Finding out the best decade for test cricket: The tournament thread! 12 ATG XIs duke it out.

[srbhkshk]

00s

I have been voting for 80s till now because of their overwhelming bowling superiority over most teams, but I think 00s is pretty great themselves in that regard and have a better batting line-up.

 

[sunilz]

using this method the Bradman teams would look pretty damn good heh

I don't trust most of the players in Bradman's team in modern conditions.

 

[Bolo.]

00s.

Specialist bats is a wash. 80s quicks are clearly better players, but playing a spinner, plus the extra batting from Kallis and Gilchrist is enough for me.

 

[Victor Ian]

I don't trust most of the players in Bradman's team in modern conditions.

What if it was in the 40's? Does any modern team have even a remote chance of adapting? The psycholical damage of removing half their protection, diminishing the efficiency of what remains, playing in unstretching fabrics, sleeping on lumpy beds, travelling in shitty buses, playing on uncovered pitches, with thinner bats with smaller sweet spots.

What would be the ideal year to hold a tournament spanning 150 years? 1950?

 

[mr_mister]

What if it was in the 40's? Does any modern team have even a remote chance of adapting? The psycholical damage of removing half their protection, diminishing the efficiency of what remains, playing in unstretching fabrics, sleeping on lumpy beds, travelling in ****ty buses, playing on uncovered pitches, with thinner bats with smaller sweet spots.

What would be the ideal year to hold a tournament spanning 150 years? 1950?

good point. I don't know why keep assuming past players couldn't adjust to modern cricket while modern cricketers would easily adapt to the old times

Does anyone even bowl like Barnes or O'Reilly anymore? They might completely bamboozle modern ATG batsman just because they've never experienced anything like it

 

[sunilz]

What if it was in the 40's? Does any modern team have even a remote chance of adapting? The psycholical damage of removing half their protection, diminishing the efficiency of what remains, playing in unstretching fabrics, sleeping on lumpy beds, travelling in ****ty buses, playing on uncovered pitches, with thinner bats with smaller sweet spots.

What would be the ideal year to hold a tournament spanning 150 years? 1950?

You are massively underestimating problems of modern players. There have been extremely few cricketers who can adapt to all conditions. Even players like Ponting, Dravid, Murali used to struggle in certain conditions.

Playing in only 2 countries and against 1 decent opposition is not same as playing against atleast 6 decent opposition in 6 different countries

 

[kyear2]

You are massively underestimating problems of modern players. There have been extremely few cricketers who can adapt to all conditions. Even players like Ponting, Dravid, Murali used to struggle in certain conditions.

Playing in only 2 countries and against 1 decent opposition is not same as playing against atleast 6 decent opposition in 6 different countries

Exactly this.

That is the only difference I was trying to explain. More consistent competition in more varied conditions. Nothing About Bradman's skill of anything else

 

[Victor Ian]

You are massively underestimating problems of modern players. There have been extremely few cricketers who can adapt to all conditions. Even players like Ponting, Dravid, Murali used to struggle in certain conditions.

Playing in only 2 countries and against 1 decent opposition is not same as playing against atleast 6 decent opposition in 6 different countries

Not with reasonable pre tours to figure things out. It shows how pampered the modern times are that the complaint is 'but different faces!'.
Batsman have always had to contend with swing, seam and spin - bowlers, with a set group of pitch conditions.

 

[sunilz]

Not with reasonable pre tours to figure things out. It shows how pampered the modern times are that the complaint is 'but different faces!'.
Batsman have always had to contend with swing, seam and spin - bowlers, with a set group of pitch conditions.

No amount of pre-tour will help you prepare against Ambrose at WACA/Sabina Park, Murali at Galle, Steyn at Centurion or Ashwin/Jadeja in IND , McGrath at Gabba, Imran at Karachi or Anderson at Lords

 

[Victor Ian]

No amount of pre-tour will help you prepare against Ambrose at WACA/Sabina Park, Murali at Galle, Steyn at Centurion or Ashwin/Jadeja in IND , McGrath at Gabba, Imran at Karachi or Anderson at Lords

And yet you contend that having practise against one opponent at one ground helps.

 

[h_hurricane]

80s

 

[Victor Ian]

The thing that makes Murali at Galle brilliant, is Murali. Ambrose at Sabina is Ambrose, etc. How did these players you suggest get awesome there? Probably familiarity. Your premise is false.

 

[Victor Ian]

No amount of pre-tour will help you prepare against Ambrose at WACA/Sabina Park, Murali at Galle, Steyn at Centurion or Ashwin/Jadeja in IND , McGrath at Gabba, Imran at Karachi or Anderson at Lords

Also, let's not kid ourselves. This tournament is played at Lord's. It is modern players that have adaption problems.

 

[honestbharani]

00s

 

[Victor Ian]

Looks like the naughty team wins. Warne will be gutted to have not been part of it.

 

[sunilz]

So 1 of these players will end up in a winning team.

 

[stephen]

I just find it funny how many mental hoops you have to jump through to think that the quality of cricket improved so dramatically so quickly that the 40s is worse than the 00s due to the passage of time but the 80s is better than the 00s in spite of the passage of time.

It seems like mentally people flick a switch around the 50s to say that the modern era started then and that Sobers is the second best batsman ever etc... yet think Bradman, whose career extended to virtually the time that Sobers' career started would have "only" averaged 60 in modern times.

If Bradman would only have averaged 60, what does it say about his contemporaries? What does it say about players like Miller who had careers that overlapped both Bradman and Sobers?

Anderson's career is still going. His career started in 2003 and overlaps with Tendulkar's career. Tendulkar started in 1989 which overlaps with Viv's career. Viv started in 1974, which overlaps with Cowdrey's career, which started in 1954. Cowdrey started in 1954 which overlaps with Hutton's career. Hutton was a contemporary of Bradman.

Can someone point to the moment in any of these player's careers where the demands of the modern game made batting so much more difficult that Bradman and his contemporaries wouldn't have adapted?

 

[ma1978]

I think the 70s was when cricket properly modernized and the 80s when that effect was globally felt. What does this mean?

- Six genuinely competitive teams
- Regular global tours
- Professionalization of county cricket (which had a big knock on effect on Windies and Pakistan)
- Kerry Packer

so I think modern comparability really starts then

In Indian terms this means I can draw a closer parallel between Gavaskar and Kohli than between Gavaskar and Hazare (even though the latter two were closer in years).

That said, people often use this argument to belittle Bradman. Bradman is the biggest statistical outlier in any sport period. Such an outlier that any team with himshould automatically win this. But assuming that also takes all the fun out of the exercise

 

[ma1978]

And it’s the 80s for m

Quality of opening batting very different

 

[_00_deathscar]

I think the 70s was when cricket properly modernized and the 80s when that effect was globally felt. What does this mean?

- Six genuinely competitive teams
- Regular global tours
- Professionalization of county cricket (which had a big knock on effect on Windies and Pakistan)
- Kerry Packer

so I think modern comparability really starts then

In Indian terms this means I can draw a closer parallel between Gavaskar and Kohli than between Gavaskar and Hazare (even though the latter two were closer in years).

That said, people often use this argument to belittle Bradman. Bradman is the biggest statistical outlier in any sport period. Such an outlier that any team with himshould automatically win this. But assuming that also takes all the fun out of the exercise

That's not actually true - it's just touted by cricket fans.

For instance, football has quite a number of strikers who have ridiculous goalscoring records (at the very highest level) that make Cristiano and Messi's records look bang average.

There's Gretzky with hockey, that squash dude etc.