Aravinda De Silva vs Martin Crowe

[mr_mister]

Two quality players worth far more for their country than their batting average might indicate. Crowe and De Silva were the batting stars of the '92 and '96 world cups respectively. Both were super entertaining with terrific techniques. The weight of having to be their country's best and only world class batsman nearly their entire careers was a heavy one, but both still managed a large amount of tons per test.


Anyway, who was better?

 

[OverratedSanity]

Crowe pretty easily. He was genuinely considered up there with the best in the world at points in the 80s. Aravinda as good as he was never reached that status and was nowhere near as consistently good.

 

[harsh.ag]

Crowe with Aravinda's helmet.

 

[fredfertang]

Always loved watching Martin Crowe bat - not quite Barry Richards, but as close as it got

 

[Burgey]

Good comparison. Big guns but would rate Crowe slightly ahead (long way were it purely on asthetics. the bloke was silky smooth.

 

[The Battlers Prince]

Has to be Crowe, even in full swing Crowe pulls away further

 

[jimmy101]

I agree that Crowe was better, but I accidentally voted for Aravinda

 

[a massive zebra]

Aravinda would be infinitely more effective if recalled to represent his country at the current time. An ATG player of the short ball, as a kid I used to love watching his brutal pulling and hooking.

 

[digiosmosis]

Martin Crowe gave a wonderful performance in 1992 world cup in most of the games. Aravinda DeSilva played crucial innings in both final and semi final of 1996 world cup.

 

[Gob]

Martin Crowe gave a wonderful performance in 1992 world cup in most of the games. Aravinda DeSilva played crucial innings in both final and semi final of 1996 world cup.

Classic case of what Burgey was talking about the other day. ***** is happening to this joint

 

[sumantra]

Tough this one, both represented not so good sides and were nucleus of their batting, be it in tests or odis...as far as test records are concerned, De Silva's performance outside sri lanka does not make a good reading (much like a batting star of later generation, jayawardhane), in fact, NZ is the only place where de silva averages 40+ outside SL. Crowe's almost the same, only difference of course is his commanding performance in Australia...

 

[Lillian Thomson]

When I first saw Martin Crowe I thought he was going to be a truly great player in the class of Lara/Tendulkar (yes I know he came before them but I'm just using that comparison to say how good I thought he was going to be). He never quite reached those heights, but still knocks spots off De Silva.

 

[Red]

Classic case of what Burgey was talking about the other day. ***** is happening to this joint

People are talking about what cricket they are interested in on a cricket forum?

I prefer tests, but let's not begrudge new members the chance to talk about what interests them. It's hard enough to have active members, let's not portray some sort of elitism.

 

[Daemon]

But we are elitist

 

[Gob]

But we are elitist

Unlike Redhill

 

[Red]

Well I do base my life on being egalitarian...

 

[Grumpy]

I would go for Crowe as well. But I've heard Sangakarra say on a couple of occasions that both him and Mahela agree that DeSilva was the GOAT SL batsman.

 

[Days of Grace]

I would go for Crowe as well. But I've heard Sangakarra say on a couple of occasions that both him and Mahela agree that DeSilva was the GOAT SL batsman.

Both are humble enough never to nominate themselves as a candidate.

I think this is a very difficult choice and only national bias would allow me to favor Crowe. Both were the clear no.1 in their teams and whilst De Silva won the world I cannot help but wonder what M.D. Crowe would have done in the 1992 final.

 

[Himannv]

But I've heard Sangakarra say on a couple of occasions that both him and Mahela agree that DeSilva was the GOAT SL batsman.

I reckon he was as well. Definitely a better batsman than Sanga although Sanga achieved more.

 

[Prince EWS]

Both are humble enough never to nominate themselves as a candidate.

It's weird that they don't think it was each other though. I think Jayawardene's opinion in particular is weird (I kind of get Sanga's).