Battle of the Worst Cricketer

[Zinzan]

Mohammad Sami

^ Ridiculous call considering despite his inconsistency he did produce the odd devastating spell, even as recently as against Australia a year or so back

 

[centurymaker]

Mohammad Sami

don;'t think he was that bad a bowler. probably was just a bit too unlucky...

 

[smash84]

Sami was unlucky but he lacked a brain too

 

[HeathDavisSpeed]

Wow, did James Marshall play that many tests?

Well, 7 tests and 10 ODIs, but he was that **** he deserves a nomination.

 

[Hurricane]

^ Ridiculous call considering despite his inconsistency he did produce the odd devastating spell, even as recently as against Australia a year or so back

awta

 

[Fusion]

^ Ridiculous call considering despite his inconsistency he did produce the odd devastating spell, even as recently as against Australia a year or so back

don;'t think he was that bad a bowler. probably was just a bit too unlucky...

awta

Lol, I don't think you gents realize just how bad Mohammad Sami is as a bowler. Statistically speaking, you would be hard pressed to find someone worse. Below is a post from SJS from 2006. Since it's a from a few years ago, the stats have obviously changed a little. Wherever they have, I have updated them in red font. Tell me after reading this if you still think he wasn't all that bad.

Mohammad Sami is a remarkable cricketer. At such a young age he has some of the most astounding achievements in the history of the game. Here are a few.

1. He has conceded 126 runs (now 125.45) per test match played. :
No fast bowler (in the side as a bowler) in the entire 129 year history of the game has given as many and survived to play even 20 tests in his entire career. Our Sami has already played 28 (now 35) and there should be more to come, Inshallah !!
2. He is also joint second fastest in the race to conced 3000 test runs amongst all fast and medium fast bowlers in the world for the last 129 years !! :

- Our Sami achieved this feat in a fantastic run of 25 test matches. Bedser may have done it in one test fewer but look at the sneaky way he achieved that – by bowling as many as 1200 or so overs. Our Sami did us proud by doing it in just 850 overs !!

- And look at how profligate Bedser was. He had to get 93 wickets in his 24 tests to get tp this coveted target. Our Sami did it by bothering the umpires only 65 times.


- Even the other five pretenders, Hadlee, Roberts, Devon Malcolm, Jeff Thomson and Danny Morrison who matched Sami’s feat got 502 wickets between them and at a combined average of 30.4. Our Sami stands proudly at 47.2 (now 52.27!) for his economical tally of 65 (now 84) wickets !!

3. Of the hundred odd bowlers we compared. Sami was head and shoulders above everyone else in his “strike rate’ at the end of the 25 test matches.

His strike rate (wickets per test match) stood at an astounding 2.60 wickets per test match !!

It is clear that on the overall criteria of average, strike rate, race to reach runs targets our Sami is head and shoulders above any fast bowler in the history of the game. We are confident that given the kind of support such a bowler deserves, he will set up records that future generations of fast bowlers will look back at in bewilderment.

The only player in the entire history of the game who comes close to challenging our Sami is that elephant-eared God from Mumbai. Their figures make interesting comparisons.

BOWLER…TESTS…..OVER..RUNS…WKTS….AVG…..STR RATE…W/T…5-for

Sami…………28……….997…3531………65……48 (now 52.27!) 81.95 (now 87.4!) 2.28..2
Agarkar……....26………809….2745………58…….47.3………83.74….....2.23……1

Very tough fight indeed. Imagine if India were to join hands and both these amazing bowlers played on the same side. That would be a treat!!

 

[Hurricane]

The ten test rule eliminates a lot of the best candidates such as Hopkins...

 

[pavops]

Salisbury sustained his Test tosh over ten years, being recalled about half a dozen times. The gift of making others forget is priceless.

 

[Migara]

No one beats Kapugedara

 

[Migara]

Having seen Agarkar vs Sami debate, how about this one

Pramodaya Wickremasinghe, M - 40, W - 85, Avg - 41.87, SR - 85.4

 

[smash84]

Wickremasinghe had such a beautiful bowling action (unlike Sami)

 

[nick-o]

So, a couple of good points have been raised

Firstly, should the bar be lowered to make it "international" rather than "test"?

My feeling is that if someone played a few ODIs but was never considered good enough to play Tests, then pretty much by definition he's going to be "worse" than people who played a reasonable number of Tests. So while it might be interesting to find out who's the worst of those people, it wasn't quite what I was aiming for.

But if that's the way you prefer to do it, that's fine. Maybe a compromise would be to say a Test is worth twice as much as an ODI, so the qualification is 10 Tests or 20 ODIs, or some calculation that adds up to the same (1 Test plus 18 ODIs, 2 Tests plus 16 ODIs, 3 Tests plus 14 ODIs, etc.)

The other question is whether to wait until the other Battle is finished -- I'm happy to wait if that's what you want. There 's no reason not to have two battles running at the same time, but if you want to wait, just say so.

 

[Furball]

don;'t think he was that bad a bowler. probably was just a bit too unlucky...

Bad luck explains the odd poor looking match or series here or there. It doesn't explain a Test bowling average of over 50 after playing a good number of Tests.

 

[Гурин]

The ten test rule eliminates a lot of the best candidates such as Hopkins...

...or Chris Cowdrey the Great.

Given that, I hope that y'all don't mind if for my first post I put a couple of names here:

-Mohammad Ashraful (even tho he falls in the category "player in the first years of a minnow")
-Mark Ramprakash

Probably the 2 worst batsmen ever to play 50+ tests.


Anyway, I'm Gurin, pleased to meet you.

 

[flibbertyjibber]

Ramprakash, Hick and Crawley.

 

[Howe_zat]

...or Chris Cowdrey the Great.

Given that, I hope that y'all don't mind if for my first post I put a couple of names here:

-Mohammad Ashraful (even tho he falls in the category "player in the first years of a minnow")
-Mark Ramprakash

Probably the 2 worst batsmen ever to play 50+ tests.


Anyway, I'm Gurin, pleased to meet you.

Hi Gurin, welcome to the forums. Harsh on Ramps though you may be.

 

[Гурин]

Hi Gurin, welcome to the forums.

Cheers!

Harsh on Ramps though you may be.

Perhaps, but only 2 centuries and an average of 27 in 52 test matches for a supposed specialist batsman (for England, nonetheless) is quite a feat. Just to say, the 2000s a batting friendly era and all that, but Imran Farhat, who's also been nominated, averages 5 more than that and has more 100s and 50s while playing 14 tests less. Ramps might have been talented, but if we look at how much effective he was he's down there with the worst

 

[Furball]

Cheers!




Perhaps, but only 2 centuries and an average of 27 in 52 test matches for a supposed specialist batsman (for England, nonetheless) is quite a feat. Just to say, the 2000s a batting friendly era and all that, but Imran Farhat, who's also been nominated, averages 5 more than that and has more 100s and 50s while playing 14 tests less. Ramps might have been talented, but if we look at how much effective he was he's down there with the worst

Most of Ramprakash's Tests were in the 90s, not the 00s but I agree he was a massive failure at Test level.

 

[Гурин]

Most of Ramprakash's Tests were in the 90s, not the 00s but I agree he was a massive failure at Test level.

I was referring to the 2000s for Imran Farhat, it was actually a point in Ramps favor, but probably the only one in that comparison; that's just to say how bad it was

 

[Xuhaib]

Farhat,Faisal Iqbal, Sami,Salman Butt,Yasir Hameed and last but no least Kamran Akmal

Unfortunatley Pakistan has produced lot of these in the last decade. Salman Butt should win the whole thing not only was he rubbish but he combined it by being corrupt aswell.