Don't underestimate the extent to which players in those old reels staged their movements. Obviously not in recordings of matches but I was surprised to read many years ago that the cost of film and equipment back then meant stuff was done very deliberately. You sort of didn't film for a day and edit reams of it like happened later on.
I don't know how true it is but it stuck with me as a point of interest when I look at those old reels. Same with the Bradman ones post-the 1930 Ashes where he's playing certain shots with Oldfield up to the stumps behind him and you can see by the way the keeper is moving the ball has basically been tossed outside off stump at the pace a toddler would lob it up. Like, the ball is on its way down as he hits it. He looks bog average. Then you see footage of him from a distance playing in a test against the likes of Larwood with the keeper back a pitch length and it's plainly obvious the bloke is a genius.
All noted. Notwithstanding all of that though, and whilst I respect that opinion, I can't believe Joe Root would ever look as hopeless as Hobbs does in the shot at 36 seconds "Jack doesn't mind a yorker", regardless of whether the ball was just lobbed up or the film cost a lot of money or whatever else. He literally looks like he's batting with his wrong hand.
I realise there are different opinions of it which may be correct, but the same with the Grace footage, to me very brief as it is, it shows someone not with the same skillsets as the top modern player. These were untrained, probably fairly uncoached, best of probably quite a small pool of players, who were developing the sport, and it shows.
What my eyes are telling me I'm watching here is a transition player, between Grace who didn't move his feet and just swung and whacked it along the ground (people say he was 50 or whatever, but he was still playing 1st class cricket, and you can bet your life if you asked Ricky Ponting to hit a few balls aged 50 he wouldn't stand there feet glued to the spot swinging at it like a victorian lady), to someone who has parts of the repertoire of the late 20th century batsman.
Just different opinions, and neither of us is going to convince the other, and that's fine. Just wanted to put it out there for consideration (and dismissal where applicable and no worries with that either).
