Selfish mother ****ers

[Victor Ian]

I'm bored shitless between tests so, basically, I am interested in the greatest ever 'selfish' batsmen and bowlers.

Which batsman played as if they had decided, "nah - **** ya - I'm going to take this not out" or "nup - I'm not going to move up the order for the team"?

Which bowler did the bowling equivalent. "Nup, not worried about wickets - gonna keep my economy low", or alternatively "nup - you worry about the runs - I'm here to take wickets".

Who is the biggest selfish prick in test cricket?

What is the all time 11 of selfish pricks?

Can a captain declare just a player out? Could a player decide to end his innings and not be out - without faking injury and stuff?

 

[Victor Ian]

Come on *****. You can't just literally 'like' every post made by every poster ever within a minute of the post and no matter what the content!

 

[OverratedSanity]

Chanders.

 

[TheJediBrah]

Brian Lara's 400 not out

Great player and not sure if he has any other history of "selfishness" but that innings was a blatant a case of "**** the team and winning the Test, I want the record"

 

[Athlai]

Brian Lara's 400 not out

Great player and not sure if he has any other history of "selfishness" but that innings was a blatant a case of "**** the team and winning the Test, I want the record"

I personally blame Hinds and Jacobs for not turning the strike over more. WI still have 8 sessions to bowl at England in that match.

 

[TheJediBrah]

I personally blame Hinds and Jacobs for not turning the strike over more. WI still have 8 sessions to bowl at England in that match.

Not a terrible call, but doesn't change that he could have easily just declared 5/550 or 5/600 and WI very likely win the Test.

 

[Spark]

Of the batsmen I've seen, Chanderpaul by a mile.

 

[StephenZA]

Whats the criteria for a batsmen to be selfish... not taking risks? Batting for statistics? Not playing to the state of the game?

 

[Bahnz]

Of the batsmen I've seen, Chanderpaul by a mile.

Yeah, given the number of times Chanders would take a single first ball of the over with number 11 waiting at the other end, it's hard to avoid the conclusion that he really did care more about his wicket than the extra runs that his team often so desparately needed. I can understand why he did this though. It was never his fault that his team mates were always collapsing around him, so why should his career record have to suffer for it?

 

[Victor Ian]

Is it possible for a bowler to be selfish? Any examples or a bowlers all born with halos?

 

[TheJediBrah]

Whats the criteria for a batsmen to be selfish... not taking risks? Batting for statistics? Not playing to the state of the game?

All of the above I guess. For me the main one would be if you cost your team a chance of winning the game.

 

[StephenZA]

All of the above I guess. For me the main one would be if you cost your team a chance of winning the game.

If thats the case I would go for K Petersen...

Guy did not give a **** about the team, was all for his own ego and while he may have won a few games for England he also cost them a few games by not playing to the match situation. And obviously his off the field match antics helped nobody.

 

[TheJediBrah]

If thats the case I would go for K Petersen...

Guy did not give a **** about the team, was all for his own ego and while he may have won a few games for England he also cost them a few games by not playing to the match situation. And obviously his off the field match antics helped nobody.

While he was undoubtedly a selfish person I'm not sure he really cost the team games through selfish play. He was selfish in a different sort of way.

 

[Red]

Brian Lara's 400 not out

Great player and not sure if he has any other history of "selfishness" but that innings was a blatant a case of "**** the team and winning the Test, I want the record"

Blame Hayden for that, the selfish big ****.

But on that, the WI's declared half way thru day 3. Not unreasonable, seeing England had won the first three tests pretty easily. Imagine Lara enjoyed making them field for ages.

 

[Burgey]

The "All About Me" XI

Boycott
Gavaskar
Chanderpaul
Tendulkar
Kallis
Al Hasan/ Pietersen
Dhoni
Hadlee
Warne
McDermott
Akhtar

 

[Red]

Is it possible for a bowler to be selfish? Any examples or a bowlers all born with halos?

Lot more difficult. Bowlers can't really be selfish I don't think.

 

[StephenZA]

The "All About Me" XI

Boycott
Gavaskar
Chanderpaul
Tendulkar
Kallis
Al Hasan/ Pietersen
Dhoni
Hadlee
Warne
McDermott
Akhtar

I never quite understood the issue regarding Kallis being selfish... he did bat slow sometimes, but most of those times he was resurrecting the SA innings. It was not until later in his career that he had the likes of Amla, deVillers Smith playing well and the SA team no longer desperately needed him at the crease. Kallis scored a hundred we inevitable got a decent score.

I have similar feelings around Chanderpaul

 

[TheJediBrah]

Lot more difficult. Bowlers can't really be selfish I don't think.

Monty Panesar? Had no interest in learning how to field, only cared about bowling, carried on like a nut every time he got a wicket.

 

[cnerd123]

Is it possible for a bowler to be selfish? Any examples or a bowlers all born with halos?

Spinners who choose to bowl tight and hold up and end vs trying to take wickets as a default mode of operation are selfish. They know a 0/40 off 15 is less likely to be dropped than a 2/80, and realise that perception beats reality - that if you are getting tonked for runs the captain and selectors will perceive you as being **** instead of understanding how you chose to risk that in order to create wicket-taking opportunities.

Especially early in a spell. A spinner comes on and decides that he's going to dart in his first 2-3 overs so he can be kept in the attack, vs tossing the ball up right away and risk being smacked for a few and being taken off. Ultimately these dart flingers end up with economical figures but not many wickets, and even worse end up offering respite to the batsmen who are often not even troubled by their bowling. They can milk the spinner for the easy ones and twos and catch their breath, and return focused to face the real bowlers. It's actively harmful to the team. But perception beats reality, and when the selectors and coaches analyse the stats and see that their spinner was economical they continue to pick him/sign him on to a new contract, and he continues to live another day, all the while being essentially useless if not harmful to the team's cause.

Now some spinners are assigned the role of being that tight, hold up an end bowler beforehand, and that's fine. Then you're just doing the job you have been asked for. But when a new spinner rocks up at the start of the season and decides right off the bat that that's how they are going to bowl, and especially when that new spinner has the skills and tools to toss it up but chooses not too, that spinner is a selfish ****.

I don't know the pace bowling equivalent of this.

 

[ajdude]

still undecided if Gavaskar's 36 (174) was selfish or dumb or just strange™