Quote:
Originally Posted by Uppercut
Quote:
Originally Posted by Goughy
I think people pretty much get what they deserve. Even the most talented people have technical issues that would have to be ignored to project them higher.
A guy like Tendulkar plays with an angled bat off the back foot. That isnt an issue when he is 'in form' but it hurts him when he is a little out of form.
Botham had a batting technique well suited to the medium/quicks but he didnt get properly into line against the express bowlers and consequently he never knew where his off stump was.
Rhodes was a technical mess and a substandard Test cricketer until he was properly tutored.
etc
I think it is often too easy to overlook the deficiencies in certain players and then revise history as to what our expectations should have been.
For example Andy Caddick, on his day, was unplayable. Fast, bounce, swing, venom: he could have averaged low 20s in Test cricket. However, his failings meant that was not possible. |
Completely agree with this. Stats aren't everything, but they're the bottom line. How many runs you score is a better judge of how good a player you were than how effortless you scored your boundaries or how classical your cover-drive looked. Everyone gets what they deserve. |
Ind33d. (To an extent, anyway - obviously an occasional player will have an amount of luck far above-average, whether some people like that or not.)
The "stats do not do justice" idea is simply a don't-go-there. Stats show what happened. "Stats do not tell the full story" is a much fairer phrase - because there is always more to a player than purely what his contributions to wins and losses are. Even if Ian Bell is an infinitely lesser batsman than Kevin Pietersen, he'll always be an infinitely more attractive one. And some players' runs can merely win a game; some players' runs can win a game and win a thousand hearts to boot.
It's in this way that cricket is about more than just stats. But how
good someone is is about precious little besides. Though clearly an overall career average is a pretty meaningless thing, and always needs closer examination before real truths can be discerned.