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CW Worst 15 Cricketers of All Time - The Results
- Thread starter HeathDavisSpeed
- Start date
zaremba
Cricketer Of The Year
Yeah it was magnificent mate. Enjoyed every word.
Neil Pickup
Cricket Web Moderator
It's not wise to admit that round these here parts.
HeathDavisSpeed
Cricket Web: All-Time Legend
Number 11= Chris Schofield
Highest Ranking 5
Total Points 12
Number of Votes Received 2/13
Ah, another wonderful English journeyman. Unlike Tony Pigott and a number of other players that had limited England opportunities (such as Mike Smith, Tim Munton and a truck load of others), the selection of Schofield wasn't as much picking the county trundler in best form, but more so one of those selections that plagued England throughout the 90s. Much like England's endless search for "The New Botham", Schofield was selected as England's latest "answer to Shane Warne"
By the time of his Test match selection in 2000, Schofield had only played two seasons of First Class cricket for Lancashire averaging about 30 with the ball and 20 with the bat. The fact he was a leg spinner earned him a ticket to Bangladesh and New Zealand for the England A team tours over the winter of 99/2000.
On those A team tours, I can only believe that the England selectors looked purely at the stats rather than the quality of the wickets. Maybe the England selectors were deploying an early version of the "Pie" system currently being utilised by New Zealand. Whilst Schofield achieved reasonable returns, the only international class batsman he dismissed was Scott Styris. Warren Wiesnecki, Paul Wiseman, Gareth Hopkins and Chris Drum being his other wickets in NZ. Arguably, Alamgir Sheriyar a left arm fast medium from an unfashionable County significantly outperformed Schofield, but he was never to get a chance. Schofield did take a six wicket bag against the Bangladesh first team on a favourable Chittagong wicket, but failed to live up to that performance in Dakar.
He didn't exactly have a great start to the 2000 English County Cricket season, with rain a rain impacted match against Kent, and only bagging 4 wickets in 2 games against Leicestershire and Durham.
Still, he was the 'new Shane Warne' so he got his chance in the first test against Zimbabwe. The first Test wasn't auspicious for Schofield - not needed to bowl due to the pitch at Lord's being a seamers paradise and being dismissed by World Renowned medium pacer Guy Whittall for a duck.
At first glance, his enterprising 57 in the 2nd Test gave some signs of an international career ahead. However, this was well before the days of 20:20 and innovative batting and in immediate hindsight his unorthodox technique, with his back foot wandering towards square leg and his desire to unleash the reverse sweep, that this innings was more likely to ring alarm bells in the selectors' heads rather than find his name on the next Test team sheet. The fact he went wicketless in 18 overs and showed little ability to find the right line and length required marked his cards. A solid Zimbabwe batting line declared at 285 for 4 thanks to 148 not out from Murray Goodwin and a decent knock from Neil Johnson.
And that was that for Schofield's Test career. No wickets and an unorthodox 50 to show for it.
By 2004, he lost his Lancashire contract and languished in minor county cricket for Suffolk for two years before Surrey took a chance on him. It is credit to Schofield's tenacity that he was able to carve out a second chance at Surrey. Schofield proved himself ideally suited to the new demands of 20:20 cricket and actually earned himself another go for England at International 20:20 cricket; playing in the 20:20 World Cup in South Africa. However, he again underperformed and failed to carve out a niche even in the game that suited him the best. After the World Cup, he didn't play for England again and now, 5 years later, he finds himself out of the County Game again
Career Highlight
vs. Zimbabwe at Trent Bridge, being comprehensively outplayed by Murray Goodwin, in no small part due to the continual delivery of wide long hops that Goodwin could play to all parts.
What they said about him
Highest Ranking 5
Total Points 12
Number of Votes Received 2/13
Ah, another wonderful English journeyman. Unlike Tony Pigott and a number of other players that had limited England opportunities (such as Mike Smith, Tim Munton and a truck load of others), the selection of Schofield wasn't as much picking the county trundler in best form, but more so one of those selections that plagued England throughout the 90s. Much like England's endless search for "The New Botham", Schofield was selected as England's latest "answer to Shane Warne"
By the time of his Test match selection in 2000, Schofield had only played two seasons of First Class cricket for Lancashire averaging about 30 with the ball and 20 with the bat. The fact he was a leg spinner earned him a ticket to Bangladesh and New Zealand for the England A team tours over the winter of 99/2000.
On those A team tours, I can only believe that the England selectors looked purely at the stats rather than the quality of the wickets. Maybe the England selectors were deploying an early version of the "Pie" system currently being utilised by New Zealand. Whilst Schofield achieved reasonable returns, the only international class batsman he dismissed was Scott Styris. Warren Wiesnecki, Paul Wiseman, Gareth Hopkins and Chris Drum being his other wickets in NZ. Arguably, Alamgir Sheriyar a left arm fast medium from an unfashionable County significantly outperformed Schofield, but he was never to get a chance. Schofield did take a six wicket bag against the Bangladesh first team on a favourable Chittagong wicket, but failed to live up to that performance in Dakar.
He didn't exactly have a great start to the 2000 English County Cricket season, with rain a rain impacted match against Kent, and only bagging 4 wickets in 2 games against Leicestershire and Durham.
Still, he was the 'new Shane Warne' so he got his chance in the first test against Zimbabwe. The first Test wasn't auspicious for Schofield - not needed to bowl due to the pitch at Lord's being a seamers paradise and being dismissed by World Renowned medium pacer Guy Whittall for a duck.
At first glance, his enterprising 57 in the 2nd Test gave some signs of an international career ahead. However, this was well before the days of 20:20 and innovative batting and in immediate hindsight his unorthodox technique, with his back foot wandering towards square leg and his desire to unleash the reverse sweep, that this innings was more likely to ring alarm bells in the selectors' heads rather than find his name on the next Test team sheet. The fact he went wicketless in 18 overs and showed little ability to find the right line and length required marked his cards. A solid Zimbabwe batting line declared at 285 for 4 thanks to 148 not out from Murray Goodwin and a decent knock from Neil Johnson.
And that was that for Schofield's Test career. No wickets and an unorthodox 50 to show for it.
By 2004, he lost his Lancashire contract and languished in minor county cricket for Suffolk for two years before Surrey took a chance on him. It is credit to Schofield's tenacity that he was able to carve out a second chance at Surrey. Schofield proved himself ideally suited to the new demands of 20:20 cricket and actually earned himself another go for England at International 20:20 cricket; playing in the 20:20 World Cup in South Africa. However, he again underperformed and failed to carve out a niche even in the game that suited him the best. After the World Cup, he didn't play for England again and now, 5 years later, he finds himself out of the County Game again
Career Highlight
vs. Zimbabwe at Trent Bridge, being comprehensively outplayed by Murray Goodwin, in no small part due to the continual delivery of wide long hops that Goodwin could play to all parts.
What they said about him
Last edited:
HeathDavisSpeed
Cricket Web: All-Time Legend
Joint 11.
SirBloody Idiot
Cricketer Of The Year
Brad Williams a bit stiff to be near the top 15 I'd reckon.
zaremba
Cricketer Of The Year
As rancid an England pick as there has ever been, and when I say that I'm bearing the likes of Chris Cowdrey, Habib and Phil Newport fully in mind. He had been around for 5 minutes when he was selected for England, but those 5 minutes should have told the selectors everything they needed to know.
However I also agree with Heath that Schofield deserves real credit for sticking at it and making a surprisingly successful (ie largely unsuccessful) comeback after being ditched by Lancashire.
However I also agree with Heath that Schofield deserves real credit for sticking at it and making a surprisingly successful (ie largely unsuccessful) comeback after being ditched by Lancashire.
Agent Nationaux
International Coach
Never seen Mr Z so venomous before about anyone.
HeathDavisSpeed
Cricket Web: All-Time Legend
Whilst I am a facetious bastard at times, I would like to think I have a higher hit rate of seeing follies through to completion than most. Hurrrumph.Like a lot of others I also thought that HDS won't follow through with it
weldone
Hall of Fame Member
smash84
The Tiger King
Cevno
Hall of Fame Member
Blame Pews for spoiling the reputation of every activity done on here with the CWWC(or whatever that was called).
HeathDavisSpeed
Cricket Web: All-Time Legend
This will continue, I have just been quite busy over the last week. I need to try and get this finished in the next couple of weeks really.