The Unofficial Cricket Forum thread

Originally posted by Dans:
<strong>Yeah went to all the festival grounds - wasn't quite into the booze then as perhaps I am now mind.

I.V.A. Richards was too graceful! Watch some tapes man - tell me he wasn't graceful then. Gower was poncey - if that's what you mean by graceful (giving catches to slips every other innings flashing) then we must beg to differ. Waht about Graeme Hick then?</strong><hr></blockquote>

I'm talking English players. Gower made batting look so easy on the county circuit. Have you ever known any (English) player bat more fluently ?

And Hick = flat track bully. Like RVN. ;)
Click to expand...
 
Originally posted by giggzy:
<strong>Never liked Hick, first of all he wasn't international class... secondly I didn't like the way he held his bat.. kin baseball-like!</strong><hr></blockquote>
Hick was a fine player but he had trouble against the short pitched/rising stuff.There are many players having fanstastic carrers inspite of this problem.For Hick temperament was his main problem.Every one expected him to set the world on fire after his glorious performaces in the county cricket.Unfortunately it did'nt happen and he faded away.
Click to expand...
 
Originally posted by vijay_vr:
<strong>There was one fantastic one-day batsman called NeilFairbrother and talented players like Chris Lewis and Tudor.They were not so successfull international cricket...victims of the hectic-county schedule?</strong><hr></blockquote>

Neil Fairbrother :cool: not many finer sights than "Harvey" at the crease smacking the ball around. Retired at the end of last season. One of Lancashire's finest. Shame about his Test career but he's got fans worldwide.

Chris Lewis - flash harry bottler.

Alex Tudor - has suffered a bit from injuries. Still young so I hope his time comes again and that he becomes an England regular. Plays for Surrey unfortunately.
Click to expand...
 
Originally posted by vijay_vr:
<strong>Whats the logic behind increasing the number of foreign players allowed per county?
Will it helps to improve the quality of cricket(or cricketers) in England?</strong><hr></blockquote>

It's debatable whether anything can do that now..due to national priorities and crap weather. The game is in "reduced circumstances" now and 2 overseas players per team is probably designed to improve the level of entertainment and boost the number of paying customers, rather than for any young cricketer development reasons.

Certainly, more people would be interested in watching a Lancashire side with both Stuart Law and Carl Hooper. India's Farokh Engineer played play for Lancs in the 1970's (with Clive Lloyd) - a great keeper, showman and gentleman.
Click to expand...
 
Right guys...this 'graceful' debate....

Do we have a top 6 batting line up ?

B Richards
Saeed Anwar
V Richards
Hooper
Clive Lloyd
Azharuddin

What are our 'graceful' wicket keeper / batsman options ? I'm going bakc a bit can only think of Alan Knott and Jeff Dujon. The best keepers in recent years have tended to be Aussie and Ian Healy hardly fits the description of 'graceful'.
 
Dujon!

btw Micheal Holding, the most 'graceful' bowler to play the game?? I think so.. perhaps the most balanced run up ever..and an effortless smooth action.....doubt cricket has seen a finer bowler in full flight.

he was quite fast n'all!! ;)
 
Dujon it is.

Graceful bowlers ?

Holding (definitely)
Marshall ?

Used to love watching Lillee bowl, especially later in his career with his remodelled action.
 
<img src="graemlins/lol.gif" border="0" alt="[Laugh Out Loud]" />


spinners...Murali...nah, suspect action..

I'd have Abdul Qadir.. he had a great run up and action.

thoughts??
 
Whoops forgot about the chucking issue. Qadir it is. We have our team of 11 graceful cricketer.

B Richards
Saeed Anwar
Hooper
Azharuddin
Clive Lloyd
Dujon
Imran
Marshall
Abdul Qadir
Holding
Lillee

12th man - V Richards (not quite graceful enough)
 
Originally posted by giggzy:
<strong> <img src="graemlins/lol.gif" border="0" alt="[Laugh Out Loud]" />


spinners...Murali...nah, suspect action..

I'd have Abdul Qadir.. he had a great run up and action.

thoughts??</strong><hr></blockquote>

Murali is cleared by the ICC.So no comments unless you are David Llyod. ;)
Click to expand...
 
Morning / Evening Vijay and thank you for your contributions to the unofficial Cricket Forum.

Azharuddin - he's included because I say so... ;)

Ganguly - is not well liked by my beloved Lancashire, following his time there - sorry. And I rate Dravid higher anyway.

Sachin & Gower were vetoed by Giggzy & Dans, although I did make a case for Gower.

I absolutely loved watching Kalli & Mark Waugh but there's only so many batsmen I can pick !

Graeme Pollock is excluded because youngsters like Dans and Giggzy will never have seen him play - but when I was a young boy I saw him at Old Trafford in 1965 (pre SA exclusion). Spent the entire summer trying to bat like Graeme, bowl like his brother Peter and field like Colin Bland !
 
Vijay - What can you tell me about Harbajhan Singh (aka "Turbanator")?

He was supposed to be playing for my team Lancashire but has suffered some sort of injury (hence Hooper has been called in as a replacement)

When Ganguly played for Lancs he was perceived by the other players as arrogant and aloof and it caused some dressing room strife. What do you know of Singh's personality, spin technique, batting etc.

Spinners come into their own in England late July and through the end of the season so I'm hoping he'll be with us for the second half the season.
 
Lancs are giving a Middlesex a good stuffing. 395-4 (Law 149 no). Chilton just out for 114...264 partnership for the 4th wicket. Now Flintoff's in.

Will even Carl Hooper get into our batting line up at the moment ?

I can smell trophies this year for our boys... :cool:
 
Originally posted by arnie sidebottom:
<strong>Vijay - What can you tell me about Harbajhan Singh (aka "Turbanator")?

He was supposed to be playing for my team Lancashire but has suffered some sort of injury (hence Hooper has been called in as a replacement)

When Ganguly played for Lancs he was perceived by the other players as arrogant and aloof and it caused some dressing room strife. What do you know of Singh's personality, spin technique, batting etc.

Spinners come into their own in England late July and through the end of the season so I'm hoping he'll be with us for the second half the season.</strong><hr></blockquote>


Harbhajan Singh..excellent spinner.His bowling has flight and loop from an high-arm action.He can get the ball to turn on virtually any surface,more dangerous on the bouncy wickets.He can use the rough,the crease and the seam of the ball and can keep batsman guessing.

The ball pitching out side the off stump and going in with a loop is his speciality.He also has the ball going the other way..the delivery that turns away from the right-hander and majority of his victims have been either bowled, trapped leg-before, caught behind, or caught in the close-in cordons.He has also added a slow ball.He has the ability to flight the ball even to attacking batsman,beating the batsmen in the air, spinning the deliveries sharply, teasing and tormenting them.He has the ability to to turn a game around in few overs...say like Ronnie ;) .temperament..it depends on his teammates,captain and the coach.But now a days he is more composed.

As for Ganguly his temperament was his big problem early in his carrer but now he has matured a lot.On his first tour to Australia back in 91-92,he even had the guts to challenge Azhar and was kept away from international cricket for four years.
Click to expand...
 
Great analysis Vijay - thanks for that. He's still young and I don't think we saw the best of him when India played in England recently. Ganguly does look the sort that wouldn't take crap from anyone.

Lancs 565-7..Flintoff 111 (4 sixes) S Law 198...Middlesex 95-2. :)
 
I see Scotland now play first class cricket in our one day league - they beat bloody Somerset this weekend! A travesty.

On a more pleasing note, who now resides in first place in the County Championship?

Arnie - you may answer that question ;)
 
Link, please, my friend (nowt on BBC). Although I'll probably regret asking. :(

We're piling up the runs but not leaving ourselves enough time to bowl teams out twice. Part crap weather following us around, part lack of a spinner. Shame Harbajhan won't be with us for a while.

Still - "I refuse to write us off in early May" and "Trophies aren't handed out in May".

Etc.
 
Hmmmm it appears Warwickshire won today.


I hate the new bbc website - it's a bitch to navigate.

<a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/shared/bsp/hi/cricket/statistics/county_ch_1/html/stats.stm#table" target="_blank">Table</a>
 
Third place...not bad considering we haven't won a game yet. Plenty of batting and bowling points keeping us in touch.

And Ricki Clarke top of the batting averages (Who does he play for ? <img src="graemlins/smirk.gif" border="0" alt="[Smirk]" /> ). Stuart Law is second and has scored a shedload more runs. Such is the way of cricket averages and Duckworth Lewis - what a wonderful game... :cool:
 
Windies have won the final test by breaking the world record.Here is the edited article...

The question to be asked is would the esteemed official have allowed a player from the sub-continent go scot-free for indulging in such despicable behaviour? Justifying his act by saying such things happen as Australia tended to play Test cricket the hard way is just an escapist attitude. McGrath should have been suspended for a few Tests, in the least, for the way he has sullied the fair name of the game.

But what can one expect from these match officials one of whom let Michael Slater, from the same champions stable of Steve Waugh, escape punishment after clearly having a verbal go at India’s Rahul Dravid in the Mumbai Test a few years ago following an appeal for a catch at mid-wicket against the batsman being disallowed through the help of TV replays?

The Australians may be world champions, but they take the rear in the matter of sportsmanship. The only saving grace, if one may call it that, has been the severe reprimand of the team issued by the country’s cricket board and the strong criticism of the Australian team’s conduct in the media Down Under.

<hr></blockquote>

whats your opinion on this whole episode of sledging?
Click to expand...
 
Originally posted by vijay_vr:
<strong>whats your opinion on this whole episode of sledging?</strong><hr></blockquote>

Didn't help them much this time did it?!

I think sledging has no place in cricket, unfortunately the convicts employ it as one of their tactics every time. Not saying others don't but they do seem to have a real lust for it.

Well done the Windies.
Click to expand...
 
As reported by the media I think Windies record breaking run chase might act as the catalyst for the revival of Cricket in the Carribean.It was a great victory considering the fact that it has
come against the greatest team of all time.

Ramnaresh Sarwan..the future of the Windies cricket..terrific player.Have you seen him play?
 
Surrey Innings
Batsman Runs Balls 4s 6s
M A Butcher c D I Stevens b D E Malcolm 39 80 6 0
I J Ward b P A J DeFreitas 19 20 3 0
M R Ramprakash c D I Stevens b C E Dagnall 152 289 19 1
A J Stewart c J N Snape b P A J DeFreitas 71 88 14 0
A D Brown c D L Maddy b J N Snape 73 91 12 0
A J Hollioake c P A Nixon b P A J DeFreitas 41 24 3 3
R Clarke c P A Nixon b P A J DeFreitas 0 10 0 0
Azhar Mahmood c D L Maddy b J N Snape 27 45 4 0
I D K Salisbury not out 101 160 9 3
Saqlain Mushtaq not out 20 68 2 0
Extras 6b 5lb 0w 6nb 17

Total 145.2 overs (for 8 wickets) 560


Now that's a scorecard Arnold. A ton from Salisbury no less!!
 
A far better scorecard than the one I'm looking at....'Match Abandoned'.

Once again we have a team (Essex) on their knees, only for the weather to intervene. Bugger all play for two days.

Bollocks :mad: :mad:
 
Compared to our draw (2 wickets away from an inning and 100+ runs win) you've nothing to complain about!
 
Feckin' weather in this country.

They should have let us play our final day under cover at the Millenium Stadium. In fact we could have entertained the crowd in the middle of the pitch with the cricket match whilst the football game could have taken place by the corner flags.

Are you still playing this weekend ? Not in Germany surely. :eek:
 
Waugh defends players' behaviour in West Indies

SYDNEY, May 17, 2003
Steve Waugh has defended his players' behaviour during their test series in West Indies and strongly hinted he wants to continue as Australia's captain in the longer version of the game.

Waugh told reporters on his arrival home on Saturday that while his players had stepped out of line on a couple of occasions, their conduct had generally been good and there was no animosity between the teams.

Australia won the four-match test series 3-1 and the Ricky Ponting-led one-day side play the first of seven internationals later on Saturday.

"The heat of the moment got to a few players (but) from a playing point of view it was probably the friendliest series I've been involved with," Waugh said.

"On and off the field the guys had a lot of interaction, talked with each other a great deal and helped each other with cricket."

Waugh was told by Australian cricket boss James Sutherland to haul his players into line after a heated onfield row between fast bowler Glenn McGrath and West Indies batsman Ramnaresh Sarwan in the fourth and final test.

McGrath later apologised for his actions and Waugh said he hoped people would not judge the tour on that one incident.

"I'm not making excuses for it but it does happen, that's the reality of the situation," Waugh said.

"We are going to make mistakes, there's a lot at stake and a lot of pressures."

The tour was another great personal success for Waugh who continues to defy critics who want him to retire.

In the first test, he became the most-capped player of all time and his 115 in the third test took him past Don Bradman as Australia's most prolific century maker with 30 test hundreds.

He averaged over 75 for the series and Australia's three wins put him equal with West Indian Clive Lloyd's long-standing record of 36 victories as the most successful test captain in history.

With Australia's next scheduled series in Darwin and Cairns in July against Bangladesh, the world's weakest playing nation, Waugh seems certain to that eclipse that mark.

Bangladesh is also the only test-playing nation Waugh has never played against and the 37-year-old said he was keen to play on.

"It would be great to play in Darwin and Cairns ... they are historic test matches. They are definitely worth thinking about," he said.
 
Wasim Akram announces international retirement
Wisden CricInfo staff - 18 May 2003

Wasim Akram has announced that he is retiring from international cricket with immediate effect.

Wasim said that it was time to look to life after cricket. "My future is somewhere else after September," he told Sky Sports's Charles Colville. "Maybe I will be working in television or coaching. There are no regrets. There have been ups and downs but I would not have changed it for anything else."

Wasim had suggested that he was ready to quit several times in recent months, but the bitter disappointment of the World Cup proved to be a sad finale to a remarkable career. He was one of eight senior players dropped for April's Sharjah Cup, and was then omitted from the Pakistan squad for the current Bank Alfalah Cup triangular series. At 36, and with Pakistan publicly looking to build for the future, it was unlikely whether Wasim would have been able to force his way back into the side anyway.

Wasim will honour his contract to play for Hampshire until the end of the English season.

In a career which spanned 19 years Wasim played in 104 Tests scoring 2898 runs at 22.64 and taking 414 wickets at 23.62. In 356 ODIs he scored 3717 runs at 16.52 and took 502 wickets at 23.52. He was the first man to achieve the double of 400 wickets in both Tests and ODIs.

But the figures don't tell the whole story. In his pomp Wasim was a devastating bowler with the new ball, and was subsequently one of the first to exploit reverse swing with the old ball to devastating effect. His aggregates with the bat only hint at his destructive late middle-order capability, and his batting was an aspect where results did not equate to ability.

The second half of his career was also dogged by controversy, and in 2000 he was one of six players censured and fined for not fully co-operating with a Pakistan Cricket Board investigation into match-fixing scandals.
 
And todays' Surrey centurion is................Martin Bicknell!!

51-5 at one stage, now a healthy 329-8.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.