Steve Smith vs Viv Richards

[subshakerz]

You keep saying "padding" but what truly dire attacks has Smith faced on a consistent basis?

Easier than normal home conditions as indicated by several players from his team averaging near 60s or above in his time.

 

[_00_deathscar]

Hate watching Smith bat. No real flow, just jerky.

He feels like a batsman who has found a cheat code to score runs rather than rely on skill.

He’s the dude that plays Mortal Kombat/Street Fighter crouching down and doing leg kicks. Opponents can’t do a thing. It’s very effective, but ugly.

 

[Coronis]

I'm sure he will and bloody Labushchagne too

It's about time Smith picked up an injury and missed an Ashes series.

Whilst we're talking about Aussie's getting injured, your pace bowlers never miss an Ashes either - it's bloody annoying.

Our bowlers - bar Jimmy, have always got stress fractures etc. About time Cummings got crocked as well as Smith

Nah he’ll never get injured now, gotta make up for his lost ban time.

 

[ankitj]

Viv Richards' drubbing in this poll is genuinely surprising. Would have thought there will be more votes for the legendary swagger.

 

[Gob]

Viv Richards' drubbing in this poll is genuinely surprising. Would have thought there will be more votes for the legendary swagger.

Yeah was not expecting such a one sided poll before opening the thread

 

[TheJediBrah]

Unpopular opinion for sure, but I love Smith’s unorthodox technique and watching him bat. I also loved watching others like Lara, Sanga and Waugh, so go figure.

Yeah I don't get people saying they don't like watching him. I find techniques like his, also Chanderpaul, Katich, Lehmann etc. great to watch.

 

[PlayerComparisons]

Dang 18-4

 

[shortpitched713]

Viv Richards' drubbing in this poll is genuinely surprising. Would have thought there will be more votes for the legendary swagger.

Yeah was not expecting such a one sided poll before opening the thread

You have to take these polls with a large grain of salt. See below, for a big part of reasoning:

I've cracked the code actually. Here's all you have to do, to adjust your opinions for players to be higher or lower than what their average indicates, if you want to conform to CW Cricket Chat concensus.

Tier 1
Australia
India
England

Tier 2
West Indies
New Zealand
Pakistan

Tier 3
South Africa
Sri Lanka

If you know which of these major cricketing countries the player is from, you can adjust them by tier value. Always adjust tier 1 averages favorably, and tier 3 averages unfavorably. This is because Tier 1 countries have the most deluded fan support on this site, who insist their countries players experienced some special circumstance or other to elevate the significance of their positive performance and mitigate the negative performance, and will argue you to the tooth to. It is useless to argue against such a deluge, regardless of the existence of facts or evidence supporting your negative argument against any such player.

Tier 2 countries have just about enough support on the forum, or value attributed to undeniable historical achievement, that you can't get away with lowering their averages, but at the same time were rivals to Tier 1 countries so you can't increase their averages either, so don't do either.

Tier 3 countries are from countries who were both in recent history very tough opponents and rivals of tier 1 countries, and also have the least amount of support on this forum. For this reason just make up whatever spurious arguments you can to bash their players and lower/increase their averages unfavorably. No one's going to challenge you on those arguments anyway, so eventually your takes will become part of the consensus.

With this simple guide, you too can help build "historical consensus" on the Cricket Web Cricket Chat forum. Have fun! And excuse me while I vomit somewhere...

 

[Coronis]

You have to take these polls with a large grain of salt. See below, for a big part of reasoning:

Its more that a poll gap isn’t indicative of the actual gap most people think between players. If everyone thinks x is just a little bit better than y, you’ll still end up with a one sided poll.

 

[shortpitched713]

I might be exaggerating a bit, but if nothing else I've been around the block around CW for a bit. The effect I'm mentioning is real, and even to an extent understandable, but meh.

If you repeat this poll with Sachin or Hutton vs Smith I don't think you're getting nearly as big of a landslide for Smith, if at all.

 

[anil1405]

3 years of dip in form for Smith like Viv had would make the poll much closer than it is.

 

[ataraxia]

If you repeat this poll with Sachin or Hutton vs Smith I don't think you're getting nearly as big of a landslide for Smith, if at all.

That's quite clearly because Sachin and Hutton are better than Viv.

 

[PlayerComparisons]

I think Viv would beat Hutton in a poll

 

[shortpitched713]

That's quite clearly because Sachin and Hutton are better than Viv.

Dang fam, why you have to do me dirty like that.

Anyway, I picked a couple names out a hat I thought were comparable. To me, I'm one of those annoying people at parties who points out biases and ****, because I don't care.

Like, if one own favorite player were in the poll, one might say something like "can't compare a retired player to one currently playing", but then if it's just a a legend from a country you don't support, then one has no problem putting the vote in for Smith. Little things like that, innit.

Anyway, it's late. Have fun guys.

 

[subshakerz]

Peak Viv easily beats peak Smith for me.

Averaging 70 plus facing Lillee, Thomson, Imran, Snow, peak Botham, and a host of quality spinners, and top scoring in WSC, is a higher peak than Smith fattening his record mainly on soft tracks at home.

Smith's insane appetite of runs against medium and poor attacks means he has a much better overall record but to me the difference between them is not huge and frankly an unlikely slump in form can take Smith below Viv overall as well.

 

[ankitj]

You have to take these polls with a large grain of salt. See below, for a big part of reasoning:

LoL that post is gold. The most egregious thing I have seen is adjusting everyone's Ashes record favourably. Everyone involved in Ashes is playing Ashes. You can't favourably adjust both batting and bowling of both teams. Makes no sense.

Edit: I also think West Indies is tier-1 for players up untill Lara

 

[ataraxia]

I think Viv would beat Hutton in a poll

hmm why don't we check

 

[ankitj]

CW ranked Richards at #5, Hutton at #7, Smith at #10 not that long ago.

CW's Top 50 Test Batsmen. 2022 Results

Firstly, my thanks @gftw for initiating the voting thread and thanks to all who contributed votes and comments. With voting and comments dwindling, it was felt we should stop at a final Top 50. I have added stats to the list as a matter of interest and for discussion points and here is the...

www.cricketweb.net

 

[PlayerComparisons]

Lara beat Hutton in a poll and Viv beat Lara in a poll

 

[Slifer]

Peak Viv easily beats peak Smith for me.

Averaging 70 plus facing Lillee, Thomson, Imran, Snow, peak Botham, and a host of quality spinners, and top scoring in WSC, is a higher peak than Smith fattening his record mainly on soft tracks at home.

Smith's insane appetite of runs against medium and poor attacks means he has a much better overall record but to me the difference between them is not huge and frankly an unlikely slump in form can take Smith below Viv overall as well.

Yeah based on what I've seen from Smith facing up to the South African attack on the last tour in Australia when the wickets were more helpful and the working over Smith got from Archer and Wagner. I'd say he'd have gotten murdered facing Thommo et al in the 80s without bouncer restrictions and minimal protection.