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Style!!

Who , in you're opinion is the most elegant/stylish batsman of all time?

  • Mark Waugh

    Votes: 14 40.0%
  • Aravinda De Silva

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • David Gower

    Votes: 5 14.3%
  • Marvan Atapattu

    Votes: 1 2.9%
  • Greg Chappell

    Votes: 3 8.6%
  • Damien Martyn

    Votes: 2 5.7%
  • Geoffrey Boycott

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Sachin Tendulkar

    Votes: 4 11.4%
  • Kim Hughes

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Brian Lara

    Votes: 2 5.7%
  • Other(specify)

    Votes: 4 11.4%

  • Total voters
    35

Anil

Hall of Fame Member
The most stylish players I have seen(there are quite a few and I really can't rate them)

England:

David Gower

Australia:

Greg Chappell
Mark Waugh

India:

Dilip Vengsarkar
Gundappa Vishwanath
Mohammed Azharuddin
V.V.S Laxman

Sri Lanka:

Aravinda DeSilva
Arjuna Ranatunge

New Zealand:

Martin Crowe

West Indies:

Brian Lara
Carl Hooper

Pakistan:

Zaheer Abbas
Saeed Anwar

I am probably missing some important names here....but these are the names which come first to mind.....how can you actually quantify and rate that kind of elegance....? Besides, style like beauty is so very subjective.....anyway, my two bits....
 

Top_Cat

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Boycott - Dour, obdurate, never-say-die, brave, courageous, stickable, selfish, as good a runner between the wickets as inzy, tough, gritty, correct.

Not stylish.
I've got some footage of Boycs and he looked awfully good. I've also heard player testimonials of his play which suggest that when he was trying to play shots, he was as stylish as anyone and that innings seems to back that up.

Originally posted by Tim
What about Bradman, he was supposedly textbook material..but I guess unless you've gone through the archives nobody can really tell.
From the footage I've seen and what I've read, a lot of Bradman's runs came from pulls in the arc between fine-leg and mid-on. Bradman was clinical and relentless rather than stylish. There were probably more stylish players around like McCabe, Hammond, Hutton, etc.

My favs; Gower, M Waugh, Viv, Sachin, Lara, Dean Jones.
 

Langeveldt

Soutie
For flair, agression and strokeplay

Michael Vaughan
Herschelle Gibbs
Mark Waugh
Mark Boucher (obseve him play the pull shot if you dont agree)


For pure technique

Daren Ganga
Rahul Dravid
Marvan Attapattu

Ive found I bare a bit of a resemblance to Daren Ganga when I bat, so ive tried to immitate him a lot because IMO he has an ideal defensive technique....
 

Tim

Cricketer Of The Year
Whenever Stephen Fleming trips over some form, he can be very stylish...but those times have been few & far between.

I think his early days when he didn't have the burden of captaincy & when he wasn't under too much pressure were when he really looked like a class batsman.
 

iamdavid

International Debutant
royGilchrist said:
As a general rule I think one attribute that is common between all stylish batsmen is daring, who would take a risk atleast sometimes to play something extraordinary. Thus Boycott was not stylish :)
To me what makes a player stylish is that they make it look so easy , risk & speed of scoring is a bonus but the guys like Waugh , Aravinda , Atapattu even Martin Love , they just have so much time to play their shots , it has been said of Waugh that you could bowl him 6 identical deleiveries & he would play 6 different shots.
 

iamdavid

International Debutant
luckyeddie said:
Fair comment, but if my objection to the basic perception that all cricketers before 1980 were not stylish owing to their exclusion from the list is a 'rant' as opposed to a 'justifiable comment', then I will continue labouring the point that an 18-20 year-old should recognise the difference between 'all-time' and 'whom I have seen'.

That is all (rant II over):D )
Mate

you=50
me=15

You can only expect that you would have possibly seen a little more cricket than me & watched just a few more players than me , I dont profess to know about everyone , I merely wrote down the 10 players who came to my head first , I was initially going to include Boycott as a joke as I know he was a boring prick , however when he did play shots he played them very elegantly & thus his inclusion , I also included the other(specify) option as I knew that obviously not everyone would chose somebody from my hastily prepared list.

:duh:
 

royGilchrist

State 12th Man
Eddie, I never saw Pollock play but I did see Gower play and personally I much preferred M waugh as far as being stylish is concerned. I think with Gower's looks and education and personality, it all added to his stylish batting style, but purely on batting I think Mark Waugh was more stylish. Just a subjective opinion.

Colin Cowdrey? I heard his cover drives were famous for being stylish. Eddie?
 

Kimbo

International Debutant
Boycott according to Hadlee

This is quoted from his book...

"He was anything but flamboyant; there wasn't a batsman who was more dreadfully dour than him. He could never be regarded in the same breath as Chappell, Richards and others in the classical batting sense because he eliminated so many of the flashy shots from his game. But he was prolific, phenomonally so, and was a true practitioner of the batting art in its purest technical form.... He wasn't the best aesthetically, but he was certainly the best in terms of preserving his wicket. He was a wonderful judge of line in letting the ball go and had an incredible appetite for making runs...
There was however much resentment of Boycott, the way he quite clearly batted for himself and seemed to ignore his teams requirements."

also mentioned were other quotes

"He occasionally bats with the joviality of an undertaker" Alex Bannister

Hadlee mentions that he rates Greg Chappell as the best batsman he has bowled to, because of he always looks to dominate. He also rates him as the best to watch!
 

Linda

International Vice-Captain
iamdavid said:
To me what makes a player stylish is that they make it look so easy , risk & speed of scoring is a bonus
Agreed. But something like style is so subjective, everyone has their own definition. But to me, when a batsman just seems to stand there and hit a few balls around, and dance around like they're having a good time- that is pure class. *ahem* if you read my signiture, youll probably guess who I voted for... but seriously he makes it look like the easiet thing in the world, I have this pic of him in my room after another beautiful cover drive, and hes so relaxed and elegant- thats why I voted, I swear!:lol: :P
 

Yousuf_Youhana

U19 12th Man
Yousuf Youhana (Elegance! Treat To Watch, gr8 strokeplay)
Steve Waugh (StrokePlay!)
Saeed Anwar (Elegance, Strokeplay + Agression!!)
Brian Lara (Agression + Strokeplay)
Gilchrist (For pure aggression!)
Vaughan (See Lara)
Bradman (Agression)
Richards (Agression)
Hooper (Agression!!)

:lol:
 

JohnnyA

U19 12th Man
Yousuf_Youhana said:
Yousuf Youhana (Elegance! Treat To Watch, gr8 strokeplay)
Steve Waugh (StrokePlay!)
Saeed Anwar (Elegance, Strokeplay + Agression!!)
Brian Lara (Agression + Strokeplay)
Gilchrist (For pure aggression!)
Vaughan (See Lara)
Bradman (Agression)
Richards (Agression)
Hooper (Agression!!)

:lol:
Anwar was quite an elegant stroke player, agreed. Hooper too. As for the rest, I think you're confusing style with aggression and entertainment.

Still, I'd sooner pay to watch Lara or Gilchrist or Richards bludgen the bowling, than the elegant stroke players we've been talking about :)

Steve Waugh ... elegant ... ahem
 

Kimbo

International Debutant
There are a few categories top batsmen can fall into...

-Classy
-Stylish
-Aggressive
-Elegant
-Gutsy... or just sensible perhaps?
 

iamdavid

International Debutant
Linda said:
I have this pic of him in my room after another beautiful cover drive, and hes so relaxed and elegant- thats why I voted, I swear!:lol: :P
Why would I suspect you voted for him for any other reason?:D :) :P
 

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