Cricketweb decides the greatest bowler ever in a 64 player bracket. Contest thread.

[mr_mister]

yeah I don't want people being hounded for left-field decisions otherwise everyone will be too scared to go against the CW consensus

 

[viriya]

Dude can we not please. He's winning the overall vote. Just let it go.

Whaddaido?

 

[OverratedSanity]

I dunno, calling out people who make out of left field choices could in theory lead to actual discussions about the merit of his choice and the thought process behind it.

 

[cnerd123]

I dunno, calling out people who make out of left field choices could in theory lead to actual discussions about the merit of his choice and the thought process behind it.

No civil discussion has ever emerged out of discussing Murali's bowling on any cricket forum ever. Lets not go there plz.

 

[OverratedSanity]

In theory

 

[viriya]

No civil discussion has ever emerged out of discussing Murali's bowling on any cricket forum ever. Lets not go there plz.

I thought the discussion would be more about Arthur Mailey since he is greater than Murali.

 

[StephenZA]

I used 'arguably' instead of making a definite statement as I could totally see someone like Aussie hop in here and try and debate the case of someone like Paul Adams, and I just didn't want to get into that lol.

Tayfield was SA`s best spinner... so there, I said it as a SAfrican and thus no-one can argue with me (except another SAfrican)

 

[Victor Ian]

This sucks. If it had been anyone other than Imran I would have called you all out as spawn of Satan. To all you Lindwall voters out there, especially the latest who have made him stage an honourable comeback, you have made me very very happy. I have tears in my eyes

Check out this delivery at 44 seconds in. Sydney - England Wins Second Test - British Pathé

 

[watson]

Arthur Mailey > Muttiah Muralitharan clearly

Mailey puts the kibosh on off-spinners with a bit of tongue in cheek;

A South African who ranks as a high-class off-spinner is Hugh Tayfield, who put up a fine performance a few years ago in Melbourne, taking 13 very good wickets in the Second Test. On this occasion he found, as did Jim Laker 3 years later, that the average Australian batsman has lost the art of driving the half-volley.....

Every batsman's dream should be a day with off-break bowlers. In a club game on one famous occasion Victor Trumper said to his batting partner who had just hit an off-breaker for 2 fours, "Hey, go steady Stan, or they'll take this fellow off." Because of the treatment meted out to this type of bowler by the average Australian batsman of long ago, who thrived on half-volleys, he was seldom considered by selectors when representative teams were chosen.....

The inability, or shall I be generous, the refusal of the average modern batsman to crash the off-breakers half-volley to the boundary has given this type of bowler a fictitious valuation and has turned the lamb into a wolf. It requires little or no talent either physically or mentally to bowl an off-break. It is the natural spinner that schoolboys allow to fall out their hands without knowing it.

Arthur Mailey, '10 for 66 and All That', page 118

 

[mr_mister]

things are heating up! already a bunch of ridiculously tough matches. i think the randomization method worked fine, with only division 4 a possible candidate to produce an "undeserving" quarter-finalist. But I use that term loosely as it has a fair bit of spinning talent in it. I said I'd do write-ups so here are some very, very brief ones. Let's put this worthless arts degree to good use!



Round 2:


Division 1

Shoaib with the easiest path to the later stages out of the 4 modern pakistan greats but he's no sure thing. Funny that this divison houses 3 of the 4 godly 80s all rounders. Hadlee/Imran should spark some interesting dicussion.

Shoaib Akhtar vs Kapil Dev
Richard Hadlee vs Imran Khan

Division 2

Warne should win but Larwood does have that pre-war romanticism I often talk about here. His image is that of what the perfect quick should be, menacing and skillful. But hey, it's Warne so we're probably gonna have an all-aussie division final. Cant split the other 2 but either could top Warne. Total crapshoot

Harold Larwood vs Shane Warne
Dennis Lillee vs Bill O'Reilly

Division 3

I actually think Tyson/Trueman would have been more interesting, but oh well. Predictable round 3 match up here but no clue who gets further from there.

Richie Benaud vs Fred Trueman
Curtley Ambrose vs Bishan Bedi

Division 4

Rule Britannia! Britannia rule the waves, england never ever ever ever will beee slaaaves. I'm predicting an english spinner to advance out of this division as a quarter-finalist. Will say no more than that.

Derek Underwood vs Charlie Turner
Bob Willis vs Hedley Verity

Division 5

I ain't touching this one with a ten foot pole.... Marshall/McGrath could have easily been a semi-final and that's me being conservative. Both considered to be geniuses at their craft. For Thomson-Waqar, I guess it'll come down to taste. Watson might use his entertaining rationale again for Thomson... both are what pace bowling is all about though. It's literally fire verse finesse.

Jeff Thomson vs Waqar Younis
Malcolm Marshall vs Glenn McGrath

Division 6

Again, so tough to pick. Two of the best bowlers from the '50s, along with an 80s pace giant vs a 90s pace giant. Hopefully Donald's lacklustre performance in this morning's match won't hurt him here

Jim Laker vs Fazal Mahmood
Alan Donald vs Joel Garner

Division 7

The first pace battle between teammates! How exciting. I bet nearly everyone would have thought it was going to be a West Indian affair ha. And then there's Wasim ****ing Akram vs Sydney Barnes. Probably my favourite pre and post pacemen up against each other. Can't split them... the masters of movement, both in the air and off the pitch. Expecting a ton of abstains which might skew the results. So uhh... just flip a coin if you love them both like I do.

Alan Davidson vs Keith Miller
Wasim Akram vs Sydney Barnes

Division 8

Muttiah sizes up against his another fellow spinner. Can't see him not winning this division but who knows for sure.

Hugh Tayfield vs Muttiah Muralitharan
Dale Steyn vs Maurice Tate

 

[Victor Ian]

When this is all tallied and won, I'd like to revisit who were the unluckiest draws. I nominate Lindwall.

 

[viriya]

Division 1

Shoaib Akhtar vs Kapil Dev
Richard Hadlee vs Imran Khan

Division 2

Harold Larwood vs Shane Warne
Dennis Lillee vs Bill O'Reilly

Division 3

Richie Benaud vs Fred Trueman
Curtley Ambrose vs Bishan Bedi

Division 4

Derek Underwood vs Charlie Turner
Bob Willis vs Hedley Verity

Division 5

Jeff Thomson vs Waqar Younis
Malcolm Marshall vs Glenn McGrath

Division 6

Jim Laker vs Fazal Mahmood
Alan Donald vs Joel Garner

Division 7

Alan Davidson vs Keith Miller
Wasim Akram vs Sydney Barnes

Division 8

Hugh Tayfield vs Muttiah Muralitharan
Dale Steyn vs Maurice Tate

 

[viriya]

For Thomson-Waqar, I guess it'll come down to taste. Watson might use his entertaining rationale again for Thomson... both are what pace bowling is all about though. It's literally fire verse finesse.[/I]

Is it really that tough to pick the winner? One of the more obvious choices imo.

 

[Howe_zat]

Division 1

Shoaib Akhtar
Richard Hadlee

Division 2

Shane Warne
Bill O'Reilly

Division 3

Fred Trueman
Curtley Ambrose

Division 4

Derek Underwood
Hedley Verity

Division 5

Waqar Younis
Malcolm Marshall

Division 6

Jim Laker
Joel Garner

Division 7

Alan Davidson
Sydney Barnes

Division 8

Muttiah Muralitharan
Dale Steyn

 

[Victor Ian]

Shoaib Akhtar vs Kapil Dev
Richard Hadlee vs Imran Khan *

Harold Larwood vs Shane Warne
Dennis Lillee vs Bill O'Reilly *

Richie Benaud vs Fred Trueman
Curtley Ambrose vs Bishan Bedi

Derek Underwood vs Charlie Turner
Bob Willis vs Hedley Verity

Jeff Thomson vs Waqar Younis *
Malcolm Marshall vs Glenn McGrath *********

Jim Laker vs Fazal Mahmood
Alan Donald vs Joel Garner *

Alan Davidson vs Keith Miller *
Wasim Akram vs Sydney Barnes *********

Hugh Tayfield vs Muttiah Muralitharan
Dale Steyn vs Maurice Tate

May the God of cricket forgive me for my choices in so many of these battles. But Mister made me do it!

 

[mr_mister]

attn: copy and paste this layout for your votes not the above post with all that extra content, this is more compact

edit-... that was written before Victor had made his votes lol


Shoaib Akhtar vs Kapil Dev -
Richard Hadlee vs Imran Khan

Harold Larwood vs Shane Warne
Dennis Lillee vs Bill O'Reilly

Richie Benaud vs Fred Trueman
Curtley Ambrose vs Bishan Bedi

Derek Underwood vs Charlie Turner
Bob Willis vs Hedley Verity

Jeff Thomson vs Waqar Younis
Malcolm Marshall vs Glenn McGrath

Jim Laker vs Fazal Mahmood
Alan Donald vs Joel Garner

Alan Davidson vs Keith Miller
Wasim Akram vs Sydney Barnes

Hugh Tayfield vs Muttiah Muralitharan
Dale Steyn vs Maurice Tate


Perhaps McGrath/Marshall and Donald/Garner were split on a personal bias of me growing up with them, I'm not sure. Everything I've read about Barnes has made it too hard for me to vote against him.. sorry Wasim. Feels weird I'm sending Shoaib further than Wasim and Imran but oh well, at his peak was the definition of excitement. Just this morning I remembered how much I love the guy. And his stats are always so much better than I remember them being

 

[mr_mister]

Is it really that tough to pick the winner? One of the more obvious choices imo.

yeah you're probably right, just felt like building it up. Ha. Thomson's title as literally the fastest bowler ever(according to many sources) is nothing to scoff at though. His slingshot action was pretty damn influential too(I'm sure others did it before him but still he generated the most pace out of it and when people bowl slingshot, you say they're bowling like Thommo.. or at least they did when I was a kid. Now it's probably Malinga). On the subject of speed, that reminds me, do people think it was fair I didn't include Lee in this? Out of all the potential-runner ups to McGrath from the modern era of Australian pace bowling, I chose Dizzy over him, Reid, Alderman, Fleming, Clark, McDermott, Harris and Johnson etc... on a bit of a whim. Maybe some of those names would have gone further?

 

[Prince EWS]

Shoaib Akhtar vs Kapil Dev
Richard Hadlee vs Imran Khan


Harold Larwood vs Shane Warne
Dennis Lillee vs Bill O'Reilly


Richie Benaud vs Fred Trueman
Curtley Ambrose vs Bishan Bedi


Derek Underwood vs Charlie Turner
Bob Willis vs Hedley Verity


Jeff Thomson vs Waqar Younis
Malcolm Marshall vs Glenn McGrath


Jim Laker vs Fazal Mahmood
Alan Donald vs Joel Garner


Alan Davidson vs Keith Miller
Wasim Akram vs Sydney Barnes


Hugh Tayfield vs Muttiah Muralitharan
Dale Steyn vs Maurice Tate

 

[watson]

Shoaib Akhtar vs Kapil Dev
Richard Hadlee vs Imran Khan


Harold Larwood vs Shane Warne
Dennis Lillee vs Bill O'Reilly


Richie Benaud vs Fred Trueman
Curtly Ambrose vs Bishan Bedi


Derek Underwood vs Charlie Turner
Bob Willis vs Hedley Verity


Jeff Thomson vs Waqar Younis
Malcolm Marshall vs Glenn McGrath


Jim Laker vs Fazal Mahmood
Allan Donald vs Joel Garner


Alan Davidson vs Keith Miller
Wasim Akram vs Sydney Barnes


Hugh Tayfield vs Muttiah Muralitharan
Dale Steyn vs Maurice Tate

 

[NUFAN]

Also slightly underwhelming seeing the next round start before any results are announced..

I'll vote tomorrow.