Who is The Greatest Australian Bowler?

[a massive zebra]

As we are discussing the topic of greatest Australians it would be interesting to see who people think is the greatest Australian bowler.

 

[a massive zebra]

Aargh how do I edit the title?

Thanks to whoever edited the erroneous title.

 

[SJS]

As we are discussing the topic of greatest Australians it would be interesting to see who people think is the greatest Australian bowler.

I wish you had divided it into the greatest spinner and the greatest pacer.

 

[Josh]

It hurts to pick between Lillee, Thomson, Warne & Miller

WARNEY!! Sorry

 

[benchmark00]

I wish you had divided it into the greatest spinner and the greatest pacer.

Yeah thats a great point.... its sorta hard to rate spinners against paceman...

I voted Lillee but for no real reason,lol... just because from what i heard he had an enourmous heart and could get the ball to anything

P.S. Wheres Stuey Macgill??

 

[FaaipDeOiad]

Hard to choose between Davidson, Lillee, McGrath and Warne... Miller deserves a run too.

I'll go for Davidson, but all of those 4 are close to equal in my estimation.

 

[a massive zebra]

I wish you had divided it into the greatest spinner and the greatest pacer.

My apologies.

 

[Hit4Six]

warne

 

[Beleg]

Spinner - Grimette or Warne
Quickie - Denis Lillee

 

[Anil]

mcgrath

 

[Beleg]

Never knew we had so many O'Riley fans here.

 

[Tom Halsey]

Warne, Lillee, O'Reilly, or Davidson.

I'll go for Warne because he's my favourite out of those 4.

 

[Nonentity]

ive gone with jeff thompson

 

[BoyBrumby]

It's tough, isn't it? Think I echo SJS's sentiment about spinners & quicks not being separated too.

I was sorely tempted to go for Fred Spofforth as he at least saw the light & emigrated to The Mother Country! Or Clarrie Grimmett who was: a) a wonderfully controlled bowler with good variation; but crucially b) a Kiwi!

Oz does seem to have a plethora of great bowlers, as evidenced by those who missed the cut: one of my least fond cricketing memories is Terry Alderman making Goochie his pet bunny in ’89, so I was surprised not to see him there, but after looking at his record he took far fewer test scalps (170 @ 27.15) than I imagined. Think he just saved his best for The Poms! I was always a big admirer of Craig McDermott too; although again in his case perhaps an overall test average of 28.63 isn’t quite enough for him to be in the pantheon. All but 300 wickets pretty fair old effort tho.

In the end I went for Lillee. Had enough about him to reinvent himself as a bowler after terrible injury. Tearaway-quick in his youthful pomp, he was also accurate enough to play on into early middle age.

 

[SJS]

It's tough, isn't it? Think I echo SJS's sentiment about spinners & quicks not being separated too.

I was sorely tempted to go for Fred Spofforth as he at least saw the light & emigrated to The Mother Country! Or Clarrie Grimmett who was: a) a wonderfully controlled bowler with good variation; but crucially b) a Kiwi!

Oz does seem to have a plethora of great bowlers, as evidenced by those who missed the cut: one of my least fond cricketing memories is Terry Alderman making Goochie his pet bunny in ’89, so I was surprised not to see him there, but after looking at his record he took far fewer test scalps (170 @ 27.15) than I imagined. Think he just saved his best for The Poms! I was always a big admirer of Craig McDermott too; although again in his case perhaps an overall test average of 28.63 isn’t quite enough for him to be in the pantheon. All but 300 wickets pretty fair old effort tho.

In the end I went for Lillee. Had enough about him to reinvent himself as a bowler after terrible injury. Tearaway-quick in his youthful pomp, he was also accurate enough to play on into early middle age.

Good for you. Though there are those here who would rather believe he is over rated. BTW, I loved your signature. Who is this guy who said it. Sorry if it makes me sound as if I live in another world....which I do actually

 

[BoyBrumby]

Good for you. Though there are those here who would rather believe he is over rated. BTW, I loved your signature. Who is this guy who said it. Sorry if it makes me sound as if I live in another world....which I do actually

It quite tickled me too!

Hopps is one of the two main cricket writers in The Guardian (one of the more reputable English broadsheets) along with the ex-England quick Mike Selvey.

They're both (in my opinion) rather good writers. If you get a spare moment here's their online link:

http://sport.guardian.co.uk/cricket/

 

[SJS]

It quite tickled me too!

Hopps is one of the two main cricket writers in The Guardian (one of the more reputable English broadsheets) along with the ex-England quick Mike Selvey.

They're both (in my opinion) rather good writers. If you get a spare moment here's their online link:

http://sport.guardian.co.uk/cricket/

Thanks. I just finished reading two articles at the site.

I knew of Mike Selvey for long but not Hopps. Intersting debate about the light problems by Selvey. What do you think should be done ?

 

[a massive zebra]

Why exactly is Warne so much better than McGrath? McGrath gets most of the big wickets for Australia, a high proportion of Warne's victims are tailenders. McGrath has caused the very best like Lara and Tendulkar difficulties - Warne just gets hammered against them. Unlike Warne, McGrath hardly ever has a bad series and has a better record against 5 of the 8 teams both bowlers have played against.

IMO those people that prefer Warne are simply following the typical ill educated media bandwagon.

 

[SJS]

Why exactly is Warne so much better than McGrath? McGrath gets most of the big wickets for Australia, a high proportion of Warne's victims are tailenders. McGrath has caused the very best like Lara and Tendulkar difficulties - Warne just gets hammered against them. Unlike Warne, McGrath hardly ever has a bad series and has a better record against 5 of the 8 teams both bowlers have played against.

IMO those people that prefer Warne are simply following the typical ill educated media bandwagon.

Blasphemy

Run for cover !!

 

[BoyBrumby]

Thanks. I just finished reading two articles at the site.

I knew of Mike Selvey for long but not Hopps. Intersting debate about the light problems by Selvey. What do you think should be done ?

I really don't know! Never having played under lights I can only go by what players say. It does seem that floodlights create as many problems with the red ball as they solve tho. I guess a return to relying on natural light & a bit of common-sense would be my ICC-style fudge!