Average age of test cricketers increasing?

[Richard]

How in the world could you possibly know this?

Erm... he had an eye-test, yes?

 

[Richard]

One of the more odd LOLs I've seen TBH. Especially for yourself.

 

[Lillian Thomson]

Nothing new really though. In 1976 England had Edrich, Steele, Close and Brearley in their top four, a combined age of 712.

 

[BoyBrumby]

Your eyesight won't start fading if you do something about keeping it in nick.

That's not true. As people age a certain proportion will develop myopia due to the hardening of the eye's lens, myself sadly one such. I didn't need glasses until my late 20s. It's the luck of the genetic bounce.

 

[Richard]

Yeah, of course - such cases are exceptions to the general rule, though, as are those who develop arthritis or motorneurone disease.

 

[Pratters]

Richard. Agh. I didn't create this thread for you to go on and on about your eye sight theories. If you want, write to a medical journal or some thing. My intention to create this thread was to get opinions of various people, not for you to make it another of the threads where you dominate like crazy and the thread is killed.

 

[Richard]

So I get the blame for people taking-up the issue? And I should just ignore posts directed at me?

You've still got on-topic replies, and I'm sure you'll get more.

 

[Pratters]

So I get the blame for people taking-up the issue? And I should just ignore posts directed at me? You've still got on-topic replies, and I'm sure you'll get more.

You make your point and move on. A lot of people have a lot of posts of theirs replied to. Doesn't mean that they reply to each of those replies to their posts.

 

[Lillian Thomson]

And I should just ignore posts directed at me?

Sounds good to me.

 

[Richard]

You make your point and move on. A lot of people have a lot of posts of theirs replied to. Doesn't mean that they reply to each of those replies to their posts.

I'll send you an email about this mate, save having really pointless posts like the one directly above this.

 

[Lillian Thomson]

I'll send you an email about this mate, save having really pointless posts like the one directly above this.

Even better.

 

[gunner]

i dont think the age level is increasing,
more like decreasing

20 years ago people used to retire in their early to late 40's

 

[Richard]

There were more 40-year-olds playing in the 1990s than at any time since the 1930s.

This article offers some interesting insight there.

 

[BoyBrumby]

There were more 40-year-olds playing in the 1990s than at any time since the 1930s.

This article offers some interesting insight there.

You have to be a registered cricinfo user to read it. Any chance of a quick C&P (crediting author, obv) for those of us who aren't?

 

[Richard]

Well I would, but the server is buggered for some odd reason, and I can't log-in. Will try again sometime, or someone else can in the meantime.

 

[Isura]

Richard,
Guys like Tendulkar/Jayasuriya still bat in the nets everyday, take fielding practice. But clearly they are not the same player they were 5 years ago. So what can they do beyond playing the game to keep sharp, and why aren't people doing it?

 

[Richard]

I can't say I think Jayasuriya is much lesser now than he once was TBH.

As regards Tendulkar, I'm sure everyone is (I certainly am) baffled as to what turned him, in 2003, from the greatest batsman of his generation into a thoroughly middling player, able to average no more than early 40s on the flattest tracks against weak attacks. At just 30 or 31, it cannot be standard loss of eyesight, nor very likely loss of reflex.

Throughout his career, something that made Tendulkar special was that, usually, the first person to notice a flaw in his game tended to be himself. And if he can't work-out what went wrong, no-one else is likely to. Of course, at first there was tennis-elbow, and this may well have made quite some impact for a year or so - but he's long since been over that now, and only very recently has he started to look like the player of old once again - his play in South Africa and England, I've said it hundreds of times, was as good as at any point since 2002.

Purely and simply, Tendulkar just started getting out. Not being got out - because there was no one dismissal that became common. He just started to fall far more cheaply, far more often, than he used to. Maybe, just maybe, he might pick himself up again as of now - I see no reason why such a thing is impossible.

 

[neville cardus]

The increased money in the game would no doubt have something to do with it. Now that players are/have to be professional cricketers, rather than having another occupation to support themselves, means that they have the time to commit to keeping themselves in a condition to play elite sport, as well as them wanting to maintain the financial security for so long.

The same, though, applied to the underpaid pros of an older vintage. Rhodes played for Yorkshire until he was fifty-two, Hirst turned out for the last time at fifty-nine, David Hunter kept wicket at forty-nine, Joe Rowbotham retired when he was fifty-two and Emmott only commenced his lengthy first-class career at thirty-five.

 

[neville cardus]

You make your point and move on. A lot of people have a lot of posts of theirs replied to. Doesn't mean that they reply to each of those replies to their posts.

That really is just about the most painful, arrogant and snotty argument that I've ever seen on here. If your posts were worthy of more debate than his, they'd probably get it. You've no right to tell someone what he may or may not argue; it's his argument. And I, for one, find it fascinating.

 

[neville cardus]

There were more 40-year-olds playing in the 1990s than at any time since the 1930s.
This article offers some interesting insight there.

I don't think that I'd've cited that particular article were I you, Richie: "The great majority of the 102 players have been batsmen, whose technique, timing and experience have survived the inevitable decline in physical sharpness, eyesight [my italics] and reaction speed."