let’s remember some guys

[Bahseph]

Does anyone have any lasting recollection of Ryan McClaren? Had a nice run in the SA ODI team for a couple of years. Never made it to the WC I think. Bowled first change and batted at 7/8.

Managed to squeeze in a couple of Tests including one against Ryan Harris and MJ at Supersport Park where SA realised he wasn't good enough to bat 7 or displace one of the other pacers.

Took five in a T20 against the West Indies including a stumping if my memory is correct. Just pulled in and did his job.

 

[vcs]

Hemang Badani was a very elegant left hander from Tamil Nadu who played 4 tests and 40 ODIs for India in the early 2000s. A perfectly ok limited overs player, he played a couple of superb ODI innings against the great Australian side. He had a nice looking late cut, could play some excellent inside out shots to the spinners and had a very unique wristy on drive. He wasnt amazing but him being binned for Dinesh Mongia (another #guy from that era of India cricket who was also considered a elegant middler order left handed bat) was pretty odd because he was better in virtually every way.

Incidentally, the robelinda video of his excellent hundred against Australia (McGrath, Bracken and Fleming in the attack) has 4.8 million views for some reason (probably because of the typically hyperbolic title):

In tests, he was unfortunate enough to tour SL right in the middle of the purplest of purple patches of Murali's career and didnt look up to it. Also wasnt great against the short ball so wouldve been found out even if persisted with.

He's a "guy" I usually never think about except when watching highlights of Kolkata 2001 (which is once every few months) and realize he took a good catch to dismiss Steve Waugh on day 5 to spark the collapse. Post retirement, I think he's reasonably well known in the south as a tamil cricket commentator, but dont know much else . Maybe @honestbharani or @Shri can provide some more info.

The other noteworthy left-handed middle order batsman #guy we had was Hrishikesh Kanitkar, who got to play for 3 years off and on based on hitting one boundary. Even managed to blag two Tests in Australia.

 

[OverratedSanity]

Hrishikesh Kanitkar, who got to play for 3 years off and on based on hitting one boundary.

Tbf, it was the greatest boundary in the history of circket

 

[Dendarii]

Dave Callaghan. He played 29 ODIs for South Africa, making 169* in one of them (still the 6th highest score by a South African), but didn't pass 50 in any of the others.

 

[Red_Ink_Squid]

Gary Ballance. He was good. Then he was bad.

Maybe they way he came back a few times lessens it a bit but give it a few more years and he will definitely be one of these.

I've always been a big Gary Ballance fan. I think he could have had a much more successful international career had his chances fallen differently. He was dropped during his first run of bad form at international level and I think if that loss of form hadn't coincided with an Ashes series he'd have been persisted with as his overall record at that point was still good. Then his first recall came while he was having an unusually lean season in the county championship and he carried his indifferent form into the Tests. His second recall came when he was back to crushing it in the county championship but he promptly got injured.

He was never really a #3 bat but was kept there because that's where he had his initial success. I think he could have had a decent run at #5 but the opening was never there at the right time for him. If he'd been born earlier I think he'd also have played a lot of ODIs, but his high average/so-so strike rate was never going to fit in the Bayliss/Morgan era.

I remember being very excited to see him play live for the first time back in 2014 when he had been on that initial golden run in Tests. Alas, tying in nicely with Starfighter's post above, he was bowled for a golden duck by Dhammika Prasad.

 

[sunilz]

Tbf, it was the greatest boundary in the history of circket

Also probably the last time we won a final match in ODI against Pak.?
Someone can fact check me

 

[Pothas]

Joe Denly is 100% going to be one of these as well.

 

[OverratedSanity]

Also Dhammika Prasad disappearing off the the face of the Earth just as he seemed to be getting decent (in fairness, he was 32 at the time). Was vital to SL winning that series in England.

Yeah Dhammika was looking really good around that time. Spell at headingley was superb and was awesome in the 2015 home series vs India too.

Eranga vanished after his chucking ban too.

 

[thierry henry]

Interesting (maybe) fact: Since Wagner’s debut in 2012, Mark Craig is NZ’s 4th highest test wicket taker. The Big 3, then him. This felt moderately surprising to me.

 

[Bahseph]

Interesting (maybe) fact: Since Wagner’s debut in 2012, Mark Craig is NZ’s 4th highest test wicket taker. The Big 3, then him. This felt moderately surprising to me.

Wow. I honestly would have thought Lord Colin or Santner would have got more than 50 wickets by now. Just by reading the views of the NZ posters on this thread I don't think I want to look up Santner's stats.

 

[SillyCowCorner1]

Nasir Hossain out of Bangladesh.

he made a test century against Pakistan(I think) and looked like he was gonna be Bangladesh’s next best thing

 

[Bahseph]

Nasir Hossain out of Bangladesh.

he made a test century against Pakistan(I think) and looked like he was gonna be Bangladesh’s next best thing

Has he really disappeared? I had a liking for him. For some reason use to come in at 7 or 8 and bowled seamers or offspin. Why did he get discarded so young?

 

[Pothas]

Brendan Nash

 

[trundler]

Mitch McClenaghan bowled what seemed to me the best delivery of the 2015 WC. Can't remember against whom but I do remember thinking that. Think he had an excellent start to his ODI career but had fitness issues soon afterwards.

 

[BoyBrumby]

Craig White.

His career figures are pretty ordinary (24.46 with the bat; 37.62 with the ball), but he did have a golden 2000. Took a couple of Michelles versus the Windies (which I remember very fondly as it was our first series win against them in about a quarter of a century) in the British summer and played a key role in our series win in Pakistan with a 93 at Lahore and a couple of key wickets when we skittled them on the last day in Karachi.

Never seen anyone bowl as quick as him from such an amble of a run up either.

 

[Pothas]

Bit of a Tim Bresnan of a lesser era.

Giles probably played too many games to really count but everything else him is perfect.

 

[SillyCowCorner1]

Has he really disappeared? I had a liking for him. For some reason use to come in at 7 or 8 and bowled seamers or offspin. Why did he get discarded so young?

I think he still plays on the domestic circuit. But since the introduction of Mehedy Hasan Miraz into the senior team, it's been hard for off-spinning allrounders to make it into the team. There was another guy who was in contention: Naeem Islam.

 

[harsh.ag]

This could be filled with England and India players from the 90s and early 00s

 

[SillyCowCorner1]

I remember Tinu Youhannen from West Indies' tour of India in 2006.


Also, let's not forget the early 00's batting legend: Yousuf Youhanna.

 

[BoyBrumby]

Geoff Arnold.

A little before my time & probably a wee bit too good for the thread (115 test wickets at a tick over 28), but I was put in mind of him doing one of those Sporcle quizzes yesterday.

It was "Name the year end No.1 ranked test bowlers" from 1946 to 2020. I got 72/76, missing Bill Voce in 46, Hugh Tayfield in 55 & 57 (both of whom I maybe should've got) and dear old Horse (GG Arnold, you see? GG: Horse, nevermind…) in 73 (well, he was equal top with Bishen Bedi, anyway), who I never would've got in far longer than the 10 minutes given.

When one thinks of some of the names never to achieve this (Holding, Walsh, Wasim, Snow & Statham, to name but a few) I was a little surprised, but fair play to him.