Brendon McCullum

[World Cricket]

In the top 3 keepers in world cricket . . .

What are you talking about? Brendon McCullum is awesome. Best man behind the stumps in international cricket and averages somewhere around 30 in all forms of the game. Since when is that disappointing?

Agree he's awesome. I'd say he's in the top 3 all round keepers in the world in all forms.

Sangakkarra
Dhoni
McCullum

 

[KiWiNiNjA]

Not too shabby without the gloves either.

 

[GIMH]

Brilliant in the outfield isn't he?

 

[rivera213]

He's got England for the next 5, so if anything it may increase.

You arsehole.

Agree he's awesome. I'd say he's in the top 3 all round keepers in the world in all forms.

Sangakkarra
Dhoni
McCullum

Boucher way ahead of Dhoni for me.

Where's Prior?

Not too shabby without the gloves either.

Brilliant in the outfield isn't he?

Yeah, not too dissimilar to AB de Villiers. Taken to the outfield like a duck to water.

 

[Richard]

Agree he's awesome. I'd say he's in the top 3 all round keepers in the world in all forms.

Sangakkarra
Dhoni
McCullum

Sangakkara hasn't kept wicket in a Test for 3 years and only had one extended spell of doing the job in any case.

Forget the fact he's actually a damn good wicketkeeper - doing the job exhausts him, and not surprisingly either. He's far better-off without the gloves and with hindsight I rather wish he'd never been given them.

 

[JimmyGS]

Agree he's awesome. I'd say he's in the top 3 all round keepers in the world in all forms.

Sangakkarra
Dhoni
McCullum

You have got to be joking.

And secondly, I can't believe you've put Dhoni in ahead of Boucher. Boucher has a decent case to be talked about in the best keepers of all time discussion. Dhoni is nothing short of woeful.

 

[Smith]

Sangakkara hasn't kept wicket in a Test for 3 years and only had one extended spell of doing the job in any case.

Forget the fact he's actually a damn good wicketkeeper - doing the job exhausts him, and not surprisingly either. He's far better-off without the gloves and with hindsight I rather wish he'd never been given them.

He is hardly damn good with the gloves. He was ok at the best. And now his keeping is near to bad in T20s.

 

[Smith]

You have got to be joking.

And secondly, I can't believe you've put Dhoni in ahead of Boucher. Boucher has a decent case to be talked about in the best keepers of all time discussion. Dhoni is nothing short of woeful.

Dhoni is a better bet than Boucher with both bat and gloves combined. Not to mention the leadership. Boucher of course is very good keeper. Dhoni ahead of mcCullum for me.

 

[Richard]

He is hardly damn good with the gloves. He was ok at the best. And now his keeping is near to bad in T20s.

Sangakkara was a fine wicketkeeper between 2002 and 2006, simple as that. He did the job standing back well on the relatively rare occasions he needed to and kept superbly up to the most difficult bowler to keep to, as well as other spinners.

And I obviously don't watch Twenty20s so I haven't a clue how bad or otherwise his keeping is in them, nor do I care. If I start to observe him keeping poorly in ODIs, then we'll talk.

 

[Richard]

You have got to be joking.

And secondly, I can't believe you've put Dhoni in ahead of Boucher. Boucher has a decent case to be talked about in the best keepers of all time discussion. Dhoni is nothing short of woeful.

Dhoni is clearly a way, way, way, way better ODI batsman than Boucher, will probably end-up a better Test batsman, and though he used to be a woeful gloveman he certainly isn't any more - he's now perfectly acceptable.

As for Boucher, he's certainly not one of the best wicketkeepers of all-time; one of the best wicketkeeper-batsmen, just about. Those clearly better than him would number Ames, Engineer, his countryman Lindsay, Knott, Dujon, Stewart and Gilchrist - there is also Haddin, Dhoni and McCullum of those who still have much Test cricket ahead of them who could easily join the club. He could probably rate after that lot, which means that in 5 years time he will most likely not make a top-10, but could be just outside. Or, if Dhoni and McCullum flop, he'd probably be in.

 

[Smith]

Sangakkara was a fine wicketkeeper between 2002 and 2006, simple as that. He did the job standing back well on the relatively rare occasions he needed to and kept superbly up to the most difficult bowler to keep to, as well as other spinners.

And I obviously don't watch Twenty20s so I haven't a clue how bad or otherwise his keeping is in them, nor do I care. If I start to observe him keeping poorly in ODIs, then we'll talk.

I don't think, unlike batting, you can be excellent in tests and poor in T20s with the gloves. He was an Ok option for SL as a keeper, nothing exuberantly brilliant, but serviceable even at the peak of his keeping prowesses during the period you mentioned. That's precisely why SL had to bring in a specialist for him.

He was **** during the IPL. Missed so many chances. Gave away so many byes and overall looked ill at ease while wearing the gloves. He looked like Dravid on whom keeping duties were thrust upon.

 

[Flem274*]

He could possibly avearge a bit higher, though iirc his ODI one from 2005 onwards is actualy pretty good. But he's being talked about as rivalling Parore and Smith behind the stumps plus he's a better batsman. We'll take him thanks.

 

[Uppercut]

Dhoni is clearly a way, way, way, way better ODI batsman than Boucher, will probably end-up a better Test batsman, and though he used to be a woeful gloveman he certainly isn't any more - he's now perfectly acceptable.

Still a bit dodgy keeping to spinners itbt.

 

[Richard]

I don't think, unlike batting, you can be excellent in tests and poor in T20s with the gloves. He was an Ok option for SL as a keeper, nothing exuberantly brilliant, but serviceable even at the peak of his keeping prowesses during the period you mentioned. That's precisely why SL had to bring in a specialist for him.

He was **** during the IPL. Missed so many chances. Gave away so many byes and overall looked ill at ease while wearing the gloves. He looked like Dravid on whom keeping duties were thrust upon.

Of course keeping wicket in Twenty20 and Tests is immeasurably different - you have to do it for about 5 times longer. That should, of course, make Twenty20 wicketkeeping immeasurably easier, and if Sangakkara can't even do that it hints that maybe he's lost his wicketkeeping skill having stopped doing it regularly. Always used to be the way after all.

However, while Sangakkara may not have been exuberantly brilliant (precious few wicketkeepers are) in the 2002-2006 period he was certainly very good. There have been occasions when Prasanna Jayawardene has played as the specialist batsman, because in tight situations Sangakkara's wicketkeeping has been trusted more.

SL brought in a specialist, Jayawardene and earlier on Kaluwitharana, because keeping wicket appeared to exhaust Sangakkara and resulted in his batting failing to live-up to its potential at all times.

 

[rivera213]

You have got to be joking.

And secondly, I can't believe you've put Dhoni in ahead of Boucher. Boucher has a decent case to be talked about in the best keepers of all time discussion. Dhoni is nothing short of woeful.

Boucher is 2nd behind Gilchrist for me all things considered. Since Gilly's arrival on the stage, people assume every WK can bat like a bastard but it's a tough job.

Dhoni is a better bet than Boucher with both bat and gloves combined. Not to mention the leadership. Boucher of course is very good keeper. Dhoni ahead of mcCullum for me.

Dhoni isn't within a million miles of Boucher as a gloveman and while he has the ability to be destructive in the limited overs formats, he is still too inconsistent and at least with Boucher, you know he more than likely will get the job done. Most teams would take reliability over hit-and-miss, I'm sure.

Boucher's test average takes in a good period where the wickets were nowhere near as easy for batting as nowadays. An average of 34 (which is what it would be roughly if he had played all his tests in the batting era) after 126 matches for a WK is excellent considering the slow SR he had which allowed the top order batsmen to pile up runs from the other end.

Dhoni on the other hand (in tests) averages sub-35 against Us, Australia and South Africa (the 3 of the other top 4 test teams) in the batting era when he is assigned the role of blasting it. He certainly wont average that much whilst being a WK after 100+ tests.

I fully suspect him to drop the gloves in a couple of years' time and play as a batsman only, probably at No.5 given that Tendulkar, Dravid and Laxman are all of similar age and Yuvraj doesn't seem to fit the bill.

He is hardly damn good with the gloves. He was ok at the best. And now his keeping is near to bad in T20s.

Sangakarra was excellent at keeping wicket to Muralitharan who is easily the trickiest bowler of my watching era, possibly of all time to keep to.

He only gave up the WK role because he was exhausted and he now averages mid-50's in tests so it was the right move.

I wouldn't play him as WK while he is captain personally. That's too much responsibility (opener, WK and captain. Geez!).

 

[Uppercut]

Of course keeping wicket in Twenty20 and Tests is immeasurably different - you have to do it for about 5 times longer. That should, of course, make Twenty20 wicketkeeping immeasurably easier, and if Sangakkara can't even do that it hints that maybe he's lost his wicketkeeping skill having stopped doing it regularly. Always used to be the way after all.

However, while Sangakkara may not have been exuberantly brilliant (precious few wicketkeepers are) in the 2002-2006 period he was certainly very good. There have been occasions when Prasanna Jayawardene has played as the specialist batsman, because in tight situations Sangakkara's wicketkeeping has been trusted more.

SL brought in a specialist, Jayawardene and earlier on Kaluwitharana, because keeping wicket appeared to exhaust Sangakkara and resulted in his batting failing to live-up to its potential at all times.

It's a little different- a lot of focus on keeping the runs down by gathering the ball for a run-out cleanly, throwing down the stumps when the batsmen try to run a bye, and stumpings- because obviously batsmen are more inclined to go down the pitch to spinners. Test keeping is all about absolute consistency in catching. It would be extremely rare, though, for someone to be good at one and bad at the other.

 

[JimmyGS]

Dhoni ahead of mcCullum for me.

Dhoni and Mccullum went head to head recently in Tests, ODIs and T20s and Dhoni was found wanting in all forms. He was abysmal all series. If you want something recent, he cost India the T20 today against West Indies by dropping a run out chance on Bravo.

Dhoni isn't within a million miles of Boucher as a gloveman .

Bingo.

 

[Inferiority]

Prasanna Jayawardene is easily the most talented gloveman in the world, unfortunately his ability with the bat is not as great.

 

[Prince EWS]

Prasanna Jayawardene is easily the most talented gloveman in the world, unfortunately his ability with the bat is not as great.

I actually think his keeping is over-rated purely because of his lack batting prowess. I'm not saying he's a poor keeper - he's quite good - but there's certainly an element of "well his batting is poor and he's in the team so he must be a good keeper!" around IMO. Moreso when he first came into the team than now though.

 

[Smith]

I actually think his keeping is over-rated purely because of his lack batting prowess. I'm not saying he's a poor keeper - he's quite good - but there's certainly an element of "well his batting is poor and he's in the team so he must be a good keeper!" around IMO. Moreso when he first came into the team than now though.

That is probable line of argument. But Jayawardene indeed is one of the best gloveman going around. Of course, I'd prefer Dhoni or McCullum definitely over him while drafting the wk for my test side. But purely based on the skill that is wicketkeeping he is damn damn damn good. He has hardly dropped chances despite keeping to two of the most difficult people to keep to : M & M.