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Gary Kirsten v Michael Atherton

Who was the better opener?


  • Total voters
    34

Richard

Cricket Web Staff Member
Incredibly difficult question, and one to which I would normally answer "irrelevant" - but voting for Craig Cumming as better than both would be something of an insult. :p Should've picked, I dunno, Arthur Morris or Geoffrey Boycott.

Both excellent openers who remained excellent despite technical flaws which sometimes caused repeated dismissals, because they were good enough to work at making these flaws less of a weakness. How many times around 1997-1998-1999 sort of time did we see Kirsten get out dragging onto his stumps? But he worked hard and cured the problem.

Atherton certainly looked the more natural batsman, but it was Kirsten who certainly did more by the close of his career. This can be explained in a fair few ways - Kirsten never suffered the condition Atherton did; this meant not only did he have no bouts of unavailability or affected performance, but he could go on longer than Atherton and have a short spell at the end of his career where he cashed-in a bit on the degenerating quality of bowling and flatness of pitch.

All told, I'd probably vote for Kirsten because although I don't think he was neccessarily the better batsman, he had less misfortune so was therefore marginally the more effective.
 

Somerset

Cricketer Of The Year
Firstly, whats with all the polls at the moment?

Personally I'd go with Gary Kirsten any day. His ability to play substantial innings through sheer determination always make me think of him and Steve Waugh as the two true "fighters" of test cricket over the last 10-15 years.
 

Richard

Cricket Web Staff Member
Firstly, whats with all the polls at the moment?
A good way to generate discussion during relatively quiet times. Usually interesting as long as you pick two relatively similar players (ie, no "Don Bradman v Ed Giddins as batsmen" threads).

Secondly, someone fix the bloody thread title.
 

Sanz

Hall of Fame Member
Kirsten is miles ahead of Artherton, who is highly overrated by some folks.
 

Richard

Cricket Web Staff Member
Nah, he's highly underrated by people who don't really understand his case. And Kirsten's no more than marginally better.
 

Ikki

Hall of Fame Member
One feels this is another one of those comparisons in the "Hayden V Hussain" mold.
 

Ikki

Hall of Fame Member
you feeling alright there? did you realize what you just did?
LOL, yeah I know. I never use the often used lingo here like "AWTA" and have a poke at people making up too many of them; so it was my first time.
 

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