Assembling America’s Greatest Cricket Team Included Legendary Greats and Current Global Stars
As the sport of cricket sees a US resurgence, the time has come to assemble America’s all-time squad. We sports fans often discuss who to include on our best teams. Who is the NBA Dream Team? Who is on the all-time MLB team? And who would be our choice for the greatest NFL quarterback? Now, the time has finally come to build the American cricket all-star Dream XI team.
This great American all-time squad consists of all native-born US cricket legends. The Dream XI team includes five batters (including a team captain), three bowlers, two all-rounders, and one wicketkeeper. Additionally, no US sports team is complete without a twelfth man. So, we included one on our all-time US squad.
The only criterion for this Dream Team XI is that each cricketer must have been born on United States soil. With that said, and without further ado, we submit the United States All-Time Cricket Dream XI Squad.
THE OPENERS
Dennis Silk
This opening batter was born in Eureka, California in 1931. Had he been older, Dennis Silk could have played for the famous Hollywood Cricket Club in his home state. Founded in 1932 by C. Aubrey Smith, the Hollywood Cricket Club was all the craze during the golden age of cinema. Born in London in 1863, Smith had a successful cricket career before moving to Los Angeles to become an actor. The Hollywood Cricket Club became famous after Donald Bradman’s Australian international squad toured the States in 1932.
As for Dennis Silk himself, his father was a British medical missionary on a Native American reservation. Silk’s mother died when he was just five. After that, he and his father returned to England where Silk picked up a cricket bat and started playing. Silk’s cricket career became more storied than C. Aubrey Smith’s.
Playing in college for Cambridge as captain, Silk became a powerhouse cricket opening batter. He scored seven centuries and nineteen half-centuries throughout his career. Silk even captained England’s most important Marylebone Cricket Club and returned to face the States during tours in 1959 and 1967.
After cricket, Silk followed in his father’s footsteps and spent a lifetime of service to others. He spent the rest of his professional life teaching in public schools. Silk was also president of the Marylebone Cricket Club and chair of the Test and County Cricket Board for Great Britain. His funeral was held at Southwark Cathedral in 2019 and attended by over 1,200 people. Dennis Silk’s skill and compassion are why he opened for this American dream team of cricket stars.
J.L. Poyer
Try looking up J.L. Poyer and you’ll discover that it’s almost as if he doesn’t exist. His accomplishments were covered in the New York Times during his career. But you’ll be hard-pressed to find mention of his career anywhere else. His career, mind you, spanned forty years. So, finding no mention of him outside of the Times is all the more strange.
The batter’s first Times article appeared on September 1st, 1907, and paints Poyer in outstanding light. Titled “Cricket Victories By Large Margins”, the article goes on to state that J.L. Poyer scored his second century in a week for Brooklyn in the Metropolitan District Cricket League. An article from August 14th, 1921 has Poyer scoring another century and winning back-to-back Metropolitan District Cricket League batting championships. Poyer’s end-of-the-year stats hit the December 2nd New York Times issue in 1923.
The star cricketer scored the league’s most runs with 659 and maintained an average of 59.91 runs per game. In 1923, J.L. Poyer scored a half-century in every game he played. That is an unbelievable batting record. But Poyer didn’t slow down there. On August 4th, 1926, the Times reported that Poyer scored back-to-back centuries. On that date, he scored 110 not out against Columbia Oval in a New York Association match. And the day before, he smashed another 101 not out against the so-called Camerons.
On September 7th of that same year, the New York Times reported that Poyer was leading Brooklyn to a second consecutive Metropolitan championship. In 1927, the Times reported that Poyer was the reigning batting champion again. And on August 2nd, he scored another century against Paterson. That was an astonishing twenty years after he made the papers for his first set of centuries for Brooklyn.
THE CAPTAIN
Christie Morris
This Philadelphia native is remembered for having the largest cricket library in the Western Hemisphere. The aforementioned CC Morris cricket library is not far from his alma mater, Haverford College. The star Philadelphia captain played cricket well into his sixties and had a storied career against England, Australia, India, and the West Indies.
His best batting performance happened in 1903 when the Philadelphians visited Nottinghamshire. Morris finished that match by scoring 164 runs. Christie Morris was also key to keeping cricket alive in America. He spent his life securing tours between the United States, Canada, and the West Indies. He also worked with Chicago’s K.A. Auty to maintain cricket’s oldest international rivalry, the series between Canada and America.
THE MIDDLE ORDER
Jehan Mubarak
Although Jehan Mubarak spent his cricket career playing for Sri Lanka, he was actually born in Washington D.C. Additionally, he is one of only two American-born cricketers who have played Test cricket, the most challenging version of the game
Mubarak made his international debut in 2002, first against Bangladesh and then later in the year against South Africa. Mubarak still holds the highest-ever strike rate for a Sri Lankan cricketer in a T20 match. He scored 46 runs not out off of 13 balls against Kenya in that record-breaking game. His 353.84 strike rate most likely will not be surpassed for some time.
Mubarak played his last official cricket match during the 2017 Bangladesh Premier League. He has since emerged on occasion as a coach and commentator.
Ian Holland
In 2012, Reality TV had some cringe-worthy shows like Jersey Shore and Temptation Island. Among such programs was Australia’s Cricket Superstar. This competition-based Reality TV show took 15 aspiring cricketers and gave them a shot at a professional rookie contract. The show also awarded the winner a four-month scholarship at the Cricket Centre of Excellence in Brisbane. Enter Ian Holland, the winner of the show’s first and only season.
Believe it or not, that Australian Cricket Superstar was born in the most Midwestern small town you could imagine; a place called Steven’s Point Wisconsin. Holland was born to an American mother and a British-born Australian father. And, after Holland turned two, his parents moved back to Melbourne.
Ian used his contract and scholarship from Cricket Superstar to earn his first-class debut in the 2015-16 season with Victoria. Later, Ian would cash in on his English citizenship when Hampshire scooped him up for their county cricket program. He’s been playing for Hampshire since 2017.
After his time in England and Australia, Holland moved back to the States to officially as an American national cricketer. His debut for the Red, White, and Blue came in December 2019 against the United Arab Emirates.
Steven Taylor
Steven Taylor learned cricket from his Jamaican parents Loveth and Sylvan Taylor. Born in Hialeah, Florida, in 1993, the young 28-year-old Jordan began his career early. He became the first 14-year-old in the history of the South Florida Cricket Alliance to hit a half-century. He also scored two double centuries before he turned 17.
Taylor participated in the 2010 ICC Under-19 Cricket World Cup in New Zealand. He also led the United States to victory in America’s Under-19 Championship as vice-captain that same season. He’s the first American to ever score a T20 century in March 2013. In that game, he belted 101 runs off of 62 balls against Bermuda.
Steven Taylor is one of the most decorated cricketers in American history, being both a former vice-captain and captain of the team. He’s been America’s international opening batter, setting the tone for every game he plays. On May 30th, 2017, he became only the fourth American to score 1,000 runs in ODI cricket. He’s also played domestic cricket in the Caribbean Premier League, being selected by the Guyana Amazon Warriors in 2017.
That same year he also debuted for the Pakistan Super League. In the CPL, he has played for the Jamaica Tallawahs, the home island of both of his parents. Taylor has acquired thirteen professional half-centuries and one ODI century in his career. He is truly one of the USA’s greatest cricketers of all time.
THE WICKETKEEPER
Ken Weekes
Ken Weekes was born on January 24th, 1912, in Boston, Massachusetts, officially making him an American-born cricketer. Nicknamed “Bam Bam”, Weekes was also the first American-born cricketer to play the prestigious test cricket. Sri Lanka’s Jehan Mubarak has also accomplished that feat
Weekes would even die on American soil after passing away on February 9th, 1998, in Brooklyn, New York. His cousin, Sir Everton DeCourcy Weekes, was a Barbados native and one of the greatest West Indian cricketers ever. Ken followed in his famous cousin’s footsteps.
Weekes finished his professional career with a test average of an astonishing 57.66 runs per game. And he ended his First-Class average at 40.25 runs per game. As an interesting fact, his 1939 West Indies touring squad included teammate Leslie Hylton – the only cricketer in history to be executed for murder.
Bam Bam retired that same year after Germany declared war on Great Britain while his Windies squad toured England. After that tour was canceled, Weekes never played internationally again. However, during his career, the West Indies wicketkeeper was also a monster at the bat. He scored four first-class centuries during his short career with his best innings finishing with 146 runs.
THE BOTTOM ORDER
George Patterson
According to Wisden Cricketers Almanac, George Stuart Patterson is one of the best all-rounders America has ever produced. Yet, as is the case with the history of United States cricket, hardly anyone knows his name.
George Patterson’s stats are pretty impressive, to say the least. He finished his cricket career with a batting average of 39.44. In his career, Patterson accumulated eleven half-centuries and five career centuries.
Patterson played 36 career first-class matches and amassed 2,051 runs throughout those games. He also gathered up 74 wickets. The American star had two games where he took five wickets, with his best performance coming with twenty-two runs given with five wickets taken. He even bowled one match where he took a total of ten wickets.
Wisden Cricketers Almanac is indeed correct in its assumption that George Patterson is possibly the best all-rounder in American history. It is unfortunate that his career so often goes unnoticed.
Hayden Walsh, Jr.
Hayden Walsh, Jr.’s father was a successful domestic cricketer for the Leeward Islands who participated in the 1998 Commonwealth Games. Upon retiring, Walsh, Sr. started a cricket academy on his home island of Antigua. His son, Hayden Walsh, Jr. was born in St. Croix in the United States Virgin Islands in 1992.
Walsh, Jr. debuted for his father’s home island of Leeward during the 2011-2012 Regional Four-Day Competition. From there, he played for St. Kitts and Nevis in the 2018 Caribbean Premier League. But interestingly enough, his international career didn’t begin with the West Indies. In 2018, he debuted for none other than Team USA.
Hayden Walsh, Jr. played that first international cricket game in Oman against Papua New Guinea during the 2018 ICC World Cricket League Division Three tournament. In March of the following year, Walsh Jr. made his T20 International debut against the United Arab Emirates.
He’s a late-order, left-handed batter and a right-arm leg-break bowler who has grabbed both half-centuries and five-wicket hauls throughout his career. His United States cricket career was short-lived, however. Walsh Jr. was called up to the West Indies in October of 2019.
THE CLOSERS
Tara Norris
This bowler started her professional cricket career at the surprising age of just sixteen. And we don’t mean Tara Norris started at some local cricket club where the competition isn’t first-class. Tara’s career began in storied Sussex, England. Created back in 1936, Sussex is one of the most recognized women’s cricket clubs in the world.
Norris has won several championships while playing English cricket, including the Women’s Twenty20 Cup. She participated in the Rachael Heyhoe Flint Trophy tournament. And she even took part in the hugely successful debut of England’s The Hundred.
Domestically, she’s scored a half-century in T20 cricket and is known to take four wickets in an innings. But with the push for domestic cricket here in America, Tara Norris came home. She officially began playing for the Stars and Stripes in September of 2021. Norris was added to the USA International squad for the ICC Women’s T20 World Cup Americas Qualifiers.
Norris debuted against Brazil on October 18th, 2021, in a series where America completely dominated. The USA won five out of their six games. Team USA only lost one of their two games to Canada the entire tournament. Interestingly enough, the one game Team USA lost happened to be the only game in which Tara Norris did not play.
Bart King
There is a short list of great American cricketers. On top of that list is, without question, Bart King. The legendary all-rounder who somehow nobody knows is recognized as one of the greatest bowlers of all time. He practically (if not, actually) invented swing bowling.
Born in Philadelphia, Bart King is an honorary member of two of the most prestigious English cricket clubs on the face of the earth: the Incognito Cricket Club and the Marylebone Cricket Club. Both organizations also included Jack the Ripper suspect Montague Druitt.
King has famously been known to take all ten wickets in an innings. And in one particular game against Ireland, he took nine in the first innings and a hat trick in the second. Bart King also holds the North American record for most runs scored in an innings at a jaw-dropping 344 not out. Simply put, Bart King is a closer.
THE TWELFTH MAN
Nezam Hafiz
Although not an American native, there’s a reason Nezam Hafiz is Team USA’s emotional twelfth man. Hafiz was born in Rose Hall, East Berbice-Corentyne, Guyana. He started his cricket career at a young age, growing up around the West Indies – one of the most dominant cricket regions on the planet.
In 1988, Nezam was the captain of the Under-19 team for his birth country. His first match was against Trinidad and Tobago which was captained by someone who shared the same birth year as Nezam – the legendary ICC Hall of Famer Brian Lara.
In 1992, Nezam left Guyana and moved to Queens to be with his parents and two sisters. From that moment on, Nezam Hafiz was a New Yorker. In America, Nezam joined (and ultimately captained) the Commonwealth Cricket League. He also found himself the captain of the American Cricket Society as well. Nezam later joined the United States national cricket team and officially became an American cricketer.
An International First-Class Legend
He was on the US squad during the 1998-1999 Red Stripe Bowl as his team took on other great cricketing nations like Bermuda, Barbados, and the Windward Islands. He faced Jamaica and shared the grounds with a young man named Chris Gayle. Although the United States did not make the playoffs that year, Nezam’s home country of Guyana won that year’s tournament. Guyana defeated the Leeward Islands by 52 runs. Nezam also toured England as a member of the United States team in 2000, even defeating them as visitors in the country that invented the sport.
In the fall of 2001, Nezam Hafiz called South Ozone Park, Queens home. He worked for Marsh and McLennan – an insurance company – as a financial analyst. His office was in World Trade Center Tower One on the 94th floor. He was working the morning the planes hit. Nezam Hafiz did not survive.
THE CONCLUSION
Five batters, three bowlers, two all-rounders, and one wicketkeeper make up the USA Dream XI Cricket Team. Truthfully, these players could compete head-to-head against some of the sport’s all-time squads.
US-based cricket venues suitable for this dream squad include Central Broward Regional Park in Florida, Grand Prairie Stadium in Texas, Church Street Park in the Samp Army Nation home of North Carolina, or even historically relevant locations like Philadelphia, New York, Chicago, and California. What do you think of our USA Dream XI squad? Let us know if we’ve missed anyone in the comments below.
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