let’s remember some guys

[wpdavid]

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.

He timed it pretty well in terms of reaching number 1 in 1973. I think Lillee was injured, and the next batch of the 1970s uber-quicks (Thomson, Roberts and Holding) hadn't played yet. Snow had an iffy few years after the 1970/71 Ashes; missed much of 1971 for disciplinary reasons, did OK in the 1972 Ashes but tanked badly in our 1973 series for some reason. Plus Arnold actually went to India in 1972/73 and did reasonably well. Then of course, you have the SA bowlers of that era who weren't able to play test cricket. Without checking, I'd guess that the next best ranked quicks were the WI not-as good- as what-followed generation of Boyce, Julien and Holder. But I think they'd only had one good series (in England, naturally) by the end of 1973. Sarfraz may have been there of thereabouts too, but I think he came along a year or two later. Imran and Hadlee had played a few tests but were very young indeed. So not a golden age for bowlers, but Arnold was a reasonable performer.

Good effort getting 72 out of 76 btw.

 

[BoyBrumby]

He timed it pretty well in terms of reaching number 1 in 1973. I think Lillee was injured, and the next batch of the 1970s uber-quicks (Thomson, Roberts and Holding) hadn't played yet. Snow had an iffy few years after the 1970/71 Ashes; missed much of 1971 for disciplinary reasons, did OK in the 1972 Ashes but tanked badly in our 1973 series for some reason. Plus Arnold actually went to India in 1972/73 and did reasonably well. Then of course, you have the SA bowlers of that era who weren't able to play test cricket. Without checking, I'd guess that the next best ranked quicks were the WI not-as good- as what-followed generation of Boyce, Julien and Holder. But I think they'd only had one good series (in England, naturally) by the end of 1973. Sarfraz may have been there of thereabouts too, but I think he came along a year or two later. Imran and Hadlee had played a few tests but were very young indeed. So not a golden age for bowlers, but Arnold was a reasonable performer.

Good effort getting 72 out of 76 btw.

Ha, ta.

Luckily one didn't have to match the bowler with the year nor was penalised for wrong guesses, so it was more "name as many quality postwar bowlers as you can", really.

 

[mr_mister]

Geoff Allott and Neil Johnson, 2 guys who tore up the '99 WC against some star studded sides but a year later were both pretty much retired

 

[Gnske]

Peter Forrest

Such a brief oddity and shocking to think he was in a test squad.

 

[Gnske]

Adam Voges come to think of it was close to being guy until his glorious blooming.

 

[mr_mister]

Imran Nazir another good one. I saw him play back to back blistering knocks in the original t20 WC semi final and final and thought he was gonna be a star

 

[_Ed_]

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.

Probably not the 2015 WC - his only game in that tournament was 0-68 v Bangladesh. But, yeah, he did make a superb start to his ODI career, and he played a big role in our semi-finals run in the 2016 World T20 too.

 

[trundler]

Imran Nazir another good one. I saw him play back to back blistering knocks in the original t20 WC semi final and final and thought he was gonna be a star

He was a batting Sami. Every time he was dropped, the world wondered what happened to such a magnificently talented player. Then there'd be the xth comeback and subsequent failure.

Nazir played 79 ODIs across a decade and was consistently underwhelming. Yet, people think he was a wasted talent.

 

[SillyCowCorner1]

Didn't he like made a ton on test debut? It was a big ton. Like Dhawan's debut ton.

 

[mr_mister]

He was a batting Sami. Every time he was dropped, the world wondered what happened to such a magnificently talented player. Then there'd be the xth comeback and subsequent failure.

Nazir played 79 ODIs across a decade and was consistently underwhelming. Yet, people think he was a wasted talent.

Yeah, at the time(2007) I had no idea he'd been in and out of the side since the 90s, I thought he was some new guy on the scene

Looked a million bucks when actually scoring runs must be said. Killer pull shot

 

[SillyCowCorner1]

Didn't he like made a ton on test debut? It was a big ton. Like Dhawan's debut ton.

The batsman I was thinking of was Yasir Hameed. In his debut test, he made centuries in both innings.

 

[Bahseph]

Kirk Edward's anyone? The only reason he springs to mind is he was West Indies vice captain at some stage. Probably got his run around the player strike.

 

[Flem274*]

kirk edwards was pure cake, and just what the windies needed at the time (still do). it's a shame he faded away.

 

[wpdavid]

Richard Ellison effectively came from nowhere to bowl England to victory in the final two tests in the 1985 Ashes. Then injuries kicked in and he barely played for England again.

 

[Red]

Peter Forrest

Such a brief oddity and shocking to think he was in a test squad.

this is a good one. had forgotten him completely.

 

[GIMH]

Tim Bresnan

 

[trundler]

Nasir Jamshed!

 

[SillyCowCorner1]

I might get a lot of flak for this pick, but Ramesh Powar. That lovely off spinner's action: flight and drift. He inspired 2016 Under-19 Player of the Tournament, Mehedy Hasan Miraz, who copied/modeled his bowling action after Powar.

 

[Starfighter]

Nasir Jamshed!

Good call, I can remember people rating him back in the day.

Xavier Doherty is one. While his miserable test career will thankfully be forgotten he somehow managed to squeeze 60 ODIs in there and was a fixture for quite a few summers down here without ever doing anything memorable.

Also Chris Tremlett and Steven Finn. Tremlett left quite an impression down here in 2010/11, although his best performance was at Perth where England lost. After the injuries in 2011 he was never able to recapture that form, and his one test in 2013 was painful to watch - he didn't bowl badly, just so slow. I remember really rating Finn, especially after the ODI series in 2012 or 13 (I think?), and thought he had potential greatness in him despite his often being expensive. The whole hitting the stumps fiasco and the modifications to his run really screwed him up. A tremendous waste of talent. It's very hard to think of a time when the impression of England's attack hasn't been 'Broad, Anderson and some other guy'.

 

[TheJediBrah]

Peter Forrest

Such a brief oddity and shocking to think he was in a test squad.

Never liked him. Even when he was in good form around 2012 and was making runs for Australia in ODIs he did it way too slowly