When I was a Boy

[archie mac]

When you were a little tacker which player(s) did you pretend to be?

Batting=Greg Chappell

Bowling=Dennis Lillee

WK=Rodney Marsh

And if I needed quick runs Kim Hughes

 

[Ikki]

I am pretty sure I still pretend to be like these guys...

Batting - Sir Viv
Bowling - Lillee/Warne
WK - Never cared enough to imitate.
All-round character on the pitch - Miller

 

[masterblaster]

Great thread mate.

Batting = Sachin Tendulkar

When I was growing up, Sachin was the king. Even as an adult he's still the king. When I was around 10 years old, Sachin was a 22 year old young prodigy. I became so captivated by his perfect technique and his destructive, yet elegant batting I tried to model my batting like Sachin. As I grew older, I decided that I was more of a bowler.

Bowling = Anil Kumble

I always wanted to bowl leg spin as a kid but never really had the action of a Shane Warne or a Mushtaq Ahmed down. I then watched Anil Kumble bowl and I was so inspired. His fast, action and his ability to send down fast leg spinners and googly's without really turning the ball gave me hope that I could be a leg spinner too. I tried to model his bowling style as well when I was around 11 or 12 years old.

WK = Nobody

I was terrible behind the stumps and I was never really a wicket keeper. Although I really enjoyed watching Alec Stewart wicket keep. His technique, his strong mental attitude and his simplicity in everything he did made him a favourite of mine.

 

[fredfertang]

Batting : Farokh Engineer

Bowling : John Snow

WK : Farokh Engineer

In my dreams anyway - in truth I batted like a cautious version of Chris Tavare and bowled like Graham Gooch impersonating Geoff Boycott's bowling

......................... but I could keep wicket like Engineer (well a bit like him anyway)

 

[Top_Cat]

Bowler: Waqar Younis
Batter: David Hookes

 

[Goughy]

Before I started playing properly I tried to bowl like Qadir.

Once I joined a club and bowled fast then I pretended to be Larwood.

 

[chaminda_00]

Brian Lara (Batsmen), Curty Ambrose (Bowler)

 

[Noble One]

Batting = Brian Lara

When I was a boy all I wanted to be was Brian Lara. Remember being captivated by him smashing the Australian bowling attack around the park. No batsmen made batting look so easy and stylish. I tried for years to model my game around Lara's high back lift and slashing square drives. The results were not big double centuries, rather off stump constantly being uprooted.

Bowling = Waqar Younis

Sweat-bands and all, I wanted to bowl like Waqar. Used to run into the wicket fast, and imagine leg stump being uprooted with the perfect yorker. 60km/h full tosses resulted, but damn I tried to bowl like Waqar.

I feel privileged to have grown up as a young kid following the peak periods of such players as Lara, Younis, Warne, Akram, Ambrose, McGrath, Tendulker etc. Many role models to follow.

 

[Jono]

Batting:
Border/Sachin

I know they're contrasting in style. When I was a really young kid (6-8) I really loved Border. He (along with Warne) were the faces of Australian cricket for me, and so he was the guy I wanted to be. Not necessarily technically, but he just seemd to be 'da man'.

Then Sachin when I watched more cricket and became a fan of the Indian team. Have loved watching him bat more than anyone ever since, and tried to emulate his front foot drives too.

Bowling
Warne

Fairly self-explanatory. Still bowl leg-spin.

 

[Goughy]

haha, Im just remembering the days of the Donald-eque face paint. Thank goodness that is not longer done.

 

[Top_Cat]

Before I started playing properly I tried to bowl like Qadir.

Once I joined a club and bowled fast then I pretended to be Larwood.

Oh hell yeah, I wanted that action so bad.

And Craig McDermott's face paint action takes some beating;

There's a picture of him on an old Inside Edge mag with that style but bright green.

 

[ozone]

As someone who's slightly younger (and English), Darren Gough was always the bowler who I tried to emulate as a kid. Didin't really try to bat like anyone imparticular, although the summer after the 02/3 Ashes, I remember wanting to bat like Michael Vaughan.

 

[Richard]

FFS, Sean, you and your bloody thread titles! First it's this, now this.

Anyway, for me...
Batting: Graham Gooch
Bowling: Ian Salisbury when I was bowling wristspin, Dominic Cork when I was bowling seam
Wicketkeeping: don't keep wicket and never have, got hit in the nose by a lad called Liam Plunkett on the 1 occasion I did it.
Outfielding: Nick Knight

 

[Son Of Coco]

Bowling: Jeff Thompson, Merv Hughes, Dennis Lillee

Batting: Steve Waugh, John Dyson, I can't really remember the rest

 

[Richard]

Bowling: Jeff Thompson, Merv Hughes, Dennis Lillee

You must've been a boy for a long time if you wanted to be Lillee and Thomson in their heyday of '74/75-'76/77 and Hughes in his of '89-'93.

 

[Ikki]

Imitations...

 

[BoyBrumby]

Pretty sure I still am tbh.

*Reaches into pants*

Yup.

 

[KiWiNiNjA]

Batting - Martin Crowe

Bowling - Dipak Patel

 

[GGG]

Batting a right handed John Wright or Lance Cairns, Bowling Ewen Chatfield

 

[Flem274*]

Batting: Fleming

Bowling: Harris, Bond, Tuffey, Warne, Vettori

WK: McCullum