CW decides the greatest test spinner ever. 43 names: Countdown/Rankings thread

[mr_mister]

#33. Ashley Mallett, 26 points

Featured on 5 of 35 lists
Highest finish: 10th (1 time)
Ranking within spin discipline: 12th of 13 (Right Arm Offbreak)
Test WPM ranking: 38th of 43 (3.47)


Everyone knows Greg Chappell was Australia's best bat of the 70s, Rod Marsh the best keeper and DK Lillee the best quick. The best spinner was Ashley Mallett, who stood out a bit in that crowd of yahoos with his clean cut demeanor. He had a tremendous 28 wicket series in India @ 19 at the start of his career.. His record outside of the sub-continent is a little less impressive, and he averaged 50 from 8 home tests against the rampaging Windies. Aus-Windies series were truly an environment where only quicks prospered around that time. Still he managed an average of under 30 for his career which is always a big victory for a spinner. And his best of 8/59 is still quite comfortably the best home performance for an Aussie offie.

 

[Starfighter]

I've got no idea how Ramadhin managed to get away with chucking throughout his career. His action's as blatant as Lock's yet he doesn't seem to have been questioned anywhere near as much.

 

[mr_mister]

#32. Tony Lock, 27 points

Featured on 4 of 35 lists
Highest finish: 9th (1 time)
Ranking within spin discipline: 12th of 14 (Slow Left Arm Orthodox)
Test WPM ranking: 36th of 43 (3.55)

The man at the opposite end who claimed the other 1 wicket during Laker's match. Lock started his career with a normal action, was told he'd have to impart more turn on the ball if he wanted to ever play for England and so he remodeled it so his arm would come in lower. He achieved more spin and also pushed the ball through much quicker. He rose to prominence soon after the change. But his action came under a lot of scrutiny and a lot of people thought him to be a chucker. He got no-balled a few times when bowling his quicker ball so he shelved that. When he eventually saw his own bowling action on film he was horrified and remodeled it yet again. He was never as successful with the new legitimate action.

Still, poor action or not he was never banned from bowling in tests during his dubious peak(I dunno if they banned anyone back then) and it was quite a peak he reached in the 50s. Before he saw footage of his action in 1959 and changed it, he'd taken over 100 wickets from 25 tests @ a smidge under 20.

He was a bit of a home track bully, averaging 19.5 in England over his test career. Away it shot right up to 34.5. His overall average of 25 is one of the better bowling averages on this list. England were spoilt for spin choice in the early 50s with Wardle, Lock and Laker all on the scene.

 

[jimmy101]

Geez, that picture is a bit incriminating, isn't it? Personally I don't mind having a player bowl like that if they're keeping their arm steady all of the way through their bowling motion, it's just a question of whether or not Lock was jerking his arm during his delivery.

 

[mr_mister]

I mean in defence of both of them if we judged it purely on looks Murali would be the filthiest chucker to play the game... maybe Lock had elbow issues too? Though that wouldn't make much sense as he ended his career with a classical action. Still you get my point

 

[jimmy101]

Evidence suggests he threw his arm ball.

 

[Engle]

Hmm, not just myself thinking the same thing. Both Ramadhin and Lock with quite noticeable ' quirky ' actions.

 

[Bolo]

Locke is the most clear-cut chucker in history- he's the only person I know of who fingered himself for doing it. Props to him for doing so though- at least it didnt seem like he was trying to cheat.

That ramadhin delivery is just ridiculous. It's practically 90 degrees, and we might not even be seeing it at the most bent point in the delivery.

 

[morgieb]

Locke is the most clear-cut chucker in history- he's the only person I know of who fingered himself for doing it. Props to him for doing so though- at least it didnt seem like he was trying to cheat.

That ramadhin delivery is just ridiculous. It's practically 90 degrees, and we might not even be seeing it at the most bent point in the delivery.

Ramadhin did admit towards the end of his life that he threw his quicker ball. Lock the only one to do during his career, though. He admitted that if he had known he was chucking he wouldn't have done it.

 

[mr_mister]

#31. Harbhajan Singh, 28 points

Featured on 5 of 35 lists
Highest finish: 12th (2 times)
Ranking within spin discipline: 11th of 14 (Right Arm Offbreak)
Test WPM ranking: 23rd of 43 (4.05)



The Turbanator(I thought this might have just been the dumb aussie media's racist nickname for him but I see it's in his twitter handle) is the first bowler on this list to have taken a seriously big chunk of test wickets, over 400. Best known for his astonishing 32 wickets in a 3 test series against Australia in '01(next best for India was 3 wickets). In that series you'd have to say he was even more important than Laxman in giving India a famous victory against one of the greatest test sides ever. Harbahajan was a bit of a villian here in Australia, there was monkeygate and the fact he seriously had Ricky Ponting's measure.

His career average was over 32 but it should be remembered he's played a lot of cricket in a batting dominated era. Still averages of 48 in Sri Lanka and England and 72 in Australia are pretty big blotches on his record. The wickets kept coming for him though, even if at an expensive price and he had quite a long career. He was only ever a serviceable player for India after that prodigious 01 series but it was always gonna be hard to maintain those heights. Having one of the best series performances ever on his resume was enough to land him just outside the top 30 on this list.

 

[morgieb]

Was his 01 series the greatest individual series of all-time? Had basically 4 borderline ATG spells in a row, against arguably the greatest team of all-time.

Wonder how good he'd be if he was 5-10 years younger. Reckon early career Harby would be an absolute freak now.

 

[harsh.ag]

ATG slap to Sreesanth too.

 

[OverratedSanity]

Was his 01 series the greatest individual series of all-time? Had basically 4 borderline ATG spells in a row, against arguably the greatest team of all-time.

It's definitely arguable. We basically had a one man bowling attack that series. India's leading wicket takers were:

Harbhajan: 32
Tendulkar : 3
Zaheer : 3

 

[harsh.ag]

In the first test in Mumbai, Agarkar, Srinath, and Sanghvi took 2 wickets each to complement Harbhajan's 4. No blueprint for the hell that was about to break loose.

 

[AndrewB]

Ramadhin did admit towards the end of his life that he threw his quicker ball[\QUOTE]

It was a long time after he’d retired (about 20 years ago?) but I wouldn’t call it towards the end of his life - he could live another 20 years for all we know...

 

[Starfighter]

It was a long time after he’d retired (about 20 years ago?) but I wouldn’t call it towards the end of his life - he could live another 20 years for all we know...

Before making such statements check if the person in question is still alive.

 

[morgieb]

Yes that is kinda embarrassing. Point was it was a long time after he retired. From memory it was around 1999 or so. I read it in a Wisden from about 2005.

 

[Starfighter]

I must say a high density of chuckers here. Seems unfair for Mallett to be next to this bunch of filth.

 

[ankitj]

Was his 01 series the greatest individual series of all-time? Had basically 4 borderline ATG spells in a row, against arguably the greatest team of all-time.

Wonder how good he'd be if he was 5-10 years younger. Reckon early career Harby would be an absolute freak now.

Harbhajan had joint max number of entries (4, tied with Ambrose) in Wisden's top 100 performances when the list was first compiled. All 4 from one series. Strong enough basis to consider it the greatest series performance by any bowler ever.

http://in.rediff.com/cricket/2001/jul/30bow100.htm

 

[ankitj]

Mr_mister this is your best ranking thread ever, which is of course high praise given how good all other such threads have been. I'm learning a lot about lot of these bowlers through those write-ups.