Players Who You Predicted Would Be Great................

[Bouncer]

I dont know if i am going to lose any cool points here on CW. ...But i really used to think that Salim Elahi could have been a very good player...i seriously thought that.

 

[Langeveldt]

He still has time, though

Taibu has all the time in the world.. Id say he has the safest spot in world cricket after Shane Warne's...

 

[Craig]

Taibu !

How?

He is a great 'keeper and a very gritty customer with the bat, and it can't be easy to captain a very weak side at such a young age (not even 21?) and be their only World Class player.

 

[MoxPearl]

Geoff allot.

If he had not had to give up cricket due to his back.. imho he would have been new zealands best bowler...

 

[marc71178]

*cough* Richard Hadlee *cough*

 

[Raj123]

Geoff allot.

If he had not had to give up cricket due to his back.. imho he would have been new zealands best bowler...

if not for the back it would have been hammy, or shoulder or .....the man just couldnt stay fit. i've met him a couple of times, great bloke off field too....sad

 

[Craig]

Geoff allot.

If he had not had to give up cricket due to his back.. imho he would have been new zealands best bowler...

And for you a Geoff Allott interview.

I guess I can add Shayne O'Connor to that list, a fine swing bowler (one Richard rates highly I believe), injury prone, but when fit, a very fine bowler indeed.

 

[Richard]

oh really?
yet he managed to average nearly 43 in the ashes in 93,60 against SA in 94, 41 against australia in 95, 50 against the WI in 95, and 49 against SA in 95-96.

Yes, he had some good series in the mid-90s, everyone knows that, but it's not like the faults were any different in his early failures to the late failures.
For no apparent reason they just didn't cause his dismissal cheaply like they did before and after.

 

[Richard]

there have been many primary front foot players, viv richards for one had to plant his front food forward to be able to play his game. almost every weakness can be played around, including heavy footedness.

Viv managed to, Hick didn't - big deal.
For some players, faults don't cause poor averages, for others they do.
Have I (or indeed anyone) once said that every successful player has a perfect game?

 

[Richard]

I dont know if i am going to lose any cool points here on CW. ...But i really used to think that Salim Elahi could have been a very good player...i seriously thought that.

I still very much do.
A List-A average of 61 is rather unusual.

 

[Richard]

Geoff allot.

If he had not had to give up cricket due to his back.. imho he would have been new zealands best bowler...

Though I agree with this:

*cough* Richard Hadlee *cough*

I do think Allott could have been second.

I guess I can add Shayne O'Connor to that list, a fine swing bowler (one Richard rates highly I believe), injury prone, but when fit, a very fine bowler indeed.

I didn't even know O'Connor still played, but yes, I do believe he could have been almost as good as Allott.
I think Nash and Cairns could have been far better than they turned-out, too.

 

[marc71178]

For no apparent reason they just didn't cause his dismissal cheaply like they did before and after.

So it's impossible that he could've improved as a player then?

 

[tooextracool]

Yes, he had some good series in the mid-90s.

yet you just said that he failed time and time again against the better attacks

 

[tooextracool]

Viv managed to, Hick didn't - big deal.
For some players, faults don't cause poor averages, for others they do.
Have I (or indeed anyone) once said that every successful player has a perfect game?

hold on a second here....first you say that you were certain that players like hick were going to fail when you were 3 years old because he was heavy footed, and that "There are limitations that are easy to work around (eg Graeme Smith - plenty, some on this board, refuse to accept that as limited a player can be so brilliant).
There are weaknesses that are far less so (eg heavy-footedness)."
then you say that viv richards could get around the same weakness as hick, another contradiction from mr 'know it all' then?

 

[Top_Cat]

For someone who had a 'front-foot technique', I remember Viv hitting the fastest bowlers in the world over fine-leg and mid-wicket for HUGE 6's plenty of times!

 

[tooextracool]

yes and one of the reasons of why he was such a phenomenal player was because he could play those shots off the front foot......

 

[aussie_beater]

Front foot hook shots....that's Viv the King !

 

[marc71178]

Viv the greatest 6-hitter of all time.

 

[lord_of_darkness]

I guess I can add Shayne O'Connor to that list, a fine swing bowler (one Richard rates highly I believe), injury prone, but when fit, a very fine bowler indeed.

i wouldnt agree with you there.. apart from injury prone at crucial times he was inconsistent at times too..

Geoff Allot could have been
Simon Doull
C Spearman
M Sinclair
V Kambli

 

[Barney Rubble]

Just to add some fuel to the Hick fire, I fail to see how anyone with 130-odd FC centuries is not a disappointment if their career turns out like Hick's has.

Vinod Kambli could have been an unbelievably good player - anyone heard about he and Sachin's partnership of 646* at the age of 12? Haven't seen a lot of him, but from what I hear there didn't seem to be a good reason why he wouldn't make it - just another case of unfulfilled potential, I guess.