Players who used to be your favourite

[Bijed]

We recently had that thread where you posted your top 3 favourite players, but I'd imagine a lot of us haven't had the same favourite player for all our lives, so I wondered which players have been lucky enough to occupy that spot in our heart over the years. I'd also imagine that there are old 'favourite player' threads from which I could collate this information if I were so inclined, but I'm not.

My earliest favourite player was Michael Vaughan, then it was Steve Harmison, then Monty Panesar, then there was the gap where I wasn't following cricket much leading on to my current favourite Nathan Lyon.

 

[Shri]

Sachin - from 98/99
Ganguly - 99 WC 183 vs SL onwards
Kumble - since his 10/74 vs Pak

 

[OverratedSanity]

Sreesanth in the first few years of his career.

 

[fredfertang]

Barry Richards, always Barry Richards

 

[honestbharani]

As an impressionable 4 yr old I fell in love with Kris Srikkanth's batting line many youngsters my age around 1987-88.

 

[vcs]

Sachin

 

[Red]

Loved Dean Jones first off.

As a kid I also really liked Geoff Marsh for some reason. The whole team from that '89 Ashes series will always be faves of mine. Taylor, Marsh, Boon, Border, Jones, Waugh, Healy, Hohns, Hughes, Lawson, Alderman. Remember watching them bat and bat and feeling for the first time that we were a pretty good cricket team after the WIs kept flogging us in the 80s.

Mark Waugh was always my favourite from the moment he debuted. Everything about him, the way he batted, his slip catching, his handy bowling. Such a great player to watch.

From other teams I loved Viv, Ambrose and Lara from the WIs and I always really liked Graham Gooch as well.

 

[stephen]

I used to live the Waugh twins.

But Peter Taylor was the guy who sparked my interest in cricket. He was the first spin bowler I remember watching and I was fascinated. I was so upset when they dropped him for Shane Warne. Then when Warne went the distance against Shastri I was furious that he'd been picked.

I soon got over it. And Warne became my favourite.

 

[flibbertyjibber]

Robin Smith - my first real hero and the only decent bat we had back then who would stand up to West Indies and Australia before Gooch became good at the end of his career.
Graham Thorpe - much like Smith was to start with, the only player we could rely on in the horror 90's.

 

[Grumpy]

Late 90's/ early 00's it was Shoaib Akhtar
Flintoff and KP after the 2005 Ashes.
Asif during that infamous summer
Stache MJ

 

[Midwinter]

Keith Stackpole
Jeff Thomson
Alan Border
Bruce Reid

 

[Gnske]

I'm too advanced to be biased towards one human being or another based on how they play a game.

 

[cnerd123]

I'm too advanced to be biased towards one human being or another based on how they play a game.

says the man who sucks Ashwin's balls every game


I used to love Warne, till I found out he's quite a big ****. It was always his on-field personality and aura that I loved, to find out how that ties into who he is off the field has soured that a for me.

Ashraful was another one that kind broke my heart. Huge waste of talent and potential. Should have been the man who ushered Bangladesh into the era of being competitive from the era of being minnows. He was supposed to be the Shakib before we had Shakib. He never lived up to it. Such a waste.

They're the only cricketers I've lost fondness for over the years. I still love my childhood heroes even tho they are no longer relevant - Dravid, Ganguly, Kumble, Collingwood, Chris Harris, Kaif, Rafique. Had a soft spot for many cricketers that I cant recall now, but i'm pretty sure I've not lost that fondness for them.

Afridi was, is and will always be my absolute all time favourite tho. Legit the only cricketer I have ever been hyped to watch live. ****ing Irfan Pathan dismissed him cheaply back in the ODI I watched in Abu Dhabi. He's the only Pakistani cricketer I've see whose dismissal made even Indian fans kinda disappointed. He's such a hero. Not for his skill or achievements, but for everything he represents. The carefreeness. The recklessness. The amazing highs he could reach. The sheer ridiculousness of everything he did - be it his batting, bowling legbreaks at 120kmph, or trying to snack on the cricket ball He was just such a crazy cricketer. Literally one of a kind. And I feel there is a little bit of his craziness in all of us, and what his career tells us is that every now and then, it's okay to let your little Afridi out loose.

I was so sad he couldn't make it for the Blitz. Was the only cricketer I wanted a handshake and a photo with. He's such a hero. I think I've grown fonder with him with age. I think I'll go binge on some Afridi highlight videos now. WAG.

 

[Adders]

Not sure this was what Bijed intended for this thread...........but for me KP is the one player who I used to love and rated massively, to someone I wouldn't piss on if he was on fire.

Don't need to go through the whole thing again but never has any player in any sport gone from from such a high to such a low in my estimations.

 

[Adders]

On the flip side Ricky Ponting has done the exact opposite for me..........used to think he was the biggest tosspot in world cricket, but in his later career and post retirement I have found an immense respect for the guy.

 

[OverratedSanity]

Apart from my weird Sreesanth phase, it's usually been VVS.

But whenever there was a Pakistan match on in the early-mid 2000s, I tuned in almost exclusively to watch Akhtar and also saw him live twice. Listening to a packed Indian crowd getting louder each step of his absurdly long runup is something everyone should've experienced atleast once. The **** was a force of nature. Most exciting player I've ever watched.

 

[Daemon]

Irfan Pathan was my favourite when I first started getting into cricket.

Steyn took over shortly after that and he remains there.

 

[vcs]

Steyn is right up there for me now. Would put most things aside to watch a Steyn Test spell.

 

[Midwinter]

Adam Gilchrist

He was a revelation when he was picked in the test team.

Not since the "The Croucher" Gilbert Jessop had a batsman's arrival at the crease aroused such excitement.

 

[wpdavid]

Tony Greig

And from elsewhere, Clive Lloyd.