Top 5 modern day greats

[bagapath]

I'm as big a fan of Matt's as most, but I stop short of actually trying to BE him!

sorry sean. you can call me ikki and we'll agree its even!!!

 

[bagapath]

..it irks me. I believe we're all much smarter than that.

who are the "we"? the 11 guys who voted for ponting? i dont know how many of them did not choose sachin among the other four choices they had. so i dont know who the gang of smart guys are. please introduce me to them!

what irks me is your "know-all" tone in dismissing the credentials of sachin and lara. even in the previous thread your expressing incredulity at ponting coming behind them pissed me off. while recognizing the greatness of your countrymen, you are dismissive of anything non-australian.

 

[Pratters]

/
CEL Ambrose,the best bowler of the last 20yrs imho.
Shoutouts to messrs. Mcgrath,Younis,Donald,Akram,Pollock&Walsh.

I agree with you. Ambrose hardly ever gets the praise he deserves.

 

[Uppercut]

who are the "we"? the 11 guys who voted for ponting? i dont know how many of them did not choose sachin among the other four choices they had. so i dont know who the gang of smart guys are. please introduce me to them!

what irks me is your "know-all" tone in dismissing the credentials of sachin and lara. even in the previous thread your expressing incredulity at ponting coming behind them pissed me off. while recognizing the greatness of your countrymen, you are dismissive of anything non-australian.

Bit of pot kettle black I'd say. Sachin~=~Lara~=~Ponting and you can choose whoever you like and have an opinion on who was better. Comments like:

ikki, there is a reason why ponting is not getting enough votes on this poll. (hint: avg 20 in a major test playing country over 12 tests) sachin and lara have been far and away the best batsmen of the past two decades

are just provoking a response from people who prefer Ponting, don't you think?

 

[Ikki]

who are the "we"? the 11 guys who voted for ponting? i dont know how many of them did not choose sachin among the other four choices they had. so i dont know who the gang of smart guys are. please introduce me to them!

what irks me is your "know-all" tone in dismissing the credentials of sachin and lara. even in the previous thread your expressing incredulity at ponting coming behind them pissed me off. while recognizing the greatness of your countrymen, you are dismissive of anything non-australian.

"We" meaning all of us.

I am not dismissive of Sachin or Lara, so your accusation is off-target. I am simply dismissive of your simple and flawed reasoning.

 

[bagapath]

Bit of pot kettle black I'd say. Sachin~=~Lara~=~Ponting and you can choose whoever you like and have an opinion on who was better. Comments like:



are just provoking a response from people who prefer Ponting, don't you think?

did you not notice my tone mirrored his post's?

 

[0RI0N]

I agree with you. Ambrose hardly ever gets the praise he deserves.

/
Destructively brilliant

 

[bagapath]

i really feel gilly deserves to be remembered as one of the most important cricketers of our times for being of such value to a champion side and for his amazing natural talent to entertain cricket spectators anywhere in the world

 

[stephen]

Not many people considered Pollock but I really think he was the Kallis of bowling allrounders - right up there with the best of his era in his strongest suit, at times the best in the world, and much more than handy in his secondary skill.

I actually rate Pollock incredibly highly. He was easily the second best quick bowler of the 00s. And way more than handy with the bat.

He's easy to forget in the same way that McGrath was easy to forget - he had a simple, conservative style that did the job without fuss. Now that you have reminded me of him, I'll have to retract my previous statements that Kallis is the best modern allrounder (excluding keeper/batsmen). Pollock takes that crown. Bowling allrounders are far more valuable to a side than batting allrounders IMO, which is why I hope that Johnson can get his batting average permanantly over 30.

All hail Pollock, king of the forgotten champions.

 

[haroon510]

Wasim
Inzi
Warne
Lara
Sachin

 

[Uppercut]

I actually rate Pollock incredibly highly. He was easily the second best quick bowler of the 00s. And way more than handy with the bat.

He's easy to forget in the same way that McGrath was easy to forget - he had a simple, conservative style that did the job without fuss. Now that you have reminded me of him, I'll have to retract my previous statements that Kallis is the best modern allrounder (excluding keeper/batsmen). Pollock takes that crown. Bowling allrounders are far more valuable to a side than batting allrounders IMO, which is why I hope that Johnson can get his batting average permanantly over 30.

All hail Pollock, king of the forgotten champions.

Maybe it's just me, but my problem when judging him is that when i hear his name i instinctively think of ODIs. He was, for me, quite easily the greatest ODI player of all time. He has a reasonable case to be the best on bowling alone and when you throw his batting into the mix it's almost not even a contest. His ability in that format almost dwarfs his considerable test ability and causes me to underestimate it. Which would be unusual, because he's one of my all-time favourite players.

The banner displayed in the crowd at his last ever game for South Africa put it best- Polly was a cracker.

 

[stephen]

Wasim
Inzi
Warne
Lara
Sachin

Inzi > Ponting, Gilchrist, Sangakkara, Sehwag, Hayden, Dravid?

Not that he was bad, but there's a reason he wasn't included in the original XI for the supertest.

 

[stephen]

Incidentally, those who currently have 10 votes or more:

xxx
xxx
Ponting
Lara
Tendulkar
Kallis
Gilchrist
Warne
Akram
McGrath
Murali

Ambrose (12th)

Throw in Sehwag and Hayden up the top of the order and you'd have pretty close to a unanimous agreement on the make up of the team of the last twenty years.

 

[Burgey]

Incidentally, those who currently have 10 votes or more:

xxx
xxx
Ponting
Lara
Tendulkar
Kallis
Gilchrist
Warne
Akram
McGrath
Murali

Ambrose (12th)

Throw in Sehwag and Hayden up the top of the order and you'd have pretty close to a unanimous agreement on the make up of the team of the last twenty years.

Interesting. To me that XI (not XII) looks light on for quick bowling - shows the domination of the two spinners I suppose. Good squad, innit?

 

[Pratters]

Incidentally, those who currently have 10 votes or more:

xxx
xxx
Ponting
Lara
Tendulkar
Kallis
Gilchrist
Warne
Akram
McGrath
Murali

Ambrose (12th)

Throw in Sehwag and Hayden up the top of the order and you'd have pretty close to a unanimous agreement on the make up of the team of the last twenty years.

Looks mighty good!

 

[stephen]

Interesting. To me that XI (not XII) looks light on for quick bowling - shows the domination of the two spinners I suppose. Good squad, innit?

Yeah a very good squad. You would probably sub out Murali on fast bowling pitches (simply because with a tail of McGrath, Ambrose and Murali you're prone to leaving a batsman stranded). I'm not sure who the backup bat would be, though I think Dravid would probably be the best bet given his record and the flair and stylishness of those in the squad.

 

[Migara]

Erp, but he doesn't really. Murali's figures are inflated with B/Z.[

Myth no. 1 - this has been bustyed lonmg time back. If Murali played same amount of matches that Warne played against ENG, SAF, NZ and WI, he'll end up in better figures.

Warne has better away figures than Murali.

Myth No 2. Murali has better away stats than Warne against all countries except Pakistan and possibly NZ

Murali has better home figures than Warne - and that's easily explainable in that Warne has bowled on unfriendly spin pitches at home for half his tests/career where Murali has bowled on pitches doctored for his bowling for half his tests/career

Agreed, but not fully. Australia prepared pitches that spin more when they played SAF, END of NZ. Warne never produced same amount of turn on Aussie pitches when India or SL played there.
.

By simply removing B/Z by itself, Murali's record falls on par with Warne's
yet Warne has not had the help of the pitches aforementioned. So it's quite clear that my rationale is consistent and transparent.

That is away record, where the doctored pitch argument becomes moot.

 

[Ikki]

Edit.

 

[pasag]

Take it to the official Warne vs Murali thread guys.

 

[Ikki]

Take it to the official Warne vs Murali thread guys.

I'll do you one better and just remove my reply. We know where it's headed anyway. I'm trying to get better, I swear!