players Who You Thought WOULDN'T Make It.............

[luckyeddie]

I think almost every West Indian knew who he was and is.

Glad to see you've not been blown away, Liam

 

[Richard]

TC you should make a thread for players that you predicted would make it at a young age, and did. If you want.

I haven't seen Corey make any threads for ages (shame, though).
It was immidiately apparant as soon as I saw these two that they would be from ages ago and the result of Steds-digging. Good idea here, though, they're two good threads.

 

[Richard]

Pedro Collins' athletic no neck frame had me wondering why he plays

So people with out necks cant play cricket?

No, it just doesn't look...errm...right

Gladstone Small?

Couldn't have put it better myself.
Gladstone Small made a big contribution to England's last Ashes victory.

 

[Richard]

Dwayne Bravo had us all thinking "who the buggerin' hell's he?"

Not me.
I always thought he had something a bit special the second I looked at his record, and nothing changed the first time I saw him play in Test-cricket.

 

[Richard]

Still does.. Ditto Dwayne Smith

Don't know about Bravo, but Smith, but for one of the worst chanceless centuries you'll ever see, would not have anything like the reputation he does, and would rather be considered what IMO he is - a batsman who plays far, far, far, far, far, far, far too many shots and doesn't look anything close to being a Test-class batsman.

 

[Richard]

I reckon that one of the two will have an excellent winter series, and the other will crash and burn.

That could well decide the destination of the trophy.

I don't think Graeme's bowling will overtly trouble Flintoff with the bat.
But I do think his, and others', batting is likely to trouble Flintoff's supposed improvement with the ball.

 

[Swervy]

I don't think Graeme's bowling will overtly trouble Flintoff with the bat.
But I do think his, and others', batting is likely to trouble Flintoff's supposed improvement with the ball.

so do you not think Flintoff has improved as a bowler then??

 

[Richard]

Not since 2001\02, no.
I certainly don't think any improvement was made in the period September-October-November 2003\04, the time in between cricket in which his Test figures improved.
Flintoff was always more accurate than people gave him credit for (up to WC2003 - people realised then) in his early career but only once he did some work on his fitness could he bowl long spells.

 

[Langeveldt]

A true legend was Gladys.

Wow, Gladstone and AAD must have been a top notch attack for Warwickshire.. Great to watch no doubt

 

[Langeveldt]

Don't know about Bravo, but Smith, but for one of the worst chanceless centuries you'll ever see, would not have anything like the reputation he does, and would rather be considered what IMO he is - a batsman who plays far, far, far, far, far, far, far too many shots and doesn't look anything close to being a Test-class batsman.

Exactly.. Its nothing more or less than sheer irresponsibility

 

[marc71178]

Not since 2001\02, no.

Funnily enough, the man himself disagrees (seeing as 01/02 was only just after he started bowling properly and it took him a time to get used to it again)

Still, what would he know about himself, clearly less than you do.

 

[Smudge]

I think Bond has struggled since getting injured - he certainly looked like he could be a world-beater after his last series in Australia, but unfortunately injury seems to have put a bit of a dampener on things.

Not sure what you mean.

His average for the six test matches since Feb 10, 2002 are 29 wickets@20.89 - below his career average of 24.30.

One day average is pretty much comparable with his career average @19 and his average post-Feb 10 2002 being 20.83, both still very good.

 

[deeps]

Boeta Dippenar, Andy Symmonds, PONTING:O, Sehwag, Graeme Smith, Flintoff, trescothick, harmison

 

[Prince EWS]

Andrew Flintoff
Marvan Atapattu (can anyone honestly say they rated this guy after his start?)
Chris Gayle
Hamish Marshall (okay, he hasnt really made it, but I didnt think hed do nearly as well to start off his career as he has)

 

[luckyeddie]

PONTING

Now you're for it.

 

[Craig]

Boeta Dippenar, Andy Symmonds, PONTING:O, Sehwag, Graeme Smith, Flintoff, trescothick, harmison

I doubt Dippenaar has made it either.

Hasn't lived up to his talent.

 

[Dasa]

^He's performed quite well in ODIs.

 

[wpdavid]

Wow, Gladstone and AAD must have been a top notch attack for Warwickshire.. Great to watch no doubt

I would imagine Small's best days were before Donald came along, although Marc will probably know better on that score.

There was a story about Small in "All Out" the other month. Apparently Botham, Lamb & Small were out dining during an England tour and Beefy's turtle soup was taking ages to turn up. Not being a patient man, he went into the kitchen demanding to know what was going on. The chef explained that they couldn't get the turtle to stick its head out of its shell so it could be bumped off & cooked. Botham took the offending turtle and stuck his thumb up its rear. Out came the head, bang went the turtle, and that was that. "Where did you learn to do that?" asked the chef. "How do you think we get Gladstone's tie on in the morning?" Botham allegedly replied.

 

[Richard]

Funnily enough, the man himself disagrees (seeing as 01/02 was only just after he started bowling properly and it took him a time to get used to it again)

Still, what would he know about himself, clearly less than you do.

If he thinks he's improved since then, he's kidding himself.
The best I've seen Flintoff bowl was in India in 2001\02, especially at Bangalore.
He's bowled no differently since the Sri Lanka tour (the TRUE time when his figures started to improve, rather than since the time when he had a talk with Troy Cooley) to how he did in his "unlucky" 2 years before that.

 

[Richard]

Wow, Gladstone and AAD must have been a top notch attack for Warwickshire.. Great to watch no doubt

Donald, Giddins, Small, Reeve, Giles, Smith (yes, I know they didn't all play together at the same time - Giddins was after the rest bar Giles) - 'twas a good attack.
The finest season, 1994, however (the Cricket Treble) came without Donald in a South Africa tour season.
However, it did feature a certain 501*.