Who are world cricket's current GREAT players?

Henry wrote:

beamer wrote:England don't do "greats" anyway, who was our last one, Botham?

Our runs and wickets aggregate records are pitiful compared to the world records, despite how many Tests we play. Our players are either late developers, or burn out early, or both... if Tendulkar was English he would probably have waited until he was 26 for his debut then been discarded after a poor series at about 31.

I think history will judge Cook and KP as greats. Maybe even Prior as well, although his keeping isn't always fantastic.

Probably will all go down as very good Test players, but not quite in that league of true legends which you probably have to average well above 50 over a long career, in terms of specialist batsmen these days. Cook has the potential to set some aggregate run scoring records that will be tough for English players to beat, but with his style of play and now the added burden of captaincy I'd be surprised if his average increases much from its current level.

Swanny is another guy who could certainly be classified an English great. 200 test wickets at an average of 29 is very good-going for an English spinner. ATG? Probably not, but certainly up there with, say, Underwood.

Very good for a non-chucker in this day and age. If he reaches that 200 mark, he'll be the 29th player to get 200 wickets and 1000 runs.

Henry wrote:Swanny is another guy who could certainly be classified an English great. 200 test wickets at an average of 29 is very good-going for an English spinner. ATG? Probably not, but certainly up there with, say, Underwood.

And if we'd given him a go a bit sooner who knows how many he could have had... hard to believe he's only been a Test cricketer for 4 years really.

Aye, 1999-2000 was too early for him, but he should have been picked again around 2005-06 when he was showing signs of being a more mature cricketer, and by that stage most observers were saying he was definitely one of the best spinners in the Country. Feltch was just too bloody stubborn to admit that Swann was no longer the cocky, misbehaving youth he once was.

Saeed Ajmal is similar to Swann considering he started very late.

Ajmal is a great bowler in my book. With the exception of Kohli i don't any one can play him well.

Enough said, imo. 15 degrees? Hmm, ok. 45 degrees? No f*cking way.

Henry wrote:

Dello wrote:Rafiq?

Holy smokes. It's been a bad week for mediocre Asian spinners.

At least he gives it a rip. A good number 8 batsman, as well. The closest we have to Swanny clone.

I find it an interesting subject- has a successful Test class spinner ever been 'cloned' (either in succession or years later) by the same team? It seems to me that, at that level, they're all different.

Current and great?

Tendulkar, Kallis, Ponting.

Mick Sawyer wrote:Current and great?

Tendulkar, Kallis, Ponting.

+ Sanga and Steyn with Chanders, Jaya and Viru as "modern greats".

Jaya's record outside Lanka isn't all that flash though.

furriner wrote:

Henry wrote:

Dello wrote:Rafiq?

Holy smokes. It's been a bad week for mediocre Asian spinners.

At least he gives it a rip. A good number 8 batsman, as well. The closest we have to Swanny clone.

I find it an interesting subject- has a successful Test class spinner ever been 'cloned' (either in succession or years later) by the same team? It seems to me that, at that level, they're all different.

Saqlain Mushtaq led to several 'clones'- Early Shoaib Malik, and Mohammed Hafeez.

tricycle wrote:Jaya's record outside Lanka isn't all that flash though.

I agree hence rating him behind Sanga.. But 10000 runs at 50 odd is still a might achievement.

JGK wrote:

tricycle wrote:Jaya's record outside Lanka isn't all that flash though.

I agree hence rating him behind Sanga.. But 10000 runs at 50 odd is still a might achievement.

Aye, fair enough.

JGK wrote:

tricycle wrote:Jaya's record outside Lanka isn't all that flash though.

I agree hence rating him behind Sanga.. But 10000 runs at 50 odd is still a might achievement.

Yeah, Sanga above Jaya for me. Apart from Bradman, they are probably the two best players in their own conditions in history. I think they both average around 70 in Sri Lanka.

Henry wrote:

JGK wrote:

tricycle wrote:Jaya's record outside Lanka isn't all that flash though.

I agree hence rating him behind Sanga.. But 10000 runs at 50 odd is still a might achievement.

Yeah, Sanga above Jaya for me. Apart from Bradman, they are probably the two best players in their own conditions in history. I think they both average around 70 in Sri Lanka.

Weekes averaged about 70 in the West Indies.

DG Bradman (Aus) 1928-1948 33 50 6 4322 299* 98.22 18 10 5
GA Headley (WI) 1930-1954 10 18 2 1241 270* 77.56 5 2 1
RM Cowper (Aus) 1964-1968 9 14 0 1061 307 75.78 3 5 1
CL Walcott (WI) 1948-1960 25 42 5 2584 220 69.83 11 9 0
VS Hazare (India) 1948-1952 13 20 4 1113 164* 69.56 5 4 2
ED Weekes (WI) 1948-1958 23 40 5 2420 207 69.14 7 10 2
RG Pollock (SA) 1964-1970 14 26 4 1513 274 68.77 4 9 1
GS Sobers (WI) 1954-1974 44 75 14 4075 365* 66.80 14 12 6
CA Davis (WI) 1971-1973 11 21 5 1065 183 66.56 3 4 0
Mohammad Yousuf (Pak) 1998-2007 32 52 5 3067 223 65.25 12 11 2
H Sutcliffe (Eng) 1924-1935 33 47 7 2584 161 64.60 9 14 0
KC Sangakkara (SL) 2000-2012 63 101 11 5676 287 63.06 18 20 5
MJ Clarke (Aus) 2004-2012 42 65 9 3523 329* 62.91 12 10 2
DPMD Jayawardene (SL) 1997-2012 75 118 9 6746 374 61.88 22 31 3
Javed Miandad (Pak) 1976-1993 60 86 13 4481 280* 61.38 14 17 0
MEK Hussey (Aus) 2005-2012 40 67 11 3367 195 60.12 12 13 7
DCS Compton (Eng) 1937-1956 47 76 10 3963 278 60.04 13 18 5
LG Rowe (WI) 1972-1976 16 24 2 1310 302 59.54 5 2 1
Younis Khan (Pak) 2000-2009 19 33 1 1898 313 59.31 7 5 2
J Hardstaff jnr (Eng) 1935-1948 14 21 3 1067 205* 59.27 4 5 3
AD Nourse (SA) 1935-1950 20 38 6 1881 231 58.78 6 8 3
BC Lara (WI) 1992-2006 65 111 5 6217 400* 58.65 17 26 8
JH Kallis (SA) 1995-2012 82 134 19 6738 224 58.59 22 32 8
RT Ponting (Aus) 1995-2012 90 150 21 7546 257 58.49 23 38 9
S Chanderpaul (WI) 1994-2012 71 117 23 5496 203* 58.46 17 29 7
V Sehwag (India) 2001-2012 47 80 3 4493 319 58.35 13 19 5
Zaheer Abbas (Pak) 1969-1985 36 51 9 2444 235* 58.19 8 5 1
ML Hayden (Aus) 1996-2009 56 98 8 5210 380 57.88 21 16 5
KD Walters (Aus) 1965-1981 37 62 9 3065 242 57.83 10 18 2
L Hutton (Eng) 1937-1954 44 77 9 3930 364 57.79 13 15 4
IJL Trott (Eng) 2009-2012 18 31 4 1551 226 57.44 4 7 0
PBH May (Eng) 1951-1961 39 57 7 2865 285* 57.30 9 14 5
Kamran Akmal (Pak) 2004-2009 16 23 4 1078 158* 56.73 4 4 1
WM Lawry (Aus) 1962-1971 30 54 4 2818 205 56.36 8 15 3
DL Haynes (WI) 1978-1994 49 84 15 3868 167 56.05 10 22 5
M Azharuddin (India) 1984-2000 46 66 5 3412 199 55.93 13 11 2
DB Vengsarkar (India) 1977-1990 54 80 13 3725 166 55.59 13 15 5
FMM Worrell (WI) 1948-1962 25 40 6 1884 237 55.41 4 11 4
SR Tendulkar (India) 1990-2012 85 139 15 6841 217 55.16 22 29 4
TT Samaraweera (SL) 2001-2012 43 67 12 3023 159 54.96 8 17 4
HP Tillakaratne (SL) 1992-2004 41 60 14 2522 204* 54.82 6 12 3
IR Bell (Eng) 2004-2012 44 70 13 3123 235 54.78 11 17 5
KP Pietersen (Eng) 2005-2012 48 79 3 4149 226 54.59 14 15 5
GS Chappell (Aus) 1970-1984 55 96 13 4515 204 54.39 16 21 8
LRPL Taylor (NZ) 2008-2012 20 35 3 1732 151 54.12 5 9 0
NS Sidhu (India) 1983-1998 23 33 1 1726 131 53.93 5 9 1
BC Booth (Aus) 1962-1966 13 23 3 1076 169 53.80 4 5 1
Inzamam-ul-Haq (Pak) 1993-2007 49 79 10 3709 329 53.75 11 20 9
Mudassar Nazar (Pak) 1977-1988 35 52 6 2467 231 53.63 8 10 2
CC Hunte (WI) 1958-1965 20 35 4 1658 260 53.48 3 9 2

Wow:

MJ Clarke (Aus) 2004-2012 42 65 9 3523 329* 62.91 12 10 2

M Yousuf is still a "current" player

Enron used to be a great current player.

PlanetPakistan wrote:Saeed Ajmal is similar to Swann considering he started very late.

Ajmal is a great bowler in my book. With the exception of Kohli i don't any one can play him well.

Because they're reading him from the hand when they should be focussing on the elbow.

Aye,admittedly I haven't faced him, but if it looks like a chuck then it's the doosra, plain and simple.

Brass Monkey wrote:Aye,admittedly I haven't faced him, but if it looks like a chuck then it's the doosra, plain and simple.

But he is cleverer than that. To confuse the batsman he is now chucking the offie.

True but one is 'chuck' and one is 'OH MY F*CKING GOD THAT'S ONE HELLUVA CHEATING F*CKING CHUCK!!!!' Look for the second one...

On current form?

01] SRT
02] SRT
03] SRT
04] SRT
05] SRT
06] SRT
07] SRT
08] SRT
09] Viru
10] Gauti



No other explanation on why they are still in the test team.