From the greats like Glenn McGrath to the current junior stars dreaming of the highest level, there's a long history of success.

But who's the greatest to play in our region?

This week we'll be bringing you the best players to play in Western Zone since the year 2000.

Firstly, there is one rule we've created. We really want the best of the bush so anyone who has gone on to play at a state level or international level, or played in the Big Bash League, is ineligible.

We don't want Nathan Lyon, Trent Copeland, Daniel Hughes, Chris Tremain and Jono Dean filling our top 10. We want the players who led Western Zone to country glory or even those club legends who simply had no interest playing representative cricket.

Simply, we want the best cricketers from Western Zone.

We'll be bringing you 10 players a day and today we start with 50-41. There's plenty to like about this batch so you can only imagine the quality of players we're going to see in the coming days.

The red-headed firebrand could have found himself a lot higher on this list if it wasn't for persistent injuries which all but forced him to stop bowling just when he was seemingly set for takeoff.

McNaught burst onto the scene as a teenage fast bowler at Cowra and quickly rose through the ranks to become part of the Western Zone side which won the NSW Country Championships in 2014/15.

Left-arm fast bowlers are hard to handle at the best of times and McNaught's speed made things even more difficult. His ability to whack a ball when batting wasn't bad either.

One of many players who leave you wondering what could have been.

Perhaps the most intimidating figure on this list. The man mountain from the back of Bourke bowls fast and hits the ball hard.

He was a star of the RSL Whitney Cup in Dubbo more than a decade ago before embarking on a trip to play for a number of years in Scotland.

Since returning he's been a key figure for club sides CYMS and Macquarie, and Dubbo's representative side while he really made his presence felt for the Orana Outlaws in the Regional Bash Twenty20 competition.

Coming in off just a few steps, Strachan thunders them down with his pace and height causing all sorts of trouble for batters.

'Pistol' Pete was a genuine quick. Maybe not your towering fast bowler like you would expect, but Fairall was all hustle and bustle and would constantly be at the batters.

Someone who once bowled a complete innings during a representative match for Cowra, Fairall was a combination of workhorse and menacing threat.

A tireless performer with the ball and also a someone who contributed with the bat numerous times, Fairall captained Cowra and also represented Western Zone.

Huge in stature and huge in talent. A towering fast bowler, Symington arrived as an exciting youngster and part of a talented new generation at Parkes early last decade.

His height meant he was hugely difficult to face, especially on a pitch which had a little life in it.

A Western Zone representative who offered a bit of x-factor, Symington also spent time in South Australia and starred for Adelaide Hills club Urialda.

A master of scoring runs at Cowra for what seemed like forever. He even returned a couple of years ago and was still banging them as his Bowling Club made it all the way to the Lachlan grand final.

Quietly spoken but brutal when hitting straight down the ground especially, Graham formed a formidable opening partnership at Cowra with future NSW star Daniel Hughes during what was a golden cricketing era for the town.

Cowra made the final eight of the SCG Cup and Graham was a big part of that while, like most on this list, he played for Western Zone at NSW country championships.

A player who just seemed to always do his job. Whether it was through his stylish batting or his more than handy leg-spin, Knight was always in the game.

A loyal servant to cricket in his hometown of Mudgee for a number of years, Knight spent one season in Dubbo with the Newtown club as a youngster then returned in 2013/14 and helped the Macquarie club to a place in the RSL Whitney Cup grand final.

He was also a member of Dubbo's Western Premier League and SCG Cup squads. and was always just a player who could be relied on.

If this was a list of players from the 1990s then the all-rounder from Orange would certainly be up a lot higher.

To given you an idea of how good Evers was over a long period, he was the top-scorer in Orange cricket in 1988/89 and 89/90 and then did it again in 1995/96 and 2005/06. Just to add to it even more, he also topped the wickets in Orange in 2000/01.

That kind of sustained quality over a long period doesn't just happen. He may have been at his best during the 90s but he was still doing it at the start of this century. Evers was a genuine star and remains one of the true greats of Orange cricket.

A hard-hitting batsmen who was one of the very best in Bathurst for the entire 2010-2020 decade.

Toole is another Western Zone representative and is an aggressive middle-order bat, the type you love to see come in and lift the run-rate and demoralise fielding teams.

It wasn't always perfect - Toole could definitely have a lean patch from time-to-time - but when he was on it was always worth watching and that helped him to the title of Mitchell Cricket Council player of the season in both 2013/14 and 2015/16.

May not be a name familiar with everyone around the western area but those in Dubbo are certainly all too aware of how good the former Indian under 19 representative was.

After arriving in Australia from India in 2000, Bansal moved to Dubbo a year later. A couple of years after that he was playing for CYMS and quickly became one of the best batters and most respected players in the competition.

Like Glenn Maxwell recently going berserk after cramping up, Bansal was known for doing something similar and he had a knack for blasting what were some elite bowling attacks around Dubbo at the time.

Sadly, 'JB' died at the age of 47 in 2015 after a battle with illness.

In January of 2005, Stu Milne blasted an insane 250 not out in Orange and it was said by people who saw it that it was a "once-in-a-lifetime knock" and said we'd "never seen anything like that around here again".

Well, 13 years later Milne was playing in the Parkes club competition and eclipsed it by smashing a simply stunning 271 not out for Reedy Creek in a 30-over match.

Those two efforts alone prove his power and class and basically tell you all you need to know about an incredibly clean striker of the ball.

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