1. Yes. Waugh's top score is 156, without looking it up? Sure, he might have been pretty to watch, but he was rarely a batsman who put the opposition to the sword. Most batsmen who fit that description tend to average early 40s.
This is one of the great misconceptions of junior's career IMO.
You might also want to consider that M Waugh unlike many of the FTB of the 2000s played in an era with so much good bowling, he had limited opportunity for easy runs. Averaging 50 was unique then & his 41 in the 1990s just shows that in the context of facing such a high standard of bowing in general - his ability was tested to max & 41 was his output for that era.
But he was definitely a 45+ average batsman ability wise.
2. Yes. Klusener wasn't a particularly brilliant bowler in either format.
Nobody ever referred to Klusener as a brilliant bowler. He was a good bowler in all formats - certainly a more dangerous wicket-taking bowler at his best from 1996-2001 to his fellow country man/all-rounder Brian McMillan who averaged 33 with the ball for eg, which was fairly accurate reflection on his bowling.
Klusner ODI bowling average of 29 was a good reflection of his effectiveness in that format, his test average wasn't. He started to bowl off-cutter from a short run circa 2001, after this his potency with the ball declined until 2004 & I would say the end result average of 37 paints overall test career average in bad light - because at his all-rounder peak from 96-2001 - he was the best in the world.
3. Too short a sample size to fully reflect things. What the average does tell you is that he didn't take many wickets.
Indeed he didn't take wickets, but he was horribly unlucky not to since his bowling and pressure he maintained on SA batters at one end, aided Johnson in taking all those wickets in that series. Hilfenhaus was better rewarded when he came to ENG later in 09 & outbowled Anderson.
4. Lee spent most of that series bowling absolute trash, with the odd decent performance (2nd innings at Edgbaston and Trent Bridge) thrown in. An average of 40 probably flatters him.
Lee didn't bowl trash at Lord's - the only innings I would say he certainly bowled thrash was 1st innings at EDG - otherwise in most spells he had many unlucky moments most notably at the Oval in his final day battle with KP - only if Warne had caught him.
Lee was beginning to peak as a bowler in tests during that series & his post Ashes performances until 2008 pretty much
5. Yes. Average almost certainly flattered by playing a lot of his Test cricket in Asia, however a player is most useful to his side if he's able to bat or bowl best in the conditions he'll face most often. There's also much less of a disparity between his home and away records than several of his Australian contemporaries.
Agreed, but he wasn't a 50 average batsman - only his SRI colleagues Sanga, Mahela & Aravinda had abilities to match averages like that.
It wasn't although NZ played well especially in riveting final test @ Perth, the first two test had major rain interruption and made the overall series look closer than it actually was.
7. An average is the number of runs scored by a batsman divided by the number of dismissals. So this means that Ganteaume averaged 112 runs before he was dismissed when he played Test cricket.
Not sure what you're getting at here. Better knock up one of your quizzes.
Simply to give small examples to the ***** gentleman of the well known cricket POV, that not all stats in whatever scenario/situation in cricket aren't a accurate reflection on everything.
Surprised you ain't throw a insult whether sly or forceful somewhere in this post by the way...