Is Jimmy Adams the only player to ever complete this rare treble of achievements?

[honestbharani]

Mark Waugh is a good shout and Adams from the OP was good too. As mentioned elsewhere in CW CC, Andrew Hall was pretty versatile too. And there is of course, Gary Sobers.

 

[mr_mister]

Ah yes, I guess Sobers walks it due to 3 bowling disciplines. Was his fielding anything special?

 

[honestbharani]

Gun slipper and very good at short leg from what I read, apparently had a great throwing arm too. Maybe L&L and few others who may have seen him play can offer additional insights.

 

[Migara]

AB is obviously the most versatile. Guy opened the batting, can score direct hits tumbling around and not even facing the stumps, can get wickets bowling brisk medium pace swing, can keep well, and can make every bowler who ever bowled to him look like an idiot, and can take decent slip catches as well, and all while being the fastest mover in a cricket field every time he played.

Replave brisk medium with off spin, and you get TM Dilshan.

 

[Migara]

Was AB's swing bowling as effective as you say

2005-6 SL series, he did some bowling. 120-125 ish medium pace, nice easy action. I like that action. However on versatility, Dilshan takes the cake.

 

[trundler]

Oh yeah Dilshan's keeping and offies were of reasonably good quality

 

[ankitj]

Check out John Reid. Only cricketer to have scored test centuries (6), taken test fivers (1) and affected test stumpings (1).

PS. It seems Jimmy Adams never kept wickets in tests, only in ODIs.

 

[GoodAreasShane]

Another one of Adams's achievements was getting whacked in the face by a Dutchman. Not too many players with lengthy test careers have that.

Wow I would absolutely love to see some good footage of Andre van Troost bowling

 

[Red]

And Tim Zoehrer always features in discussions about wicketkeepers who bowl. In FC cricket he has a five wicket haul, a century, and probably 5 dismissals in a game as keeper too.

Zoehrer was an elite keeper and very competent batsman (averaging 30 at FC level). His leg spin showed plenty too.

 

[TheJediBrah]

Was AB's swing bowling as effective as you say

His bowling was terrible last time I saw it, in an ODI when SA only picked 4 bowlers. It might have been better when he was younger.

Don't blame him not bowling much as he got older with that hairline. I'd be keeping my hat on as much as possible too.

2005-6 SL series, he did some bowling. 120-125 ish medium pace, nice easy action. I like that action. However on versatility, Dilshan takes the cake.

Funny how your answer to every question is always a Sri Lankan

 

[AndrewB]

Short answer to the thread title is "yes".

George Brown is always worth a mention in threads about versatile cricketers: in first-class cricket, he scored 25,649 runs, took 626 wickets and made 78 stumpings.

Alan Smith played most of his career as a keeper (including his 6 Tests), but took a FC hat-trick and bowled a fair bit at the end of his career, finishing with 131 FC wickets at 23.46

 

[honestbharani]

Replave brisk medium with off spin, and you get TM Dilshan.

Dilshan is a great shout too, yes. Still think AB was better though. But Dilshan very much a contender.

 

[GoodAreasShane]

Damien Martyn was a better medium pacer than AB de Villiers ever was

 

[honestbharani]

and AB is a better batsman, keeper and fielder and captain than Martyn ever was.

 

[honestbharani]

So why bring it up here? No one here ever said AB is a great medium pacer either.

 

[GoodAreasShane]

It's just a comparison of two batsman who bowl occasional meds, from all I've seen Martyn's bowling just simply looked more penetrative. Just a random thought that I believed was kinda sorta relevant, no need to get all worked up about it

 

[TheJediBrah]

Damien Martyn was a better medium pacer than AB de Villiers ever was

oh yeah, very comfortably

fyi though, HB doesn't like it when people say things that aren't direct responses to something he said

 

[srbhkshk]

Wicket-keeping is just a luck factor here, any international cricketer would be holding on to the easier chances if you put him there for a couple of innings - people who stood a lot in the slips can probably even do a half decent job.

 

[srbhkshk]

Well, I did see one spell of his where he was getting it to move around a bit. It was obvious he hardly ever practices bowling and was rather inconsistent with his line and even length, but the ability to swing the ball was definitely there and that is what makes it easy for me to call him the most versatile cricketer at the international level I have ever seen.

Is it really that impressive though - Tendulkar could hoop the ball around once it had some work done on it. He just did it at 110 clicks.

 

[TheJediBrah]

Wicket-keeping is just a luck factor here, any international cricketer would be holding on to the easier chances if you put him there for a couple of innings - people who stood a lot in the slips can probably even do a half decent job.

Yeah also it's highly dependent on the needs of the team. David Warner, for example, could probably keep (and bowl) as well as a few mentioned ITT, and we've seen how good a fielder he can be in virtually any position. It just hasn't been required by the team.

I'd still be rating a Mark Waugh ahead of him though in terms of versatility