of players would have done better justice.
I could not find much fault with other test sides proposed as some of them includes many pre war champs whom we can't judge- but no mention of Allan Border even on the reserve list for AUS or Duleep Mendis from Sri Lanka are baffling.
Also the choice of Andrew Jones for NZ ahead of Geoff Howarth and Jeremy Coney is interesting . Australia in typically Pommie style is not covered as well as it should have .Like the debate of whether Arthur Morris qualifies as a better opener than Mathew Hayden never comes up. Nor does he discuss reserve Australian bastman unlike other teams he covered .
Boycs uses a lot statistics and personal figures to show his selections _ although at times these are not very convincing - but most of the choices are anyway automatic and not new to the discerning follower
All in all a good read - in similar mould to Botham's 100 and Armstrong's Lavish Australian work on the 100 Greatest Players- but dont expect anything unique here.
I would also reccommend Bob Willis 1996 Six of the Best as an excellent read esp post 70 period and definitely a bit better .
Still 5 on 5 for an excellent handling of a vast arena of riches to choose from.
Thought Provoking September 15, 2008
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
Boycott is, as usuual, forthright and thought provoking but I liked the touches of humour about his personal experiences of some of the greats of the game. Well researched, one could argue with some of his choices (for instance, no Herbert Sutcliffe in the England team?)but overall it's a really good read with none of the waffle that fills up so many sports books
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