CW chooses the best test spinner ever (50 names, but you only submit a list of 20)

[Prince EWS]

I only included Murali because I knew people would have this reaction if I didn't tbh

If anything that makes me even more surprised that you included him.

 

[a massive zebra]

Good to see you are doing it, Mr_Mister, as you always do an exceptional job.

1. Muttiah Muralitharan
2. Bill O’Reilly
3. Shane Warne
4. Jim Laker
5. Wilfred Rhodes
6. Hedley Verity
7. Lance Gibbs
8. Clarrie Grimmett
9. Rangana Herath
10. Derek Underwood
11. Saqlain Mushtaq
12. Johnny Wardle
13. Bhagwat Chandrasekhar
14. Ravi Ashwin
15. Erapalli Prasanna
16. Richie Benaud
17. Graeme Swann
18. Bishen Bedi
19. Stuart MacGill
20. Hugh Tayfield

 

[flibbertyjibber]

So we will have the list up to number 3 fine then spend 500 pages arguing over a drug cheat and a chucker.

This will be fun.

Warne
Murali
Laker
O'Reilly
Grimmett
Verity
Underwood
Bedi
Kumble
Herath
Wardle
Gibbs
Abdul Qadir
Swann
Chandrasekhar
Ashwin
Tayfield
MacGill
Saqlain Mushtaq
Vettori

 

[mr_mister]

is that sorted by country or rank? lol

 

[a massive zebra]

^There will be no more edits to the OP ha.

Could you at least correct the spelling of the highest Test and ODI wicket taker ever? Thanks.

 

[TheJediBrah]

If anything that makes me even more surprised that you included him.

I don't want people to think I'm a tool for doing something ridiculous like not having Murali in the list, or making Graeme Swann no. 1

 

[Borges]

1. Muttiah Muraliatharan
2. Derek Underwood
3. Erapalli Prasanna
4. Rangana Herath
5. Saqlain Mushtaq
6. Lance Gibbs
7. Bishen Bedi
8. R Ashwin
9. Graeme Swann
10. Ashley Mallett
11. Nathan Lyon
12. Harbhajan Singh
13. Daniel Vettori
14. R Jadeja
15. Shane Warne
16. Bhagwat Chandrasekhar
17. Anil Kumble
18. Abdul Qadir
19. Mushtaq Ahmed
20. Stuart MacGill

 

[trundler]

Bill O'Reilly

Muttiah Muralitharan
Shane Warne

Laker
Herath
Verity
Rhodes
Grimmett
Tayfield
Subash Gupte
Chandra
Underwood
Gibbs
Kumble
Blythe
Swann
Bedi
MacGill
Prasanna
Saqlain

 

[flibbertyjibber]

is that sorted by country or rank? lol

What do you think?

All we have to do is name 20 to start with.

 

[mr_mister]

What do you think?

All we have to do is name 20 to start with.

thought it was a very lazy attempt at a vote ha.

As you were

 

[mr_mister]

already 14 lists submitted. on track for the biggest turn out yet!

 

[Prince EWS]

What do you think?

All we have to do is name 20 to start with.

You have to name them in order though. The bloke you name top gets more points than the bloke you name bottom.

 

[trundler]

Herath better not get voted outside the top 10!

 

[Gnske]

1. Bill O'Reilly
2. Hugh Tayfield
3. Richie Benaud
4. Shane Warne
5. Muttiah Muralitharan
6. Rangana Herath
7. Ravichandran Ashwin
8. Pragyan Ojha
9. Nathan Lyon
10. Bryce McGain
11. Abdul Qadir
12. Clarrie Grimmett
13. Hedley Verity
14. Beau Casson
15. Todd Astle
16. Dilruwan Perera
17. Sunil Narine
18. Daniel Vettori
19. Mohammed Hafeez
20. Thilan Samaraweera

 

[bagapath]

1. Tiger O'Reilley
2. Shane Warne
3. Jim Laker
4. M. Muralitharan
5. Clarrie Grimmett
6. Richie Benaud
7. Hugh Tayfield
8. Headley Verity
9. Bishan Bedi
10. Subhash Gupte
11. Bhagwat Chandrasekar
12. Derek Underwood
13. Lance Gibbs
14. Anil Kumble
15. Saqlain Mushtaq
16. Erappali Prasanna
17. Ravichandran Ashwin
18. Stuart McGill
19. Abdul Qadir
20. Iqbal Qasim

 

[trundler]

I really do not know how to rate Laker. In my mind he is close to Tayfield in terms of quality, had a short career and England didn't tour with him to Aus much but then again 19/90 and he has an excellent strike rate for the era. Does anyone know how he was perceived in his time? Not sure if he should be above or below Herath.

 

[a massive zebra]

1. Bill O'Reilly
2. Hugh Tayfield
3. Richie Benaud
4. Shane Warne
5. Muttiah Muralitharan
6. Rangana Herath
7. Ravichandran Ashwin
8. Pragyan Ojha
9. Nathan Lyon
10. Bryce McGain
11. Abdul Qadir
12. Clarrie Grimmett
13. Hedley Verity
14. Beau Casson
15. Todd Astle
16. Dilruwan Perera
17. Sunil Narine
18. Daniel Vettori
19. Mohammed Hafeez
20. Thilan Samaraweera

This is just silly,

 

[Bolo]

People need to commit to their tactical voting/mudslinging a bit harder. Let's get Hooper to the top.

 

[mr_mister]

He's just artificially increased the length of the countdown by about 10 names. Maybe I'll be implementing a minimum point cut off

 

[a massive zebra]

I really do not know how to rate Laker. In my mind he is close to Tayfield in terms of quality, had a short career and England didn't tour with him to Aus much but then again 19/90 and he has an excellent strike rate for the era. Does anyone know how he was perceived in his time? Not sure if he should be above or below Herath.

I don't think Laker and Tayfield were particularly similar bowlers. Laker bowled an attacking off-stump line and span the ball significantly while always looking for wickets. Tayfield preferred to bowl over the wicket from close to the stumps where he could bowl a tight line with a packed leg side field to starve the batsmen of runs. On a helpful wicket, Laker was more of a matchwinner. Both were exceptionally accurate and could bowl all day without wavering. Both had variations but Tayfield's were arguably more subtle.

Not only did Laker take 19 wickets at Old Trafford, but he also took 46 wickets @ 10 in that series, and 63 wickets @ 10 in all matches against Australia on that tour, including two single innings 10-fors. Tayfield has nothing anywhere close to this on his resume, but he was exceptional against England on the 1956-57 tour, and actually outbowled Laker in the series. Tayfield was, with Trevor Goddard, at the centre of South Africa's containing cricket of the 1950s; he bowled 137 consecutive balls without conceding a run against England at Durban in 1956-57. Laker averaged under 24 against all opponents except West Indies while Tayfield averaged over 34 against Laker's bunnies Australia, and Tayfield averaged 43 in the first innings while Laker averaged under 24 in all four innings of a Test.

I've seen or read a number of interviews with English players of the time, and all of them consider Laker the better bowler by a distance. In my opinion, fine bowler as Tayfield undoubtedly was, he was fortunate to bowl in the era he did. Had he been born 20 years later and played after the introduction of limitations on the number of leg side fielders and the abolition of uncovered pitches, he would have been far less successful. Laker would have been a great bowler in any era.