Australian Cricket and All-Rounders
 

Anybody got an insight as to why this strong cricketing nation simply cannot produce a decent one?

Ive been watching cricket since about 1978 and I cant recall a single good all-rounder. ODI meduim pace trundlers and wicket-keeper batsmen aside......whats the matter with the Aussies?

Cant mutli-task with any level of class?

I dont mean to take the mickey, but its a pretty poor effort au. I cant think of heaps of good all rounders other nations have produced in that time :)


Kallis
McMillan B
Flintoff
Cairns C
Botham
Hadlee
Dev
Khan I
Oram
Pollock
Gayle

-add more at will-

Yes theres a couple of border-line ones there, but name me a better Aussie one :)

Simon O'Donnell. :ph34r:

andrew symonds is an all-rounder, and he is australia's best odi player. ;)


watson would be a great player had he not had that terrible run of injuries a few years back. Now he unfortunately lacks confidence with batting and bowling, or at least gives that impression the whole time. Perhaps if he relaxed a bit his bowling may improve.

Well I await the stats Gurus to battle that one out, but I remember him as being pretty ordinary.

You may as well have said Greg Matthews :)

Well, his test batting average is 40, pity his bowling average is too. Not bad for someone picked as a bowling all-rounder. :blink:

And I think that the :ph34r: smiley indicated that the SOD suggestion was slightly in jest.

Allrounders just aren't in vogue in Australia. Basically, if a player shows ability with bat and ball, they're picked and watched until it's discovered what they're better at. Then coaches insist they concentrate on that and forget about the other thing.

Ironically, Aussies also have the propensity to pick batsmen who aren't quite good enough to make the main side, tell them to start bowling and then start picking them as 'batting allrounders' to justify their inclusion in the side.

It's all in the attitude, really. Aussie selectors are supposedly crying out for an allrounder of Test class but then they do the above and ensure they'll never see one.

Oh true I didnt pick that about SOD

Bowling average of 40? Hardly a bowler at all really, or I would have put Nathan Astle on my list (actually hes prob more like 50)

Before someone says it, please spare us the "we're so good we dont need them line"

true as it may be

lol

The bowling and batting average of 40 was in reference to Matthews, who you mentioned.

The :ph34r: thing was about SOD. My apologies for allowing the confusion.

Exactly, and especially at a young age. If your going to be playing a senior grade of cricket, you need to make sure that at least one of the aspects of your game is at a good enough level to get you a promotion to a higher side, therefore you often concentrate on that aspect.

In addition, if your a promising young batsman, and your a pretty good bowler for your own age level, but not very good at senior level, then chances are that the bowling side of your game will be neglected, even in the nets at training, and you don't get a chance to hone it. Then when your side is crying out for an all-rounder, you think "Well, I could have been one if you let me :@".

I've seen it happen (I wish it was to me though, lol, it'd give me an excuse for my mediocrity :D )

Oh, and...
I didn't say it, you did :p

I think the same sort of thing is happenning everywhere with young players being made to specialise. In club cricket a young allrounder may perform both roles equally but when they get to higher levels they are being discouraged from pursuing both disciplines equally.

This has even happened to me a bit. I'm an allrounder for my club team - for God's sake I'm almost the spearhead of our bowling attack despite bowling at Chris Harris-esque pace - but my bowling doesn't get a look in for my rep team. When our Under 18s went to Australia last year I was picked as a batsman and even when injuries took a couple of our bowlers out of action one game I wasn't used to fill up the overs, despite our captain being my school captain as well and using me for 10 overs every school game.

I think this is leading to a whole heap of batsmen who can bowl a bit and bowlers who can bat a bit. As for why Australia hasn't had any true allrounders I don't know, but it could be because they have always coached that way and as a result haven't pruduced any true allrounders.

Id rather pre-empt it than have to deal with the smug-ness :@


:p

steve waugh was sorta an all-rounder,

on that list add;
wasim akram
ravi shastri

all aussie all rounders bat and wicket keep :p

True. At various times you could count the Waugh's as all-rounders.

At various times I take 3 dumps a day



wish I always did