It is interesting to see what the fast bowlers themselves have to say.
DENNIS LILLEE
Lillee in his book
Lillee - Over and Out (1984) writes...
The best batsman of my time? It's a question which has been asked of me so often, before my retirement and since, that if it doesn't come up in the course of a cricket conversation I start to feel neglected.
Choosing your greatest ever batsman is a touch more difficult than selecting your top bowler. For me anyway, the guidelines are not as clear cut. When you start talking in terms of the Richards (Viv and Barry), The Chappells and players like Sobers, Lloyd, Gavaskar, Pollock, Zaheer and Miandad, picking the best is almost like roling the dice. You could go one of three or four ways and not be wrong. It all comes down to personal choice.
Did anyone listen to those last two sentences? I do hope so. He writes of Sobers "
As a batsman, Sir Garfield was obviously one of the greatest... No I didn't see the best of him, but I saw enough. He is one of the few cricketers from any era whose deeds are still discussed many years after they were performed. I suspect they will continue to be discussed as long as cricket is played. And that is the real measure of greatness.
He says of Gavaskar...
While statistics are not always an infallible guide - or even a fair guide - cricket byits very nature, is a numbers game. And one batsman who by statistics alone must rank among the greatest batsmen is India's Sunil Gavaskar.
His record is quite remarkable - the more so because he is an opener. Like most Indian cricketers, his best performances have been at home. I never played against him in India and I don't think we saw the best of him in Australia because he had trouble adjusting to our bouncier wickets.
Not frightfully complimentary I am afraid
He goes on to praise Richards to the sky...
Indeed, if batting is an art, then Viv Richards has been working on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel for years now. But like anyone else, Viv is mortal. Unlike Michelangelo's work, Viv does have weaknesses. I always believed that if I bowled to him six to nine inches outside his off stump, he would eventually lose patience and try to smash one that wasn't quite in the right spot. The chance might go to the slip cordon or to gully or even to the covers if he didn't quite get into it.
Over the years, I think I might have been partly responsible for actually improving the man's off side play, but I still feel that he, like most top-line batsmen, is troubled most by the ball moving outside the off stump.
Unfortunately for us bowlers, Viv's off days are rare and his "on" days are murder if you are unlucky enough to have the ball in your hand. He plays all the shots with great elegance, he has awesome power and he is the most exciting batsman in the world because he produces shots that just can not be found in the instruction manual.
In a batting sense he really is in an orbit apart from any other player, but I can make just one more criticism of Viv. It is something that has only recently appeared in his batting; somehow, every now and then, the great man loses interest. Usually a model of decorum, he has also started to lose his cool occasionally. This has been particularly noticeable when Lloyd, the Eindies long-serving captain, has been unavailable. When Viv has taken over the reins he has at times put tremendous pressure on his team mates.
But while he may play below his expectations from time to time, he does everything but hit the stitches out of the ball when he is in "one of those moods."
Doesn't leave you in mush doubt where he would have voted on this thread, does he?
Will quote you on that quatothon war thread mate!
