• Welcome to the Cricket Web forums, one of the biggest forums in the world dedicated to cricket.

    You are currently viewing our boards as a guest which gives you limited access to view most discussions and access our other features. By joining our free community you will have access to post topics, respond to polls, upload content and access many other special features. Registration is fast, simple and absolutely free so please, join the Cricket Web community today!

    If you have any problems with the registration process or your account login, please contact us.

Viv Richards vs steve smith

Who had better peak

  • Viv

    Votes: 15 39.5%
  • Smith

    Votes: 23 60.5%

  • Total voters
    38

Johan

International Captain
Most teams bar WI in the 80s were pure mid
agree mostly, England post beefy decline/willis retirement was pretty mid, Australia did get good at end with Mcdermott/Hughes/Reid but their mid 80s attack is mid, India is India, Pakistan was good with Imran and then Wasim/Qadir in mid 80s, NZ was Hadlee + decent support bowlers so I guess only Pak, NZ and WI were decent while the big three were struggling.
 

capt_Luffy

International Coach
agree mostly, England post beefy decline/willis retirement was pretty mid, Australia did get good at end with Mcdermott/Hughes/Reid but their mid 80s attack is mid, India is India, Pakistan was good with Imran and then Wasim/Qadir in mid 80s, NZ was Hadlee + decent support bowlers so I guess only Pak, NZ and WI were decent while the big three were struggling.
Basically WI were arguably the best to ever exist, 2 teams were dragged around by two top 5 ATGs and rest were mid.
 

capt_Luffy

International Coach
Yeah, also feel like most bowlers of the time were also kinda HTBs
Still are really. Probs even more. Look at Cummins, Rabada, Anderson, Ashwin, Jadeja, Hazlewood, Broad, Philander at home and compare with away. Heck even Roach, Holder, Woakes, Jayasuriya, and a plethora of mid Indian spinners and Saffa pacers have ATG numbers at home.
 
Last edited:

Johan

International Captain
Still are really. Probs even more. Look at Cummins, Rabada, Ashwin, Jadeja, Hazlewood, Broad, Philander at home and compare with away. Heck even Roach, Holder, Woakes, Jayasuriya, and a plethora of mid Indian spinners and Saffa pacers have ATG numbers at home.
tbh Broad is more a condition bully than a home bully but yeah these days is actually worse, look at Roach's home numbers for an example, 196 @ 22.3 witb 46 SR.
 

capt_Luffy

International Coach
McGrath, Hadlee, Ambrose, Warne, Bumrah, Wasim and ofc 4 horsemen of pacocalypse are probably the only ATG bowlers no one can label to have records tilted unconventionally home way even a bit post War.
 

Coronis

International Coach
??

Not to forget, isn't the common belief floating around here that the 70s and 80s were among most bowling friendly eras?
Well lemme look at this a bit more indepth.

(I’m only looking at post-WWI, we all know wickets before then were more bowling friendly)

Overall batting average post WWI - 30.54 (if I took the overall test average including pre war, the 2020’s would be considered average and every other decade besides the 50’s batting friendly)

Batting Averages by Decade post WWI

1920s - 31.88
1930s - 31.12
1940s - 34.26
1950s - 27.38
1960s - 30.81
1970s - 30.76
1980s - 30.45
1990s - 29.45
2000s - 32.02
2010s - 31.12
2020s - 28.68

From this I have deduced..

Greatest batsman in the toughest era - Walcott in the 50’s 3129 @ 61.35
Greatest bowler in the toughest era - Johnston in the 40’s 54 @ 18.51
 
Last edited:

DrWolverine

International Debutant
With the exception of Marshall, most great fast bowlers have certain flaws in their record.

Hadlee - Medicore record against Pak. Avg of 28.3 in 12 Tests.

McGrath - Mediocre record against the best opponent he faced(SA). Lack of penetration in Asian pitches - Just 1 Fer in 17 Tests.

Ambrose - He did not play much in Asia. Just 6 Tests. Didn’t play in India. Avg 38 against India.

Steyn - Batting era or not, averaged 31 against England. Avg of 29 in Aus & 32 in England.

Donald - Mediocre against the best team of his era(Aus). Averaged just 28 in Australia.

Imran - Away record isn’t as impressive as home record. Avg of 28 in Aus and 28 in India.

Lillee - The most influential fast bowler played only 5 Tests outside Aus/England/NZ.

Garner - Played 50 out of 58 Tests in Aus/Eng/WI. Did not play in India. Played only 3 Tests in Asia.

Holding - Avg of 35 in NZ in 7 Tests.
 

Coronis

International Coach
With the exception of Marshall, most great fast bowlers have certain flaws in their record.

Hadlee - Medicore record against Pak. Avg of 28.3 in 12 Tests.

McGrath - Mediocre record against the best opponent he faced(SA). Lack of penetration in Asian pitches - Just 1 Fer in 17 Tests.

Ambrose - He did not play much in Asia. Just 6 Tests. Didn’t play in India. Avg 38 against India.

Steyn - Batting era or not, averaged 31 against England. Avg of 29 in Aus & 32 in England.

Donald - Mediocre against the best team of his era(Aus). Averaged just 28 in Australia.

Imran - Away record isn’t as impressive as home record. Avg of 28 in Aus and 28 in India.

Lillee - The most influential fast bowler played only 5 Tests outside Aus/England/NZ.

Garner - Played 50 out of 58 Tests in Aus/Eng/WI. Did not play in India. Played only 3 Tests in Asia.

Holding - Avg of 35 in NZ in 7 Tests.
Bumrah - 0 10’fers in 45 tests.
 

Top