Ten players you wished you could have seen live in their prime?

[Prince EWS]

WG Grace - I’m the person who came to see him play that he’s putting the bails back on for.

 

[TheJediBrah]

Rob Quiney

I did get to see the 9 live on tv, but I'd love nothing more than to get the opportunity to relive it

 

[ma1978]

Chris Tavare

Bill Athey

 

[AndyZaltzHair]

1. Rohan Kanhai
2. Rohan Kanhai
3. Rohan Kanhai
4. Rohan Kanhai
5. Rohan Kanhai

 

[SillyCowCorner1]

1. Rohan Kanhai
2. Rohan Kanhai
3. Rohan Kanhai
4. Rohan Kanhai
5. Rohan Kanhai

He was so good that Sunil Gavaskar named his kid after him.

 

[mr_mister]

I saw all of Lara, Sachin and Ponting, three heroes of mine. Got to see Ponting get a double ton in fact.

I would have liked to have seen Viv, to see what the hype was about.

 

[SteveNZ]

Sir Richard. I would loved to have gone to Trent Bridge and watched him bowl for Notts, especially.

 

[howitzer]

Grace
Ranji
Trumper
Barnes
Hobbs
Bradman
Sobers
B Richards
V Richards
Hadlee
Marshall

That's 11 but I don't care.

 

[Ashes81]

Bradman
Hobbs
Hammond
G Pollock
Sobers
Tyson
Larwood
Miller
Trueman
Thomson - I saw him several times but only after his injury - would love to have seen him at his peak

 

[AndrewB]

George Freeman - played in the 1860s, said to be "the best bowler they'd ever seen" by various Yorkshire cricketers 30 years later.
Charles Kortright - to see how fast the fastest bowler of the 1890s really was.
GIlbert Jessop
Learie Constantine - for various fielding exploits as much as his batting and bowling
Jim Smith - since he apparently played a huge swipe every ball
George Simpson-Hayward & Digby Jephson - the last successful lob bowlers

 

[jcas0167]

Batsmen dominated list (unlucky to miss out Joel Garner, Malcolm Marshall, Bishen Bedi, Abdul Qadir, Ian Botham Garfield Sobers and Ritchie Benaud, Derek Underwood).

Viv Richards
Barry Richards
Graeme Pollock
David Gower
Imran Khan
Greg Chappell
Wally Hammond (my grandad saw him get 300 at Eden Park)
Zaheer Abbas
Michael Holding

 

[capt_Luffy]

Don Bradman
Victor Trumper
Garry Sobers
Viv Richards
Brian Lara
Sydney Barnes
Mike Procter
Shane Warne
Malcolm Marshall
W G Grace
Jack Hobbs

 

[CricAddict]

Viv Richards obviously. Content with the cricket I've seen apart from that.

 

[honestbharani]

Sobers
Richards
Marshall


Otherwise happy having watched so much cricket from about 1990 and watched bits and pieces as a toddler from 87-89.

 

[JBMAC]

A post in the other thread got me thinking, which players do you wish you had seen at their best? Limit to ten.

Mine (not in a particular order)

1. Viv Richards
2. Donald Bradman
3. Gary Sobers
4. Jack Hobbs
5. Dennis Lilllee
6. Malcolm Marshall (I am sure I saw him but I was 7 when he played his last Test and I cant remember)
7. Bishan Singh Bedi
8. Kapil Dev (I caught the very tail end of his career)
9. Jeff Thompson
10. Victor Trumper

Seen them all except Hobbs and Trumper. Even play with and against a couple

 

[capt_Luffy]

Seen them all except Hobbs and Trumper. Even play with and against a couple

Wow..... Sir, you have seen Sir Don bat??

 

[JBMAC]

Wow..... Sir, you have seen Sir Don bat??

Yes

 

[Yeoman]

So many of the classic/obvious names have already been mentioned. For me, it would be the pre-WW2 players of whom there is little footage. I would add Frank Woolley to the list, purely on reported stylistic grounds.

I like to have seen the reported ‘fastest ever’ candidates so that I could compare for myself. Most of all though I would like to have seen play on an old style ‘sticky dog’, just to have seen what it was really like.

 

[James]

Len Hutton (who my Dad rated as the best batsman he ever saw live)
Sobers
Marshall
Viv
Bradman
Glenn Turner

 

[Chrish]

In no particular order:

Viv
Marshall
Barry
Bradman
Sobers
Graeme
Imran
Hobbs

These are really the only players I wish I had seen live.

Edit: also Hadlee..