What is wrong with Paul Collingwood?

[Richard]

Opinion is subjective at all times. Objective opinion is a fantastical lie given the variance of what is deemed objective. Point hardly anyone shoud really give a sh*t if the opponents can't catch to save their lives, chuck pies all day or if the batsman's shot making is gruesome enough to make Tarantino cringe what matters at the end of the day is the runs on the board and the results they produce.

Scoring runs off bowlers who are chucking pies all day is completely different to having runs gifted to you when catches are dropped (or stumpings missed, or Umpiring let-offs happen) - though obviously it should be valued far below scoring them off good bowlers. You've still got to punish the bad bowling. Having catches dropped is the fielders failing to complete the action which would normally result in your dismissal.

Of course, all runs are not equal, and they should never be treated as such.

BTW, avoiding the filter ain't the wisest idea TBH.

[Richard]

Napoleon once said, "Give me lucky generals".

And I said this the last time someone said that. 1, you cannot gurantee luck - by nature it is random and the person being lucky cannot be making it happen, so you'd be unwise to select someone who had got lucky in the past over someone who had done well of their own accord in the past. 2, what you want in your team and what is good play are different things. Assessing a good general and assessing who has been the most successful are different things.

I assume you are not Napoleon.

'Fraid not.

[Richard]

I disagree. Having watched this innings : http://www.howstat.com.au/cricket/St...MatchCode=1885
one can be sure that Collingwood can play good seam bowling. Collingwood has merely struggled on wickets that have offered more pace due to his bottom handed technique. Hes not very good with the cuts and pulls and is a much better player driving along the ground.

That he can of times play good seam-bowling is not in doubt. Anyone will do something if given enough opportunities to do so. Aside from that game, I cannot recall a single example of Collingwood scoring much against good seam or spin bowling. Yes, seam + high bounce will cause more problems than seam + low bounce, that's obvious. But I don't rate Collingwood's chances of scoring too many very often against good seam, especially. And certainly I don't feel he's worth being spoken of in the same breath as Hussain.

[Jakester1288]

He's TEN!!!

I'm TWELVE!!! turning 13.

There is heaps of 10 year olds who love cricket. I know one little guy in year 3 who can bowl really well for his age and can bat. He plays club cricket as well.

[Richard]

Playing skill wasn't what Pickup was referring to. And until you're a teacher, you'll forgive us for taking him a tad more seriously on the matter than you.

[sledger]

Despite his match saving in the first test, I still just cannot put my faith in Collingwood. I like him a lot as a person, and think he is a handy player, but I still just find him unconvincing as a test player, for inexplicable reasons, his record is decent enough, but I just don't think of him as a great test player.

[BoyBrumby]

I think he's a tad short of the requisite class to get anywhere close to greatness, tbh, but love his attitude. More backbone than the rest of the middle order combined. The way he gutsed his way to a ton against NZ last year when he was playing for his future and unable to get the ball off the square earlier in the series spoke volumes about the man.

Second batsman on my team list after the skipper.

[Jamee999]

Second batsman on my team list after the skipper.

[BoyBrumby]

Meant currently, tbf.

Although would still back KP in plaster/ on one leg to score more than Ravi and Bell combined.

[GIMH]

I think he's a tad short of the requisite class to get anywhere close to greatness, tbh, but love his attitude. More backbone than the rest of the middle order combined. The way he gutsed his way to a ton against NZ last year when he was playing for his future and unable to get the ball off the square earlier in the series spoke volumes about the man.

Second batsman on my team list after the skipper.

Was against South Africa, but yeah, so true. Has done similarly after smaller slumps in the past as well. He was woeful in the first half of the CB series in 06-07 then came out and destroyed the Aussies in the finals.

[Richard]

Collingwood's so good at the last-ditch innings that it hides the fact that he's not very good for the majority of the time.

Collingwood is an above-average batsman on physical talent but has handicapped himself with his technique, which makes him appear below-average on physical talent, BTW. It's a measure of his talent that he can make such a technique work - that'd be beyond most people.