The ATG Teams General arguing/discussing thread

[Eds]

Just play Tate ahead of Larwood IMO.

[Howe_zat]

...

Yeah that was actually obvious.

7. Ames (41)
8. Botham (34)
9. Rhodes (30)
10. Tate (26)
11. Trueman (22)

Total 504

[Howe_zat]

Windies

1. Greenidge (45)
2. Worrell (49)
3. Headley (61)
4. Lara (53)
5. Weekes (59)
6. Sobers (58)
7. Walcott (57)
8. Chanderpaul (51)
9. Bravo (31)
10. Constantine (19)
11. Marshall (19)

502.

Struggled to find a bowling attack and proper opening pair. Worrell needed to fudge both.

[kyear2]

An article I stumbled upon that Jager might enjoy

Wisden - The great wicket-keepers

[watson]

While we are on the topic of keeping - Paul Downton is the most miserly keeper of all time, conceding just 1.71 byes per 100 overs. Dave Richardson and Alan Knott follow to make up the top 3.

You don't hear much of Paul Downton these days;

It Figures | Cricket Blogs | ESPN Cricinfo

[AndyZaltzHair]

Kent has such a rich history of notable w.keepers

[Monk]

Ranking is difficult, and kinda pointless (but kinda fun), but FWIW, here's how I rank keepers...

-Godfrey Evans
-Allan Knott
-Bert Oldfield
-Syed Kirmani
-Ian Healy
-Don Tallon

The first four are about equal, then Healy and Tallon slightly below.

[Howe_zat]

Why?

[Monk]

Originally Posted by Howe_zat

Why?

I rank them slightly higher because of their work to spinners. All the keepers mentioned were brilliant up at the stumps. It's much more difficult standing up than it is standing back taking quicks.

That's also why I rate Gilchrist higher than some people. Keeping to Warne is a very difficult task, for the most part he did it very cleanly.

[NUFAN]

Is it just me or does anyone else think that Gilchrist gets too much praise for his keeping off Warne.

I don't really see how Warne, during Gilchrist's career would have been that difficult. He hardly bowled any googly's or flippers towards the end of his career - MacGill and Hogg would have been more difficult.

[Days of Grace]

How does everyone rate Prior's keeping?

Because when you add in his batting, he has to be a contender for the alltime England XI.

[kyear2]

Was thinking the same today, not sure. His keeping has been greatly improved and he is tidy but he doesn't really have to deal with either express pace or a big turning mystery spinner. But he does a good job with the swing (and late swing/dip) of his seam bowlers and spin of Swann, and that is all we have to jusdge him by, and his batting really is a big plus.
Lets just give him some more time.

[Days of Grace]

Yeah, I was just thinking that with Botham at no.6 and a tail to follow, a keeper with a 40+ average would be very handy for the England XI.

[Monk]

Originally Posted by NUFAN

Is it just me or does anyone else think that Gilchrist gets too much praise for his keeping off Warne.

I don't really see how Warne, during Gilchrist's career would have been that difficult. He hardly bowled any googly's or flippers towards the end of his career - MacGill and Hogg would have been more difficult.

Keeping to leg spinners is the hardest task for a keeper. Losing sight of the ball etc. So any leggie is tough to keep to.

I agree, MacGill would've been tougher to keep to. Big ripping leggies are hard.

I don't know if Gilchrist gets too much praise. For a while it seemed the consensus among a lot of people was that he wasn't a very good keeper really. I thought he was very good.

[NUFAN]

Originally Posted by Monk

Keeping to leg spinners is the hardest task for a keeper. Losing sight of the ball etc. So any leggie is tough to keep to.

I agree, MacGill would've been tougher to keep to. Big ripping leggies are hard.

I don't know if Gilchrist gets too much praise. For a while it seemed the consensus among a lot of people was that he wasn't a very good keeper really. I thought he was very good.

Yeah perhaps not too much praise, but whenever anyone wants to put the sell on Gilchrist, its often due to his keeping against Warne and I was merely suggesting that Warne wasn't exactly the hardest spinner to have kept against in the history of Test Cricket. I know keeping to a leggie isn't easy, but you've agreed with my small point, MacGill would have been tougher.