The ideal dinner party question has long been a staple of newspaper interview Q&As. The Guardian has it in its Saturday mag at the moment. It's always a variation of 'which five guests would you invite to your perfect dinner party?' to which the chosen sleb says stuff like 'Shakespeare, Tiger Woods, George Best, Pamela Anderson and Genghis Khan' or some combination thereof.
Last night I was pondering, as I often do, the great WG, when the dinner party question cropped up. So, for a cricketers-only private bash, who would it be? For me, it's
WG Grace
CB Fry
Bad Baz Richards
Geoffrey Boycott
Shane Warne [well, you need a bowler to sledge]
And there'd be a fine port waiting for the good doctor by the fireside...
Ok then - my criteria may not be exactly the same as yours - Swann, Vettori, Sangakkara, Gilchrist and Atherton - and quite frankly OB anyone of them could have me by the fireside - sod the port
ReplyDeleteBill O'Rielly
ReplyDeleteKerry O'Keefe
Ivo and Florence Bligh
Richie Benaud
No time to explain why but I'm sure an interesting evening would be had by all.
I just can't stop thinking about how WG and Warney would cope with being on the same table...
ReplyDeleteWarne: So you see, Viv, that fatso Gatting was thinking that....
WG: Hey Warney, why don't u shut ya trap, eh? They've come to see my beard, not hear ur lame stories!
And Viv would be chewing gum and teaming up with Warne to, perhaps, try and woo some women..
Don't know too much about CB Fry..
My 5 would be:
The old Sreesanth
Andre Nel
Tendulkar
Warne
The old Pietersen
Hmm - for pure interest hard to argue with WG and CB Fry, but including Boycott is surely a tactical error: it wouldn't be 5 minutes before WG or Warney told him to put a sock in it and then you can say goodbye to an enjoyable evening.
ReplyDeleteTempting to go for a mad hatters tea party, so Derek Randall, Jack Meyer, Jack Russell, plus Bumble to crack wise and Brian Johnston to laugh at them.
Or how about getting in David Boon, Merv Hughes, a Chappel or two, Rod Marsh, I T Botham...and not letting them have any booze...
Btw - Ceci, those are some pretty eccentric crushes. Atherton? Gilchrist looks like the Green Goblin.
ReplyDeleteYes Ceci, I get the delights of Dan's beard, but Athers... I guess he'd be reliable though, and do the washing up.
ReplyDeleteFor a really tense evening, we could ask Beefy, Lamb, Imran Khan, Javed, and Ian Chappell...
great post ob
ReplyDeletewhich 5 would you want have pint with as opposed to sup with?
my 5 to dine with
Chris Lewis- bring the drugs
Ganteaume- the bloke who got a hundred and never played test cricket again to talk about luck.
Sylvester Clarke- burly man to keep unwanted guests out, who the hell would mess with him?
Hanse Cronje
My dear victorius Stod (AE Stoddart) he'd drink all night, play cards smoke cigars play tennis at dawn and then score 400 runs in day!
Reserves, Robertson Glasgow, Arthur Collins
John Embuery (2 rebel tours to South Africa - that's impressive venality)
ReplyDeleteNelson Mandela
Steve Biko
Oliver Tambo
Bishop Desmond Tutu
To pick five names entirely at random:
ReplyDeleteSF Barnes
Arthur Mailey
Roy Gilchrist
Javed Miandad
SCG MacGill
Merv Hughes
ReplyDeleteArjun Ranatunga
Geoff Boycott
Navjot Sidhu
and finally, to 'stare' at all of them while they explode on the table, Curtly Ambrose.