Is Andrew Symonds the best fielder we've ever seen?

[Gob]

The thing with Harvey is that he was meant to be a ****ing gun bat, but at international level he was truly horrible. He held a spot anyway based on hope, fielding and awesome death bowling, but it's the hope that gets ya.

In my day, balls were heavier. I think I've got the wrong Harvey here

 

[TheJediBrah]

The thing with Harvey is that he was meant to be a ****ing gun bat, but at international level he was truly horrible. He held a spot anyway based on hope, fielding and awesome death bowling, but it's the hope that gets ya.

tbf to him he did have his moments with the ball, and was better than a lot of specialist bowlers floating around international cricket at the time. But with the bat he was outperformed by the likes of Brett Lee and Andy Bichel. One of those guys that excelled at the level or 2 below international cricket (eg. Melbourne grade cricket or County cricket) but couldn't step up to save himself.

with the "held a spot" too I think he benefited a lot from Australia's rotation policy that reared it's head around 1999-2003. If they picked their absolute best XI every time Harvey would have had a much truncated career.

 

[Spikey]

The thing with Harvey is that he was meant to be a ****ing gun bat, but at international level he was truly horrible. He held a spot anyway based on hope, fielding and awesome death bowling, but it's the hope that gets ya.

can you imagine him in the years of international T20s? he would have been given so many chances with the bat due to gun domestic level play and then spud it up each time

 

[Lillian Thomson]

In conclusion there are a whole bunch of spectacularly good fielders who are more or less impossible to pick apart.

Very true. Just a shame Andrew Symonds isn't one of them.

 

[Dan]

wtf Ian Harvey is a massive hero

 

[Burgey]

Muralitharan... top class in 90s.

What was this paying?

 

[honestbharani]

What some of you blokes don't seem to get is that fielding includes several different aspects which require different set of skills and when you are judging the GOAT, you should imo look at blokes who excelled in all those aspects.
Mark Taylor was chubby af but one of the greatest slippers ever as was VVS but you don't want neither in the ring saving runs for your life. Similarly both Jonty and Symonds were exceptional in the ring but not so great slippers. Obviously you also need the opportunity to prove yourself as well. For an example Australia had a bunch of great slippers so Symonds never had a real crack at it at the slips. Same canbe said for some one like Brett Lee who was a brilliant out fielder but he was never going to get a shot at the slips given the team he played at the time.
Anyway this is why Ponting is really unique for me. He excelled at all the aspects. He may not be as good a slipper as say Taylor or as good a ring fielder as Jonty but he was at the same ball park and he was peerless at hitting the stumps.
GOAT for me

I dont agree with that opinion but that is an excellent line of reasoning and very well explained.

 

[honestbharani]

What was this paying?

Same as your post on the topic.

 

[dontcloseyoureyes]

I don't personally think Symonds was the best I ever saw but some of the people in here saying he wasn't even close are a bit weird aren't they? For me it's Ponting, then Jonty. After that I think it's a bit of a mash of players.

 

[sledger]

he was the best at exposing the racism of H Singh.

Have a lot of time for him for that alone.

 

[sledger]

Also the best fielder was Solanki

 

[Jack1]

Collingwood is often a fielder overlooked here. He was a great fielder.

 

[h_hurricane]

jadeja isn’t in Mark Waugh’s let alone Ponting’s league as a fielder ffs. This is ****ing sacrilege. Fine fielder but not in that echelon

Mark Waugh was a better fielder than Ponting. So Jadeja not being in Waugh's league doesn't mean he isn't in Ponting's league.

 

[harsh.ag]

Junior was just a class dude all around. Even fielded elegantly.

 

[h_hurricane]

Symonds misfielding. Not good enough. Target eases over the boundary.

 

[Red]

Mark Waugh was a better fielder than Ponting. So Jadeja not being in Waugh's league doesn't mean he isn't in Ponting's league.

MWaugh was probably the best pure slipper I saw. And Ponting the best cover/point (along with Jonty). Ponting was also excellent in the slips and the times MWaugh could be bothered wandering away from the cordon he was genius anywhere. I dont know how you'd say MWaugh or Ponting were better than each other in a definitive way.

 

[Red]

Symonds misfielding. Not good enough. Target eases over the boundary.

haha how happy does Symonds look in pursuit! Classic Qlander out pig hunting.

 

[Red]

this was just the best

 

[honestbharani]

As an aside, I love the old Queensland jersey colors and design. Wish one of the IPL teams can take that instead of being all red or blue as the case seems to be.

 

[stephen]

Symonds could have played rugby league if he didn't play cricket. NSW would have been glad he didn't though. One more gun player for the greatest origin side in the greatest era of Queensland origin football.

For those who don't know, state of origin is a series of three matches played between QLD and NSW each year. It's highly competitive and until 2006 or so no side had won more than three years in a row. Queensland fielded a side that won 8 in a row and has probably three players who will go down as the best players of all time or close to it in their positions (Thurston at 6/7, Smith at Hooker and Inglis in the centres).