Top_Cat said:
Mate, what are you smoking? The WI were never really on top of the cricketing world until 1976. Before that, even Australia beat them in 1961 in Australia and 75/76 in Australia and beat them at home too. England and Australia were the dominant sides of those eras. Check the series' results if you don't believe me.
Like I say, England beat West Indies 3-0 in 1957 but that squad contained Goddard, Stollmeyer, Worrell, Weekes, Walcott, Sobers, Gibbs, Hall, Griffith, Ramadhin and Valentine!
You can't just judge a team on it's results IMO.
West Indies had much of that team for much of the '60s. Australia, while they dominated England, had McKenzie, Corling, Hawke and Benaud. The batting had Simpson and co., but for me WI were better.
From about 1966 to about 1975 Australia were almost always a better team, no doubts (Lillee, Thomson, Walker, Marsh, Stackpole, Chappells). But generally, from 1950 onwards, West Indies were the best (if not neccesarily the dominant) side IMO.
Ah, Junior Murray was dropped for that game. It was Courtney Browne who dropped Steve Waugh, in his first Test no less!
Well, I shall have to take this outside!
I have been given wrong information! He who told me it was Junior Murray is in deep trouble.
Yet, on difficult tracks he also scores well. Is it his fault he's played on a lot of relatively flat tracks? That's disingenuous. Hick was a flat-track bully because when difficult ones came along, he inevitably failed. Hayden has succeeded on most tracks, flat or not. 503 runs in India on raging turners for an opening batsman of all things is testament to this. He was never in trouble against a bowler who ended up taking 33 wickets in a 3-Test series. That speaks volumes for how much better he played than anyone else in that series.
Believe me, Richard, I used to be in the camp which said Hayden was too soft for Test cricket and that he didn't have the technique, the shots etc. to play top-level so I was very surprised when Australia selected him again. However, since he's come back, he now has more shots than he ever did, a much tigher defence and the ability to adapt his game to the changing circumstances (India 2001, for example). Ignoring his record, I'd say hes a much more complete batsman just by looking at him. He has the technique to succeed in all conditions and next time the Aussies play on a dodgy track, I'm sure he'll do well.
Hayden is the best player of spin in The World, I don't have a slight doubt about that. Strength, a long reach, technique, shot-selection, everything. But for an opener he sure struggles when the ball's seaming and swinging. "Flat-track" bully is not true of Hayden - fair enough, because on raging turners you'd want no-one else to bat for your life, Stephen Waugh included. But the number of seaming pitches Australia have played on recently is so small we really haven't seen what I perceive to be a weakness against swing and seam. How many seamers have you played on since you last toured here? None at home (except maybe Marra Oval), none in SA, none in WI, none in Sharjah or Columbo...
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