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Dean Headley

Dead Headley - could he have made it as a Test bowler?

  • Yes

    Votes: 11 40.7%

  • No

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • Impossible to know

    Votes: 4 14.8%

  • I just felt like voting for the sake of it, I couldn't care less about the thread

    Votes: 12 44.4%
  • Total voters
    27
Craig

Craig

World Traveller
How good was he? Looking at his record I realise his career was ruined by injury and when his Test career came and went I was just getting more and more into cricket so I never really got to see him play a whole lot. And IIRC we did not have much (if any at all) coverage of the Ashes Tests, and if we did it would of be doubtful I was in the position to judge if ge was a good bowler or not.
 
J

Jakester1288

International Regular
From his record, he seems to be a good bowler. I remember reading about him getting some reverse swing in 1999/2000 summer at Sydney or Melbourne or somewhere, just can't remember where. :o

I'm voting yes, but I have never seen him bowl.
 
social

social

Cricket Web: All-Time Legend
Craig said:
How good was he? Looking at his record I realise his career was ruined by injury and when his Test career came and went I was just getting more and more into cricket so I never really got to see him play a whole lot. And IIRC we did not have much (if any at all) coverage of the Ashes Tests, and if we did it would of be doubtful I was in the position to judge if ge was a good bowler or not.
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He had lots of ability with ball and bat but also had technical and mental deficiencies that let him down (like many English players of his era)

So, to answer your question ....

"Could he have been?" - yes but with a different body and brain
 
Goughy

Goughy

Hall of Fame Member
He was ok. His record flatters him a little. Injuries denied him to England but also help protect his record.

He was not in the same class as Gough, Caddick or Fraser. Would probably be fighting with Cork or a spinner for the final place in the England 90s XI (when we were in the bottom 2 in the World).
 
Richard

Richard

Cricket Web Staff Member
Jakester1288 said:
From his record, he seems to be a good bowler. I remember reading about him getting some reverse swing in 1999/2000 summer at Sydney or Melbourne or somewhere, just can't remember where. :o
Click to expand...
1998/99, and it could've been Adelaide, MCG or SCG, as these were the games he played. MCG is perhaps the likeliest as his spell there is a very famous one as it snatched a highly improbable victory for England.

Overall, Headley was a bowler who did pretty well and was very, very unfortunate not to play more than he did (and not only through injury - I'll never forget him being dropped at the start of 1999 for Mullally and Tufnell, neither of whom had the slightest case to play ahead of him). How good would he have been had he played more? I doubt he'd have done that much better than continue on with what he had been doing - I can't see his average going down much. But if he could've done what he did for longer, that wouldn't be too bad.

And I'm at a loss to see how anyone could think he was much crack with the bat. He did the job as nightwatchman a good few times, but that's about it. He was never going to be someone capable of averaging 20+, the way for instance Ashley Giles, Alex Tudor, Dominic Cork and Robert Croft were.
 
Burgey

Burgey

Request Your Custom Title Now!
Always thought he was a danger in the right conditions. I think the spell we're talking about was the MCG where he bowled beautifully to snatch a win for England.

I got the impression from his action (and it's been a while since I've seen him bowl so I may not be remembering too well) that he could have bowled faster than he did, but he still posed problems from time to time for our batsmen.
 
NZTailender

NZTailender

I can't believe I ate the whole thing
Burgey said:
Always thought he was a danger in the right conditions. I think the spell we're talking about was the MCG where he bowled beautifully to snatch a win for England.
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Probably one of my favourite bowling efforts that I ever had the fortune to watch.
 
Richard

Richard

Cricket Web Staff Member
Burgey said:
I got the impression from his action (and it's been a while since I've seen him bowl so I may not be remembering too well) that he could have bowled faster than he did, but he still posed problems from time to time for our batsmen.
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Yeah I could forgive that sort of impression. He never attacked the crease that hard, he never seemed to whip his arm over with maximum effort, never leaned back like the odd few people do, and I never took much notice of how much he used the wrist. If he'd done some of this I suppose he could probably have added a few more mph, though sometimes it's not as simple as it looks.

The best comparison I can think of for those who haven't seen his action is probably Jonathan Lewis - there was marked similarity. But even with a similar action Headley managed 4-5mph quicker speeds than Lewis.
 
Manee

Manee

Cricketer Of The Year
For anyone who is interested, he was bowling about 70mph about two-four years ago and is now a batsman for his club.
 
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