CW decides the greatest test spinner ever. 43 names: Countdown/Rankings thread

[OverratedSanity]

Loved Mushtaq. That action

Probably had one of the better series in Australia by a visiting spinner in 95

 

[SillyCowCorner1]

CC: dav

Correction:

Dave

 

[NotMcKenzie]

For Iverson, Movietone has this feature, which is the closest footage of him bowling:

He also appears for a few deliveries here: https://youtu.be/8m95eJA6cFk?t=204

I remember Bradman (The Art of Cricket) stating that Iverson bowled googlies as a stock ball and leg breaks as a variation, and that, 'to the batsman, every ball [appeared to be] a leg break.'

 

[harsh.ag]

Love Mushy's action. He could have been so great. Heaps better than someone like Qasim.

 

[Howe_zat]

This chubby short bloke with the funny action is a big favourite of mine. The spin spearhead for Pakistan in the '90s, bridging Qadir(who he idolised) to Saqlain and giving solid support to Waqar and Wasim. The two W's hogged most of the wickets so his WPM sits him near the bottom of this list, but Mushtaq was a fine bowler. His peak came in the mid '90s when he averaged 20 for a couple of years. He faded off with some poor series in the 21st century and finished with a not too flattering average of 33. His away record was better than his home record by a decent chunk. Probably robbed of some bounce due to his height which may have affected his ceiling as a bowler.

Always with a smile was Mushy. Two points missing from this writeup:

- He got stuck into county cricket in the 2000s and took approximately 8.3 million wickets
- He holds the world record for most wickets taken while sporting a stripey beard

 

[SeamUp]

Yeah I think a lot of us loved Mushy. I think I liked a lot about the Pakistan cricketers in their team around his time.


On left-arm chinamen. What did Johnny Wardle bowl mainly ? Probably orthodox but remember my dad mentioning the 56/57 tour to SA which he had a good one.

 

[Howe_zat]

On left-arm chinamen. What did Johnny Wardle bowl mainly ? Probably orthodox but remember my dad mentioning the 56/57 tour to SA which he had a good one.

I'm pretty sure that's who he's talking about being sometimes bowling left arm wrist spin but also bowling orthodox.

I've actually been keeping track of the most prolific left arm wrist spinners since 'Paddler' Sandakan emerged as a proper bowler. I'm assuming Paul Adams and Brad Hogg didn't make the list, so Wardle is the only candidate:

Test

1. Paul Adams 134
2. Johnny Wardle 102
3. Chuck Fleetwood-Smith 42
4. Inshan Ali 34
4. Lindsay Kline 34
6. Lakshan Sandakan 30
7. Michael Bevan 29
8. Denis Compton 25
9. Simon Katich 21
10. Brad Hogg 17
10. Johnny Martin 17

All Internationals

1. Brad Hogg 180
2. Paul Adams 163
3. Johnny Wardle 102
4. Michael Bevan 65
5. Lakshan Sandakan 55
6. Chuck Fleetwood-Smith 42
7. Inshan Ali 34
8. Lindsay Kline 34
9. Denis Compton 25
10. Dave Mohammed 23

 

[Jarquis]

Mushtaq Ahmed and that Sussex side were one of the big reasons I got into cricket.

 

[cnerd123]

***** just spilled his 7-11 coffee.

I actually didn't vote for Shakib because I don't think he belongs in the Top 20 of all time

It does make me wonder about ideal voting strategy for such a competition tho - do you just vote your top 20, or give votes to players who you feel should break into the eventual Top 40. And like, I rate Warne and O'Reilly but so many people left Murali off their lists it made me wonder if I should rank them both low or leave them off to compensate, so that Murali gets closer to that number 1 spot that I feel he deserves.

I just ended up voting my Top 20 rather than play the system but something to consider for the next one

 

[jimmy101]

Tbh the ppl who left Murali off of their lists kinda screwed the whole exercise up.

 

[TheJediBrah]

I actually didn't vote for Shakib because I don't think he belongs in the Top 20 of all time

It does make me wonder about ideal voting strategy for such a competition tho - do you just vote your top 20, or give votes to players who you feel should break into the eventual Top 40. And like, I rate Warne and O'Reilly but so many people left Murali off their lists it made me wonder if I should rank them both low or leave them off to compensate, so that Murali gets closer to that number 1 spot that I feel he deserves.

I just ended up voting my Top 20 rather than play the system but something to consider for the next one

This kind of attitude completely defeats the purpose of this kind of voting if people were to not vote what they think and instead tailor their lists toward trying to compensate for what they were bad lists by others.

 

[cnerd123]

Yea but the people who left Murali off were doing so on principle and not on cricketing reasons. That screws up the exercise just as much.

 

[TheJediBrah]

Yea but the people who left Murali off were doing so on principle and not on cricketing reasons. That screws up the exercise just as much.

Who are we to judge that? If they think that he doesn't deserve a vote for genuine reasons then the result is an accurate representation of the purpose of the exercise.

I wouldn't worry, he's clearly going to finish on top anyway.

 

[trundler]

Who are we to judge that? If they think that he doesn't deserve a vote for genuine reasons then the result is an accurate representation of the purpose of the exercise.

I wouldn't worry, he's clearly going to finish on top anyway.

Wtf are you doing here

 

[cnerd123]

There are no genuine cricketing reasons that can lead you to leaving Murali off a Top 20 list. He doesn't have to be number 1, or even in the top 5, to be left out completely is ridiculous and shows that it's driven by reasons other than on field performances.

 

[TheJediBrah]

You're missing the point. This isn't "the official objective list of the best spinners". It's "cricketweb decides". It's literally in the title.

 

[TheJediBrah]

If cricketweb is full if ****s that choose to have **** lists then thats what cricketweb decides

 

[Migara]

Tbh the ppl who left Murali off of their lists kinda screwed the whole exercise up.

Should do a seperate list with outliers excluded.

 

[Migara]

This kind of attitude completely defeats the purpose of this kind of voting if people were to not vote what they think and instead tailor their lists toward trying to compensate for what they were bad lists by others.

I would be more worried about attitude of the people who created bad lists in the first place with ulterior motives.

 

[mr_mister]

ah forgott Brad Hogg bowled it. He's the def the most successful to bowl chinman at international level. Wardle only did it for one test series IIRC