World's Best Young Talent

[V Reddy]

Read this article

http://www.htcricket.com/htcricket/14_375422.htm

 

[roofromoz]

We don't know that for sure. Cricket is a game of gloriuos uncertainties. Look at the West Indies, they were a excellent team up until the early 90's. At that point, Haynes ('94), Greenidge ('91), Richards ('91) , Dujon ('92), Marshall ('92) all bowed out around the same time. The West Indies then went into a rather sharp decline...

I think that is because the West Indians barely did any work at the grassroots level in the 80's and 90's, thinking that their golden run would just last forever. As a result, they spent quite a few years at the bottom of the heap recently. They are only now starting to recover from all the massive gaps those retirements.

Australia on the other hand has a good junior system, with the cricket academy, etc.. In the next 5 or so years, as all of our big names retire, I am pretty confident that we will remain competitive with the players that are starting to come through now, but we may not be as dominant as we are at the moment.

It's all about cycles. We are what the West Indies were 10-15 years ago. In the near future, the mantle of domination may belong to South Africa, or perhaps even England!

 

[Tim]

Basically Neil said it all...I also read at Cricinfo that Kaif could struggle to make the ODI squad for the tri-series against NZ & Aus.

So thats what made me say it.

Actually..so what if he's played every ODI for India this year? I wouldn't call Kaif an indespensible player in India's batting lineup, and if he's struggling for runs then no doubt the Indian selectors will be telling him to pull his socks up or be prepared for the bad news.

 

[Mr Mxyzptlk]

Basically Neil said it all...I also read at Cricinfo that Kaif could struggle to make the ODI squad for the tri-series against NZ & Aus.

So thats what made me say it.

Actually..so what if he's played every ODI for India this year? I wouldn't call Kaif an indespensible player in India's batting lineup, and if he's struggling for runs then no doubt the Indian selectors will be telling him to pull his socks up or be prepared for the bad news.

I agree on Kaif certainly not being indispensible, but the selectors have been treating him like he is...

 

[gibbsnsmith]

I think that is because the West Indians barely did any work at the grassroots level in the 80's and 90's, thinking that their golden run would just last forever. As a result, they spent quite a few years at the bottom of the heap recently. They are only now starting to recover from all the massive gaps those retirements.

er... Ambrose, Walsh, Lara, Chanderpaul etc came out of a hole in the ground did they? That being said the West Indies lineups were always a bit uneven

 

[Neil Pickup]

The point is that compared to the early 80s - and to be fair those four were growing up in the 80s, WI are well short now.

Collymore and Dillon and Stuart and Sandford

vs

Holding, Marshall, Garner, Croft, Patterson, Gilchrist...

 

[gibbsnsmith]

point made and accepted..im not gonna go on about it like certain..er..never mind

 

[Mr Mxyzptlk]

The point is that compared to the early 80s - and to be fair those four were growing up in the 80s, WI are well short now.

Collymore and Dillon and Stuart and Sandford

vs

Holding, Marshall, Garner, Croft, Patterson, Gilchrist...

Your point is very valid, but I think it's safe to say that Sanford and Stuart aren't exactly in the thoughts of the selectors right now, nor have they been for the past year.

 

[Top_Cat]

We don't know that for sure. Cricket is a game of gloriuos uncertainties. Look at the West Indies, they were a excellent team up until the early 90's. At that point, Haynes ('94), Greenidge ('91), Richards ('91) , Dujon ('92), Marshall ('92) all bowed out around the same time. The West Indies then went into a rather sharp decline...

Indeed but the warning signs that the next generation weren't up to the standard of the previous were there years before any of them retired. Whenever the WI team tried to blood some new players, they inevitably failed but the greats being still in the team covered for them. Players such as Philo Wallace, Ezra Moseley, Carlisle Best, Anderson Cummins in the late 80's/early 1990's came and went quickly with brief flashes of brilliance, which should have been warning sign number one.

Warning sign number two should have been the impending retirements of Viv, Dessie, Gordon, Duj, Marshall. Simple as that. Losing half of your great team in combination with observations of what was on the way up should have registered as a potential problem.

When players such as Stuart Williams, Cameron Cuffy and others came through the under-age groups and people saw that these guys were somewhat lower-class than those they followed, it was too late. The greats retired and what was left were players barely of Test standard in combination with a few of the greats still left as well as those who were fairly decent (I'm speaking of the bowlers primarily here because obviously Lara is a great and Chanders, Arthurton and Jimmy Adams at one stage were very good too). It was enough to get by until the Aussies finally nailed the pretenders in 1995. Curtly and Courtney were baulking somewhat at having to not just lead the attack but to shoulder the responsibilities of the others too and it showed. For example, in 1995, Curtly didn't have an impact on the series until mid-series and that was on what could be termed 'under prepared'; a green-top in other words. Before and after that match, he was solid but unspectacular.

Mind you, the WI also had a shocking run of career-ending/damaging injuries to potential greats like Ian Bishop and Phil Simmons. That would have set them back quite a bit too.

The point is, the Aussies are learning from the WI example and the new crop are introduced slowly having paid their dues at state level (with a few exceptions). This is something the WI did not do and they're still paying for it, particularly in their bowling stocks (as the batting is recovering much quicker with Sarwan and others looking quite promising).

 

[Bazza]

I remember Philo Wallace being rolled out against us in 1998. He did alright as well I think...

Yeah scored 45, 61 and 92. Only scored 81 runs in his other 10 innings in tests!

And his opening partner Clayton Lambert scored 55, 29 and 104 in the same two tests, but managed just 96 runs in his other 6 innings.

I remember my mate laughing at their selection. Then they both got in the runs...

Mind you there weren't many successes on that tour. Fraser made a good comeback I think, everyone in the top 4 got crippled at Sabina Park, Knight and Stewart established themselves in ODIs and Atherton stood down when we got home, that's about all I remember.

Oh yeah and some guy called Ashley Cowan went on that tour. Say, whatever happened to him?

 

[Mr Mxyzptlk]

I don't know how you could laugh at the selection of either Wallace or Lambert. Lambert was a fine FC player with very good stats and it's the same with Wallace.

IMO Lambert was a bit underused at Test level. He scored over 8000 FC runs.

RE: Cowan. A useful bowling allrounder from Essex. However, he didn't play any County cricket this season.

 

[Pratters]

Parthiv Patel is a very much above average gloveman from what I've seen of him. He's also a useful lower order bat. Sigh.... gone are the days when wicketkeepers got any real acclaim for their 'keeping rather than their batting...

hmmm.

 

[ramkumar_gr]

My World XI

R Uthappa
G Smith
Devon Smith
Upul Taranga
M Samuels
M Clarke
Dinesh Karthick
Piyush Chawla
Chris Tremlett
Shaun Tait
VRV Singh

 

[honestbharani]

His keeping was superb against WI and nz :rolleyes: . Maybe he will get recognition after the Ind -AUS series which many will be watching.

lol, he DID get RECOGNIZED after that series, didn't he?

 

[Jono]

That does nothing to deter my opinion which was that Yuvraj is better than Kaif.

Hopefully 2 years down the line your opinion has changed.

 

[Mr Mxyzptlk]

hmmm.

That was early in his career, and I'd only seen him against the West Indies then.

Quoting the Wisden profile:

"he was splendid in the home series against West Indies in 2002-03, but then struggled to inspire confidence thereafter"

Based on that, I think my comment was fully justified.

 

[Mr Mxyzptlk]

Hopefully 2 years down the line your opinion has changed.

Ja. Now I don't rate either of them.

 

[GladiatrsInBlue]

IKP
MS DHONI
VRV Singh
Mohd Asif
Yasir Arafat
Tait
Bracken
Watson

 

[magsi23]

Smith
Gambhir
Clarke
Rayuda
Sarwan
Parthiv Patel
Munaf Patel
Salvi
Bhajji
Lawson
Zondeki.

Patel? oh god no

 

[Steulen]

Don't know enough about upcoming youngsters to make an XI, but surely AB De Villiers will be one of the best cricketers around in a few years' time