Cricket may well be a batsman's game, but here at Wisden.com we believe that the sterling work of all those No. 11s is rarely given the attention it deserves. With this in mind, we are proud to present Battleof the Bunnies, a year-long search for a team of the greatest rabbits – or worst batsmen, if you really must – currently playing Test cricket. The rules are simple: statistical incompetence alone will decide places in the side, and each month an updated World Bunny XI will be published here. Catherine Hanley has a hotline to the selectors ...

Tuesday, December 3, 2002

Disastrous. Calamitous. Catastrophic.

All those adjectives, and many more, have been used to describe the third Test between Australia and England at Perth. But strangely, none of them were applied to the really cataclysmic event of the game, that astonishing 27 from Jason Gillespie.

Yes, the selectors were forced to put down their cold beers and rub their eyes in wonder as Gillespie, who before that had made only five runs in six Tests all year, windmilled his way through just 26 balls to score four fours and - to add insult to injury - the first six of his Test career. The net result of this madness is that Gillespie not only loses top spot in the Bunny XI, but slides all the way down to no. 9.

The insanity was obviously contagious: joining Gillespie towards the foot of the table is that erstwhile shining example of bunniness, Muttiah Muralitharan, who, in a remarkably similar act of folly, scored 27 from 26 balls against South Africa. What on earth is going on?

However, for every loser there is a winner, and the selectors are pleased to report that the long-fancied Bangladesh bunnies have now managed to hop their way to the top of the XI: the new captain is Manjural Islam, who, with his compatriot Talha Jubair, forms a West Indian sandwich at the top with the estimable Cameron Cuffy as the filling. Cuffy might still need to get dismissed a few more times before he can achieve true greatness, but at least he's never managed to score more than four runs at a time. Others should take note.

Elswhere in the table the quiet-yet-steady Ashish Nehra holds on to fourth spot, and an Englishman finally appears in the XI: everyone knew Steve Harmison was one of England's few shining lights on the Ashes tour, and here's the proof.

Meanwhile the welcome return to Test cricket of the Zimbabweans heralds the reappearance of Ray Price in the Bunny XI, but normality is once more turned on its head as bona fide batsman Hamilton Masakadza sneaks in at No. 11. The selectors are now off to lie down quietly in a darkened room.

The Bunny XI(as at 3/12/02)

1 Manjural Islam (Ban) (capt) 0, 2, 0, 0, 4, 8, 0, 5 av: 2.37

2 Cameron Cuffy (WI) 0, 1*, 4, 1, 0*, 0*, 3*, 0*, 4*, 0, 0 av: 2.60

3 Talha Jubair (Ban) 0*, 5*, 0, 0, 3, 4*, 0, 1* av: 3.25

4 Ashish Nehra (Ind) 0, 0, 0*, 3, 1*, 0, 0*, 0, 19, 0, 0* av: 3.29

5 Adam Sanford (WI) 1, 12, 1, 0, 2, 1, 5, 1, 0*, 12 av: 3.89

6 Steve Harmison (Eng) 3, 3*, 0, 6, 5 av: 4.25

7 Glenn McGrath (Aus) 2, 4*, 0, 4, 5*, 0, 3, 0, 8* av: 4.33

8 Ray Price (Zim) 0, 3, 2, 5*, 1, 12 av: 4.60

9 Jason Gillespie (Aus) 0, 1, 3, 0, 1, 0*, 0*, 27 av: 5.33

10 Muttiah Muralitharan (SL) 0, 0*, 6, 0, 0, 10, 0, 27, 0* av: 6.14

11 Hamilton Masakadza (Zim) 9, 0, 0, 16 av: 6.25

This month's Guest Twelfth Man is Sri Lankan batsman Russel Arnold, whose scores this month of 0, 0, 2, 4 should be an example to some of his less-illustrious teammates.

Catherine Hanley is a university lecturer, a keen cricketer and a regular contributor to Wisden.com. She was born in Tasmania and now lives in Sheffield, England.

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