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

[Geoffboycott]

Two of my favourite players of all time. They don't make cricketers like these two anymore. I think both are very underrated by most people. I can't split the two as batsmen. Hopefully this poll will help.

 

[HeathDavisSpeed]

Stewart by a long way IMO. People seem to always look for excuses for why Atherton didn't average more - yes, granted he had a dodgy back, but that was part of what made him the player he was. It's all well and good to argue about hypothetical what ifs, but the fact of the matter is that Atherton underdelivered partly due to his bad back and partly due to some technical flaws that certain top quality fast bowlers were able to exploit.

 

[AldoRaine18]

 

[watson]

When he was able to focus on his batting alone - Stewart by some distance.

 

[OverratedSanity]

Stewart was awesome.

 

[Zinzan]

Surprised from that little montage just how many times he was out hooking/strangled down the leg-side & how few LBWs/bowled.

 

[mr_mister]

I really love both of these guys, a lot more than Hussain.


I also love Hick and to a lesser extent, Ramprakash.

I think Stewart was more gifted and had a way better purple patch but I really admire Atherton, he was stodgy and well spoken. Wish he played a bit longer tbh, he was acually pretty young when he retired.

 

[cnerd123]

Stewart by a long way IMO. People seem to always look for excuses for why Atherton didn't average more - yes, granted he had a dodgy back, but that was part of what made him the player he was. It's all well and good to argue about hypothetical what ifs, but the fact of the matter is that Atherton underdelivered partly due to his bad back and partly due to some technical flaws that certain top quality fast bowlers were able to exploit.

Good argument.

Voted for Athers.

I admire how he overcame a bad back and technical flaws to face some of the best quicks of all time and ended up with an average just a shade under 40.

Got mad respect for tough, resilient, dogged batsmen.

 

[mr_mister]

I wonder what Atherton's average would be if McGrath and Ambrose were injured for series he was part of

 

[HeathDavisSpeed]

Good argument.

Voted for Athers.

I admire how he overcame a bad back and technical flaws to face some of the best quicks of all time and ended up with an average just a shade under 40.

Got mad respect for tough, resilient, dogged batsmen.

Ha. Very good. And Stewart overcame some technical issues, faced the same bowlers and averaged 45 opening the batting in the same era. His average only drops when he took the keeping gloves, sometimes in the middle order. 35 with the gloves, 47 without. Atherton averaged 37.

 

[fredfertang]

Heef is right of course, but still voting for Athers

 

[flibbertyjibber]

Stewart clearly and we messed up by giving him the gloves for years and not using him as an opener as he was a class one. Not like Russell was a crap keeper anyway and I think the run difference between Stewart the opener and keeper and Stewart and Russell as keeper was nothing anyway. Also not like the bats we picked to strengthen the side when Stewart was basically the all rounder were that good anyway.

 

[Goughy]

Stewart by a considerable difference. Atherton has all his well known strengths and he did have a bad back but his technical issues (compulsive hookers, squared up in bck foot defense, open face when front foot defense etc) were considerable.

 

[Zinzan]

The voting count of 14-6 is what you'd expect.

 

[flibbertyjibber]

Thought it could have been more in favour of Stewart really.

 

[fredfertang]

Just means there are six Lancastrians around

 

[a spambot]

Stewart. 37 hasn't been a good average for a specialist batsmen since the kaiser ruled germany, i don't care what bowlers atherton faced.

 

[flibbertyjibber]

Just means there are six Lancastrians around

Surprised that many can actually read.

 

[watson]

Stewart. 37 hasn't been a good average for a specialist batsmen since the kaiser ruled germany, i don't care what bowlers atherton faced.

Not sure about the Kaiser's time but from Aug 1989 to Aug 2001 Statsguru tells me that the overall average for opening batsman was 34.72.

So mathmatically Athers is 7.2% better than your average opening batsman.

 

[Lillian Thomson]

Both moderate Test players who served England well during a difficult period - particularly due to total Australian dominance of the Ashes.