The first Cricket sheep thread
- Thread starter KM
- Start date
The best hook memory for me will always be Sachin getting to century hooking Walsh for 6, in 1994, at VCA, Nagpur. I was there, the six was hit towards the stand I was sitting. I was 9 years old 
Epic.The best hook memory for me will always be Sachin getting to century hooking Walsh for 6, in 1994, at VCA, Nagpur. I was there, the six was hit towards the stand I was sitting. I was 9 years old
Aldo doesn't need to sell Holding. He has Roberts and Holding. As good as Steyn and McGrath are, the combination of Roberts and Holding is justOMG, Holding in right hand now
He's talking about the ball hooking the batsman for a 6.I have never seen a hook where both feet are off the air.
Holding sells himself. We needed to sell kanhai and kalli more but always feel uncomfortable doing that during a match up.OMG, Holding in right hand now
Aldo's write up received. Once @Skills sends his, match thread can be put up.
Now its all over our head.Eagerly waiting for next draft to get started.
GuiltyYou are just a lazy bugger like me, innit.
Behold, Whispering Death!
That delivery. Wow!!
Will have to be later tonight. I'm not home till like 10pm, I have classes and group meetings all day.
Yeah you needed to sell Kallicharran more. Don't think anyone would doubt Kanhai's class.
10PM GMT?
Yeah. So 11 hours from now.
Oh, if you can still do your write up and maybe we can start sometime in the day and you can pick up the discussions when you arrive?
Anyway start as soon as possible as far as I'm concerned, I won't be home tomorrow evening onwards say 6/7 pm (GMT) so ideally wouldn't want this dragging until then.
Anyway start as soon as possible as far as I'm concerned, I won't be home tomorrow evening onwards say 6/7 pm (GMT) so ideally wouldn't want this dragging until then.
. Good luck being awake TMHOh, so no chance of match thread going up at least till I get up tomorrow.
Probably I will start it closer to UK morning time tomorrow then, just so that more people vote.
I won't be
Probably I will start it closer to UK morning time tomorrow then, just so that more people vote.
Just a poor joke I'm afraid.
Maybe I haven't watched enough cricket, but that goes right over my head.
Aldo had Amla and kanhai as about equal and once someone like him says that, you know you're up against it so I didn't bother.
Next draft should be ODI draft. More people will be aware of most players I think @Akshay had said something about hosting it. Maybe it can be started somewhere in March. Immediately it will be overkill.
I think @Akshay had said something about hosting it. Maybe it can be started somewhere in March. Immediately it will be overkill.No what I meant was even if you do rate Kanhai higher which most would it wasn't as much as to suggest the other team would need to upgrade Amla with him. And that was anyway a compliment to Kanhai if anything as I do rate Amla very highly as a test player specially for playing the long innings.
It was about how many of our batsmen would get into skills team.
Yep for which I usually consider someone when they are a significant upgrade.
You don't like Amla or what?
That triple he scored while fasting for Ramadan made me a permanent fan.Yeah, thinking ODI snake draft with 1 player/country restriction. Earliest possible would be in March, after the next WW game.Next draft should be ODI draft. More people will be aware of most players
When the players spread is so huge, across century of years in this case, I think there should be some quantitative way of judging. In these drafts too, while voting, I mentally added some amount to both batsmen and bowler averages, depending on era they played (so batsmen looked better and bowler worse). Of course, it wasn't the sole way, I went through write ups, my knowledge about them (if known already) and some other factors but there should be some way of 'adjustment' across era of 20 years each. If some bowler had avg of 15 in say 1910s, 1920s, he will very likely not have that 1970-80 onwards.
Maybe I will do it similar to the 'who is the best bowler statistically' activity I did few months back
Maybe I will do it similar to the 'who is the best bowler statistically' activity I did few months back
March is the right time as TMH said.
Well there are a variety of Associate Nation players to choose from as well. Counting them as one country altogether, plus the ten test nations should be enough. There will be some weak choices, but it will be a little like sheep in this draft. 2 per nation will just mean sticking to the usual suspects.
Yeah, ODI Snake Draft with 12 different nation's players sounds great, although I loved the Criteria one's. I spent countless hours on cric info thanks to them. No one strong team or the other. Obviously, one of the assoicate team players will sit out, but it will still be great fun.
Ofcourse I like Amla, one of the better batsman of his generation but Rohan Kanhai is one of the legends of the game. Reading about the awe in which absolute legends like gavaskar and kallicharran held him is just incredible. Both of them even named their sons after him. Gavaskar seems lost for words when he talks about him and considers him slightly better than sobers as the best batsman he has seen. That's absolutely incredible praise and you read the same about him from others. Superb as Amla is, I don't see him ever leaving such a stamp on the game or on future generations at all.Yep for which I usually consider someone when they are a significant upgrade.
You don't like Amla or what?
I do, to be honest, I know about the Gavaskar story and I completely agree that he's a proper legend, but I'd say this is one of those cases @Akash was talking about when a player gets underrated because they are relatively young. Trust me, I've drafted Kanhai plenty of times before and in terms of style he was amazing to watch, though Amla is also a pretty special player, him and AB have already cemented their places as legends of the game.
From my discussions you would know I value certain qualities pretty high, temperament is one of them and an in form Amla is as calm and composed as you can get. Anyway that's my 2 cents.
Modern day players don't get a lot of attention anyways. In those days, Matches were not telecast much. Most of it was through Radio or through word of mouth. So you can expect lot's and lot's of articles, quotes on players from 30-40 years ago. Even average player's got so much attention then. I'm not saying Kanhai is average, but that was the trend for players of that era.
The main reason I say this is because, I must have spent atleast a good hour searching for articles on McGrath for the drafts and I couldn't find anything that resembled even a half arsed attempt at elevating him to greatness. Most of them were either regurgitations or Lazy Journalism.
It's next to impossible to leave a mark on the game nowadays. Players are scrutinized now more than ever, their every move tracked both on and off the field. Infact, I think it is more difficult to live in this era than in the previous, where you could probably get away with a few things. Again classic examples were players from my team. Wally and Trueman. Wally was a very troubled personality, regularly indulging in intoxications and having multiple partners. Trueman was colourful and straight as feck. I doubt those two could ever make the same impression now that they did all those years ago.
Fair enough.
I'm not talking about articles about kanhai. I didn't even have to look for any because of the sheer amount of material from fellow cricketers. Once you have people like gavaskar and kallicharran talking this way about a guy, you don't need articles.
As far as batters are concerned, I rate the older generations much higher and believe they had it tougher. They didn't have the sort of protection you have now with bowlers being limited in what they can do, no fancy helmets and pads covering every inch, it was you against a Thompson out to feck you up before he takes your wicket.
I don't see why it's tough to leave a mark now either. But yeah, you need to be that extra bit special which is absolutely fair.
That's sort of my point. If someone like Kanhai were to play in modern day cricket, do you think he would get the same reverence and adoration as he did 50-60 years ago ? He would still be a legend undoubtedly, but would he have made the same level of impact now ? I just don't think he would.
People love to chastise modern day personalities. One small slip-up and you are fecked for life despite all the 99 million other amazing things you do.
Agree with the batsmen of that era being brilliant, but almost every sport has evolved over the years. So I just hate comparing in general.
I think it is incredibly hard to leave your mark nowadays. No matter what, you need to be in the Messi bracket to truly leave your mark, and even then how much abuse he gets from his own countries Journalists and Fans.
I am one of those who believe modern day cricketers should be treated with a bit more respect. If the older gen got it, why not these guys!
Well said.
I think you are referring to how people judge cricketers or other sportsmen for off the field stuff. Is that it? I personally don't care tbh. I don't expect or want them to be some sort of a role model for anyone. So when a Steyn or a ABD rise above their peers in terms of how good they are at what they do, they force themselves into the all time legends category just like guys like Sachin or Akram did before them or kanhai did years back.
Kanhai seems like one of the older batsmen who actually looks quite good on youtube and seems to play proper recognizable shots. But, yeah, Amla has to be up there.
Agree with @Ijazz17 I do think there are loads of special players going around these days in both formats who don't quite get the respect they deserve because people spend far too much trying to downplay them. This is especially true for batsmen. ABD would be a great in any era as would the likes of Smith and Williamson. As an Indian, I'd also add Kohli to the list as well. Doesn't get appreciated nearly enough perhaps because he's a bit hot tempered. He and ABD are two of my favourite batsmen to watch.
On a side note, was watching the Jim Laker 19 wicket haul on youtube. Quite hilarious how understated his celebration is after he takes the 10th wicket. Shakes hand with the umpires and walks away as if he had done nothing special.
Agree with @Ijazz17 I do think there are loads of special players going around these days in both formats who don't quite get the respect they deserve because people spend far too much trying to downplay them. This is especially true for batsmen. ABD would be a great in any era as would the likes of Smith and Williamson. As an Indian, I'd also add Kohli to the list as well. Doesn't get appreciated nearly enough perhaps because he's a bit hot tempered. He and ABD are two of my favourite batsmen to watch.
On a side note, was watching the Jim Laker 19 wicket haul on youtube. Quite hilarious how understated his celebration is after he takes the 10th wicket. Shakes hand with the umpires and walks away as if he had done nothing special.
A lot of modern batsmen I feel I can only truly judge after they hang up their boots. Can they keep it up their entire careers? And just how inflated will today's stats end up proving? Can't give them full credit until I know those answers.
How do you answer that subjectively though? Is it actually even true? And why does it only work one way? If we're discrediting the batsmen of today because the pitches are supposedly not as good then why is no one discrediting the bowlers who played back then for bowling on friendly wickets?
No, not off the field. Even on the field. For the past 20-25 years, cricket has been analyzed and over analyzed to the point of redundancy. If a player has a bad game, it comes out in all the papers. If he has a weakness, it's highlighted to infinite means. If he does something even slightly unnatural, it defines him for the rest of his career. In that way, players of the previous generation were more fortunate. If they had a bad game, there wasn't so much of a furore. Weakness's were not even analyzed to the insane depths they are now. Any deviation personality wise from the norm was seen as a breath of fresh air.
I know you mentioned Wasim and Sachin, but even those two were slated several times in their career. I remember especially Sachin being targeted by journalists the world over and from India for his perceived "Lack of Important Match winning contributions". The BBC even went onto claim he was the 28th best cricketer of all time and justified their reasoning. That simply put, wouldn't have happened 50 years ago.