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    CW's 100 Greatest Cricketers Poll

    In a defensive era, Goddard was probably the most negative bowler. Left-arm over medium pace fired into the batsman's pads. Towards the end of his career, prior to the 1966/67 series against Australia, Eddie Barlow bullied him into bowling properly at off stump to try to get people out. The...
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    John Woodcock's 100 Greatest Cricketers

    Might get more voters by letting each choose their own criteria. No need to introduce all-time teams into it. Up to the individual to include/exclude/weight white ball, non-Test, old players, secondary skills, etc. Also allow each voter to name as many, or as few, players as they want - up to...
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    John Woodcock's 100 Greatest Cricketers

    The way these things work, The Times may well have asked Woodcock to write some pen portraits then got its editorial team to come up with an order to appeal to its readership profile, which would be on the old side. The same with Brian Glanville's 100 footballers. Woodcock and Glanville were...
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    3rd Greatest 19 century cricketer

    Malinga would have been accepted as a roundarm bowler in the mid 19th century.
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    3rd Greatest 19 century cricketer

    Fred Morley had retired before Lohmann made his first-class debut. Morley was more a contemporary of Alfred Shaw. Lohmann and Turner were the leading bowlers of their time, contemporary with Ferris, Peel and Briggs. Although there was some overlap, Spofforth was earlier. The best English bowler...
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    John Woodcock's 100 Greatest Cricketers

    Even though Compton was a Woodcock favourite, the writer never thought he was better than Viv Richards. English cricket writers of the 1950s and 1960s didn't tend to mind West Indies beating England as they played the kind of cricket that drew crowds, and crowds were dwindling. Woodcock...
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    3rd Greatest 19 century cricketer

    Wisden was strongly opposed to any of the 19th century South Africa v England matches being counted as Tests, and maintained their position until after WW2. The games weren't even considered the equivalent of first-class at the time. For the purposes of assessing English cricketers, especially...
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    Who is the greatest cricketer out of this 13?

    In Pilch's day scorecards often showed just the bowler's wickets, not how many runs conceded or balls bowled. In matches now designated as first-class where more comprehensive scorecards exist, Pilch took 10 wickets for 214 runs, an average of 21.40. In matches with no record of runs conceded...
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    John Woodcock's 100 Greatest Cricketers

    The list was part of a series of Top 100s published by The Times at the time. Their editing had a nationalistic flavour. The 100 greatest footballers appearing under Brian Glanville's name included 34 from the British Isles. Woodcock had watched more live cricket than anyone and knew a lot...
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    Ultimate Allrounder XI

    Woolley always scored fast, never slowing down with age or when in the nineties (he was out for 99 five times and for other scores in the nineties on 27 occasions). He tended to be at his best against decent bowling, especially the quick stuff, and didn't care about averages. Larwood and...
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    Ultimate Allrounder XI

    Foster was the better bowler in Australia. Hirst's fondness for the pull shot also got him into trouble on quicker Australian pitches, as it did Jessop. Hirst's record in county cricket was phenomenal. Lord Hawke described him as the greatest county cricketer. He also kept Barnes out of the...
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    Ultimate Allrounder XI

    England All-Rounder XI. Test and first-class cricket. Have tried to restrict it to genuine all-rounders. Grace, Rhodes, Woolley, AG Steel, Greig, Stokes*, Ames+, Botham, Flintoff, Hirst, Mynn. Reserves: Bailey, Moeen Ali and George Brown - who batted, bowled and kept wicket well, and fielded...
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    Best Attack

    The story came from an old TV debate about all-rounders. Wasim argued that the physical strain of being a regular all-rounder was not widely understood and that it was virtually impossible to bat for long periods without a detrimental effect on one's bowling. Mike Procter offered an alternative...
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    Best Attack

    That was often the case in the past. Certain bowlers were actively discouraged from taking their batting seriously or exerting themselves in the field. Wilfred Rhodes could hold a bat even when he was number eleven. Early in his career he came in to tea twenty-odd not out. Lord Hawke cornered...
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    All time Australia XIs - a discussion

    The nature of Australian pitches in the 1920s and 1930s, with fuller covering, often made leg-spin the best option. Timeless Tests and a shortage of left-handed batsmen were other factors. Benaud sometimes teamed up with Ring or Jack Hill during the early 1950s. Bruce Dooland was better than...
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    All time Australia XIs - a discussion

    Australia have picked two specialist leg-spinners in around 70 Tests, covering nearly a hundred years. That excludes part-timers like Simpson.
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    All time Australia XIs - a discussion

    As a young cricketer Grimmett wanted to play for New Zealand. He was on standby for the 1913-14 tour to Australia but wasn't called up. New Zealand had already faced Australia four times to this point, and played another couple of internationals on the tour. The fact the matches weren't...
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    The Unpopular Opinions Thread

    Sobers wasn't the same batsman for WI after embarking on a well-paid county career in 1968. His motivation was also said to be affected by the criticism of his declaration in Trinidad earlier that year. At the end of that series he was averaging 63 in Tests. His subsequent average was 44...
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    im i too old to start playing cricket

    Contact a local club. Most welcome new players. The bigger clubs will offer coaching. Plenty of folk in the UK take up the game in their twenties and thirties so age won't be a problem. I believe it's mostly Saturday league cricket in the north-east. Finding a club that also plays Sunday...
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    DoG's Test Innings and Bowling Performances. Updates thread.

    This is possible since the timeless final Tests of 1926, 1930 and 1934 all occurred when the series were level. But in 1938 England were one down and came back to level the series in the final timeless Test. Wisden says of the 1934 match: Each side having won once with two games left drawn, the...

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