Alastair Cook vs Graham Gooch?

[kyear2]

lol

Some great videos as usual Rob.

[L Trumper]

Originally Posted by BoyBrumby

To be fair to the squeaky-voiced, moustachioed one he was undisputably the best batsman in the world for a period in the early 90s, even if it was a relatively brief 18-24 month window. & he was facing some pretty serious bowling attacks too.

Over the course of their careers as a whole it'll look like a total non-brainer, but I'm not sure we've ever been able to call Cook the head honcho so far.

Meh. Gooch was playing for 15 years by that time. And he is more or less became the best by default due to the retirements of all 70s-80s greats, and by 93-94 Tendulkar, Lara came to their own and Gooch was done for. I can guarantee that Cook will be considered the best batsmen in the world at some point in future. In fact I don't think it is even a contest between these two, cook is so far ahead (or he will be). Only thing in Gooch's favor is his 154*, something like that is simply not repeatable.

[uvelocity]

warner is younger than c00k therefore c00k will never be the best batsman in the world

[kyear2]

Originally Posted by L Trumper

Meh. Gooch was playing for 15 years by that time. And he is more or less became the best by default due to the retirements of all 70s-80s greats, and by 93-94 Tendulkar, Lara came to their own and Gooch was done for. I can guarantee that Cook will be considered the best batsmen in the world at some point in future. In fact I don't think it is even a contest between these two, cook is so far ahead (or he will be). Only thing in Gooch's favor is his 154*, something like that is simply not repeatable.

Agree, once Cook continues in this vein, he will be considered (much) better than Gooch.

[watson]

I wonder how Cook would have gone against Terry Alderman? One would hope better than Gooch.

Terry Alderman - Swing Genius vs England 1989 - YouTube

Unfortunately the 1981 Ashes series where Gooch averaged 13.90 (5 Tests), and the 1989 Ashes where he averaged 20.33 (5 Tests) are major blemishes on an otherwise distinguished career because they highlight Gooch's lack of technique/footwork against good swing bowling.

However, at this this point in time I would still have to favour Gooch over Cook (just). The list of bowlers that dismissed Gooch reads like the Who's Who of bowling;

01. Marshall
02. Kapil Dev
03. McDermott
04. Lillee
05. Alderman
06. Holding
07. Warne
08. Hogg
09. Lawson
10. Hadlee
11. Garner
12. Patterson
13. Ambrose
14. Doshi
15. Prabhakar
etc

HowSTAT! Player Dismissal Analysis

[smalishah84]

I thnk you may have missed Wasim and Waqar and Walsh in that list

[watson]

Originally Posted by smalishah84

I thnk you may have missed Wasim and Waqar and Walsh in that list

Walsh dismissed Gooch 3 times so he is 23rd on the list.

Wasim and Waqar come in at 26th and 27th respectively after dismissing Gooch twice each.

(Didn't feel like typing the names of all 71 bowlers)

[smalishah84]

oh ok....fair enough....I thought it was a random list

[watson]

Originally Posted by smalishah84

oh ok....fair enough....I thought it was a random list

Yeah, it does seem odd that Rodney Hogg or Patrick Patterson claimed Gooch's wicket more times than Courtney Walsh I guess.

[kyear2]

Though judging from one of the video's Rob posted Waqar should have taken his wicket at least one more time.

[Monk]

Gooch was always one of my favourites. I'd take him over Cook any day.

[fredfertang]

Originally Posted by Monk

Gooch was always one of my favourites. I'd take him over Cook any day.

It's a lot closer to my mind now, but ultimately I would too, certainly against an unrelenting fast attack - memories of his great days against the WIndies pace pack are still strong

[Hurricane]

Originally Posted by uvelocity

warner is younger than c00k therefore c00k will never be the best batsman in the world

should say your faith in warner to go number 1 in the long term bets thread,