Atherton vs Stewart? Old school 90s english cricketers! Who was better?

[CaptainGrumpy]

Hick, Ramprakash and Butcher got nowhere near that, 3 stalwarts of England's middle order.

Did Stewart often keep wicket while opening the batting?

 

[Furball]

I don't care.

 

[marc71178]

Stewart by averaging 34.92 with the bat was higher than Jack Russell's 27 with the bat. The selectors need to make their primary concern the team, not an individual's more favourable statistics. Now if they could not find someone else to bat in Stewart's place and average 41.92+ or so, maybe 40+, then there is an argument that the selection backfired and had a negative impact on English cricket.

His average went up significantly towards the end, when Russell had retired. For the time Russell was available his average was a smidgen over 30, whereas he was a genuine potential 45-50+ opening batsman.

If they were making their primary concern the team they'd have had Stewart opening and Russell keeping.

 

[marc71178]

Did Stewart often keep wicket while opening the batting?

Why not statsguru it, that seems to be what you're basing the rest of your opinion on.

 

[flibbertyjibber]

Hick, Ramprakash and Butcher got nowhere near that, 3 stalwarts of England's middle order.

Exactly, hindsight is a wonderful thing but it wasn't like we had lots of great players in that side. Russell was a great keeper and Stewart was a bloody good opener. We messed up totally in the 90's by ignoring Russell and Bicknell. Not saying we would have been a great team but we would have been a better one.

 

[Moss]

How many did Atherton play when not fully fit?

FWIW, I've voted for Stewart, I just think some of the comments (both praising him and criticising Atherton) are a bit OTT and was giving some perspective.

Curious fact about Stewart, incidentally: when he was keeping wicket, his averages in the 4 innings were 33, 38, 38, 27; when he wasn't, they were 51, 41, 50, 44; if (as it seems) keeping wicket affected his batting, you might expect the 1st innings averages to be closer than the others... I had a theory at one point that it wasn't actually keeping wicket that hurt his batting, more that he tended to have to keep wicket when things weren't going so well for England, and that it usually meant he was batting out of position (not sure if this theory really holds up).

Has Stewart actually said what his feelings were? I have a vague memory of him saying he preferred to open, but can't remember if he said he preferred not to keep wicket.

Stewart was weaker against spin, right? That might explain the first innings disparity you pointed out, as being in the middle order exposed him more to slow bowling. As another line of argument, to average 35 in the middle order with wicketkeeping duties and being more vulnerable to spin is pretty good overall.

 

[grecian]

Btw I think I was, at the time, vaguely in favour of Stewart playing as 'keeper. mainly because I thought Russell the most over-rated 'keeper in my time watching cricket. In hind-sight with all the hopeless players that played to free up Stewart it looks a bad decision, maybe was a bad decision.

I admired Jack as a bat though, 27 is a bit deceptive as he particapated in many big partnerships and always played for the Team.

 

[NUFAN]

Pretty bizarre that a mistake like this could happen..

A 25-year error on cricket websites has been fixed today, resulting in MAthertons's Test strike rate increasing from 37.31 to 37.50.

 

[aussie]

Stewart for reasons already articulated by others, but for a long while remembers Athers and comparing with how Cook's career how he has risen despite going through many periods when his technique was exposed - but ENG could never drop him because of no better replacements.

Atherton never had the luxury of those large gaps of bad form that Cook had & his average of 37 in arguably the greatest bowling era in test history would definitely be worth more if his career started in the 2000s

 

[mr_mister]

One suspects Athers would be embarrassed by Richard's assessments

In fact if am not mistaken he's referenced CW before so probably fully aware of the lunacy

I'd still like to know about the example of this

 

[mr_mister]

Yeah Atherton has an account to the point of recognising people's usernames; he's probably aware of the whole him > Hayden thing.

And evidence of this.

 

[Lillian Thomson]

OK I admit it - I hacked some other accounts and voted for him more than once, but come the glorious day and Jeremy Corbyn becoming PM there will be education for all, including Lancastrians

Crumbs.

 

[Test_Fan_Only]

How was this even a discussion? Stewart by a mile.

 

[a massive zebra]

Excluding 19th century masters like Grace and Shrewsbury, Alec Stewart could well be the best ever English batsman to average under 40 in Tests.

 

[mr_mister]

Him or Frank Woolley anyway

 

[AndrewB]

Bill Edrich misses out by a run.

 

[Logan]

Calling them old school makes me feel old now

 

[Test_Fan_Only]

Excluding 19th century masters like Grace and Shrewsbury, Alec Stewart could well be the best ever English batsman to average under 40 in Tests.

Considering he averaged 46.7 when he was not keeping I think this has to be true.

 

[Burgey]

Yeah I think Stewart quite comfortably. And I say that as someone who appreciates a stodgy test opener as much as anyone.

 

[OverratedSanity]

Quite apart from being a superior batsman, Stewart was better because of that ***y bat twirl he constantly used to do between deliveries. I used to love imitating that when I was younger.