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Your Favourite Cricketer of All-Time?

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    Your Favourite Cricketer of All-Time?

    I was pondering this last night. If it's best player I have seen in my time, then it is a toss-up between Imran Khan and Shane Warne. If it's who captured my imagination between the key ages of 12 and 14, then Viv Richards or Joel Garner. English cricketer would be David Bairstow because he seemed to be different from the prevailing England culture of that time and was an early exponent of being a one-day specialist who could chase down seemingly impossible totals. Best England player is Botham by a mile and I doubt he will be equalled for a very long time but he was detestable as a character, the sporting version of the nasty changes occurring in English culture generally from 1977-90.

    This is clearly a shameless nostalgia thread too.
    Last edited by Satchmo Distel; 25-07-2018, 09:56.

    #2
    Viv Richards and Andy Roberts for me (with a nod towards Malcolm Marshall, and let;s face it nearly everyone in that WI team). I think for both the categories you mention - best and favourite.

    But honourable mentions also to Imran Khan, Wasim Akram, Murali, Richard Hadlee, David Gower, Geoff Boycott, Chris Old, David Bairstow, Gavaskar, Tendulkar, and no doubt loads that i will be reminded of as this thread progesses

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      #3
      Curtly Ambrose. Watching him tear into English batting lineups was an awesome sight even on TV. Followed by The Stare when the batsman refused to oblige by nicking behind.

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        #4
        Richards and Marshall for both best and favourite (and what ad hoc said in his first graf)

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          #5
          Wow - shameless nostalgia indeed. I could come up with about 100 different answers for this one for a variety of reasons, but using a category of "which player were you most excited/keen to see play on the way to a match", this is what I've come up with. Also note the boyhood of watching matches at Grace Road and an adulthood of mostly Test cricket -

          For Leicestershire: Andy Roberts, with an honourable mention to Norman McVicar who seemed to win us the 75 Championship singlehandledly with both bat and ball. Gower sullied his reputation by skulking off to Hampshire for more money.

          Against Leicestershire: Richard Hadlee who was so much better than any bowler (except above) at Grace Road. Honourable mentions to Patrick Patterson who's ferocity made Curtly Ambrose look like Derek Pringle and Malcolm Marshall who was just brilliant.

          For England: Marcus Trescothick. Just loved his bash it style. On his day Jimmy Anderson was/is unplayable but much too surly to make the top spot. Botham would have probably made it but his off-field shenanigans and his rubbish commentary drop him down.

          Against England: So, so many. In the top 5 would be Ambrose, Lara, Tendulkar, Warne, but the number 1 simply has to be Viv Richards who was just utterly sublime.

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            #6
            Allan Donald for me. He captured my imagination as a young boy. I think my first sight of live cricket would have been him running in as we entered the Hollies stand as Edgbaston late for a Sunday League game.

            And for a batsman Alvin Kallicharran, he was magical with the bat.

            Graeme Hick's prodigious run scoring captured my imagination but that's more from the pages of Playfair and Wisden than seeing him play.

            From that same period, I never saw him play but I spent hours reading Imran Khan's Cricket Skills.

            The West Indies teams of that period are almost mythical for me. They don't seem to exist as people but instead purely as names on Test Match Special and statistical lines in newspapers.

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              #7
              Shane Warne for me. I have fond childhood memories of Viv Richards and the rest of that West Indies team but I didn't really follow cricket enough to really appreciate the individuals.

              Warne's era, and that of the dominant Australian side he played in, was around the time I started really getting the sport - having ignorantly dismissed it as boring for quite some time before. Wish I'd got to see them and him play.

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                #8
                Mark Taylor. Got into cricket in the long hot summer of 89 and he was always there on the telly, a young organised batsman scoring runs against the England rabble, then he'd reappear every few summers and do it all again. Fine captain and a real leader of men. Atherton was always my favourite England player but Taylor was just a better version of him.

                Saw him play live once - 21 years ago today apparently - c Stewart b Gough 0.

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                  #9
                  I supported Hampshire as a small boy - we had a neighbour from Portsmouth who was also the local cricket club 2nd team umpire, and he influenced me greatly. Hampshire were very lucky in those days to have Barry Richards, Gordon Greenidge amd Andy Roberts in the team, so my favourite was whichever one of those was on fire at the time.

                  More recent fave - Ian Austin. He gave all us bigger cricketers hope.

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                    #10
                    It's a tough one, but having watched as a youngster in the 70s and 80s I find it hard to go past the others mentioned here, in particular Richards,Marshall, Garner, Gower. Later on I always liked watching Darren Gough.

                    From watching Sunday League on TV, Monty Lynch. Not sure if he was even that good, but he seemed flamboyant.

                    I lived here through the dominant Aussie period, and many of them were hard to like. But Jason Gillespie never got enough credit with Warne and McGrath on the scene. Plus he's part Greek and part Aboriginal, among other things. That can't be bad.

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                      #11
                      Very hard question indeed, but for sheer wizardry, Wasim Akram. Malcolm Marshall and Shane Warne not too far behind, but he did, as we say, make the ball talk.

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                        #12
                        Great nostalgia, thanks all. Let's jump the Zhaark...

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                          #13
                          Oh. And Derek Randall. And Colin Dredge.

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                            #14
                            Dave Podmore.

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                              #15
                              Curtly Ambrose for me. However, i think the the best cricketer in my lifetime is Jacques Kallis.

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                                #16
                                I went off Viv Richards a bit after he became captain and became very argumentative, while delivering less with the bat to justify his arrogance, (he became rather Australian-like), but from 1976-84 he was as good as any player I have seen and played on a higher plane than his peers. Probably the closest to watching Bradman the game has seen since Bradman.

                                Marshall is the best fast bowler of all-time bar none.

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                                  #17
                                  My favourite was Gower. Was at the oval in 85 to see him and Gooch put on about 350 for he 2nd wicket against he Aussies. On form he made he game ridiculously easy. Also his vulnerability appealed.

                                  Best - saw Richards's couple of times in the 70s hewasamazing.

                                  Alan knott has a special place in my heart.

                                  Favourite bowler was John snow.

                                  Saw sylvester Clarke playing for Surrey. He was scary from he stands and you could see the opposition batters were crapping he selves. He was so good he groundsman changed he wicket for him.

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                                    #18
                                    Originally posted by multipleman78 View Post
                                    Curtly Ambrose for me. However, i think the the best cricketer in my lifetime is Jacques Kallis.
                                    Curtly Ambrose for me too. No better sight to watch in cricket than him roaring in towards the wicket (unless you're the batsman, of course).

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                                      #19
                                      And as a batsman, I really enjoyed watching Michael Hussey. Again the Northants connection, of course.

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                                        #20
                                        Viv Richards. I Watch Fire in Babylon more than I should. He's cool as fuck.

                                        This is going to be controversial/unpopular, but the way Kevin Pietersen and his stupid skunk head smashed his way onto the scene in 2005 was unreal. I'd not really seen anything like it before. I loved watching him bat in the one dayers and then later the tests.

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                                          #21
                                          Ian Austin is a tremendous shout. When you needed someone to bowl a one day over and never, ever concede more than 4, bosh about 25 in the run chase, and then properly joint and prepare a prime heffer of beef in the off-season, he was your man. (I do remember that correctly about the butchery, no?). No less than Wasim Akram said he had the best yorker in the world.
                                          Last edited by diggedy derek; 25-07-2018, 21:23.

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                                            #22
                                            I'm a Curtly fan too, although it's seems unfair not to show Courtney a bit of love too.

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                                              #23
                                              Originally posted by multipleman78 View Post
                                              Curtly Ambrose for me. However, i think the the best cricketer in my lifetime is Jacques Kallis.
                                              Kallis and Ntini (who I liked a lot) sat down near me in a Sydney food court once. Kallis had the biggest neck to head ratio I’ve ever seen.

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                                                #24
                                                It must have just been from pictures but I really wanted a Slazenger bat as that's what Viv used.

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                                                  #25
                                                  Gary Kirsten. A man who truly conquered his limitations, and as really good man as well.

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