Your Guilty Cricket Player Pleasures. Lay 'em on the Table Guys

[Austerlitz]

Ponting.And kohli,pretty similar irritating face.Arrogant often.But champs on field.
Enjoy seeing rohit sharma,despite failures.just seems always at ease and almost lazy.

 

[honestbharani]

I always loved watching Dominic Cork, Ryan Sidebottom and Craig White bowl. The third guy was not even a good bowler but his action looked really smooth to me.

Maybe, I have a thing for this classical English seamers' side-on action. Mike Smith was another bowler that I loved to watch.


Loved to watch Daren Ganga bat. I know he's not a great Test batsman, but everything seemed so correct with the way he batted.

my choices to be honest.. Also enjoyed watching Aaqib Javed bowl for some reason.. And watchin' Hemang Badani bat..

 

[Blaze 18]

Chris Martin's batting.

 

[Shri]

Leverock. Still can't believe he played international sport in that condition. Loved his catch in the slips of Sehwag in the 2007 WC and the celebration.

 

[flibbertyjibber]

Mitchell Johnson as you know he will give you a good belly laugh.

Dion Nash
Martin Bicknell
Phil Tufnell

 

[BoyBrumby]

Chris Martin's batting.

Would expand that to tailenders batting generally. They're either endearingly turd but game like Martin, comically cowardly like Tufnell or entertainly slogging a few boundaries. Love a big quick taking the long handle.

There's no other mainstream sport that makes players do something they're so ill-equipped to do, which is part of the charm.

 

[Jono]

Leverock. Still can't believe he played international sport in that condition. Loved his catch in the slips of Sehwag in the 2007 WC and the celebration.

Pretty sure he caught Robin Uthappa, not Sehwag.

Speaking of the man, I seriously enjoy watching Uthappa bat. In fact, just in general like Uthappa even though he's so infuriating.

The whole big bulky chested batsman who practices with medicine balls just before walking out to bat seems to get me excited (cue gay joke).

 

[Himannv]

Love watching Sachin bowl, not sure if it counts as 'guilty'.

Same. He's awful nowadays, but there was a time when he was one of our best bowlers in ODIs (mid-to-late '90s). Also, in the early part of the '00s, he used to bowl a mixture of leg-spin, off-spin, googlies, seam-up etc. and it was one of the most entertaining sights to watch. Used to get some serious turn as well.

He was the best bowler in the team at one point. I think his elbow injury or something helb him back. Used to bowl these leggies into the rough and they used to snap in around the legs of the batsman like a cobra. Deadly stuff, specially in limited overs. Occationally he would toss up a bit of off spin as well. There was a time in the 2000's when I actually started liking him because of his bowling. Liking his bating has been more of a recent thing.

 

[vic_orthdox]

I enjoy watching non-bowlers bowl, primarily English. Love watching KP, before that Vaughan and most of all, before that, Gooch. I dont know why. I just do.

Yeah, loved watching Damien Martyn and Ricky Ponting roll their arms over. Watch some of them and think, "They probably would have taken 200 grade wickets if they didn't know how to hold a bat".

 

[Noble One]

Courtney Walsh in the field. I loved watching him in the outfield and using a bowling action to throw the ball back to the striker / non-strikers end.

 

[Andre]

Yeah, loved watching Damien Martyn and Ricky Ponting roll their arms over. Watch some of them and think, "They probably would have taken 200 grade wickets if they didn't know how to hold a bat".

Yeah I used to love watching those guys bowl too. And Blewett, Ganguly and M Waugh with the ball. Graeme Smith probably my favorite part-timer to watch these days.

 

[Top_Cat]

Absolutely love watching South Africa lose to anyone. Usually involves an hilarious combination of pre-match hubris with post-match whinging, so entertaining.

 

[vcs]

absolutely love watching south africa lose to anyone. Usually involves an hilarious combination of pre-match hubris with post-match whinging, so entertaining.

+1

 

[Teja.]

Love watching Sehwag bowl much more than I like watching him bat. Bowls with the aura of an ATG bowler despite being just a very useful part-timer and has a massive smile when he takes a wicket.

Ashraful is a joy to watch as well. He's a pathetic test batsman but some of his batting just looks so exquisite.

Kumble, Agarkar and Warne were awesome to watch with the bat.

 

[Prince EWS]

I'll second Morton, and it's a particularly weird one IMO. He just has no endeering qualities of interest at all. He's not a good technican but he doesn't have a particularly odd technique that would make him interesting to watch either. He's a pretty powerful guy, but he's not an aggressive hitter and he rarely goes over the top. Plus, he is crap, but not quite crap enough to look woefully out of his depth and hence be amusing. There really was precious little that would make him even vaguely interesting as a player and yet, for some reason, I always found myself paying particular attention to the TV when he was in. Perhaps it was because he was always playing for a place.

I'll also second (or fifth I think, it may be) Goughy's post about non-bowlers turning the arm over. As vic said, it always makes you think about how far they could've taken their bowling if they couldn't bat. It really makes you appreciate the natural cricketing ability these guys have.

 

[Athlai]

Morton Loved how he seemed like such a strong bloke but basically never seemed to use it on the field.

 

[Nate]

Lakshmipathy Balaji
Friedel de Wet
Manpreet Gony
Jamie How
Graeme Onions

 

[Daemon]

Another one, watching any young fast bowler for the first time. Fun to analyse his run up, action, speed, the kind of line and lengths he bowls etc etc

 

[Outswinger@Pace]

another one, watching any young fast bowler for the first time. Fun to analyse his run up, action, speed, the kind of line and lengths he bowls etc etc

+1

 

[Furball]

There's no other mainstream sport that makes players do something they're so ill-equipped to do, which is part of the charm.

Arsene Wenger picks a goalkeeper and four defenders every game.