Cricket's Great Myths

[subshakerz]

It's gone into cricket lore that NZ needed six to win and Chappell stopped them. But that's wrong - NZ needed seven to win. Six would have tied the game.

And that was the problem. By Chappell's own admission in hindsight, he was mentally exhausted and not fit to be captain. The last thing he wanted was another game of cricket that summer which, if it had been a tie, would have happened because they would have had to come back the next day and do it all again.

I'm not defending him - it was a cowardly decision. But he wasn't trying to avoid losing the game. He was trying to avoid replaying it.

Interesting, I didn't know that.

 

[subshakerz]

I've tackled this one before but here goes - the only notable legspinner aside from flashes in the pan like Siva and Hirwani to come out of Asia post-Chandra was Qadir, who received massive effusive praise beyond his actual returns. Legspin was kept alive no more there than it was in Australia by Hohns, Holland and Sleep. Kumble did not break through until after Warne and Mushtaq took even longer.

Didn't Mushtaq and Kumble debut before Warne? So they eventually would have come good regardless of Warne.

 

[Starfighter]

Bearing in mind he'd already dropped out during England's home tests in the summer of 1974, it clearly preceded the Ashes tour. Some combination of not coping with having Denness as captain, wanting to concentrate on captaining Yorkshire in case their poor results without him meant him losing the job, and not coping with being Solkar's bunny. As for the 1974/75 Ashes, all we knew of Thomson that he'd taken 1 for 200 in his one previous test and Lillee had missed much of the previous year through injury, so we didn't even know whether he would play in the series.

From what I've read the interpersonal conflicts were the entirety of the reason for Boycott's mid-career sook. I doubt Solkar has more than the tiniest influence - after all he wasn't going to be sticking around after the tour. That's it's own little myth.

 

[Coronis]

Well what did he do it for then? Granted, NZ's no.10 hitting a six was rather unlikely, but I've never seen an alternative explanation.

tbf McKechnie (an All Black as well) was quite big and with Trevor bowling just medium pacers, it wasn’t that crazy for him to have gotten a big six.

Also apparently despite the narrative I’ve heard often that Greg forced Trevor into it, apparently Trevor loved the idea.

 

[wpdavid]

From what I've read the interpersonal conflicts were the entirety of the reason for Boycott's mid-career sook. I doubt Solkar has more than the tiniest influence - after all he wasn't going to be sticking around after the tour. That's it's own little myth.

I think that's probably right actually. Admittedly the tortured workings of Boycott's thought process might have led him to all sorts of conclusions, but, as you say, Solkar was never going to be a factor in the long term. Mind you, neither was Denness once Greig took over in 1975, so who knows why it took another two years for Boycott to come back.

 

[Starfighter]

Didn't Mushtaq and Kumble debut before Warne? So they eventually would have come good regardless of Warne.

Warne was a 'traditional' loop-it-up leggie that was so romanticised by the press, unlike Kumble, made his big splash earlier, and did it against WI. Mushtaq was that traditional type leggie but was a non-entity until 1995, with nothing to stand him out from the previous guys from either Asia or Australia.

 

[CricAddict]

That Ashwin and Jadeja can't bowl outside India.

 

[CricAddict]

Kallis never won South Africa any matches.

 

[subshakerz]

That Ashwin and Jadeja can't bowl outside India.

Sure they can, they did really well in SL and WI.

 

[subshakerz]

Kallis never won South Africa any matches.

Did so with the ball several times early in his career.

 

[Senile Sentry]

That Greg Chappell ordered the underarm delivery because he was afraid of losing the match.

He just did it to immortalize his younger brother.

 

[Pap Finn Keighl]

Jayasuriya and Kalu pioneered fast scoring Opening around 96 WC

Before 96 WC Sachin's strike rate was 94 as opener, and all other openers were below 80.

 

[CricAddict]

Sure they can, they did really well in SL and WI.

OK then. They can't bowl in sena is the myth you propagate.

 

[CricAddict]

Did so with the ball several times early in his career.

That is dumb overlooking of his primary discipline again.

 

[Senile Sentry]

Whenever I hear "Jayasuriya/Kalu's revolutionary amazing attacking batting in the first 15 overs was key to SL's WC win" or something to that effect, I love to point out that Kaluwitharana averaged a mighty 12.16 with the bat in that tournament.

Yes. The Kalu - Jaya partnership success is conflated with Kalu s success in the ODI series in Australia that just preceded the World Cup, where it all started.

Curiously Jaya didn't that well in that series. So that was a big leap of faith that Ranatunga took in the WC.

 

[honestbharani]

I've tackled this one before but here goes - the only notable legspinner aside from flashes in the pan like Siva and Hirwani to come out of Asia post-Chandra was Qadir, who received massive effusive praise beyond his actual returns. Legspin was kept alive no more there than it was in Australia by Hohns, Holland and Sleep. Kumble did not break through until after Warne and Mushtaq took even longer.

Kumble debuted in 1990 right?

 

[quincywagstaff]

Did Lillee really chicken out of playing in India btw?

Never had the chance to. The only tour Australua had to India during Lillee's career was in 1979 when Lillee was with WSC.

 

[quincywagstaff]

Jayasuriya and Kalu pioneered fast scoring Opening around 96 WC































Before 96 WC Sachin's strike rate was 94 as opener, and all other openers were below 80.

I think the difference was that we hadn't seen two ultra-agressive ODI openers before. There had been examples like Greatbatch at the 1992 WC but there was always a sedate opener at the other end.

 

[Senile Sentry]

I've tackled this one before but here goes - the only notable legspinner aside from flashes in the pan like Siva and Hirwani to come out of Asia post-Chandra was Qadir, who received massive effusive praise beyond his actual returns. Legspin was kept alive no more there than it was in Australia by Hohns, Holland and Sleep. Kumble did not break through until after Warne and Mushtaq took even longer.

Not Kumble. By the time Ashes 1993 (that estabkished Warne) had rolled out, He had already distinguished himself with the SA tour where he took 18 wickets from 4 tests at 25. Followed it up with 21 wickets in the 3-0 whitewash of Eng at home as well.

 

[Kenneth Viljoen]

Gibbs dropped the World Cup in 1999 ..Steve Waugh didnt say it , but even if it was said there's no merit or real logic to that statement , firstly that dropped catch off Waugh was in the super sixes stage , you don't win World cups in the group stage , secondly poor Herchelle got a hundred in that game...Our two best bowlers Donald and Pollock picked up 0 wickets between them in defending 270 odd which was a huge score in the 90's , that to me cost us more than anything in that game , we still had another crack at Australia in the semi final to prove we really deserved to reach the final and we failed , even if we beat Australia there's no guarantee we would have beaten Pakistan ..I mean Pakistan were a better side than Zimbabwe yet we also lost to them in that WC ..The whole thing was a huge overreaction in my opinion and unfair on Gibbs .