Battle of the Elegance

[Red]

What did you like about Statham JBMAC?

He didn't have a particularly smooth action like Holding or Lillee.

 

[Satyanash89]

Batsmen:
Martyn
Waugh
Viswanath
Azhar
VVS
Tendulkar
Dravid
Sangakkara
Mahela
Lara
Samuels
Yousuf
Amla

Bowlers:
Donald
Old Lillee
Warne
Holding
Bond
Fleming

 

[Zinzan]

Batsmen - Damien Martyn, Martin Crowe, David Gower, Michael Vaughan (circa 2002), Saeed Anwar, .Greg Chappell, Stephen Fleming.

Bowlers - Michael Holding, Dennis Lillee, Sir Dick Hadlee, Wasim Akram, Imran Khan, Curly Ambrose, Shane Bond

 

[SJS]

What did you like about Statham JBMAC?

He didn't have a particularly smooth action like Holding or Lillee.

Till JBMAC comes back with a first hand account let me chip in with second hand

Stat am was not inelegant but not really an absolute purists delight due to a slightly open action. Nowhere near Malcolm Marshall's direct head on square one but slightly as most bowlers who seam the ball in to right handers, tend to acquire . Trevor Bailey, the England bowler whose injury on tour made for Statham's test debut writes . . .

Statham has always been more of a seamer than a swing bowler . . . This was largely due to his body action which was, perhaps, a shade too open for the purist, but his high right arm and the way it chased his left arm across his body until checked by his left hip were copy book.

Statham's partner in that legendary partnership, Fred Trueman, has similar views. . .

Brian was the ideal model for any young fast bowler. He had a fluent athletic run up that was rounded off by a good action even if he bowled from the inside of his left elbow and was slightly chest on.

If you look at his pictures at the start of his final delivery action you see a left hnd dead straight vertical but he is not looking at the batsman over his left shoulder but from the side of his left arm pit. Then look at the finish and follow through and it is copy book with a huge sweep of the bowling arm right across his body in classical style.

I can understand why he would look elegant when you combine this action with probably the most accurate fast bowler in history. According to Trueman and Bailey both, many thought of him as fast medium only on account of his awesome accuracy which was never associated with genuine fast bowlers.

 

[Red]

Fair enough.

For mine, Lillee pre back injury had the most perfect of bowling styles. Run up which built momentum into a massive delivery stride with a fluent action.

I love the way that he drops his right arm before he reaches the crease as well.

Dennis Lillee vs Pakistan 1976/77 - YouTube

 

[Himannv]

Brian Lara
Mahela Jayawardene
Rahul Dravid
Mark Waugh

James Anderson
Ray Lindwall
Wes Hall
Chaminda Vaas

 

[SJS]

Here is a team of elegant (good on the eyes) players from those I have seen. No it is not having players at the number they batted.

1. Dexter
2. Laxman
3. Mark Waugh
4. GRVishwanath
5. David Gower
6. Sobers
7. Salim Durrani
8. Bob Taylor (keeper)
9. Dennis Lillee
10. Holding
11. Bedi

And from those one has read about

1. Archie Jackson
2. Victor Trumper
3. Walter Hammond
4. Frank Worrell
5. Ranjitsinhji
6. Kippax
7. George Duckworth (keeper)
8. Ray Lindwall
9. Larwood
10. Laker
11. Colin Blythe

 

[flibbertyjibber]

Here is a team of elegant (good on the eyes) players from those I have seen. No it is not having players at the number they batted.

1. Dexter
2. Laxman
3. Mark Waugh
4. GRVishwanath
5. David Gower
6. Sobers
7. Salim Durrani
8. Bob Taylor (keeper)
9. Dennis Lillee
10. Holding
11. Bedi

And from those one has read about

1. Archie Jackson
2. Victor Trumper
3. Walter Hammond
4. Frank Worrell
5. Ranjitsinhji
6. Kippax
7. George Duckworth (keeper)
8. Ray Lindwall
9. Larwood
10. Laker
11. Colin Blythe

Viswanath was before my time really but he must have been some player to be rated over Azharuddin or does his well known fault mean you ignore him totally?

 

[SJS]

Al

Viswanath was before my time really but he must have been some player to be rated over Azharuddin or does his well known fault mean you ignore him totally?

Vishwanath was an awesome player. But for the fact that having got past a hundred Gavaskar invariably went onto make a big one, many people rated Vishy as a better batsman. . . As did Gavaskar himself. He handled the fast bowlers of West Indies on tracks conducive to pace bowling with an aplomb that was awe inspiring

I did think of Azhar for this list but never at the cost of Vishy's place

 

[fredfertang]

I wish I'd seen more of Vishy - one of the great frustrations of my youth was that he didn't play County Cricket - in 1970s England he was the epitome of the mysterious east - he was about the same size as Harry Pilling, but the similarities ended there

 

[JBMAC]

What did you like about Statham JBMAC?

He didn't have a particularly smooth action like Holding or Lillee.

Till JBMAC comes back with a first hand account let me chip in with second hand

Stat am was not inelegant but not really an absolute purists delight due to a slightly open action. Nowhere near Malcolm Marshall's direct head on square one but slightly as most bowlers who seam the ball in to right handers, tend to acquire . Trevor Bailey, the England bowler whose injury on tour made for Statham's test debut writes . . .

Statham has always been more of a seamer than a swing bowler . . . This was largely due to his body action which was, perhaps, a shade too open for the purist, but his high right arm and the way it chased his left arm across his body until checked by his left hip were copy book.

Statham's partner in that legendary partnership, Fred Trueman, has similar views. . .

Brian was the ideal model for any young fast bowler. He had a fluent athletic run up that was rounded off by a good action even if he bowled from the inside of his left elbow and was slightly chest on.

If you look at his pictures at the start of his final delivery action you see a left hnd dead straight vertical but he is not looking at the batsman over his left shoulder but from the side of his left arm pit. Then look at the finish and follow through and it is copy book with a huge sweep of the bowling arm right across his body in classical style.

I can understand why he would look elegant when you combine this action with probably the most accurate fast bowler in history. According to Trueman and Bailey both, many thought of him as fast medium only on account of his awesome accuracy which was never associated with genuine fast bowlers.

I think SJS has summed it up mre eloquently than I could have. I must make mention of the fact though that when Statham was bowling he was usually partnered with Trueman who was without a doubt one of the "ugliest" bowlers to play the game, so that made Statham look so much better

 

[Bahnz]

From an NZ perspective, Crowe, Fleming and Cairns were all beautiful batsmen to watch. There isn't much footage of him, but Bert Sutcliffe's batting was always meant to have been easy on the eye as well.

Of the overseas batsmen I've seen a lot of, Sangakkara, Lara and Laxman have always been my favourite.

 

[Burgey]

Oh yeah, Martin Crowe ws Greg Chappell incarnate. Such an elegant player to watch.

 

[Burgey]

JB, was Norm O'Neill considered an elegant player in his day?

 

[abmk]

sachin
mark waugh
lara
laxman
azhar
aravinda
crowe
martyn
greg


donald
bond
steyn
warne
lindwall ( watched only a few clips, but easily the smoothest action I've seen and that includes holding )

 

[JBMAC]

JB, was Norm O'Neill considered an elegant player in his day?

Yes he was..Not in the Gower/Chappell mould but certainly liked to use the pace of the ball to his advantage. That does mean he could not savage an attack. His 185 odd against the WI in tied Test was one of his finest innings where he showed all facets of his prowess.

 

[Red]

I think SJS has summed it up mre eloquently than I could have. I must make mention of the fact though that when Statham was bowling he was usually partnered with Trueman who was without a doubt one of the "ugliest" bowlers to play the game, so that made Statham look so much better

Really?

From what I've seen (and that's limited to grainy old footage), it was Trueman who had the classical quick bowlers action, and Statham who had an awkward jolty action.

fred trueman - YouTube

Short snippet of Trueman there, which I think looks really good. Can't find any Statham online though.

Edit....some of Statham here, not as awkward as I remembered...

http://www.britishpathe.com/video/adelaide-cricket-mighty-battle-in-4th-test-aka-4th

 

[Hurricane]

I am not a fan of Starc's action. Languid <> Elegant. My complaint is that he loses too much height in his action.

I guess this begs the question of what is Elegance. I think it has to be technically correct as well as looking graceful.

 

[Hurricane]

David Gower the best I've seen for batsman.

Hadlee and Steyn appeal to me for bowlers.

I know Smiley likes Khan a lot - but wouldn't regard his action as Elegant. Regal perhaps. But not elegant.

 

[burr]

Mmm, I'm not quite sure what is served by having a 'battle' over elegance - seems somehow to run against the very thing we are meant to be celebrating. Also, how are you going to compare an elegant batsman and bowler, if indeed you are? Anyway, it's still nice to see beautiful cricketers getting a shout out on this forum, which is often obsessed by comparison via statistics . My favourite is pretty obvious.