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Barry Richards vs Greenidge

Better Opener

  • Total voters
    16
kyear2

kyear2

International Coach
DrWolverine said:
It is ridiculous to compare Barry Richards to other cricketers since he did not play much at the level
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Yet somehow everyone in the 70's especially the first half of the 70's knew who the best batsman in the world was.

The arrogance that some here have exhibited on this topic, who's knowledge of the sport doesn't extent past analyzing stat sheets, is pretty impressive.
The inability to accept any other perspective other that their own and even the contemporary ratings of previous generations is a special kind of hubris.

First class cricket in the 70's and 80's wasn't what it was today and throughout history played a major part in the ratings of cricketers. It's why even today O'Reilly is unanimously seen as the 3rd greatest spinner ever.

One of if the major reasons why the WI team of the 80's were able to become the greatest team ever up to that point, was because of the extensive exposure granted by county cricket. It was where everyone was.

It was also what odi's subsequently became, the 2nd most important form of cricket, but even more crucially so, because it was also inherently red ball cricket.
So very much the same way the odi performances buffs the credentials of players like Tendulkar and Wasim in the 90's the same applied to fc cricket preceding that.

And again, it wasn't just first class performances on their own. It was whom those performances were against, it was also how they were performed, 9 hundreds before lunch, a triple in a day, it was the acclaim from Dickie Bird, Dennis Lillee, Don Bradman, Graeme Gooch, Jeff Thompson, to Procter and Pollock all proclaiming him the greatest opening batsman they've ever seen, if not batsman all together.

Far more astute judges than us judged Jim better than Greenidge, Trumper, Hayden et al then selecting him to the Cricinfo all time World Test 2nd team XI. CMJ did the same when naming him in a world XI to compete against an all time English XI. Crowe when he named him in his 2nd all time world XI, though he also called him the best post war opener.

But surely we here know far better., and this man surely can't be an all time great.
 
subshakerz

subshakerz

Hall of Fame Member
kyear2 said:
Yet somehow everyone in the 70's especially the first half of the 70's knew who the best batsman in the world was.

The arrogance that some here have exhibited on this topic, who's knowledge of the sport doesn't extent past analyzing stat sheets, is pretty impressive.
The inability to accept any other perspective other that their own and even the contemporary ratings of previous generations is a special kind of hubris.

First class cricket in the 70's and 80's wasn't what it was today and throughout history played a major part in the ratings of cricketers. It's why even today O'Reilly is unanimously seen as the 3rd greatest spinner ever.

One of if the major reasons why the WI team of the 80's were able to become the greatest team ever up to that point, was because of the extensive exposure granted by county cricket. It was where everyone was.

It was also what odi's subsequently became, the 2nd most important form of cricket, but even more crucially so, because it was also inherently red ball cricket.
So very much the same way the odi performances buffs the credentials of players like Tendulkar and Wasim in the 90's the same applied to fc cricket preceding that.

And again, it wasn't just first class performances on their own. It was whom those performances were against, it was also how they were performed, 9 hundreds before lunch, a triple in a day, it was the acclaim from Dickie Bird, Dennis Lillee, Don Bradman, Graeme Gooch, Jeff Thompson, to Procter and Pollock all proclaiming him the greatest opening batsman they've ever seen, if not batsman all together.

Far more astute judges than us judged Jim better than Greenidge, Trumper, Hayden et al then selecting him to the Cricinfo all time World Test 2nd team XI. CMJ did the same when naming him in a world XI to compete against an all time English XI. Crowe when he named him in his 2nd all time world XI, though he also called him the best post war opener.

But surely we here know far better., and this man surely can't be an all time great.
Click to expand...
So do you consider Van Der Bijl an ATG?
 
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