haha....i don't recall the tearful requests from Inzy's mom but who said anything about unbiased rankings? If anything these are Imran's subjective opinions on players he played alongside with.Smali! I wont trust imran to take unbiased calls in ranking players. For a very long time he was ranking inzi along with lara and sachin until inzi's mom tearfully requested him to stop embarrassing her son.
He was also the first of the new breed that emerged in the mid-1970's, who were significantly faster and meaner than the likes of Boyce, Julien and Holder who immediately preceded them. iirc Holding's debut came a couple of years later, and then after a couple more years the floodgates opened. That meant that he carried a greater load than the guys who followed - at least during the first few years of his test career. He was one of the few cases when phrases like 'leader of the attack' actually meant something.Roberts was the first from Antigua to play for West Indies - he and Richards between them really put the island on the map - and was renowned for having two bouncers: the first the batsman usually saw, the second he often didn't - or at least not until it was too late.
Mind you Sunny did once say that of John PriceSunil Gavaskar in Runs n' Ruins rates Roberts the best paceman he has had the privilege to face.
Old sunny has never been particularly stingy with his issuing of titles for someone having a rather strong case to open an All-time XI.Mind you Sunny did once say that of John Price
I know Uton Dowe was a bit of a laughing stock but he was apparently pretty sharp, and I'd definitely have said that Van Holder was a good deal quicker than Price, although the memories are pretty distant these daysIn 1971, Price was conceivably the quickest bowler that Gavaskar had faced up to that point. By some accounts he was distinctly sharp, right up there with Snow and Willis but without the same durability.
Yeah, but Price was getting on a bit by 1971. I'd be surprised if he was quicker than Snow in that series. Maybe 4 or 5 years previously. But Sunny didn't tour in 1967 did he?In 1971, Price was conceivably the quickest bowler that Gavaskar had faced up to that point. By some accounts he was distinctly sharp, right up there with Snow and Willis but without the same durability.
Awta.It's no insult to Roberts to say that he simply wasn't quite as good as Marshall, Holding and co.
I think that you'll find that it's his fast bouncer that cleans up the batsman and is the 'deadly' delivery.Sunil Gavaskar in Runs n' Ruins rates Roberts the best paceman he has had the privilege to face.
I've also read from various accounts about his deadly slower bouncer.
Here is the best quote from the middle of the article;EIGHT GENIAL GIANTS: A PICTORIAL VIEW ACROSS 28 YEARS
Posted by Anantha Narayanan on 04/08/2011
..........This is a graphical look at the 8 West Indian pace bowling giants who played across 28 years and 226 Tests. This required a lot of specialized programming work and the results have come out very nicely and pleasing to the eye. The layouts and formatting work itself took a few days. The readers can download the graphs, study these at leisure and come out with their conclusions.....
It Figures | Cricket Blogs | ESPN Cricinfo
The second surprise is that in tests in which West Indies had fielded 4 pace bowlers, out of the selected 8, their win percentage is below 50. This indicates that the best combination was three top pace bowlers and one bowler of different type, a spinner or even a medium pace swing bowler, to maintain balance.
possiblyI find that Roberts is similar to Wasim in so much that those who played them, called them the best but their career stats just dont hold up. So they may have been the most skillful and hardest to face, buy not the most succesful.
I agree with this. When considering bowling, stats don't always give a true picture, and a 3 or 4 run variance between bowling averages or SRs really doesn't matter that much. It's slitting hairs a bit.I find that Roberts is similar to Wasim in so much that those who played them, called them the best but their career stats just dont hold up. So they may have been the most skillful and hardest to face, buy not the most succesful.