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Andy Roberts vs Courtney Walsh

Roberts or Walsh

  • Andy Roberts

    Votes: 10 45.5%
  • Courtney Walsh

    Votes: 12 54.5%

  • Total voters
    22

Johan

State Vice-Captain
Barrington played from 1958 to mid 1968, he only played a couple matches in 1958

Sobers (1958-1968) — 5387 runs from 86 innings, 73.8 average and 19 hundreds
Barrington (1958 to 1968) — 6754 runs from 128 innings, 59.76 average and 20 hundreds

quite a huge gap between the two
 

capt_Luffy

Cricketer Of The Year
Barrington played from 1958 to mid 1968, he only played a couple matches in 1958

Sobers (1958-1968) — 5387 runs from 86 innings, 73.8 average and 19 hundreds
Barrington (1958 to 1968) — 6754 runs from 128 innings, 59.76 average and 20 hundreds

quite a huge gap between the two
Yep, like Sachin, Sobers also suffers heavily from playing from a quite young age.
 

Qlder

International Debutant
How much impact would Roberts have had by missing some tests because of WSC?
Same as Lillee. If you look at ICC Rankings both these bowlers are screwed by being absent so their overall rankings dropped significantly. Lillee and Roberts were the standout bowlers of arguably the best players in the World, and their stats didn't count
 

Johan

State Vice-Captain
How fast was Roberts? I saw that his fastest delivery has been clocked at 159, but surely he was sub 150 consistently
 

Chin Music

State Vice-Captain
Same as Lillee. If you look at ICC Rankings both these bowlers are screwed by being absent so their overall rankings dropped significantly. Lillee and Roberts were the standout bowlers of arguably the best players in the World, and their stats didn't count
That's what I wondered. Roberts is a little before my time, I just understand more his impact of his era rather than remember what he actually did. I'm very sceptical of judging players by either stats alone and I'm a little vexed as to the popularity of using longevity in this forum to assess a player. Surely how good a player was overall is the factor. Walsh was a fine bowler, but I'm not sure I would have ever said he was quite a true great in my humble opinion.
 

peterhrt

U19 Vice-Captain
During the latter half of the 1970s Roberts was vying with Lillee for title of best fast bowler. Both had guile to go with their pace and aggression. More so than Thomson or Holding who were faster on their day. Gavaskar rated them equal first, partly for their ability to produce unplayable deliveries with the old ball. Greig confirmed that many Packer players rated Roberts as the best bowler in WSC.

The downside for Roberts was that he could labour on slow pitches, and there were several of those in the Caribbean. He was comprehensively outbowled by Holding on the Oval featherbed of 1976, as were all other bowlers in the match. But that was arguably the greatest exhibition of fast bowling ever seen in England.

Roberts' weakness was Walsh's strength - extracting life out of docile pitches when everyone else had given up. His 13-55 at Wellington in 1995, after West Indies had posted 660-5, rivalled Holding's effort. Walsh's extraordinary thirst for hard work enabled him to take more wickets in county cricket than any overseas fast bowler.

As @Qlder says, folk who saw both in action will favour Roberts, who looked the more complete bowler. It is the familiar generation gap between those who watched the older players and those who mainly use data for their analysis. The older the player, the more they get defined by their numbers.
 
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Coronis

International Coach
During the latter half of the 1970s Roberts was vying with Lillee for title of best fast bowler. Both had guile to go with their pace and aggression. More so than Thomson or Holding who were faster on their day. Gavaskar rated them equal first, partly for their ability to produce unplayable deliveries late in the day. Greig confirmed that many Packer players rated Roberts as the best bowler in WSC.

The downside for Roberts was that he could labour on slow pitches, and there were several of those in the Caribbean. He was comprehensively outbowled by Holding on the Oval featherbed of 1976, as were all other bowlers in the match. But that was arguably the greatest exhibition of fast bowling ever seen in England.

Roberts' weakness was Walsh's strength - extracting life out of docile pitches when everyone else had given up. His 13-55 at Wellington in 1995, after West Indies had posted 660-5, rivalled Holding's effort. Walsh's extraordinary thirst for hard work enabled him to take more wickets in county cricket than any overseas fast bowler.

As @Qlder says, folk who saw both in action will favour Roberts, who looked the more complete bowler. It is the familiar generation gap between those who watched the older players and those who mainly use data for their analysis. The older the player, the more they get defined by their numbers.
js I know what I’d prefer
 

Coronis

International Coach
We know, re-write history and ignore all people's knowledge of when they actually saw them play just to make up some meaningless stat that in your mind proves your point?
Pretty sure that’s exactly the opposite of what I just did.
 

Coronis

International Coach
Really, you bolded Roberts apparent weakness and also bolded Walsh's apparent strength. Pretty clear which way you were leaning
Based on no stats at all, and actually the peer review, i.e the opposite of what you accused me of.
 

BazBall21

International Captain
If Roberts had a degree of dependence on lively wickets, that issue could increase v batsmen with full protective gear.

I think batting against the short ball has gone downhill now though. Lots of happy hooking.
 

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