"Critically Acclaimed"

[SJS]

I just took out the list of those who played tests for Australia in the 60's and 70's. Here is a quick list of the brilliant fielders amongst them.

1. Greg Chappell
2. Bob Simpson
3. Doug Walters
4. Richie Benaud
5. Bob Cowler
6. Norman O'neill
7. Alan Border
8. Ian Chappell
9. Neil Harvey
10. Paul Sheahan
11. Alan Davidson
12. Ashley Mallett

 

[SJS]

Some West Indian fielders of the same period

1. VivRichards
2. Gary Sobers
3. Kallicharan
4. Rohan Kanhai
5. Seymore Nurse
6. Gordon Greenidge
7. Frank Worrell
8. Conrad Hunte
9. Joe Solomon
10. Clive Lloyd
11. Lawrence Rowe
12. Gomes
13. Collis King
14. Roy Fredricks

 

[Lillian Thomson]

I just took out the list of those who played tests for Australia in the 60's and 70's. Here is a quick list of the brilliant fielders amongst them.

1. Greg Chappell
2. Bob Simpson
3. Doug Walters
4. Richie Benaud
5. Bob Cowler
6. Norman O'neill
7. Alan Border
8. Ian Chappell
9. Neil Harvey
10. Paul Sheahan
11. Alan Davidson
12. Ashley Mallett

Ross Edwards was as good an outfielder as anyone during that period, he didn't have the flamboyant style of a Randall or Rhodes in the covers but he was equally effective.

 

[SJS]

Ross Edwards was as good an outfielder as anyone during that period, he didn't have the flamboyant style of a Randall or Rhodes in the covers but he was equally effective.

You are right, just a miss as there could be others.

 

[Debris]

Shoaib Akhtar/Jeff Thompson/Typhoon Tyson as the fastest bowlers of all time.

Brett Lee

 

[Manee]

Akhtar did outpace Lee in the 2003 World Cup, when they were both at their fastest speeds, though.

 

[chooka_nick]

Ray Lindwall.

 

[Anil]

Maurice Tate - in my opinion the least lauded of the truly great bowlers of all time. Should be in every short list of the three greatest medium pacers of all time.

top three? how would tate fit into the company of hadlee, mcgrath, lohmann, bedser, davidson, botham, kapil etc(i'm sure i have missed some other big names)?

 

[Langeveldt]

Gary Kirsten

 

[Engle]

top three? how would tate fit into the company of hadlee, mcgrath, lohmann, bedser, davidson, botham, kapil etc(i'm sure i have missed some other big names)?

Statham, who should also be on the ' Critically acclaimed ' list

 

[archie mac]

top three? how would tate fit into the company of hadlee, mcgrath, lohmann, bedser, davidson, botham, kapil etc(i'm sure i have missed some other big names)?

It can very hard to compare the pace of these bowlers, for instance some say Hugh Trumble was a medium fast bowler.

Suffice to say for awhile Tate was the best bowler in the World, so I think he would lose nothing with those bowlers you mention

And you missed SF Barnes

 

[Anil]

It can very hard to compare the pace of these bowlers, for instance some say Hugh Trumble was a medium fast bowler.

Suffice to say for awhile Tate was the best bowler in the World, so I think he would lose nothing with those bowlers you mention

And you missed SF Barnes

it's not easy to compartmentalize barnes as a bowler, that's why i didn't mention him, in any case i did say i missed some big names didn't i? i am not disputing tate's quality but when you say top three, there are some illustrious names there, so i am not sure it's exactly cut-and-dried...

 

[archie mac]

it's not easy to compartmentalize barnes as a bowler, that's why i didn't mention him, in any case i did say i missed some big names didn't i? i am not disputing tate's quality but when you say top three, there are some illustrious names there, so i am not sure it's exactly cut-and-dried...

Nothing is, but the fact you can make a case for Tate suggests that he was pretty close to those you list

As far as English medium fast goes, they usually have Barnes-Tate-Bedser

 

[Beleg]

dude, it's ridiculous to extrapolate tate's performance based on the sample size we have.

 

[archie mac]

dude, it's ridiculous to extrapolate tate's performance based on the sample size we have.

Read a book, and learn your cricket

 

[vic_orthdox]

Bruce Reid.

 

[Richard]

By the way, Bland's exhibition that day gives a lie to the impression that good fielders are something very recent. What has happened, however, is that bad fielders are not tolerated as they were then if they were good in their other speciality so overall standards have improved. Plus, the diving and sliding to save boundaries is a new addition.

Abso-God-damn-lutely. Lost count of the number of times I've thought that.

 

[Richard]

top three? how would tate fit into the company of hadlee, mcgrath, lohmann, bedser, davidson, botham, kapil etc(i'm sure i have missed some other big names)?

I think that list just shows the futility of trying to separate "medium" pacers from "fast" pacers.

Seam-up is seam-up, and those bowling at 80mph can easily be as good and better than those bowling at 90.

 

[Richard]

Statham, who should also be on the ' Critically acclaimed ' list

I'd argue that Statham is not devoid of case for being England's greatest-ever seam-bowler (at least at Test level) myself. Only Trueman and Bedser do I generally place in his class.

Agree completely about Tate - a few other English seam-bowlers for that list would be Bob Willis, Mike Hendrick, Angus Fraser, Bill Voce, John Snow, David Brown, Ian Botham, and several more besides. All excellent "second-tier" bowlers.

 

[Manee]

I think the only separation can be with regular seam up bowlers and those who regularly topped 150kph for a large portion of their careers, such as Akhtar, Lee, Thompson and Tait. Lee is probably lesser so in that category as he has had a long portion of his career at 140-150kph due to injuries but the other three can be separated from medium pace bowlers as the lion share of their wickets comes as a result of sheer pace (and other factors in minimum, such as slight swing).