The great 90s English no-rounder extravaganza. A 16 man knockout bracket

[mr_mister]

Im pretty bored atm.


*If their careers leaked over into the 2000s still count that period

*Consider their batting combined with their bowling at any level.. Tests, ODIs, county whatever means more to you

*I know some of these are really pushing it to count as all-rounders. But even Gough was labeled the next Botham after his swashbuckling 65 on debut




Ben Hollioake vs Adam Hollioake
Mark Ealham vs Mark Alleyne

Dominic Cork vs Mike Watkinson
Alex Tudor vs Phil DeFreitas

Vince Wells vs Ronnie Irani
Robert Croft vs Dermot Reeve

Craig White vs Derek Pringle
Gavin Hamilton vs Chris Lewis

 

[SillyCowCorner1]

I pick Chris Lewis only because he has name recognition. The guy who bowl the ball to Lara that broke Sobers' 365

 

[fredfertang]

No winker

 

[mr_mister]

I didnt know that guy too well, bit before my time. But Andrew Flintoff is also missing. Take it as a compliment, they were too good to be no-rounders!

 

[fredfertang]

I didnt know that guy too well, bit before my time. But Andrew Flintoff is also missing. Take it as a compliment, they were too good to be no-rounders!

I may have said something similar at the time, so you're excused

 

[AndrewB]

What about Reeve, Pringle, Fleming, Capel, Dougie Brown and (since you have some spinners) Neil Smith and Watkinson? If you're picking "bits-and-pieces" players any of those would be much more suitable than Hick, or Gough for that matter.

And of course there were two other all-rounders who were distinctly mediocre in the 90s, but you probably won't want to include them since you're considering their whole careers...

(Edit: Posted before I saw several of the replies).

 

[Howe_zat]

Given how much you talk about this aspect of English cricket you have some quite strange ideas on who was being played as an allrounder.

 

[mr_mister]

unfortunately my cricket knowledge more or less begins from 1997 onwards

I've read a lot of books about English test cricket in the early and mid 90s but not the county circuit. I feel some of those dudes you named kind of wrapped up their international careers around the 1992 WC, I was going more for the players of the true drivel era of 93-99, when draws were celebrated like victories.

I feel like Gough and Hick were considered to be potential all-rounders at a time right? Hick bowled a lot in ODIs

anyway this was all a big joke not to be taken too seriously

 

[fredfertang]

Hick was certainly an all-rounder when he topped the bowling stats in India

 

[mr_mister]

^I see Hicky averaged 52 with the bat and 25 with the ball in that series. You must have thought you had the next Aubrey Faulkner on your hands Fred(tried to think of a notable off-spinning all-rounder and realised I couldnt)


edit - Vinoo Mankad. Hick's 1993 performance against India was probably the best by an offspinning all-rounder since Vinoo Mankad

 

[AndrewB]

^I see Hicky averaged 52 with the bat and 25 with the ball in that series. You must have thought you had the next Aubrey Faulkner on your hands Fred(tried to think of a notable off-spinning all-rounder and realised I couldnt)


edit - Vinoo Mankad. Hick's 1993 performance against India was probably the best by an offspinning all-rounder since Vinoo Mankad

I was going to suggest Jack Simmons... Vinoo was SLA, so finger-spinning but not off-spinning.

The reason I'd leave out Hick and Gough isn't so much because their bowling/batting wasn't up to it, more because their batting/bowling was good enough (in ODIs at least, in Hick's case) to disqualify them as "no-rounders".

 

[mr_mister]

ah, fair point. i kinda like the idea of elevating a player even higher by talking about their lesser known skill (both Waugh brother's bowling for example) but yeah this is a bit of a shamozzle now


If i change it from no-rounders to all-rounders im kind of obligated to throw in Flintoff who will cruise through this thing.

Even as it stands Craig White will probably be a clear standout. Its funny because a test batting/bowling avg of 24/37 looks utter ****e but its still enough to say he's the best AR they had at test level(excluding Flintoff) over that decade period

 

[mr_mister]

though Cork might have done enough with the ball to make up for how much less he did with the bat than White now I think about it

 

[fredfertang]

^I see Hicky averaged 52 with the bat and 25 with the ball in that series. You must have thought you had the next Aubrey Faulkner on your hands Fred(tried to think of a notable off-spinning all-rounder and realised I couldnt)


edit - Vinoo Mankad. Hick's 1993 performance against India was probably the best by an offspinning all-rounder since Vinoo Mankad

I thought we had the first Ravi Ashwin, but no one would believe me

 

[mr_mister]

jokes aside, that was a massive series for hick. Featured his best bowling and his highest score in tests, 178. Sad that it was all downhill pretty much straight away afterwards, save for an awesome ODI purple patch going from the the 99 tri series to the opening few games of the 99 WC(but he faded away before that tournament even ended)

 

[GRAB]

Gavin Hamilton?

 

[vcs]

Hick's knock in the Mumbai dead rubber was excellent. Distinctly remember watching that as a 10-year old.

Also that series was bizarrely sandwiched between a 6-match ODI series, where we chased big totals in the last two games to draw 3-3. Great times.

 

[Lillian Thomson]

At no stage in his career was Hick considered an allrounder. It was a bit of a surprise that he was poor at both disciplines though.

 

[Athlai]

no-rounder is such a good CWism. When did it start?

 

[Lillian Thomson]

no-rounder is such a good CWism. When did it start?

The first time I heard the term was when Ian Greig was selected for England in 1982.