The XI: Our panel picks a team to take on the world at corridor cricket

SAM MORSHEAD, NICK FRIEND and BEN JONES dream up the finest corridor cricket side that money can buy in this first edition of The XI. Below, you will find a summary to accompany the main podcast. The premise is simple: create a team from the topic

From the makers of the Quarantine Cup, The Cricketer brings you cricket once more. Only this time, it’s in the confines of your corridors.

The premise is simple. Survival. No attacking shots. No stumps. You cannot be bowled. The lbw law is nowhere to be seen. However, miss the ball three times – consecutively or otherwise – and your innings is over. If the ball hits your body rather than your bat, that is also a miss. Hit a pet, a vase, a window, a sculpture, a television or whatever else it is that finds itself in harm’s way, and you’re out. One hand, one bounce. Obviously. Electric keepers, too; edge the ball behind – on the off-side, at least – and you’re gone. Worry not, batsmen; you have something – you can’t be out first ball.

For the bowlers, there are no run-ups. Fast bowling is absolutely outlawed. Don’t even try it. We have, though, reneged on the ICC’s 15-degree elbow limit; there are no rules. Bend your arm to your heart’s content – dust off the doosra shunned to the back of the locker when the ICC clamped down on those mystery spinners just over half a decade ago. Get creative with your field: bins, pillows, buckets, stuffed animals, brothers, sisters.

“You’re trying to survive – that’s the whole point; there are no attacking shots.” The words of Sam Morshead, The Cricketer’s digital editor – and one third of this new competition’s founding podcast.

He was joined by Nick Friend, a digital journalist at The Cricketer, and cricket analyst Ben Jones. Jones and Morshead were together when the idea was first dreamt up – standing at the top of the Lord’s media centre during a rain delay. What we would do now for a rain delay – something all the more trivial to bring a halt to the season. Little, at the time, were the pair to know how prescient their plan might be.

The Cricketer's Corridor Cup

And so, with a tournament to launch and a burning question at hand, the trio sat down to answer it: who makes it into the ultimate Corridor XI?

Over the course of an hour, 41 players were mentioned – some as serious options, several as curveballs, others as light-hearted nonsense.

All kinds of theories were offered up.

“A corridor is as long as a corridor is,” explained Morshead. A line, perhaps, for the ages – the sort of fodder that will find its way onto Instagram via a dramatic font and a motivational whiff.

“You can’t have a wall in front of the batsman due to physics,” Jones added as talk turned to the pros and cons of Cheteshwar Pujara’s suitability atop the order.

“I’m fascinated by the idea that we’ve co-opted a version of the game where the T20 pinch-hitter has been inverted. We’re promoting tail-enders just to block it.”

^{Keaton Jennings make it in as a fine player of spin and a terrific short leg fielder}

Matthew Hoggard’s valiant stoicism earned the former England seamer a spot at No.4, ahead of Pujara, Ricky Ponting and Temba Bavuma. After all, it’s not about shot-making; rather, it’s a game of restraint, where a block and a prod are worth far more than an iconic pull shot and a flowing cover drive.

“I have been called the world's most boring batsman,” Hoggard once admitted.

Friend had touted Ponting on account of his abilities at silly point – close-in fielders are, of course, a must in a game that relies purely on precision and a softness of hand. On that basis, there were places granted for Keaton Jennings and James Taylor.

Or in Taylor’s case, as Jones put it: “lads who aren’t going to take up very much room in the corridor.”

Geoffrey Boycott’s commitment to the art of defence earns him an opening berth alongside Jennings; the pair were picked ahead of both Wally Hammond and Lahiru Thirimanne – the first time perhaps that those two have been listed alongside one another.

Rahul Dravid picked himself, so to speak. Rather, Morshead insisted upon him: a man nicknamed The Wall and one of the all-time great slip fielders.

With Hoggard and Taylor nailed on in the engine room – for altogether differing reasons, there was deemed space for Inzamam-ul-Haq, the great Pakistani batsman and a maverick talent. His selection, other than on Jones’ chaotic insistence, hinged somewhat on his height and the ability to ride any extra bounce that any corridor surface might derive. How will the slow subcontinental rugs differ from Perth’s shiny ceramic?

It was with the ball where the discussions became more interesting, on occasion even mildly heated. Ajmal or Muralitharan? Mendis or Narine? Would Poonam Yadav be lethal or ineffectual? What about Alex Loudon? Were the rumours true – did Jigar Naik have a doosra? How about Shane Shillingford and Sachithra Senanayake? In the cases of Michael Yardy, Kedar Jadhav and Paul Adams, would their actions be too round-arm to fit inside the average corridor? Do we really think that Anil Kumble’s top-spinners would be overly effective on a Durban carpet?

Bernard Bosanquet, shouted Morshead of the man credited with the invention of the googly. No, came the collective response of Jones and Friend.

“We get Neil Wagner and Sunil Narine smooshed into one bowler,” pleaded Jones as he pined for the somersaulting, bouncer-bowling leg-breaks of Qais Ahmad.

Then, Friend played his trump card. Nathan Dumelow – bowler of the accidental double-bouncer that ultimately saw the delivery banned. Jones laughed. Morshead shook his head.

^{Matthew Hoggard's obdurate stoicism with the bat gets him a surprise nod at No.4}

Eventually, decisions were made.

Jennings, Boycott, Dravid, Hoggard, Taylor, Inzamam, Collingwood, Harvey, Narine, Muralitharan, Carl Hooper’s pea-roller to Nasser Hussain.

The unanimous ruling on including Hooper’s delivery was made on a straightforward premise: it remains among the least playable balls ever bowled.

“I think that team definitely encapsulates all of the odd specifics of playing corridor cricket,” Jones reflected.

“It doesn’t look like a normal cricket team, which is important. It includes a role for a single delivery that exists in the past and is not an actual player. It has Matthew Hoggard at No.4, which is fun and weird.

“But I do also think there are some players in there who are logically imbedded in the format – like Taylor and Jennings and Collingwood to an extent. We’ve got an actual team; you’d have to go some to have a rival podcast doing exactly the same format. If they came up with a team that could beat our team, I’d be very surprised.”

It was tentatively decided that Adams, Yardy and Jadhav could operate as ‘wide corridor specialists’, with Yadav and Jeremy Snape as ‘high-ceiling specialists.’

Seamers are off-limits, ruling out calls for Harold Larwood, the batsmanship of Shannon Gabriel and the searing yorkers of Lasith Malinga. It was also confirmed that baseball pitchers would be ineligible.

It’s a bit of fun. Come up with your own team. Castigate us for our choices.

In the coming weeks, we’ll be asking you to join in. You will find the rules here. Get involved, film and send us your efforts. There will be prizes at the end of it all for the winners.

Below, you’ll see the full list of players considered for selection on the podcast. Give it a listen, have a scan of the names.

And then, let the games begin. Mark your guard in the corridor, position your pots and pans at short midwicket, and bat to survive.

The selection meeting...

Openers: Keaton Jennings, Cheteshwar Pujara, Geoffrey Boycott, Wally Hammond, Lahiru Thirimanne

Middle order: Inzamam, Rahul Dravid, Matthew Hoggard, Jack Leach, James Taylor, Temba Bavuma, Alex Ross, Ricky Ponting, Paul Collingwood

Bowlers: Sunil Narine, Muttiah Muralitharan, Ajantha Mendis, Alex Loudon, Nayan Doshi, Jigar Naik, Shane Shillingford, Saeed Ajmal, Poonam Yadav, Nathan Dumelow, Billy Root, Kedar Jadhav, Marlon Samuels, Qais Ahmad, Sachitra Senenayake, Harold Larwood, Bernard Bosanquet, Paul Adams, Michael Yardy, Anil Kumble, Carl Greenidge, Ian Harvey, Benny Howell, Carl Hooper’s delivery to Nasser Hussain, Curt Schilling (baseball), Jeremy Snape

To remind ourselves of happier times we’re offering a £20.19 subscription to celebrate England’s World Cup win once again. Click here to claim