The late Don Bradman chose six members of Australia's 1948 "Invincibles" in his Ashes dream team for a new book which is set to be launched by his biographer, shunning Steve Waugh's all-conquering side of recent years.
Bradman biographer Roland Perry's new book "Bradman's Best Ashes Teams" is to be launched in Australia on Monday and the dream teams were listed in an extract in Sunday's Sun-Herald newspaper.
The Australian XI includes Bradman, Arthur Morris, Neil Harvey, Keith Miller, Don Tallon and Ray Lindwall from the 1948 team which beat England 4-0.
England's team features Jack Hobbs and Len Hutton as the openers, middle-order batsmen Wally Hammond and WG Grace and wicketkeeper Godfrey Evans. All-rounder Ian Botham is the 12th man.
The dream teams were compiled in 1998 and confirmed in 2000, but Perry suggests Adam Gilchrist may have replaced Tallon as Australia's wicketkeeper "had Bradman lived to the middle of 2002".
Bradman, considered the game's premier batsman, died aged 92 in February 2001.
Waugh, the third highest run-scorer in the history of Test cricket who also led Australia to a world record 16 consecutive Test victories, is missing from Bradman's dream team.
Shane Warne, voted one of Wisden's five cricketers of the 20th century, also lost out to spinners Clarrie Grimmett and Bill O'Reilly.
Teams:
Australia: Bill Ponsford, Arthur Morris, Don Bradman, Neil Harvey, Charlie Macartney, Keith Miller, Don Tallon, Ray Lindwall, Dennis Lillee, Bill O'Reilly, Clarrie Grimmett, Richie Benaud (12th man).
England: Jack Hobbs, Len Hutton, Denis Compton, Peter May, Wally Hammond, WG Grace, Godfrey Evans, Fred Trueman, Alec Bedser,SF Barnes, Hedley Verity, Ian Botham (12th man).
South African coach Eric Simons was pleased with the hard work of his squad as they wrapped up their preparations for the three-nation one day series to be held in Morocco starting next week.
Simons was particularly impressed with the form of Western Province all-rounder Jacques Kallis who scored 64 runs off just 56 balls in yesterday's practice match which also involved players from a Northerns Academy XI at SuperSport Park in Centurion.
"It's ridiculous how good he looks and he also bowled well and got the ball to swing," said Simons.
South Africa, Sri Lanka and Pakistan will compete for the $250 000 Morocco Cup in Tangiers next week, the first international tournament to be held in North Africa.
"We've heard that the conditions are very much like the sub-continent, that's why we've picked Paul Adams, because we expect it turn, particularly later in the tournament," added Simons.
Zimbabwe will definitely be a venue for the 2003 Cricket World Cup - that's official.
All five matches scheduled for Harare and Bulawayo will definitely take place in that country, Ali Bacher, executive director of the ICC Cricket World Cup, said on Saturday.
There were fears earlier that the matches scheduled in that country would have to be played in South Africa and the entire World Cup scheduled would have to be re-drawn.
But Bacher announced that two heavyweights of the International Cricket Council - chief executive Malcolm Speed and Campbell Jamieson the commercial manager, who is based in Monaco, will arrive in Johannesburg on Monday before heading off to Harare to officially launch the 2003 Cricket World Cup in Zimbabwe.
"It has always been our aim to take the game to all parts of southern Africa and we were not even thinking of re-scheduling the games originally set for Zimbabwe," Bacher said.
Durham fast bowler Stephen Harmison has replaced the injured Simon Jones in the England squad for the second Test against India starting at Trent Bridge on Thursday.
India are a moderate team in Test cricket and their batting frail, according to former England captain Michael Atherton.
Atapattu, opening in the ab-sence of the dropped Romesh Kaluwitharana, hit 83 off 101 balls, while his captain and opening partner Jayasuriya blasted 40 off 32 as Sri Lanka chased just 227.