let’s remember some guys

[andruid]

From the Non test world I am gonna submit one Rajab Ali. Played for Kenya at the 1996 World Cup bagged some big named wickets, then got run out to the team a year later because of faction politics.


He was head hunted as a bowling coach by my A level School principal, in the mid noughties. I remember how psyched that he has landed a man with Ricky Pointing and Brian Lara among his scalps.

 

[Pup Clarke]

Sanjay Bangar. Skinny, slow scoring, handy medium pacers. Varied between getting picked as a Test match opening batsmen or an ODI middle-order all rounder.

Great shout!

 

[SteveNZ]

Shane Thomson yo

Has to be a guy. I remember him fondly but his record with bat and ball in all formats is weak. I like it how his last game was the below, where as an all-rounder he managed to neither bat nor bowl in an NZ Master's XI - and turned up looking 50 years older than his playing days with a face that suggested he'd been chugging red wine every hour since then.

 

[karan_fromthestands]

VRV Singh, there was a lot of buzz around him when he was selected for the Indian team. He was selected because Greg Chappell, who was the coach of team India then, desperately wanted a tearaway fast bowler.

VRV got injured even before he played his first game. After that he played 5 tests, didn't get to bowl a lot as he was too raw and wayward at the time. Later, he played a few IPL and domestic games here and there, kept getting back injuries and retired in 2019. The guy had tremendous potential and could have got more chances, but ended up no where thanks to fitness issues.

 

[honestbharani]

VRV Singh, there was a lot of buzz around him when he was selected for the Indian team. He was selected because Greg Chappell, who was the coach of team India then, desperately wanted a tearaway fast bowler.

VRV got injured even before he played his first game. After that he played 5 tests, didn't get to bowl a lot as he was too raw and wayward at the time. Later, he played a few IPL and domestic games here and there, kept getting back injuries and retired in 2019. The guy had tremendous potential and could have got more chances, but ended up no where thanks to fitness issues.

Loved his and Munaf s last.wicket partnership against England or RSA ?

 

[Teja.]

Does Tufnell qualify as a guy? He played 42 tests but was in and out of the side and has an impressively lacklustre bowling average of 37.7 and SR of 93.2(!) despite getting so many tests.

 

[Dan]

I think Peter Such was definitely a guy. He was on his third county when called up for the 1993 Ashes, and looked like quite the find after taking 6/67 in his first attempt at Test cricket. He played five of the six Tests in that series and finished as England's leading wicket-taker, but only played three more Tests (against New Zealand) before being discarded. He was brought back for two Tests in the 1998/99 Ashes, where he didn't disgrace himself (11 wickets at 29 is a pretty solid return for an offie in Australia, after all).

Despite the fairly reasonable returns of 37 wickets in 11 games, bowling average 33.56, he was overlooked for much of his career for the likes of Tufnell, Robert Croft, Ian Salisbury, Richard Illingworth, and Min Patel - it feels like more could have been made of him during that post-Emburey, pre-Giles period. He later became ECB's spin tsar, however his time in the role seems to be exclusively associated with Adam Riley turning from potential Guy to barely club standard.

 

[Flem274*]

abhinav mukund was briefly a thing, and iirc he had very hard hands.

 

[the big bambino]

Peter Such was too good to be a guy IMO and was a little better than Tuffers but easily better than all the other alternatives tried and mentioned by Dan. I don’t think he should be relegated to guy level just because selectors didn’t give him the chances he deserved.

 

[trundler]

it feels like more could have been made of him during that post-Emburey, pre-Giles period.

Ah, yes. Emburey and Giles, 2 ATG offies.

How fitting they were stalwarts of English cricket. Such putrid mediocrity.

 

[mr_mister]

So is common consensus of the 90s spinners

Tufnell > Such> Croft > Salisbury

 

[quincywagstaff]

Vasbert Drakes was a West Indian international who spent most of his career plying his trade in South Africa and England. After 5 relatively unsuccessful ODIs in 1995, it wasn't until the 2002 Champions Trophy that the selectors decided that maybe they should actually pick him after all. He became the focal point of their 2003 World Cup attack, and was famously a member of the Test side during that weird 2003 visit by Australia that involved a 69-ball ton from Shiv, a world record chase of 400+, and Australia picking five specialist bowlers. In a truly fitting finish to his career, he was bowled for a golden duck by noted Scotsman Dougie Brown in his final List A game. Thing is, Brown was playing for Warwickshire. Drakes was playing for Scotland. Both have since coached the UAE.

Most vivid memory of him was that remarkable catch to dismiss John Davison who had scored the fastest eleven WC ton in 2003; went on to take 5 wickets in the innings iirc.

 

[Flem274*]

ben hilfenhaus looked like the next big thing for a wee while but then he just faded away. i think @Howsie even picked him to be the best bowler in the world during his career, and howsie has a reliable eye for talent when he's not looking at his own domestic team haha.

 

[Pup Clarke]

He had a beautiful outswinger, but just looked a bit one-dimensional on unresponsive pitches. He really did fade away quickly didn't he? Was only late 20s before he was jettisoned if memory serves me correctly

 

[Dan]

Beset by knee injuries too - retired from FC aged 32 as a result. Had the tendency to bowl the Ishant Sharma 'unlucky' length.

I may be misremembering here, but I seem to recall him making a decent match-winning 30-odd in a BBL game late in his career and that starting a bit about how he'd pivot to being a Ben Cutting-style T20 all-rounder. Noted BBL historian @Spikey to confirm.

 

[Prince EWS]

Beset by knee injuries too - retired from FC aged 32 as a result. Had the tendency to bowl the Ishant Sharma 'unlucky' length.

I may be misremembering here, but I seem to recall him making a decent match-winning 30-odd in a BBL game late in his career and that starting a bit about how he'd pivot to being a Ben Cutting-style T20 all-rounder. Noted BBL historian @Spikey to confirm.

Spikey tagged on a Hilfenhaus post. The taste continues.

 

[morgieb]

I remember he had a bizarre (on paper) recall for the 2011/12 Indian series.....then proceeded to bowl hand grenades for the next 12 months. Then got injured again, length dropped back and looked innocuous.

But Hilfy is definitely guy areas because his most memorable CW connection was the Spikey post.

 

[Prince EWS]

I remember he had a bizarre (on paper) recall for the 2011/12 Indian series.....then proceeded to bowl hand grenades for the next 12 months. Then got injured again, length dropped back and looked innocuous.

But Hilfy is definitely guy areas because his most memorable CW connection was the Spikey post.

There was also this great thread:

Ben Hilfenhaus - Future Captain

Ben Hilfenhaus will be the next Australian Test Captain because he can swing the ball at right angles at tremendous pace.

www.cricketweb.net

 

[RossTaylorsBox]

Speaking of rando Australian guys... Adam Dale

 

[GoodAreasShane]

Speaking of rando Australian guys... Adam Dale

Lacked pace, but was an absolute quality Sheffield Shield bowler for a while