Cricketweb's most overhyped players.

[AaronK]

Ricky Ponting.. he has to be one of the most overrated batsman in this forum

all his career, he was carried around by batsman like hayden, gilly and Aus strong top order.. he rarely faced any crisis situation.. now that some of the aus top batsman have retired, you see a decline in his career..

I would laugh if someone claims that he is better than Sachin, Lara and even Inzamam..


Rahul Dravid..He has always been a definsive wall uncapable of taking the lead and dominating the bowling attacks..not to forget, boring as hell to watch.. yet he is rated very highly by many here..

 

[zaremba]

Ricky Ponting.. he has to be one of the most overrated batsman in this forum

all his career, he was carried around by batsman like hayden, gilly and Aus strong top order.. he rarely faced any crisis situation.. now that some of the aus top batsman have retired, you see a decline in his career..

I would laugh if someone claims that he is better than Sachin, Lara and even Inzamam..

He's another good example that illustrates my point. Some people here might over-rate him (though I haven't really seen that myself) but that's balanced out by those saying that he's not all that good, and deploying endless stats and arguments to back up their point.

Personally I don't think there's anything to choose between Sachin, Lara and Ponting. You can argue the toss all you want but they're all in the same broad category (Inzi probably a rung below). And of that lot, the scariest, from an opposition's point of view, is dear old Chimpy. A monstrously good player, and sometimes I think he's the best I've ever seen.

 

[Dissector]

So it could be that the likes of SF Barnes get an easier ride than they should.

IIRC there has been some statistical analysis of Barnes on CC with a focus on the gap between his record against Australia and SA and the inevitable debate about how good SA actually was during his career. You could actually argue that statistical analysis is more useful for the older players because there is so little video footage to make a judgment. Obviously the analysis has to take into account the different standards of the time but statistics can help there as well. For example I disagree with the idea that stats can't help us evaluate someone like Trumper. While you can't directly compare his stats to modern players, you can compare it to his contemporaries to get a sense of how good he was.

Anyway I agree with your main point. And actually I think there is an admirable tendency on CC to challenge the conventional wisdom on great players. You may not like the overly statistical nature of those discussions but I find the iconoclasm refreshing. It would be rather boring if we just had to accept the received wisdom about who is great and who isn't from the likes of Cardus and Benaud.

 

[zaremba]

I think there is an admirable tendency on CC to challenge the conventional wisdom on great players. You may not like the overly statistical nature of those discussions but I find the iconoclasm refreshing. It would be rather boring if we just had to accept the received wisdom about who is great and who isn't from the likes of Cardus and Benaud.

This summarises precisely the point I was trying to make, only a bit more succinctly and elegantly than I managed.

 

[benchmark00]

He's an average keeper and an average batsman. Can look the part and plays some decent shots but is not "quality".

Having watched him closely in first class cricket for a decade or so, I can tell you he is quality.

His keeping is very sound too. He had a rough time in tours to India and the West Indies (iirc), but nothing unexpected from someone who hadn't kept alot there.

Can easily see him scoring a couple of hundreds in the Ashes this year.

 

[Jarquis]

Having watched him closely in first class cricket for a decade or so, I can tell you he is quality.

His keeping is very sound too. He had a rough time in tours to India and the West Indies (iirc), but nothing unexpected from someone who hadn't kept alot there.

Can easily see him scoring a couple of hundreds in the Ashes this year.

Yeah, and I've watched Mark Ramprakash average over 100 in FC cricket for the last 5 years, not everyone can translate it into Tests, and what I've seen of Haddin in Tests isn't quality.
He has moments of quality, as I said he plays some sublime strokes and innings, but on the whole I don't think he's a genuinely quality batsman. He's not bad by any stretch.

As for his keeping, I'll give him some leeway as he seems to have a broken finger every week.. but he's had some other rough tours alongside the ones you've mentioned. Which is quite a few rough tours for a "sound" keeper. He's nowhere near the Akmal bracket but I'm not sure I'd have him much higher than satisfactory.

 

[Spark]

Ricky Ponting.. he has to be one of the most overrated batsman in this forum

all his career, he was carried around by batsman like hayden, gilly and Aus strong top order.. he rarely faced any crisis situation.. now that some of the aus top batsman have retired, you see a decline in his career...

You don't know all that much about this cricket business do you?

 

[robelinda]

You don't know all that much about this cricket business do you?

Didnt you know that in every test Ponting walked in at 1/450 on the flattest decks against tired attacks??? And of course he never faced McGrath and Warne too, he really shouldve changed countries just so he could play in a team that had crap bowlers and came in at 1/0 every innings.

To the mods, its just sarcasm! Chill!

 

[Prince EWS]

Yeah, and I've watched Mark Ramprakash average over 100 in FC cricket for the last 5 years

Ramprakash is gun though.

 

[_Ed_]

Ricky Ponting.. he has to be one of the most overrated batsman in this forum

all his career, he was carried around by batsman like hayden, gilly and Aus strong top order.. he rarely faced any crisis situation.. now that some of the aus top batsman have retired, you see a decline in his career..

As much as I dislike Ponting, I have to strongly disagree with this. Ponting changed the momentum of a lot of matches - I know this from experience. So many times, we managed to get either one or both of the openers out, and all of our bowlers had their tails up. Everything was going our way. But then Ponting ripped the match out of our hands.

 

[Spark]

Didnt you know that in every test Ponting walked in at 1/450 on the flattest decks against tired attacks??? And of course he never faced McGrath and Warne too, he really shouldve changed countries just so he could play in a team that had crap bowlers and came in at 1/0 every innings.

To the mods, its just sarcasm! Chill!

It's the "carried by Gilly" line that makes me laugh the most. Yeah, your #7 is really going to make a difference to the situation you bat in at #3.

 

[TumTum]

Didnt you know that in every test Ponting walked in at 1/450 on the flattest decks against tired attacks??? And of course he never faced McGrath and Warne too, he really shouldve changed countries just so he could play in a team that had crap bowlers and came in at 1/0 every innings.

To the mods, its just sarcasm! Chill!

I was gonna unleash hell on you just before I read the last line not really

Didn't Ponting face McGrath and Warne in domestic cricket when he was really young? And iirc he did very well against them.

 

[robelinda]

I was gonna unleash hell on you just before I read the last line not really

Didn't Ponting face McGrath and Warne in domestic cricket when he was really young? And iirc he did very well against them.

Didnt play much against Warne, but was magnificent against McGrath. I have one shield match on video where he made tons in both innings vs McGrath, around 2002, and McGrath really bounced him a lot, especially in the first innings, Punter was just amazing. I'll find the scorecard....

http://static.cricinfo.com/db/ARCHIVE/2001-02/AUS_LOCAL/PC/SCORECARDS/NSW_TAS_PC_17-20OCT2001.html

 

[Jarquis]

Ramprakash is gun though.

Not in Tests, as much as it pains me to say it

 

[TumTum]

Didnt play much against Warne, but was magnificent against McGrath. I have one shield match on video where he made tons in both innings vs McGrath, around 2002, and McGrath really bounced him a lot, especially in the first innings, Punter was just amazing. I'll find the scorecard....

New South Wales v Tasmania at Sydney, 17-20 Oct 2001

That is a bloody decent bowling attack, includes Lee, MacGill and Clark.

Edit: Ah that's Shane Lee

 

[Kylez]

Always find it hilarious when people try and take an anti-Bradman stance. Just lol at some of these posts.

This x 100.

Don't some people know the difference between overhyped and overrated? FFS. Some of the posts on here about Ponting, Tendulkar etc, have been almost as dire as the Bradman posts.

 

[vic_orthdox]

I think Haddin's a test quality package.

His batting isn't quite good enough for him to earn a spot without being a decent keeper, and his keeping is not quite good enough for him to earn a spot without being a decent batsman.

Bloody frustrating batsman though, I guess mostly through his lack of footwork. Tends to get out softly, and I feel that at times he doesn't adapt to the situation at hand.

 

[Prince EWS]

That is a bloody decent bowling attack, includes Lee, MacGill and Clark.

Edit: Ah that's Shane Lee

Nash was a good bowler as well. He was better than Clark at the time of the match.

 

[Jarquis]

Yeah, I'd agree with that. He's not quality in either discipline, but the fact he's just about good enough in both means they make up for one another.

Does always seem to like to play his ****s though, what's then longest innings he's actually played in terms of balls faced/time? To me he doesn't seem to be a player who likes batting while not scoring runs.

 

[robelinda]

Nash was a good bowler as well. He was better than Clark at the time of the match.

Fast and mean back then too, had a real skiddy bouncer. Smacked a long 6 too when he batted. I recall a blitzing one day innings somewhere, 70 odd in no time.