Cricketers who wasted their talents

[Xuhaib]

Shoaib Akhtar

160 odd wickets in a decade is a crying shame for a bowler who in terms of talent was right up with greats like Wasim, Waqar and Imran. Despite some memorable performances on the field he will always be remembered for his off-field antics which have on many a occasions been an embarrasment to the country. A Flawed and mentally deranged genius is something I will always remember him as.

Matthew Elliot

To me he looked the most talented opener off all that Aussies tried in the 90's and that includes greats like Taylor, Slater, Hayden, Langer and other good talents like Blewett and Di Venuto, his 199 in 97 Ashes was one of the major highlights in one of the better Ashes from the 90's, infact I remember Geoff Bycott mentioning at that time that this chap is going to make 8000 runs but unfortunatley he could not kick on and just faded away.

 

[stumpski]

Wayne Larkins and Gary Gilmour were two talented players who weren't, it seems, prepared to put in the hard work required to keep them at the top in international cricket - although in Larkins' case, disappointment at selectors' decisions may have played a part.

 

[Richard]

Dominic Cork, Andrew Caddick, Darren Gough and Angus Fraser
Certainly had other factors combine (in all cases bar the latter) with themselves to ensure they never managed what some other England seamers had, and what they at one point all looked well on track to do.

 

[stumpski]

Hmmm ... all those (except Cork, generally) had bad luck with injuries - that to me isn't the same as 'wasting ones talent' which suggests more of an attitude problem, the gifted player who isn't prepared to work at his game. I would put Chris Lewis in there though, and to a lesser extent Phil Tufnell. Former WI all-rounder Collis King is another name that springs to mind. He should have played 50 Tests.

 

[Xuhaib]

Dominic Cork, Andrew Caddick, Darren Gough and Angus Fraser
Certainly had other factors combine (in all cases bar the latter) with themselves to ensure they never managed what some other England seamers had, and what they at one point all looked well on track to do.

Caddick was the best of the lot but he lacked "the ticker", and NO Angus or Goughy did not waste their talents.

 

[Richard]

Cork, Gough and Caddick could IMO be said to have wasted their talents partly through their own misdemenours of wildly varying type.

Fraser had his talents wasted by injury exclusively.

 

[BhupinderSingh]

Vinod Kambli & Ajay Jadeja.

 

[Pup Clarke]

Abdur Razzaq

 

[Jungle Jumbo]

Azhar Mahmood.

 

[Richard]

Razzaq yeah, Mahmood??? Mahmood's a thoroughly average cricketer - a (very) poor man's Razzaq.

 

[nightprowler10]

Razzaq yeah, Mahmood??? Mahmood's a thoroughly average cricketer - a (very) poor man's Razzaq.

No. He had the talent to be much a greater all rounder than he was.

 

[Richard]

Mahmood?

I don't think so personally. Very, very mediocre bowler and nothing more than a sometimes-useful-end-of-ODI-innings slogger.

 

[Jungle Jumbo]

Mahmood?

I don't think so personally. Very, very mediocre bowler and nothing more than a sometimes-useful-end-of-ODI-innings slogger.

When you see him destroying county attacks with the bat, then take a look at his ODI average, there seems to be a certain amount of wasted talent. Consider the way he started his Test career as well, with all those hundreds.

 

[Pup Clarke]

Sanjay Bangor

 

[Jungle Jumbo]

Sanjay Bangor

I'd disagree there. Bangar looked like a cricketer who was fairly low on talent compared to his peers, but put in a lot of effort in domestic cricket to get his chance internationally. I thought he'd do well in English cricket, bowling his medium-pace and having a solid defence. His innings at Headlingley in 2002 saw off the new ball really well and paved the way for big innings from Dravid, Tendulkar and Ganguly.

 

[Richard]

When you see him destroying county attacks with the bat, then take a look at his ODI average, there seems to be a certain amount of wasted talent. Consider the way he started his Test career as well, with all those hundreds.

We here in the UK have a propensity to overstate people destroying county attacks just because they happen to have done so in a few televised games. Mahmood averages 26 in OD cricket for Surrey - this is not-much TBH, really, is it?

I'd actually forgotten those 2 centuries in SA, but really, he's not done a lot apart from them has he? No other half-centuries apart from those 2 (excluding his debut) in 31 other innings.

 

[BhupinderSingh]

TBH,Azhar Mahmood is nothing more than a lower order slogger who can bowl a bit,in other words he's a bits & pieces allrounder.I remember when the host asked him in an interview back in 1999 that why has he managed all of his hundreds against South Africa & none against any other team,he replied that its due to the fact that South African bowlers are faster than those of other countries.Would a genuine batsman ever say such a thing?

 

[Flem274*]

Andre Adams
Jesse Ryder

 

[HeathDavisSpeed]

Andre Adams
Jesse Ryder

Good calls; though I sincerely hope Jesse's talent doesn't go to waste.

How's about one H.T.Davis??

 

[andyc]

Shahid Afridi