What was crickets best decade?

[subshakerz]

i’ll bite. who are those world class pacers of the 90s that made it far ahead? Ambrose, the two W’s, Pollock, Donald, Bishop? McGrath? you have Jimmeh, Cummins, Bumrah, Rabada, Shaheen, Broad, Hazlewood, Jamieson from the last decade with more like Robinson and Jansen who could join them

the hype and buzz is very subjective. someone like Kohli is well known in other sport circles too by their players and fans. how do you even measure something like that?

There is no comparison to the level of bowling quality.

By the end of the 90s, Akram, Donald, Ambrose and McGrath were all confirmed top tier ATGs. Pollock, Waqar and Walsh were not far behind.
And then there were second tier worldclass bowlers all around. Fanie Devilliers, Bishop, Shoaib, Gillespie.

Look at the last 20 years, only Steyn is a confirmed ATG.

Jimmy is Walsh level. Cummins is not ATG yet. Rabada, Bumrah, Shaheen, Jansen and Jamieson are still worldclass level and have a lot to prove. It's a big if if they all or most reach ATG status but even then it won't compare to the 90s quality. And let not even talk about spin.

However, I will say that pace stocks nowadays are pretty good. But mid-90s to 2000 were the best I have ever seen.

 

[Athlai]

And the Saffa NZ semi final! Some crackers in that one

 

[Socerer 01]

There is no comparison to the level of bowling quality.

By the end of the 90s, Akram, Donald, Ambrose and McGrath were all confirmed top tier ATGs. Pollock, Waqar and Walsh were not far behind.
And then there were second tier worldclass bowlers all around. Fanie Devilliers, Bishop, Shoaib, Gillespie.

Look at the last 20 years, only Steyn is a confirmed ATG.

Jimmy is Walsh level. Cummins is not ATG yet. Rabada, Bumrah, Shaheen, Jansen and Jamieson are still worldclass level and have a lot to prove. It's a big if if they all or most reach ATG status but even then it won't compare to the 90s quality. And let not even talk about spin.

However, I will say that pace stocks nowadays are pretty good. But mid-90s to 2000 were the best I have ever seen.

yeah nah the only thing making these dudes ATG and the current ones not is nostalgia

 

[Fuller Pilch]

My point with the above videos?? Wayyy more crowds at stadiums for matches involving NZ, Zim and SL. I'm not even going to bother with matches involving Aus, Eng or India. Cricket in the 90s was more interesting and drew bigger crowds; particularly tests.

That was because the Windies were no 1 until 1995 and still good at home for the rest of the decade.

 

[Fuller Pilch]

Look at the last 20 years, only Steyn is a confirmed ATG.

Jimmy is Walsh level. Cummins is not ATG yet. Rabada, Bumrah, Shaheen, Jansen and Jamieson are still worldclass level and have a lot to prove.

Rabada has 280 wickets in 60 tests at a strike rate of 39.7. 39.7!
Lohmann is the only bowler in history with more than 100 wickets with a better strike rate.

 

[subshakerz]

Rabada has 280 wickets in 60 tests at a strike rate of 39.7. 39.7!
Lohmann is the only bowler in history with more than 100 wickets with a better strike rate.

Granted but are you willing to call him an ATG yet? I'm not. Maybe will be by the end of his career though.

 

[trundler]

yeah nah the only thing making these dudes ATG and the current ones not is nostalgia

Also those guys had played full careers by that point. Let's come back to this in 7 years and see how many ATGs there were bowling in 2023. Doesn't really make sense as a measure of their quality right now. Most of those 90s guys would not have been ATGs by '93 but it doesn't change the fact that the bowling was very high standard then, just as it is right now.

 

[subshakerz]

yeah nah the only thing making these dudes ATG and the current ones not is nostalgia

Nostalgia and wickets.

Once Cummins takes enough, he will be ATG too.

 

[Line and Length]

yeah nah the only thing making these dudes ATG and the current ones not is nostalgia

... and career performances.

 

[subshakerz]

Also those guys had played full careers by that point. Let's come back to this in 7 years and see how many ATGs there were bowling in 2023. Doesn't really make sense as a measure of their quality right now. Most of those 90s guys would not have been ATGs by '93 but it doesn't change the fact that the bowling was very high standard then, just as it is right now.

The thing is that it was pretty clear Wasim and Ambrose were going to end up as ATGs in the early 90s, the same for Cummins now.

By the mid-90s, they were pretty much confirmed ATGs. McGrath and Donald were confirmed by the end of the decade.

But the fact is we have four pace bowlers in the 90s who CW features in top 10 ever, and 6 out of the top 15 I think. That is disproportionately high. And then Murali and Warne who are the greatest spinners ever, plus Saqlain and Kumble who also feature in our top 10 spinners I think.

The only bowler now who can crack that top ten pacers would be Cummins IMO. Bumrah is unlikely now given how injury prone he is. Don't see the others as that capable. Hence it's not just quantity but quality of pace that was super high then.

 

[Fuller Pilch]

Granted but are you willing to call him an ATG yet? I'm not. Maybe will be by the end of his career though.

He doesn't have that much to prove though apart from better stats in Asia.

 

[ZK$]

McGrath = Cummins
Ambrose = Jamieson
Wasim = Bumrah
Donald = Rabada
Waqar = Shaheen
Pollock = Robinson
Walsh = Jansen

 

[subshakerz]

McGrath = Cummins
Ambrose = Jamieson
Wasim = Bumrah
Donald = Rabada
Waqar = Shaheen
Pollock = Robinson
Walsh = Jansen

Jumping ahead a bit, aren't you?

Cummins, yeah, he will go down as top tier likely.

Bumrah is already 29, injury prone, and only has 2-3 years of peak performance left. I don't think he can make it to ATG sadly. Similar with Jamieson, already 28 years old and has barely played anything.

Rabada is simply not as good as Donald. He will fall outside top tier.

Shaheen, Robinson, Jansen, too early to say.

 

[subshakerz]

He doesn't have that much to prove though apart from better stats in Asia.

Rabada to me will end up Waqar/Pollock level and outside top tier.

 

[Slifer]

Rabada has 280 wickets in 60 tests at a strike rate of 39.7. 39.7!
Lohmann is the only bowler in history with more than 100 wickets with a better strike rate.

Rabada is great but his record outside RSA needs to improve to be considered among the elite.

 

[Slifer]

That was because the Windies were no 1 until 1995 and still good at home for the rest of the decade.

WI were middle of the pack by the time Zimbabwe came knocking and even that series attracted far bigger crowds than we see now. As a matter of fact, that crowd is larger than any currently in cricket outside the ashes and series involving England, India and Australia.

 

[Molehill]

McGrath = Cummins

I don't really see how Cummins ends up anywhere near McGrath. He's currently about to turn 30 and has 217 wickets at 21.5 and has been prone to injuries.

In the last 6 years, Anderson has 218 wickets at 20.6 so he doesn't even compare favourably with a certain 'over-rated' English veteran.

I wouldn't be surprised if Cummins ends up with less than 400 wickets in his career and that leaves him nowhere near McGrath.

 

[Flem274*]

What if bowlers could be rated ATG on more than just an arbitrary wickets milestone?

200+ is fine. 300+ is more than enough.

 

[wpdavid]

saved by the rain. still a good side though. and iirc there was a dodgy lbw decision in the final which was significant (can't remember the details).

I think it was Pringle's LBW shout against Javed, when he and Imran were in the early stages of rebuilding the innings after some early wickets. Apparently Javed said as much to Pringle after the game, when DP popped into the Pakistan dressing room to congratulate them. Anyway, these things happen.

As for the question, obviously the answer is the 1990s, specifically the middle five years or so. England's 90's generation tend to get written off, but it was a tough era to be playing test cricket. The second half of the 1970s would have been outstanding if WSC hadn't interfered. Even more so if, somewhere along the line, the Saffers had decided that, on reflection, apartheid wasn't such a good idea after all.

The mid 1950s would have been interesting; England very good, Aus still perfectly respectable and WI & SA becoming serious contenders. But apparently lots of the cricket played was dreadfully slow. Those arguing the case for pre-WW1 seem to be overlooking the fact that there were only two good sides, and only one other side taking part.

 

[Coronis]

There is no comparison to the level of bowling quality.

By the end of the 90s, Akram, Donald, Ambrose and McGrath were all confirmed top tier ATGs. Pollock, Waqar and Walsh were not far behind.
And then there were second tier worldclass bowlers all around. Fanie Devilliers, Bishop, Shoaib, Gillespie.

Look at the last 20 years, only Steyn is a confirmed ATG.

Jimmy is Walsh level. Cummins is not ATG yet. Rabada, Bumrah, Shaheen, Jansen and Jamieson are still worldclass level and have a lot to prove. It's a big if if they all or most reach ATG status but even then it won't compare to the 90s quality. And let not even talk about spin.

However, I will say that pace stocks nowadays are pretty good. But mid-90s to 2000 were the best I have ever seen.

Thats the most insulting thing I’ve ever read about Courtney Walsh.