Dean Tuckwell - my greatest ever Queensland cricket team

Dean Tuckwell | February 16, 2023

We have been having a bit of fun lately with the greatest ever Qld XII and it has been very interesting speaking to a few old Queensland legends about their thoughts. For my XII I haven't picked any international imports (Wes Hall, Majid Khan, Viv Richards, Ian Botham, Graham Hick) as the players selected must have had significant careers for the state. Also despite mighty international statistics I have not chosen Mitchell Johnson and Marnus Labuschagne for the same reason.

The abundance of fast bowling talent means that some great bowlers miss out. Thomson & McDermott both had great Queensland & Australian careers so are first picked. Also how could you go wrong with one of Rackemann, Kasprowicz and Bichel?

All wonderful fast bowlers who took mountains of wickets and bowled their heart out for their team - I've run with Mocca as on their best day he is the one I would least like to face. I don't expect any criticism of Ray Lindwall's selection as he is rightfully considered one of Australia's all-time greats but Ryan Harris' numbers for Queensland are remarkably similar, if anything a little better.

Queensland may not boast the same pedigree of spinners as quicks but Colin McCool's record for both Queensland and Australia deem him worthy of a place in this twelve.

We have also been blessed with some of the great wicketkeepers in the history of the game. Wade Seccombe was athletic with silky hands and although Peter Anderson was my favourite to watch, Ian Healy's record is unsurpassed and he played a part in shaping the culture of the side that ultimately won the Shield for the first time. Wally Grout was the Australian 'keeper for 9 years and wouldn't be out of place in any Queensland or Australian team but the old-timers all say that Don Tallon was the best so I'm deferring to Sir Donald on this one.

I think that 5 of the batsmen pick themselves (Brown, Hayden, Chappell, Burge and Border) but I have agonised over the sixth. If Greg Chappell were not in the team I may have run with an all-rounder such as Ken Mackay, Andrew Symonds or Tom Veivers but in the end I have tried to determine the best batsman from a short list including Greg Ritchie, Stuart Law, Kepler Wessels and Martin Love. This was probably the most agonising decision of all and Martin gets the nod by virtue of the fact that he is the only one to score more than 10,000 runs for the state and the only to score a triple century.

So there you have it, my take on Queensland's greatest ever side - let the arguments begin:

1. Matt Hayden

2. Bill Brown

3. Greg Chappell - Captain

4. Peter Burge

5. Allan Border

6. Martin Love

7. Don Tallon

8. Ray Lindwall

9. Craig McDermott

10. Jeff Thomson

11. Carl Rackemann

12. Colin McCool