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

[Top_Cat]

Not much between them but I'm giving it to Atherton as the better bat.

 

[a massive zebra]

Not much between them but I'm giving it to Atherton as the better bat.

On what basis?

When not keeping wicket, Stewart (46.7) averaged nearly 10 runs more than Atherton (37.6), playing in the same matches against the same bowlers. The four great attacks of their time were Australia, Pakistan, South Africa and West Indies. Atherton averaged 34.2 against these attacks. When not keeping wicket, Stewart averaged 46.8 against these very same teams, a difference of over 12 runs or 37%.

Obviously stats aren't everything, but when two players play in the same matches against the same bowlers and there is a huge statistical disparity between them, it is difficult to sustain a case in favour of the statistically inferior player.

 

[Top_Cat]

Atherton played basically his entire career going in first and had the extra responsibility of skippering the side that Stewart generally didn't. Those two alone are big factors, notwithstanding Atherton's well-known back problems. On top of that, Atherton just gave you fewer options to get him out than Stewart did. Both top players, though.

 

[mr_mister]

Outside of his final 3 dreadful Ashes series Athers was more consistent

And he made up for his McWarne failures with some clutch innings against Donald and Pollock

 

[mr_mister]

Also let's look at more than just averages.

In 18 less tests Atherton scored one extra hundred and one extra fifty than Stewart. That's interesting.

 

[mr_mister]

Another point of interest I found while looking over records. Alec Stewart played in test matches with both Richard Hadlee and Jimmy Anderson. Long career

 

[wpdavid]

Another point of interest I found while looking over records. Alec Stewart played in test matches with both Richard Hadlee and Jimmy Anderson. Long career

That's one of those links where 3 players take us back over 45 years. Not a bad effort when two of them are quicks.

 

[AndrewB]

FWIW I looked at their figures in matches where both men played and Stewart was not picked as wicket-keeper.

Of the 51 matches where Stewart wasn't the keeper, Atherton played in 37.
Their averages in these matches are: Stewart 44.74, Atherton 41.22

Looking at the figures more closely, Atherton's average (in these matches) was consistently well ahead early on: after the 1995-6 series in SA, they were at S 37.79, A 48.28.
Stewart then had an excellent summer in 1996 and went up to 42.10; then (after a year of Stewart keeping wicket) Atherton had an awful tour of West Indies in 1997-8, dropping to 43.02, leaving them virtually level. The last 2 matches (one in Aus in 1998-9, one vs NZ in 1999) saw Stewart go ahead.

(Figures corrected above; I'd included a couple of matches where Atherton wasn't playing, confusing "MA Butcher" and "MA Atherton" !)

 

[mr_mister]

Atherton also had four series where he accumulated more runs than Stewart ever did in a series. He had a 553, 510, 493 and 488 run series.

Stewart's highest was 477 in one series. It seems Atherton was more capable of being prolific across a series which is a useful trait

 

[Burgey]

I think you’ll find that if you factor in longevity then Kapil Dev’s record is the better of the two.

 

[trundler]

And if you ignored longevity entirely you'll find Procter is far superior.

 

[Borges]

And if you ignored minnow bashing entirely, Botham would be greater than all those mentioned earlier.

 

[OverratedSanity]

And if you ignored longevity entirely you'll find Procter is far superior.

If you ignored longevity entirely, you can still easily find a chunk of 7 tests from Kapil's career which is just as if not more impressive :

Mike Procter career : 7 matches, 226 runs @ 25, 41 wickets @ 15

Kapil Nov1979-Feb1980: 7 matches, 295 runs @ 30, 36 wickets @ 17

All-round records | Test matches | Cricinfo Statsguru | ESPNcricinfo.com

Or, in 1983 : 7 matches, 287 runs @ 41, 27 wickets @ 23.

http://stats.espncricinfo.com/ci/en...n;template=results;type=allround;view=innings

Checkmate, haters

 

[marc71178]

But is it 7 or 16?

 

[mr_mister]

Michael Bevan in 7 test period from 96-97:

395 runs @ 43

24 wickets @ 16

 

[Lillian Thomson]

One mildly interesting thing is that Atherton looked a Test player from the age of 21. Stewart never looked the part prior to his selection, and he was nearly 27.

 

[wpdavid]

One mildly interesting thing is that Atherton looked a Test player from the age of 21. Stewart never looked the part prior to his selection, and he was nearly 27.

Stewart probably wouldn't have made his debut when he did without the second 'rebel' tour of SA which removed a batch of players from the 1989/90 WI series.
Atherton had certainly been written about as an England player from a very early age. Completely out of his depth then he was picked though.

 

[stephen]

All I remember of Atherton was his back. And McGrath's celebrations.