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Paddles

Turnmills

Cricket Spectator
I'm new to this forum.....and it has probably been done to death.
Especially seeing the amount of Kiwis on the board!!!!

hOWEVER in this sport that I love, there are very few that Kiwi's can call amongst the very, very best.

Only 1 really.

Richard Hadlee is obviously that.

To me at least the best quick of all time.

Control, brains, total accuary, speed, ball on a string.

36 5 wicket bags.
9 bags of 10

(are both of these records?)

431 test wickets
Ave of 22.2

And a lot of runs.

The ability to destroy any team on any pitch. The ability to win test matches.

He is pretty much the reason NZ is so into cricket I believe.

Hadlee for me...one of the greatest cricketers of all time. Very possibly the Greatest bowler.

Thoughts?
 

Galactic_Soap

School Boy/Girl Cricketer
I'm sure Martin Crowe might have a few things to say about that. At his best he was surely one of the best in the world.
 

Smudge

Hall of Fame Member
Galactic_Soap said:
I'm sure Martin Crowe might have a few things to say about that. At his best he was surely one of the best in the world.
I'm sure even Martin would bow to Hadlee's reign at the top of the New Zealand cricket ladder.

Hadlee was voted New Zealand's Sportsman of the 1980s.
 

Smudge

Hall of Fame Member
For me, I would place Hadlee atop the pile.

In the next echelon, players like Crowe, Glenn Turner, Bert Sutcliffe, John Reid (despite good, not great, averages in batting and bowling, he often had to carry an underperforming side), Martin Donnelly and Jack Cowie.

Next are blokes like Chris Cairns, John Wright, Mark Richardson, Graham Dowling, Bevan Congdon, Andrew Jones, Danny Morrison...
 

BlackCap_Fan

State Vice-Captain
Voltman said:
For me, I would place Hadlee atop the pile.

In the next echelon, players like Crowe, Glenn Turner, Bert Sutcliffe, John Reid (despite good, not great, averages in batting and bowling, he often had to carry an underperforming side), Martin Donnelly and Jack Cowie.

Next are blokes like Chris Cairns, John Wright, Mark Richardson, Graham Dowling, Bevan Congdon, Andrew Jones, Danny Morrison...
Astle and Fleming....
 

social

Cricket Web: All-Time Legend
Ive always believed that Hadlee's 9 wicket haul at Brisbane was one of the greatest bowling performances of all time - pace, control, movement.

The Australian tean at that time was uesless but Hadllee wouls have gotten great results on that day vs. anyone.
 

Smudge

Hall of Fame Member
BlackCap_Fan said:
Astle and Fleming....
Sorry, I ran out of steam, and I'm still at work - supposedly to be earning my keep.

:D

social,

Hadlee admitted it was the one day when the ball literally talked for him and it did exactly what he wanted to do.

We New Zealanders still cling tightly to a great past glory like that.

:laugh:
 

social

Cricket Web: All-Time Legend
Voltman said:
Sorry, I ran out of steam, and I'm still at work - supposedly to be earning my keep.

:D

social,

Hadlee admitted it was the one day when the ball literally talked for him and it did exactly what he wanted to do.

We New Zealanders still cling tightly to a great past glory like that.

:laugh:
Voltman,

I cling to the present (especially the Bledisloe) :D :D :D

mainly because it wont last long :@ :@ :@
 

BlackCap_Fan

State Vice-Captain
social said:
Ive always believed that Hadlee's 9 wicket haul at Brisbane was one of the greatest bowling performances of all time - pace, control, movement.

The Australian tean at that time was uesless but Hadllee wouls have gotten great results on that day vs. anyone.

It still had Border and Boon, though.
 

Tim

Cricketer Of The Year
Hadlee & Crowe would be fairly close...but i'd give it to Hadlee considering the way Crowe conducted himself off the field at times e.g. 1991 tour to Zimbabwe.
 

Smudge

Hall of Fame Member
marc71178 said:
Blimey - considering the Rugby tradition that amazes me!
And considering we had our ONLY World Cup success in that decade...

The 1980s were pretty good for New Zealand sport, even coming off the successful track athletes of the 1960-70s (Snell, Halberg, Davies, Walker, Quax, Dixon etc). We had guys like canoeist Ian Ferguson who snared about 4-5 gold medals over two Olympics (1984-88), Mark Todd who grabbed gold in 1984 and 1988 (that's a curly one, Toddy), the cricketers, the All Blacks, and even the All Whites (our soccer team) somehow made it to the World Cup.
 

SJS

Hall of Fame Member
Turnmills said:
36 5 wicket bags.
9 bags of 10

(are both of these records?)
Sorry to disappoint you but Murali withh 44 and 13 5in innings and 10 in test hauls is ahead of Sir Richard and likely to go further yet.


Turnmills said:
Hadlee for me...one of the greatest cricketers of all time. Very possibly the Greatest bowler.

Thoughts?
Greatest cricketer I dont know but one of the greatest fast bowlers in the history of the game ? Without doubt. Close enough to being the best (in the truly fast category) for you to believe that he was. Who knows after all :)

As far as cricketers coming from New Zealand. Actually I am surprised at the relatively few superstars from your country. I think it has to do with the status of the game in the over all sporting list/priorities of the nation. Its difficult to produce true superstars one after the other unless there is passion, real passion in the majority of the populace. This is the reason for the decline of superstars (and consequently the game) in England.

West Indies came up through sheer passion and over came the big handicap of being many countries playing under one banner through individually brilliant stars.

But I can still count some great cricketers that I have seen.

Bert Sutcliffe.
Martin Crowe
Glen Turner

Another striking thing is the longevity of the Kiwi cricketer. For some reason, I suppose economic, the average Kiwi cricketer doesnt play as long as those from other countries and quite a few promising young kiwi players seem to just vanish from the scene.
 

Smudge

Hall of Fame Member
SJS said:
Sorry to disappoint you but Murali withh 44 and 13 5in innings and 10 in test hauls is ahead of Sir Richard and likely to go further yet.




Greatest cricketer I dont know but one of the greatest fast bowlers in the history of the game ? Without doubt. Close enough to being the best (in the truly fast category) for you to believe that he was. Who knows after all :)

As far as cricketers coming from New Zealand. Actually I am surprised at the relatively few superstars from your country. I think it has to do with the status of the game in the over all sporting list/priorities of the nation. Its difficult to produce true superstars one after the other unless there is passion, real passion in the majority of the populace. This is the reason for the decline of superstars (and consequently the game) in England.

West Indies came up through sheer passion and over came the big handicap of being many countries playing under one banner through individually brilliant stars.

But I can still count some great cricketers that I have seen.

Bert Sutcliffe.
Martin Crowe
Glen Turner

Another striking thing is the longevity of the Kiwi cricketer. For some reason, I suppose economic, the average Kiwi cricketer doesnt play as long as those from other countries and quite a few promising young kiwi players seem to just vanish from the scene.
Very true - plenty of players give it up for a regular job. While the central contracts have eased that somewhat, it was hell for domestic players to get sympathetic employers who would pretty much give most of the summer off to these guys.

A lot of guys get to their mid-late 20s and think "blow this, I'm going to earn some real cash".
 

Buddhmaster

International Captain
IMO, Martin Crowe was no where near as good as Hadlee. I know you can't really compare a batter with a bowler, but Hadlee was one of the best bowlers of all time. But Crowe wasn't one of the best batsmen of all time.
 

Zinzan

Request Your Custom Title Now!
Buddhmaster said:
IMO, Martin Crowe was no where near as good as Hadlee. I know you can't really compare a batter with a bowler, but Hadlee was one of the best bowlers of all time. But Crowe wasn't one of the best batsmen of all time.
Agreed......


Even though Crowe was my fav to watch when I was a young lad.

It has to be said that whilst Crowe was one of the best batsmen of his ERA....

Hadlee was one of the great bowlers/allrounders of ALL-TIME


Thats the difference... So no-doubt Hadlee is comfortably NZ's greatest cricketer

The fact that Australians used to hate Hadlee so much illustrated how good he was
 

thierry henry

International Coach
Actually I am surprised at the relatively few superstars from your country
Why? We're a country of 4 million people, and I honestly reckon cricket isn't that big here. Due to tradition it gets a good run in the media, but imo the average New Zealander has no interest at all in cricket and wouldn't know one end of the bat from another. In Auckland in particular, it's pretty much just played by an insular little group of middle class white kids. LOL, I realise I'm exaggerating, I'm just trying to get the point across.
 

cric_manic

First Class Debutant
zinzan12 said:
Agreed......


Even though Crowe was my fav to watch when I was a young lad.

It has to be said that whilst Crowe was one of the best batsmen of his ERA....

Hadlee was one of the great bowlers/allrounders of ALL-TIME


Thats the difference... So no-doubt Hadlee is comfortably NZ's greatest cricketer

The fact that Australians used to hate Hadlee so much illustrated how good he was
australia used to hate bond as well does that make as good as haddlee?
what im trying to say is we dont need australia to justify how good a player is
haddlee is the greatest fast bowler of all time but not because the australians used to hate him it because of the stuff that has been mentioned in this forum
 

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