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Cricket Books

archie mac

archie mac

International Coach
The Sean said:
Mate, I'm reading the same book and picking my eqivalent 9 XIs...safe to say that KR Miller makes it a lot higher than the 4th XI where Armstrong picked him (I'm not sure anyone outside Kapil Dev's own immediate family has ever ranked him higher than Miller)! Also interesting that he makes no bones about not buying into some of the "myths" that surround some players and ranking them lower than is fashionable (such as Ponsford, Grimmett, even Nugget to a lesser extent). I'd be interested to see what your 9 XIs would be.

I'm really enjoying the book too though - he did a similar book a couple of years ago called Top 10s of Australian cricket, where he also took a different approach to ranking players - he divided up the history of Australian cricket into 10 "eras" and then picked the best player from each era, before ranking them in order to make his Top 10. The rationale being that oft-quoted maxim that a champion in one era would be a champion in any other era so his list was representative of all cricket history. Again, I didn't necessarily agree with his order, but it made for interesting reading.
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His poor rating of Grimmett really annoys me, in the Top 10 book. Also anyone in Bradman's era is at a big disadvantage
 
The Sean

The Sean

Cricketer Of The Year
archie mac said:
His poor rating of Grimmett really annoys me, in the Top 10 book. Also anyone in Bradman's era is at a big disadvantage
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That's a big issue I have with it too - what if Lillee, Trumper or Miller had played in the 1930s? They would only rank, at best, as Australia's 11th greatest player. He really isn't a big Clarrie fan at all, and goes out of his way to say so! He mentions it again more than once in this new book too, when explaining why he ranks Arthur Mailey above him.

The format in his new book also has a flaw in my eyes in that - with all due respect to wicketkeepers - there's no way I'd have 9 of them in my 100 cricketers ever. Perhaps I overrate all-rounders and underrate keepers, but a top 100 list that - nominally at least - has 9 of each seems skewed to me.

Still, as Armstrong himself says, it's an exercise in fun and half the point is that he's not a panel of experts, he's just a guy with an opinion like the rest of us, and we can agree or disagree with him as we like. :)
 
archie mac

archie mac

International Coach
The Sean said:
That's a big issue I have with it too - what if Lillee, Trumper or Miller had played in the 1930s? They would only rank, at best, as Australia's 11th greatest player. He really isn't a big Clarrie fan at all, and goes out of his way to say so! He mentions it again more than once in this new book too, when explaining why he ranks Arthur Mailey above him.

The format in his new book also has a flaw in my eyes in that - with all due respect to wicketkeepers - there's no way I'd have 9 of them in my 100 cricketers ever. Perhaps I overrate all-rounders and underrate keepers, but a top 100 list that - nominally at least - has 9 of each seems skewed to me.

Still, as Armstrong himself says, it's an exercise in fun and half the point is that he's not a panel of experts, he's just a guy with an opinion like the rest of us, and we can agree or disagree with him as we like. :)
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Fair enough, he is not a bad writer, ghosts all of Steve Waugh's books.

I must admit I would rank Grimmett in front of Mailey and both behind Tiger:)
 
The Sean

The Sean

Cricketer Of The Year
archie mac said:
Where would you place Warne?
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Mate, for years I stayed misty-eyed over the greats of the past and stuck to an O'Reilly > Warne opinion, but it has to be said that I've come around these days. I have to put Warney at the top of the pile, for his sheer success and influence over such a long period of time. My great Aussie leggies ranking would go something like this:

1. Warne
2. Tiger
3. Grimmett
4. Benaud
5. Mailey
6. MacGill

With an honourable mention to Herbert "Ranji" Hordern, would have been very interesting to see how his Test career panned out but for a combination of WWI and his dedication to medicine over cricket.

The best part of this is that I know I don't have to explain to you who Hordern was, because I'd wager you know more about him than I do. ;)
 
Matt79

Matt79

Hall of Fame Member
Re: rating the leggies, purely as bowlers, I'd have the same as Sean, but as overall players, Benaud would move past Grimmett into third for me.
 
archie mac

archie mac

International Coach
The Sean said:
Mate, for years I stayed misty-eyed over the greats of the past and stuck to an O'Reilly > Warne opinion, but it has to be said that I've come around these days. I have to put Warney at the top of the pile, for his sheer success and influence over such a long period of time. My great Aussie leggies ranking would go something like this:

1. Warne
2. Tiger
3. Grimmett
4. Benaud
5. Mailey
6. MacGill

With an honourable mention to Herbert "Ranji" Hordern, would have been very interesting to see how his Test career panned out but for a combination of WWI and his dedication to medicine over cricket.

The best part of this is that I know I don't have to explain to you who Hordern was, because I'd wager you know more about him than I do. ;)
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Rarely the old ones, but sometimes the new ones:laugh:

I will hold on to O'Reilly one and Warne two, for a little longer, but after a few years we will realise just how good Warney is, and I might even change mm list, which at the moment would be


1 Tiger
2 Hollywood
3 Grum
4 Arthur
5 Ranji
6 Benaud
7 Gilla
8 Day light
9 Dutchy
10 More daylight
11 Jim Higgs
 
K

Krishna_j

U19 12th Man
I will recommend Bob Willis Six of the Best - Best in test cricket from 1970 to 1995

Covers whom Willis feels are the best openers , middle order batsman , swing bowlers , Medium pacers , spinners , umpires etc from round the world - there is no bias and Willis has made two categories England and rest of the world with pithy and distinct reasons for selection

I will also recommend Cricinfo's Jan 2007 issue which has the 50 most memorable moments in recent cricket
 
PhoenixFire

PhoenixFire

International Coach
Yeah, that's a pretty good book Krishna. Willis has good opinions imo, and even though he seems to be a grumpy old man, speaks a lot of sense.
 
pasag

pasag

RTDAS
Picked up Endless Summer: 140 Years of Australian Cricket in Wisden edited by Gideon Haigh today. Reduced to 20 dollars from 45 as well.
 
Perm

Perm

Cricket Web: All-Time Legend
Finished Out Of My Comfort Zone by Steve Waugh and all I can say is bloody brilliant, honestly one of the best sport's autobiographies I have read and gave me a real insight into what kind of character Waugh was. I highly recommend it to anyone.
 
Fiery

Fiery

Banned
Just read "How To Catch A Cricket Match" by Harry Ricketts. It must have been a good read because I finished it in 2 days, (mind you it was while the in-laws were staying over New Years). You have to skip the chapters explaining the rules, etc, but brought back good memories and was well-written by an intelligent and passionate "older" follower of the game.
 
Matt79

Matt79

Hall of Fame Member
Its got a few good articles in it, but yeah, it's a bit hard to sit down and read cover to cover...
 
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