GuyFromLancs
State Vice-Captain
The revisionism taking place on here bewilders me. I can be certain in 10 years that Chris Martin would have been a better batsman than Flintoff; Younis Khan a better bowler; and Tuffers a better fielder.
And look at the evidence. 32 with ball, 31 with bat. Unarguably a crap player right?
Not really no, because those stats without context are meaningless. In the first 5 years Flintoff didn’t take bowling seriously – hence his then average of 40-odd with ball in hand. When he lost weight, and got fit, he was one of the best goddam bowlers in the world. A better bowler than Kallis I might add. Listen to the words of the Aussies who faced him. His 150 or so wickets in his prime came at an average of about 27, on flattening pitches to boot. I’ll concede that prime wasn’t long enough, but this wasn’t all his fault.
And batting. Well, Fllintoff in the same period averaged about 40, with a very high strike rate. He was a genuine number 6 for the said time, and scored 5 centuries, and 402 in the 05 Ashes (whilst taking 24 wickets). I’ve seen Flintoff bat in person, and I can tell you now that he was without doubt the hardest hitter of a cricket ball I’ve ever seen. Harder than KP, Hayden, Gilchrist and numerous others I’ve also seen live. And his timing, once in, was exceptionally good too. For me, Flintoff’s weakness batting-wise was his self-belief (weirdly for a guy who nailed 82 sixes in test cricket). He looked very nervous until he reached the 20 or 30 mark. But once he did, despite a lack of footwork, he could caress excellently as much as he could slug.
And he was an exceptional fielder in any position. Bucket hands, great anticipation, and than run-out of Ponting in 09 was unbelievable.
So yeah, the overall stats at the end of his career (when not taking into account the full story) are a magnet for “certain people” who like to claim that Kallis was a better bowler (nonsense he was), or that Vaas was his equal as an allrounder (laughable).
Flintoff’s crime, so to speak, is the front end of his career (when he shouldn’t have played test cricket, and ignored bolwing), and the back end (when near crippled through injury). For 3-4 glorious years he was the only, genuine, bona fide allrounder in Cricket. And we all know what I mean by that.
Amen.
And look at the evidence. 32 with ball, 31 with bat. Unarguably a crap player right?
Not really no, because those stats without context are meaningless. In the first 5 years Flintoff didn’t take bowling seriously – hence his then average of 40-odd with ball in hand. When he lost weight, and got fit, he was one of the best goddam bowlers in the world. A better bowler than Kallis I might add. Listen to the words of the Aussies who faced him. His 150 or so wickets in his prime came at an average of about 27, on flattening pitches to boot. I’ll concede that prime wasn’t long enough, but this wasn’t all his fault.
And batting. Well, Fllintoff in the same period averaged about 40, with a very high strike rate. He was a genuine number 6 for the said time, and scored 5 centuries, and 402 in the 05 Ashes (whilst taking 24 wickets). I’ve seen Flintoff bat in person, and I can tell you now that he was without doubt the hardest hitter of a cricket ball I’ve ever seen. Harder than KP, Hayden, Gilchrist and numerous others I’ve also seen live. And his timing, once in, was exceptionally good too. For me, Flintoff’s weakness batting-wise was his self-belief (weirdly for a guy who nailed 82 sixes in test cricket). He looked very nervous until he reached the 20 or 30 mark. But once he did, despite a lack of footwork, he could caress excellently as much as he could slug.
And he was an exceptional fielder in any position. Bucket hands, great anticipation, and than run-out of Ponting in 09 was unbelievable.
So yeah, the overall stats at the end of his career (when not taking into account the full story) are a magnet for “certain people” who like to claim that Kallis was a better bowler (nonsense he was), or that Vaas was his equal as an allrounder (laughable).
Flintoff’s crime, so to speak, is the front end of his career (when he shouldn’t have played test cricket, and ignored bolwing), and the back end (when near crippled through injury). For 3-4 glorious years he was the only, genuine, bona fide allrounder in Cricket. And we all know what I mean by that.
Amen.
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