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CW decides the greatest All-Rounder ever, 64 man knockout tournament: Voting Thread

honestbharani

Whatever it takes!!!
Sobers is, IMO, the second greatest batsman ever, a decent holding bowler when needed, and a genuinely good fast-medium bowler for a good chunk of his career, capable of bowling match changing and innings-breaking spells. We often talk about great players and players of great innings about batsmen, Sobers was a NOT so great bowler capable of bowling great matchwinning spells. I just do not see how any all rounder compares to him, as good as Imran and Miller were.



And LOL at smali replying to every post here with basically the same "but his bowling stats aren't that good" line... As I said earlier, missing the point.


EDIT: And for all the brilliant minds in CW who keep saying "if X bowler was capable of bowling in a way that he can get more wickets, why does he choose to bowl in a holding role".. Here is a direct quote just today from Mitch Marsh...

Mitch Marsh said:
"It's quite flattering to hear that, but the biggest thing for me is just playing my role," Marsh said. "Sometimes as the fourth seamer, it's about coming on and tying up an end and giving the blokes a rest, and then [Tuesday] I had an opportunity to bowl a few more overs and I saw that as an opportunity to work as hard as I could for the team and to get a few wickets."


It's obvious that bowlers tend to work as a team, just like batsmen. And there are times when a bowler decides, or is asked by his team mgmt, to bowl a holding spell/spells to ensure the main bowlers get a break and the game doesn't move forward too quickly with set batsmen. A 4th or 3rd seamer usually then operates back of length just outside off with a reasonably well spread out field ensuring that he does not give away more than 2 or 3 runs an over an average over the course of the spell. He is obviously lessening his own odds of taking wickets by not bowling a fuller length with more fielders in catching positions but it is something every team needs off one of its bowlers almost every game. Believe it or not, no cricket match ever follows what each players' statsguru page says.
 
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mr_mister

Cricket Web: All-Time Legend
using my basic method one last time, and going purely by test stats:


Sobers - 9.5 with the bat(only Bradman gets a 10), 7 with the ball
Miller - 9 with the ball(plenty of bowlers get a 10 though, Bradman kinda ruins this whole thing), 7 with the bat


So Sobers by a whisker
 

smash84

The Tiger King
Surprised so few people factor in fielding/ catching when determining these rankings.
I guess that is because fielding is not one of the "main" disciplines. You would generally expect international cricketers to field "safely" (barring the pakistan team of course). The returns the side are marginal for having a very good fielder compared to a safe fielder. So I suppose people don't rate fielding separately.
 

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