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Post by tiptoes on Nov 21, 2020 18:58:28 GMT
The only 2 of note since WWII have been the great Keith Miller and subsequent Richie Benaud which was nigh on 60 plus years ago.
Shane Watson with a batting average of 35 and bowling average of 33 is reasonable enough but he didn't reach the 100 wicket benchmark. Paul Reiffel nearly completed the 1000 run and 100 wicket double but fell short of the batting landmark and never scored a century, his averages were perfectly respectable. You couldn't call Mitchell Johnson an all rounder with a batting average of just 21. Simon O'Donnell and Andrew Symonds never came close, nor Greg Matthews.
There may be some limited over players who can perform with bat and ball but it's Test matches that are the yardstick and no major cricket nation has produced so few with the possible exception of Sri Lanka and possibly Pakistan.
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Post by coverpoint on Nov 22, 2020 17:48:13 GMT
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Post by tiptoes on Nov 22, 2020 19:01:27 GMT
First Cameron White and now Cameron Green. Still a long way to go but best of luck.
15 years or so ago a young kid called Burt Cockley who played State cricket in Oz later got called up for the Australian one day Test side when Brett Lee and Peter Siddle had to go home through injury (sadly the game against India was abandoned because of a monsoon) had a season with Battle CC in the E Sx League. Even in the County League he would have been a whirlwind but at a lower level, all the players in my son's Willingdon team agreed they had never faced anyone so fast. Sadly back and knee injuries meant he never fulfilled his potential and retired prematurely. A decade earlier when I played against Battle there was some younger lad carting our bowling around on their postage stamp pitch whose name was Michael Yardy. Luckily I didn't have the pleasure of facing his bowling.
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Post by tiptoes on Nov 23, 2020 6:14:29 GMT
I overlooked Mitchell Marsh but he's a bit of a poor man's Ben Stokes and has yet to establish himself in the Australian side as a permanent feature.
Don't suppose we will ever get back to the days when Hadlee, Botham, Imran and Kapil, world class all rounders, were all competing at the same time representing different countries, and that didn't include S Africa who were banned from the international circuit. The country of Jacques Kallis and Sean Pollock and their precursors Clive Rice and Mike Proctor who were born at the wrong time and didn't have the opportunity to fulfill their potential on the world stage. One person who was fortunate enough to see out his career before the ban was Trevor Goddard, a sometimes forgotten figure but probably the best in the world at that time after Gary Sobers.
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Post by ashingtonmartlet on Dec 10, 2020 23:19:25 GMT
They got by for so many years in the 1990s and early 2000s with 4 bowlers (1 spinner, 3 seamers) that they were able to manage with some part time overs from their top 6. The last player they had closest to being an all-rounder (though even he ended up opening the batting) was Shane Watson - probably just about good enough as a 4th seamer.
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Post by tiptoes on Dec 12, 2020 16:03:44 GMT
They got by for so many years in the 1990s and early 2000s with 4 bowlers (1 spinner, 3 seamers) that they were able to manage with some part time overs from their top 6. The last player they had closest to being an all-rounder (though even he ended up opening the batting) was Shane Watson - probably just about good enough as a 4th seamer. Steve Waugh, Michael Clarke and Marcus North to name 3. At one time SW was a bit of an all rounder until he focussed on batting. Another great 1 day player but couldn't quite cut the mustard at Test level was Michael Bevan who was in the team for batting and bowling. I heard that he was quite a scary figure amongst team mates when Sussex employed him. |
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Post by coverpoint on Dec 13, 2020 13:11:03 GMT
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Post by coverpoint on Dec 17, 2020 4:28:34 GMT
Green making his test debut. Wade preferred as a opener to Harris.
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Post by tiptoes on Feb 10, 2021 18:47:23 GMT
Another Aussie who never realised his potential was Gary Gilmour who put England to the sword in the 1975 World Cup semi final with his batting and bowling performances and in the final where the Aussies lost he got a fifer and put on a cameo batting display.
His ending was particularly tragic after being executed in the USA in 1977 after 2 murders. Although his legacy includes a book by Norman Mailer and a song by The Adverts (me neither) who made a song "Through Gary Gilmour's Eyes" which achieved moderate success. Apparently, after his death his eyes were removed for transplanting due to his request that his body should be used for Science.
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Post by flashblade on Feb 10, 2021 18:59:29 GMT
Another Aussie who never realised his potential was Gary Gilmour who put England to the sword in the 1975 World Cup semi final with his batting and bowling performances and in the final where the Aussies lost he got a fifer and put on a cameo batting display. His ending was particularly tragic after being executed in the USA in 1977 after 2 murders. Although his legacy includes a book by Norman Mailer and a song by The Adverts (me neither) who made a song "Through Gary Gilmour's Eyes" which achieved moderate success. Apparently, after his death his eyes were removed for transplanting due to his request that his body should be used for Science. Is this in deliberate bad taste, tiptoes? The cricketer Gilmour died of cancer in 2014. Nothing to do with the criminal, Gary Gilmore, who, as you say, was executed in 1977. |
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Post by liquidskin on Feb 10, 2021 21:19:04 GMT
Wouldn't be in bad taste would it Flash. Bad knowledge for sure. Sounds like Tippy got confused on Wiki.
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