Robert Craddock selects his World Social XI, cricketers you'd happily share a bar with

DARREN Lehmann is set to go back in time to shore up the morale of an Australian cricket team bracing itself for another whirlwind.

Darren Lehmann

DARREN Lehmann is set to go back in time to shore up the morale of an Australian cricket team bracing itself for another whirlwind.

It's interesting to hear a whisper from the Old Dart that Lehmann believes one-hour bonding periods featuring a quiet beer-coffee-Coke just before his side goes out to dinner should be part of Australia's road to redemption.

He has to try something and while it may not make batsmen feel any more comfortable against James Anderson or Graeme Swann this is a good starting point.

In the old days the hotel bar was normally near the foyer and players drifting past at around 6.30pm found even if they didn't have a beer, the company was irresistible.

But in recent years any player spotted in a bar during a Test makes heads crane as quickly as if they had been caught having a secret coffee with the local flamenco dancer.

Ask Matthew Hayden about his favourite memories in cricket and he always finds a place for the nights he sat beside Allan Border and David Boon in the bar at the Westbury Hotel in London on the 1993 Ashes tour listening to their tales.

Boon would head upstairs after a couple of pots at about 11pm, ring his wife Pip and go to bed and Hayden would leave feeling relaxed and inspired.

Cricket owes a lot to its great conversationalists and with these in mind today we unveil our World Social XI - if you were ever in a bar with them, you'd curse the sound of the waiter calling last drinks.

A drum roll please for . . .

Bill Brown

The late opening batsman of the Bradman era was such sought-after company it often took him 30 minutes to reach the front door when he rose from his seat at a function. Even in his eighties he spoke to the likes of Steve Waugh and Mark Taylor as if they were current teammates. Waugh twice had dinner with him and extracted stories about why Bradman was different, why Keith Miller was so cavalier, why everyone loved Stan McCabe and why facing Bill "Tiger" O'Reilly would have been as hard today as it was 70 years ago. Priceless.

Michael Atherton

Cambridge-educated English captain with strong views and that touch of cynicism that always makes for good company. His stories come from outside cricket, including a book he wrote about gambling in which he visited a Gamblers Anonymous meeting to get a feel for his subject.

Jimmy Maher

Natural mimic who could impersonate football callers, coaches and journalists and would even do race calls, with horses named after players. In one phantom call he named a horse Wipeyabumwithfifties after mega-rich Shane Warne.

Ken Rutherford

Carefree former New Zealand cricket captain who loved a beer and a punt and could not give a fig about political correctness or who he shared his opinions with.

Once travelled early and slept on an Australian journalist's couch to ensure he was not on a Kiwi team flight when the Melbourne Cup was run.

Tony Greig

Sadly the wider world never got to appreciate that his best work was done not behind a microphone providing shallow antagonism, but when he was soberly telling stories about the Packer war, Dennis Lillee and being cold-shouldered by the cricket world.

Muthiah Muralidaran

A great talker obsessed by the game to the point during one Indian Premier League plane flight he chewed Michael Hussey's ear so much Hussey fell asleep.

This prompted Matthew Hayden, who was sitting between them, to say "Congratulations Murali . . . you have outcricketed 'Mr Cricket' and are now the biggest cricket nuffy on the planet."

Shane Warne

Had an interesting bar-side presence because for all of the million and one drunken dribblers that routinely hassled him Warne - even with his foibles - was never involved in a major incident.

His life took him everywhere and provided some amazing stories and he was once heard saying: "One thing I have always believed - and I said this to Elton John last night was that . . ."

Adam Gilchrist/Ian Healy

Can't split them. Gilchrist and Healy are both lively characters and good team men who loved to let their hair down after a victory, almost like lifting the lid on a steaming saucepan, before jumping back on the treadmill the next day.

Jason Gillespie

Just loved chatting at the bar and was also a knowledge trivia buff who soaked up quirky information.

Once put on the spot for a piece of offbeat trivia, he replied with: "Do you know all polar bears are left-handed and scientists don't know why?"

Colin Miller

Struggled to sleep and became the very last of the after-midnight drinkers.

Once Australian coach John Buchanan walked past him and said: "Funky, it's after midnight" he replied "That's right 'Buck' . . . time for you to go to bed."

Ryan Harris

How could we leave out a man who could take five wickets in an innings at Lord's but talk with equal gusto about his greyhound's prospects when it returns to racing at Albion Park?