Players that initially promised but eventually disappointed

[Rasimione]

Colin Ingram and David Miller. Looked pretty good when I first saw them, but have disappointed.

Ingram is a hack. Miller il reserve my comments until i have seen enough of him.

 

[zaremba]

Michael Vaughan. World number 1 for a year in the early 2000s and then largely disappointed.

Steve Harmison. As above, but more so.

 

[Cabinet96]

^


He's only 23 ffs.

Yeah I'd be quite suprised if Hughes didn't have some impact on Aust cricket in the next decade. His time is clearly not now, but you'd have to think a player with such a high amount of natural talent and ambition as him will somehow find a way to succeed eventually, even if it takes a few more years.

Tbf I did state that he still had time to change that perception, and I think he probably will. But considering how he started in South Africa in 2009 he has been quite disappointing.

 

[Flametree]

Vinod Kambli probably takes the cake, though he did still end up with an average of over 50...

Ramnaresh Sarwan, Andrew Strauss, Herschell Gibbs and Michael Slater all kicked off their careers looking more like 50-ish players than the 40-42 they ended up with (Strauss not looking likely to bounce back any time soon).

A personal eleven ...

Matt Horne
Sherwin Campbell
Habibul Bashar
Jesse Ryder
Mark Ramprakesh
Dinesh Ramdin *
James Franklin
Irfan Pathan
Brett Lee
Jerome Taylor
Ajantha Mendis

 

[Flametree]

Jason Gillespie comes to mind. Expected more and was disappointed.

Wow. You're hard to please. 259 wickets at 26. When I saw Gillespie take 7-for-something on his first tour of England I thought he was a gangly kid who didn't really know what he was doing. I really never dreamed he'd turn into the fantastic performer he was.

 

[Noble One]

Sherwin Campbell a good call. Looked the replacement opener the West Indies had been searching for. At one stage the West Indies lineup was fearsome with Lara, Campbell, Chanderpaul and Adams all boasting inflated averages.

 

[hazsa19]

Hopefully Rashid will be spurred on by the disappointments of the last year or so. Swann didn't bounce back till he was 29? Rashid is 23 now.

 

[Daemon]

Mendis

 

[Debris]

Graeme Hick.

 

[kyear2]

lawrence Rowe.

 

[kyear2]

Agree with the previous two as well, Mendis and Hick never quite delivered

 

[BoyBrumby]

Matthew Elliott, Greg Blewett, Sadagopan Ramesh, Wahjatulla Wasti, Brett Lee (Test cricket only), Azhar Mahmood, Liam Plunkett, Peter Fulton, Amit Mishra.

And Atul Sharma.

Harsh, I'd say. Bloke did take over 300 test scalps at not too much over 30. I think his career should be viewed partly with regards to who he played with. When he was the fourth member of the Dizzy McWarne combo he was a pure strike bowler; went for runs but took vital wickets.

When the aforementioned trio left the stage BLee really stepped up. Until his body betrayed him he was arguably the world's leading seamer for a season.

Waqar Younis and Brian Lara - showed promise to be unarguably the best bowler ever and unarguably the 2nd best batsman ever, respectively.

Interesting point, actually. My two favourite players, ftr and essentially because both were such absolute joys to behold. Touched by the hand of god, as it were. Because they were so preternaturally blessed tho, do we hold them to higher standards than mere mortals?

I think Waqar can be excused slightly because his "decline" can be largely traced to his injury, but what of the little master? Personally I don't feel short changed at all but maybe Windies fans fel differently?

 

[Jono]

Irfan Pathan.

 

[Arachnodouche]

Yeah, Irfan genuinely looked to have all the tools when he first burst on. 19 years old, capable of bowling at 140+, could make the ball talk either way, had a reasonable sized head on his shoulders. Sad how he's faded away.

I remember a Pakistani bowler, Aamir Nazir..right arm fast-medium but could bowl prodigious inswingers, and had the Windies in all manner of strife in the mid 90s. Wonder what became of him.

Mohammad Zahid obviously.

Basit Ali...again, some trio of cricketers that never quite metamorphosed into what they should've.

 

[KiWiNiNjA]

Upper****

 

[kyear2]

Harsh, I'd say. Bloke did take over 300 test scalps at not too much over 30. I think his career should be viewed partly with regards to who he played with. When he was the fourth member of the Dizzy McWarne combo he was a pure strike bowler; went for runs but took vital wickets.

When the aforementioned trio left the stage BLee really stepped up. Until his body betrayed him he was arguably the world's leading seamer for a season.



Interesting point, actually. My two favourite players, ftr and essentially because both were such absolute joys to behold. Touched by the hand of god, as it were. Because they were so preternaturally blessed tho, do we hold them to higher standards than mere mortals?

I think Waqar can be excused slightly because his "decline" can be largely traced to his injury, but what of the little master? Personally I don't feel short changed at all but maybe Windies fans fel differently?

Wouldn't say short changed, some times frustrated, but not short changed. He may not have been definitively the best after Bradman, but he is in the very short list of players in the discussion to be.

 

[salman85]

Shoaib Akhtar.

Had it all.And Threw it all away.Sad end to a potentially ATG career.

 

[Andre]

Harsh, I'd say. Bloke did take over 300 test scalps at not too much over 30. I think his career should be viewed partly with regards to who he played with. When he was the fourth member of the Dizzy McWarne combo he was a pure strike bowler; went for runs but took vital wickets.

When the aforementioned trio left the stage BLee really stepped up. Until his body betrayed him he was arguably the world's leading seamer for a season.

Yeah understand your point, but he is not a disappointment in the sense that he didn't achieve - infact his record cannot be questioned. My issue, and why his record isn't what it could be, was due to his lack of intelligence as a Test bowler.

When he came into Text cricket, he bowled a wonderful outswinger and made batsmen play. For the large majority of his Test career, however, he bowled either bouncer, at the ribs or yorker. Can't remember him for a good few years really doing anyone over in more traditional methods.

His ODI record suggests that he was more than capable of bowling excellent areas and troubling batsmen through late swing and excellent lengths, for some reason every time he played the red ball game pretty much between 2001-2006/07 he became carried away with the idea of being some sort of 'enforcer', and focused on bowling an an intimidating manner rather than a way to get people out.

I'm sure if he had his time again as a Test cricketer we'd see him bowl in the sort of areas that he did at the beginning and end of his career; but I'd also argue he suffered due to the coaching or guidance he had around him for a good few years too who didn't give him the right gameplan.

 

[sledger]

Usman Afzaal, Mark Rampakash, Michael Vaughan, Alex Tudor.

 

[Jono]

Steve Harmison. As above, but more so.

Great call. There was so much hype and excitement around this man.