Random things you may not know

[aussie tragic]

so what he hovered around the 60 mark his whole damn career? What a legendary player

There is literally no reason for him to not be included in the conversation about best after Bradman except for the fact his long term batting partner Hobbs seemed a more interesting character and was possibly more exciting to watch bat.

Stastically, Herb is an ATG

Yet another batsman that averaged 80.90 after 17 Tests which then naturally declined...Voges and Barry Richards, how do we know they would be all time greats or just statistical anomalies whose average dropped after 20-30 innings?

 

[fredfertang]

Garry Sobers was born with six fingers on each hand, well five and a thumb to be precise

 

[Dan]

Scott Kremerskothen is the greatest cricket player in the history of the known universe.

Objectively true, entirely random, and up until now you likely didn't know it.

 

[a massive zebra]

Allan Border averaged 70.44 after his first 6 Tests, meanwhile his captain was Kim Hughes who had played 12 Tests with an average of 29.90 (Kim Hughes was appointed captain after 10 Tests with an average of 27.00 - is the lowest average of an Australian batsman made captain ever?)

I would think Richie Benaud must have been lower. Of course, he was really a bowling allrounder. Harry Trott is a similar case.

 

[AndrewB]

If you include List A matches as well as first-class, Denis Compton's record for most runs in a season (3816 in 1947) was surpassed by both Graham Gooch (3986) and Jimmy Cook (3939) in 1990.

In a run of 7 first-class matches in 1874, WG Grace scored 6 hundreds (missing out in the middle match) and took 10+ wickets 6 times (missing out in the first match, in which he took 8). He did the equivalent of a "season double" (1000 runs and 100 wickets) in the space of 11 games.

 

[chasingthedon]

After 25 Tests, Ian Botham had 1336 runs @ 40.48 and 139 wkts @ 18.52... is the best all-round record ever in their first 25 Tests?

Please add more

Botham the best by some margin, if you take into account wickets taken. In fact he is third best ever in that regard over the first 25 Tests, after only Barnes (167 @ 16.97) and Waqar (143 @ 18.50). Some other notables after 25 Tests:-

Diff, BtAv, BwAv, Name, Wkts

21.96, 40.48, 18.42, Botham, 139w
21.07, 56.87, 35.80, Worrell, 35w
16.91, 45.53, 28.62, Dexter, 29w
14.26, 44.92, 30.66, Greig, 70w
11.48, 57.42, 45.94, Sobers, 31w
9.75, 39.63, 29.88, McMillan, 64w
8.91, 34.98, 26.07, Asif Iqbal, 45w
7.34, 38.22, 30.88, Kelleway, 52w
6.82, 39.43, 32.61, Oram, 49w
4.69, 28.03, 23.34, Rhodes, 82w
4.50, 31.91, 27.41, Gomez, 58w
4.15, 32.82, 28.68, MG Johnson, 110w
1.41, 23.80, 22.39, Davidson, 77w
0.85, 29.90, 29.05, Mankad, 108w
-4.73, 21.93, 26.66, Giffen, 94w
-5.63, 40.32, 45.93, GRJ Matthews, 46w
-7.22, 31.96, 39.18, DJ Bravo, 55w
-7.47, 27.98, 35.45, CL Cairns, 69w
-8.35, 23.76, 32.11, RMH Binny, 47w
-9.40, 22.49, 31.89, Imran, 98w
-10.90, 21.05, 31.95, 58w
-11.21, 16.40, 27.61, Akram, 76w
-11.35, 19.17, 30.52, Hadlee, 102w
-16.66, 16.35, 33.01, BL Cairns, 72w
-25.65, 24.28, 49.93, Flintoff, 41w
-30.98, 20.89, 51.87, Intikhab, 39w

And of course

+60.26, 91.26, 31.00, Bradman, 1w

 

[54321]

Here's a random but not special anecdote; I'm sure most people who've read about Bill O'Reilly have heard the story of how in a net session, early in his career, Arthur Mailey advised him to change his grip which O'Reilly politely rejected.

However, Charlie "The Terror" Turner (A past bowling great of his time) was supposedly also at that net session watching the players, and he commended O'Reilly on not changing his grip and advised him to carry on with what he was doing. I say 'supposedly' because I've only seen this addition to the tale in a few books and Wikipedia of all places, but it's a great little anecdote if true.

 

[jimmy101]

Scott Kremerskothen is the greatest cricket player in the history of the known universe.

Objectively true, entirely random, and up until now you likely didn't know it.

Those of us from the Never played a Test draft knew that gem!

 

[aussie tragic]

Bob Simpson entered his 30th Test without ever having scored a century in 51 innings...he made them pay by scoring 311 as his first test century

 

[aussie tragic]

Gary Sobers debuted batting at # 9, while Bradman and Greg Chappell debuted batting # 7

 

[Lillian Thomson]

Geoff Hurst is the only English first class cricketer with a World Cup Winners Medal.

 

[Shady Slim]

xavier doherty has more cricket world cup winner's medals than every englishman in the world combined

 

[jimmy101]

Ouch.

 

[AndrewB]

Clive Lloyd took British citizenship, but I guess it's debatable as to whether that makes him "English".

 

[fredfertang]

Clive Lloyd took British citizenship, but I guess it's debatable as to whether that makes him "English".

No chance, he's Lancastrian

 

[marc71178]

xavier doherty has more cricket world cup winner's medals than every englishman in the world combined

Depends what you call someone born in Birmingham. To me that's an Englishman

 

[aussie tragic]

Given the upcoming Sri Lanka - Australia test series, I noticed that Sri Lanka has only ever beaten Australia once in 33 years of Test Cricket (Australia 17W, 1L, 8D).

Here is the match 1st Test: Sri Lanka v Australia at Kandy, Sep 9-11, 1999 | Cricket Scorecard | ESPN Cricinfo

 

[aussie tragic]

Nathon Lyon can claim the title as greatest No. 11 in Test history (min. 20 Innings at No. 11)

Batting records | Test matches | Cricinfo Statsguru | ESPN Cricinfo

 

[91Jmay]

Given the upcoming Sri Lanka - Australia test series, I noticed that Sri Lanka has only ever beaten Australia once in 33 years of Test Cricket (Australia 17W, 1L, 8D).

Here is the match 1st Test: Sri Lanka v Australia at Kandy, Sep 9-11, 1999 | Cricket Scorecard | ESPN Cricinfo

Looks like half the team died in the 2nd innings as well.

 

[RossTaylorsBox]

Pretty sure that was the game where Steve Waugh and Gillespie ran into each other.