One Don = Two Cooks

[chasingthedon]

It struck me the other day what would we have if Bradman had been only half as good?

That would give us a batsman with

80 innings, 3498 runs, say 15 tons, average 49.97

Extrapolating to a modern great's level of play, we get

240 innings, 10494 runs, 44 tons, average 49.97

Comparing to the all-time list, this is remarkably close to Alastair Cook's current statistics:

239 innings, 10599 runs, average 47.31.(only 29 tons though - same as Bradman, funnily enough).

Therefore, one Don = two Cooks.

 

[watson]

Would you rather have the equivalent of two Cooks, instead of one Don, in your team though?

 

[chasingthedon]

Would you rather have the equivalent of two Cooks, instead of one Don, in your team though?

That's a very good question, though presumably the Don option comes with player 2 to make up the eleven.

 

[Burgey]

Would you rather have the equivalent of two Cooks, instead of one Don, in your team though?

No. Why the **** would you want that?

 

[watson]

No. Why the **** would you want that?

Point taken (cue England fans).

OK, two Neil Harvey's then? He was around 47-48 from memory.

 

[fredfertang]

chasingthedon doesn't do oversimplification like that watson - methinks he's pulling our chains here

 

[chasingthedon]

chasingthedon doesn't do oversimplification like that watson - methinks he's pulling our chains here

very perceptive for 11pm on a Saturday, fred!

interesting way to look at it though - if you could split Bradman in two you'd have two ATGs!

 

[chasingthedon]

unless of course you don't consider Cook to be an ATG.

 

[fredfertang]

he does alright for a cathedral chorister

 

[RossTaylorsBox]

Too Many Cooks

 

[Red]

It will never fail to fascinate me that one of the main benchmarks for a great batsman is an average of 50+. Here are a list of players who averaged between 46-54.

Chappell
Tendulkar
Lara
Ponting
Flower
Border
Compton
Worrell
Waugh
Harvey
May
Lloyd

Bradman's output was essentially double of any of these guys. FMD.

So Bradman more of less equals:

Tendulkar + Lloyd

Or Lara plus Peter May

Or Worrell plus Waugh


And just to make the Indian fans happy, Tendulkar (53.78) plus VVS Laxman (45.97) added together make an average of 99.75. Still not quite on par with Bradman.

 

[watson]

To use your combo's Red Hill, who would you prefer in your side?

Tendulkar and Laxman
Lara and May
Worrell and Waugh
Bradman and Average Joe

 

[nightprowler10]

Too Many Cooks

Too ma-ny cooks!

 

[Zinzan]

To use your combo's Red Hill, who would you prefer in your side?

Tendulkar and Laxman
Lara and May
Worrell and Waugh
Bradman and Average Joe

Bradman and average Joe, assuming Joe averages about 30-35...

 

[Victor Ian]

average Joe averages 34. So Bradman and average Joe is worth 34 runs more.

 

[The Battlers Prince]

Bradman isn't worth 2 players. He's as good as any other ATG, just twice as often.

 

[Howe_zat]

Bradman isn't literally worth two good players, you can say he's twice as good but that's not quite the same thing. Nobody should have Braman+me in the test team over Cook+Cook.

First, Test batting requires partnerships. Having fewer players negatively impacts the whole rest of the batting lineup.

Second, big innings have finishing returns for runs scored. Once a player gets to 250+ under the vast majority of circumstances any runs after that point will be worth less and less until they are actually worthless. The runs that make a 300 into a 350 for a player are worth far less than the runs that make a 0 into a 50 as far as winning the match is concerned. But they count exactly the same towards a players' average.

It stands to reason that getting a higher and higher batting average is subject to diminishing returns too.

 

[Howe_zat]

Too Many Cooks

Too ma-ny cooks!

Thank you for putting that in my head for the rest of the day. That's really kind of you

 

[Burgey]

Yeah but if you could have Cook and Cook or a Bradman and Graeme Wood, you'd take he latter, surely? I mean Bradman scored a ton every three times he went to the crease ffs.

 

[Howe_zat]

Yeah but if you could have Cook and Cook or a Bradman and Graeme Wood, you'd take he latter, surely?

Yep.

The difference between Bradman and Cook is bigger than the difference between Cook and Wood (and any other half decent player). But he's not worth two very good players full stop, which is what the thread implied.