• Welcome to the Cricket Web forums, one of the biggest forums in the world dedicated to cricket.

    You are currently viewing our boards as a guest which gives you limited access to view most discussions and access our other features. By joining our free community you will have access to post topics, respond to polls, upload content and access many other special features. Registration is fast, simple and absolutely free so please, join the Cricket Web community today!

    If you have any problems with the registration process or your account login, please contact us.

How do you rate Allan Lamb?

AndyZaltzHair

Hall of Fame Member
Recently I read more about Allan Lamb. He was one of the better players of fast bowling and was successful against the likes of Marshall, Garner, Holding. His Test average of 36 doesn't make justice to his playing ability I guess. Does he belong among the greats? How do you rate him?
 

fredfertang

Cricket Web: All-Time Legend
Frustratingly inconsistent, less than reliable against the moving ball at whatever speed it came at him, and tried far too hard to place him self in Ian Botham's social slipstream, but on his day he made you realise that the West Indies quick bowlers weren't invincible
 

the big bambino

International Captain
Class bat against pace but I saw him bat like an American against Sivaramakrishnan once and made me think that if he played in an era stronger in spin might have struggled to play international cricket.
 

watson

Banned
I rate Lamb slightly lower than Gower and Robin Smith.

But all 3 had two things in common - their talent was great to watch, but hugely frustrating when they got out all too soon.
 

Hurricane

Hall of Fame Member
cricinfo lists his nick name as Lambie, If I had a dollar for the number of nicknames which are just ie at the end...yes I am weighing in with the important issue here.
 

Lillian Thomson

Hall of Fame Member
cricinfo lists his nick name as Lambie, If I had a dollar for the number of nicknames which are just ie at the end...yes I am weighing in with the important issue here.
You wouldn't be very rich. Most nicknames that add that sound to end of a name use just the letter Y.

Besides that, Lamb was high class. His batting average and number of small scores is one of the most inexplicable deficiencies in Test history.
 

zaremba

Cricketer Of The Year
Class bat against pace but I saw him bat like an American against Sivaramakrishnan once and made me think that if he played in an era stronger in spin might have struggled to play international cricket.
Made me chuckle.

Anyway I came here to say that his record against the Windies is bafflingly overstated. Averaged 34 against them. Admittedly better than most of his hapless team mates, but still on the mediocre side.
 

Lillian Thomson

Hall of Fame Member
Made me chuckle.

Anyway I came here to say that his record against the Windies is bafflingly overstated. Averaged 34 against them. Admittedly better than most of his hapless team mates, but still on the mediocre side.
He had 7 centuries along side an otherwise poor record. Everyone else had just the poor record.
 

Goughy

Hall of Fame Member
Lamb was a decent player who deserved his place in the team. I rate him below Hick but that says more about my opinions on Hick than Lamb
 

wpdavid

Hall of Fame Member
He was talented, but he rarely delivered as much as I expected. Obvs his 3 tons against WI in 1984 were the exception, but otherwise I felt he tended to cash in when the going was easy, and/or concentrate properly when his place was under threat.

I also felt he was given a rather privileged role insofar as when he arrived we had a surplus of middle order batsmen but hardly any openers. So we saw guys like Tavare and Randall open whilst Lamb was allowed to join the side in his usual position. I'm not sure that his returns actually justified that sort of favouritism.
 

archie mac

International Coach
I think if we didn't keep stats and you asked me without showing me the figures his average I would have said mid 40s. Was just below the three Gs for my money
 

Top