Cricketers who have had a lasting impact on how the game is played.

[Daemon]

I'll give a shout out for Kapil Dev.

Proved that there could be such a thing as a successful Indian pace bowler. Also lead India to its world cup triumph in 1983, thus proving that India could indeed win major tournaments and one day become the best in the world...

No small legacy, that.

He hasn't had a lasting impact however, and neither has he changed the way India plays. You don't really see Indian pacemen doing too well these days.

 

[BoyBrumby]

Clive Lloyd as captain, perhaps? Dispensed with spinners more or less completely, Sir Viv's mildly ropey offies aside. CBA to check, but it'd be interesting to know how many games he captained where the XI didn't have a specialist twirler in.

 

[Ikki]

Didn't Lloyd say that had he a spinner like Warne he would have selected him? That would indicate it wasn't as much of a conscious choice in getting rid of spinners but simply picking his 4 best bowlers.

 

[honestbharani]

Gotta say Kapil is the reason a no. of guys took to being fast bowlers in India in the first place.. That way, his legacy is greater than that of Sachin and comparable to Gavaskar, who in his own right, inspirted a whole generation of cricketers..

 

[BoyBrumby]

Didn't Lloyd say that had he a spinner like Warne he would have selected him? That would indicate it wasn't as much of a conscious choice in getting rid of spinners but simply picking his 4 best bowlers.

True, but I'd say there's been lots of times when, objectively, a country's best four or more bowlers have been seamers but a twirler has been included for balance.

A practice I, I must confess, generally hold with (Doogie's omission from The Oval last year a case in point) but Lloyd dispensed with this for the most part (I guess, still CBA to check).

 

[Daemon]

Gotta say Kapil is the reason a no. of guys took to being fast bowlers in India in the first place.. That way, his legacy is greater than that of Sachin and comparable to Gavaskar, who in his own right, inspirted a whole generation of cricketers..

I believe the question is which cricketer made a lasting impact on the game and how it is played, not which cricketer inspired the most number of people. Just because someone has an idol doesn't mean he would not be where he was without that idol.

 

[honestbharani]

I believe the question is which cricketer made a lasting impact on the game and how it is played, not which cricketer inspired the most number of people. Just because someone has an idol doesn't mean he would not be where he was without that idol.

Excellent point. The problem with that is on a number of occassions the said people have said they wont have taken up playing the sport but for their idols.


And the other point is, I do think Kapil and Gavaskar left a LASTING impression on cricket in India. We moved from playing to survive and delaying the inevitable and winnin the odd game to starting to believe that we could win any game.

 

[Daemon]

Excellent point. The problem with that is on a number of occassions the said people have said they wont have taken up playing the sport but for their idols.

Does this mean we are now basing this most influential cricketer on the number of players that have been produced as a direct result of him inspiring others? If so, the players produced would have to be of a certain quality. I do not see this quality of fast bowling in Indian cricket, and thus I do not believe Kapil made a lasting impression in terms of that.

 

[Noble One]

Has Saqlain Mushtaq received a mention? Regardless of which players may have bowled it before him (Ramadhin), Saqlain revolutionised the dieing art of off-spin and gave a name to delivery that suddenly made off-spin a threat again.

I don't think an article/post/pub conversation can be made regarding off-spinners without mentioning the doosra. Unless your Graeme Swann, every upcoming off-spinner is expected to bowl the doosra, or have attempted one in the nets in preparing to unleash it in a game. Pretty amazing that by popularising one delivery Saqlain has caused so much follow on debate and kept the off-spinner as a genuine threat.

 

[G.I.Joe]

Kevin Pietersen, all of a sudden it was possible for ye poms not to be totally useless at cricket.

 

[andyc]

Couldn't be bothered thinking of a better place to post this, but just watching the ESPN Legends of Cricket thing about Bradman, and Alan Davidson says that Bradman had held on to the bat he'd scored 254 with, and there was actually a dent in the middle of it, just from balls hitting it right in the middle. Crazy.

 

[vcs]

Yeah, they've just put up the feature on Bradman. The statistical analysis article is a great read.

 

[sledger]

Hansie Cronje.

 

[morgieb]

Bradman, because he revolutionised the art of batting.

Warne, revived spin bowling outside of the subcontinent. In contrast, someone like Imran made pace bowling popular in the subcontinent.

Gilchrist, revolutionised the art of a keeper's role. Meant England kept picking **** ****s to pick a player like him ala Warne.

Probably others, but cbf.

 

[honestbharani]

Does this mean we are now basing this most influential cricketer on the number of players that have been produced as a direct result of him inspiring others? If so, the players produced would have to be of a certain quality. I do not see this quality of fast bowling in Indian cricket, and thus I do not believe Kapil made a lasting impression in terms of that.

No.. but if we had much lesser no. of guys taking up fast bowling, the quality would go down proportionately...

 

[Uppercut]

Fun question- had Imran Khan been Indian and Sunil Gavaskar been Pakistani, to what extent would the countries' respective strengths in batting and fast bowling been reversed since the era of those two?

 

[honestbharani]

Fun question- had Imran Khan been Indian and Sunil Gavaskar been Pakistani, to what extent would the countries' respective strengths in batting and fast bowling been reversed since the era of those two?

Not sure, really... You would think inspite of the inspiration, unless you were good enough, you won't have made it. And it is not like Pakistan didn't have great batsmen.. They had the Mohammed brothers, Abbas, Miandad (who I feel is almost as underrated here as Border)... India, on the other hand, never had anyone except Kapil as a fast bowler to look upto during that time.

 

[GotSpin]

Couldn't be bothered thinking of a better place to post this, but just watching the ESPN Legends of Cricket thing about Bradman, and Alan Davidson says that Bradman had held on to the bat he'd scored 254 with, and there was actually a dent in the middle of it, just from balls hitting it right in the middle. Crazy.

Amazing.

 

[Spark]

Yeah, they've just put up the feature on Bradman. The statistical analysis article is a great read.

The comments less so but then again the comments section of any website is a slag-scooper of opinion of the most effective kind.

 

[Daemon]

No.. but if we had much lesser no. of guys taking up fast bowling, the quality would go down proportionately...

quantity =/= quality