Personal favourites, some from my childhood:

Gooch
Boycott
V Richards
Randall
Botham
Sobers
Warne
Qadir
Knott
Hadlee
Garner.

Randall was a character and brilliant fielder

1) Saeed Anwer
2) Matthew Hayden
3) Viv Richards
4) Brian Lara
5) Tendulkar
6) Gary Sobers
7) Glichrist
8) Imran Khan
9) Wasim Akram
10) Shane Warne
11) Dennis Lillee

Hayden
De Villiers
Richards
Tendulkar
Lara
Kallis
Sangakarra
Warne
Wasim
Ambrose
McGrath

Subs: Pietersen, Gilchrist, Anderson, Muralitharan, Botham, Ponting, Waqar

These are players I have seen than go back all the way to W G Grace

1) Anwar
2) Hayden
3) Ponting
4) Lara
5) Sachin
6) Kallis
7) Sangakarra (wk)
8) Akram
9) Warne
10) Steyn
11) McGrath

Sticking to a more test match theme

One dayers:

1) Sachin
2) Jayasuriya
3) Kohli
4) Lara
5) Hussey
6) De Villiers (wk)
7) Stokes
8) Akram
9) Ambrose
10) Muralitharan
11) McGrath

forgot about Ponting. Great player to watch. Akram also.

comment by Barefoot (U19770)
posted 3 days, 16 hours ago
Randall was a character and brilliant fielder
----------------------------------------------------------------------

Yeah, nicknamed Arkle after the racehorse, apparently because of the way he raced around the field.Good batsman though not in the top rank there but, like I said, a personal favourite.

Most elegant/classy/exciting to watch

1) Anwer
2) Klusener
3) Lara
4) Mark Waugh
5) Azharuddin
6) Lara
7) Gilchrist
8) Imran
9) Akram
10) Warne
11) Akhter/Lee

I would replace Imran with Vivian Richards and both will swap their batting positions. If any one does not include these two in most exciting XI or One Day XI, they need to learn a lot more about cricket because no batsman can change the entire situation of the game in such short span of time as these and were very consistent as well

comment by (kash) I'm the Mané - 6 Times Baby (U1108)
posted 2 days, 5 hours ago
These are players I have seen than go back all the way to W G Grace

1) Anwar
2) Hayden
3) Ponting
4) Lara
5) Sachin
6) Kallis
7) Sangakarra (wk)
8) Akram
9) Warne
10) Steyn
11) McGrath

Sticking to a more test match theme
----------------------------------------------------------------------
for my era i would have this but Sehwag for Anwar

I am missing cricket, my league has been postponed and this nice weather makes life without cricket even harder. The County Championship and my league would normally be up and running now.

1. Hayden
2. Trescothick
3. Lara
4. Pietersen
5. Dravid
6. M Clarke
7. M S Gilchrist (wk) (I can't choose between Gilchrist and Dhoni so I'm crossbreeding them)
8. Warne
9. Broad
10. Steyn
11. Anderson

How to increase pace? I am natural inswinger but I feel I should add more pace.