Oh Brett Lee is so great in being a spearhead for this attack.Better bowler? - McGrath
Greater loss for Australia in those days (when Macgill was around)? - McGrath
Whom among the two would Australia want today? - Do you need to even ask? Warne, surely.
He may not be; but the combination of Lee, Clark and Johnson is more than decent (not in this series certainly, but otherwise yeah more than decent)...But believe me I have played against spinners in inter-college matches who bowl better than Cameron White. Now if such a bowler bowls 15 overs for Australia in an inning then yeah Warne is being missed more by Ponting than McGrath...Make no mistake, McGrath is certainly a better bowler of the two...Oh Brett Lee is so great in being a spearhead for this attack.
Agreed entirely.Both huge, obviously. And neither could go on for ever, equally obviously.
I honestly don't think either was significantly bigger than the other. Stuart Clark is McGrath-esque, but I'd say he probably has a few limitations that are more limited than McGrath. So even with Clark, McGrath is still a loss.
Obviously you virtually never see bowlers like Warne, because wristspin is so much more difficult to bowl. That there'll never be another Warne is far from impossible.
What should be more interesting is how much it costs in the next year or so. Of course, you'd expect that anyone who toured India without a spinner of any note (which is what they did once McGain went home) would struggle, and so they have.Australia have nothing as far as spin bowling goes and it's cost them plenty of late. Warne is a much, much bigger loss, regardless of who the better player may have been.
Not of all-time, but of the 20th-century.I don't think it's much of a comparison. Warne, easily. Both of the highest calibre, but one is as rare as the hope diamond. Warne, not just because we don't have a quality spinner and aren't likely to produce one for a long time, but because he could bowl long spells, take wickets and go for barely many runs. For his ability to show up when it mattered and break partnerships like the ones in the first two days of the test being currently played. The more time goes by the more Warne will be appreciated IMO, and that's saying something because he was picked as one of the top 5 cricketers of all time halfway through his career.
Yea, India would definitely take Warne. Our spinners don't do as well overseas, and Warne did well in many countries. He'd walk into both of those sides with zero problems. And he wouldn't have to play India either, plus his home record might be better considering the type of pitches he'd get. And if somehow it was the Indian pitches that didn't suit him (I don't believe that), we'd have another spinner playing at home anyway, so it's not a big deal. Overall, he'd be a HUGE addition to any team, including, perhaps especially, India. I'm seen as sort of a detractor of Warne, but I'm really not. He was a fantastic player, probably the best spinner of the modern era, and to say he wouldn't make it into any side is simply inaccurate IMO. Even Sri Lanka, if they had him, certainly you'd play both Murali and Warne everywhere you went. It would be a ludicrously good spin combo - in fact, they may become the first team in history to be the best bowling side in the world solely due to their spinners. Regardless of how badly India got Mendised, you'd tell him to sit in a corner and wait a while until one or the other retired.That makes no sense. Every team would want a Warne, even India. India are the only team that did well against him overall - he won't have to face them anymore. He is also a better spinner than both Kumble and Harbhajan as well.
And as for Sri Lanka; why would he be competing with Murali? Is Menthis competing for Murali's spot?