Viv v Warne???

lets put it this way. if i have to pick a bowler to bowl to the likes of sachin & lara, and get their wicket, mcgrath would be my first pick

wasim's dismissals

mcgrath's dismissals

mcgrath's are by far the more impressive. just to name two players, he got sachin/lara a total of 21 times in 33 matches. wasim 3 times in 14 matches

The One wrote:lets put it this way. if i have to pick a bowler to bowl to the likes of sachin & lara, and get their wicket, mcgrath would be my first pick

wasim's dismissals

mcgrath's dismissals

mcgrath's are by far the more impressive. just to name two players, he got sachin/lara a total of 21 times in 33 matches. wasim 3 times in 14 matches

Lara himself rates Wasim higher than Mcgrath(or any other bowler).

i have read almost every batsman/bowler rating almost every other batsman/bowler as the best at different points in time. lara had quite an ego and he hates mcgrath, so i doubt he would ever 'big him up'

The One wrote:i have read almost every batsman/bowler rating almost every other batsman/bowler as the best at different points in time. lara had quite an ego and he hates mcgrath, so i doubt he would ever 'big him up'

They asked Lara this question AFTER Mcgrath had rated Lara the finest batsman of the era so i am not sure if there was anything personal between the 2.

Forget about Lara even if you randomly picked 20 batsmen around the world and asked them who they thought was better bowler Wasim or Mcgrath then i am sure Wasim would get more than 80% of the votes.

They might say that Wasim was the better bowler (although they'd be wrong) but I bet 90% would rather have McGrath in their side.

Wasim had too much variety for his own good. He bowled six different balls an over, he would swing it too much to beat the bat, and seam is too much to go down leg side. He forogt the simple strategy of bowling it to hit the top of off stump.

All his skills make him a fantasy cricketer, as good as any born, but he never fufilled his talent.

McGrath every time for me.

BT, Amby shits over both of them.

Thats the thinga sometimes he was too good to take wickets e.g i remember in the 2000 series against the WI and SL he was bowling about as well as a bowler can possibly bowl yet he only managed to pick 23 or 24 wickets in 5 test matches.

Few months ago i wrote a short story about Wasim's meeting with Ridley Jacobs on the tour of WI in 2000

Background

After the heartbreaking tour of 1988 and a highly embarrassing one in 1993 the Pakistanis returned to the Caribbean seeking their first series win in the WI. The first two tests of the series couldn't produce a result even after a fairly rapid start to the games . It had been a fairly frustrating series for both teams because the 1st test was ruined by rain and in the second test match WI wasted a huge lead while the Pakistanis failed to capitalize on an excellent performance from their two young openers Imran Nazir and M Wasim.

The final test match played at the Antigua recreation ground turned in to an absolute thriller. After a see saw battle the hosts were left 216 runs to win the test match and the series and by the end of the 4th day W Hinds had put them in an excellent position where they needed mere 72 runs with 7 wickets in hand.

March 29th 2000- story begins

As expected Wasim Akram was given the ball to start the proceedings on day 5. He removed a young R Sarwan with a big in dipper hitting Sarwan around about the knee and right in front of the stumps. Sarwan's dismissal(5th W Indian wicket) brought the wicketkeeper Jacobs to the crease, the 32 year old who had been tagged as WI's success stories of the late 90s. Jacobs was renowoned to be a fine player of pace bowling which he later proved by playing some excellent innings against AUS and SA.

WI had been so confident about his ability against pace bowling that in the 1999 world cup he was used as an opener how ever in this particular series Jacobs had looked totally out of depth against Wasim and even in this particular innings(the last innings of the series) nothing had changed and Jacobs was continually being embarrassed by Wasim but was lucky enough to survive the over. Before the start of the next Wasim over the 2 batsmen(Adams and Jacobs) had a meeting where they decided that Jacobs was going to be shielded in such a way that only Adams would have to face Wasim. So here we had the success story of the 90s, an ODI opener and a very fine player of pace bowling being SHIELDED by a top order batsman. In a situation where WI were trying to eke out as many runs as possible poor old Ridley was being kept away from strike even when there was a comfortable single avaliable

The pressure of the possibility of facing Wasim was so huge that in an attempt to get a quick single in Mushy's over to give Adams the strike for Wasim's over poor Ridely was run out by M Yousuf

Another point is that McGrath bowled amazingly in the 00's. In the same time frame when batsmen are derided for cashing in on all the flat wickets......

Wasim bowled on flat tracks all his life.

Paul Keating wrote:
McGrath every time for me.

BT, Amby shits over both of them.

Yep. Wholeheartedly agree.

As a cricket lover, there was little I enjoyed more than watching Wasim bowl when he was interested. I would often shake my head at his skill level.

Howver, as an Australian fan, I would take McGrath in my team over Wasim.

PlanetPakistan wrote:

The One wrote:i have read almost every batsman/bowler rating almost every other batsman/bowler as the best at different points in time. lara had quite an ego and he hates mcgrath, so i doubt he would ever 'big him up'

They asked Lara this question AFTER Mcgrath had rated Lara the finest batsman of the era so i am not sure if there was anything personal between the 2.

Forget about Lara even if you randomly picked 20 batsmen around the world and asked them who they thought was better bowler Wasim or Mcgrath then i am sure Wasim would get more than 80% of the votes.

... and most of them would rather have Shoaib than McGrath.

lardbucket wrote:

PlanetPakistan wrote:

The One wrote:i have read almost every batsman/bowler rating almost every other batsman/bowler as the best at different points in time. lara had quite an ego and he hates mcgrath, so i doubt he would ever 'big him up'

They asked Lara this question AFTER Mcgrath had rated Lara the finest batsman of the era so i am not sure if there was anything personal between the 2.

Forget about Lara even if you randomly picked 20 batsmen around the world and asked them who they thought was better bowler Wasim or Mcgrath then i am sure Wasim would get more than 80% of the votes.

... and most of them would rather have Shoaib than McGrath.

Name some

PlanetPakistan wrote:Wasim bowled on flat tracks all his life.

Exactly.

I wonder why batsmen from India, Pakistan, SL are sometimes* called FTBs because they've from the region. While bowlers don't get half the credit.

Wasim for me all the way.

* Of course many times they are FTBs.

furriner is right.