Justification:

Ath: Played for Lancs and, when carrying out an interview, slouches better than anyone else I’ve ever seen.

Mark Taylor: Perhaps the only Aussie I’d really value an opinion from.

Stephen Flemming: The best captain I’ve ever seen (I never saw Brearley)

Sachin Tendulkar: Really?

Kumar Sangakkara: The best person to have ever lived on the face of the planet.

Adam Gilchrist: Massive ears and massive bat and, I think, nice bloke.

Wasim Akram: Played for Lancs. Bowled a fucking ace yorker. Spoke to me at OT once.

Brett Lee: A proper fast bowler who never really got a bit fast medium. I think he was/is probably quite a decent fellow.

Ian Bishop: This https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0TW5fKgLMHk

Shane Bond: Dunno, just always thought he was ace.

Muttiah Muralitharan: well, he could always give you an over before lunch.

ah, but then you have akram in list 1

Yup – it would be a more uneven series than these Ashes in my view…

…the “No Thanks, I’m Washing My Hair This Evening XI” winning by a country mile over the “I’ll Have A Pint Of Mild, Please XI”.

I’d differ on some of your choices, though. But I think my criteria are based more on “who would make for an interesting one-off evening’s company?” than “who might I want as my friend?” On my criteria, several of the choices would be the other way around.

Viv, Both, Lillee, Hadlee and Warne should all make for a fun and interesting evening – albeit not one I’d want to repeat too often.

Not too many of your “fancy a pint” team strike me as fun, Hoopy.

Probably unlikely to go for a pint, though.

curious about why you have waqar in that list, he isn’t really reputed to be a world class asshole like most of the other guys

Yep, batting great. Cook’s longest run without a 50 ever, I believe. So at least he’s overdue.

I’m not sure Bishop, Bond and Lee will stand up to bowling through a whole match.