Holding, Lillee and Marshall - The greatest

[Burgey]

No Ponting was tripe in India.

Warne when he took wickets against India took them against the middle order. He never ran through the tail which says more about team strategy than anything else.

Warne vs India in India = Murali vs India in India
Warne vs India in Australia = 5 tests, two of which were before he was any good. Of the remaining 3 tests he ranged from very good to ordinary, reflecting the fact that he was ast the worst point of his career post shoulder surgery.
It's honestly silly to draw any real conclusions from this just like it's silly to draw conclusions from Botham's overall averages.

Weirdly, Ponting’s best two series in India were his last iirc. He was overall past his best but there was one series where I think he ground out four 50s and another’s where he finally made a ton there after years of trying and failing. I think 01 basically ****ed his mindset. And the fact harbhajan just troubled him so much, even in series where he was crap against all the other batsmen. Fmd harbhajan basically only played out here in the 07/08 series to get Ponting out (which he did).

 

[Burgey]

I firmly believe that the 90s was a golden era for cricket. Great fast bowlers, great spinners, great batsmen. The game saw the reintroduction of South Africa. The Windies, Australia, Pakistan and South Africa were all relatively close. What an amazing era of cricket.

Yep it was an awesome era. Also the start of a lot of cricket being broadcast into neutral countries, so we actually got to see so many of the stars.

 

[wpdavid]

I firmly believe that the 90s was a golden era for cricket. Great fast bowlers, great spinners, great batsmen. The game saw the reintroduction of South Africa. The Windies, Australia, Pakistan and South Africa were all relatively close. What an amazing era of cricket.

Yes, the mid-1990s were probably the only time there have been four genuinely very strong test sides. And the other countries weren't complete disasters, either. A genuine golden age. People tend to write off England as no-hopers in the 1990's, but they had a number of players who would significantly improve our current test team.

 

[vcs]

I think England really were dire for most of the '90s, but it was definitely a good era.

WI still had Ambrose/Walsh and Lara, they were on the decline, but still a strong team and very difficult to beat at home. India managed to be very good at home with an average team (bar Sachin and Kumble/Azhar at times) and were minnow-level away. Sri Lanka were as good as India, if not better. NZ were alright I guess, can't remember much about them. Australia were on the way to constructing an ATG team and had most of the pieces in place by the end of the decade. SA were easily the 2nd best team of the decade behind them, I'd say. Pakistan really underachieved with their generation of talent, shame about all the corruption and politics. Zimbabwe were also decent and quite capable of the occasional upset.

In hindsight, it was a bit annoying that ODI cricket really caught the Indian public's imagination through that decade, far too much energy was wasted in playing those money-spinning Sharjah type ODI tri-series. Not enough Test series against the top sides, and we had to sit through some real boring affairs against WI/SL etc.

 

[stephen]

The ODI cricket at that point felt meaningful though because teams were competitive and bowlers were threatening. We had some thrilling run chases in the ODI tri series here in Australia with some classic moments punctuated by the golden boys of channel 9 commentary in their prime.

In the 00s when Australia pulled so far ahead of the pack and we got meaningless ODI series where the best players were rotated out so we could keep them fresh and figure out or best backups for the world cup was the time when JAMODI entered the vocabulary.

Truly a golden age of cricket the 90s and I firmly believe that it's because the ball was better than the bat in that era, but not in a way that felt unfair.

 

[TheJediBrah]

I think England really were dire for most of the '90s, but it was definitely a good era.

WI still had Ambrose/Walsh and Lara, they were on the decline, but still a strong team and very difficult to beat at home. India managed to be very good at home with an average team (bar Sachin and Kumble/Azhar at times) and were minnow-level away. Sri Lanka were as good as India, if not better. NZ were alright I guess, can't remember much about them. Australia were on the way to constructing an ATG team and had most of the pieces in place by the end of the decade. SA were easily the 2nd best team of the decade behind them, I'd say. Pakistan really underachieved with their generation of talent, shame about all the corruption and politics. Zimbabwe were also decent and quite capable of the occasional upset.

In hindsight, it was a bit annoying that ODI cricket really caught the Indian public's imagination through that decade, far too much energy was wasted in playing those money-spinning Sharjah type ODI tri-series. Not enough Test series against the top sides, and we had to sit through some real boring affairs against WI/SL etc.

Some things never change

 

[Bolo]

Felt like almost everyone in the world was improving in the 90s and even the teams that weren't great were going to be competitive soon. More teams arriving on the scene, and new teams showing it didn't necessarily take 50 years to start competing in cricket. Great bowlers and bowler friendly.

The 2000s were horrible in just about every way, but I think we are doing okay now. More teams than ever. Nice balance between bat and ball. Less draws. Nobody is dominating for extended periods. Bowling of every type

 

[Engle]

One could say that the 90's was a ' normalization ' of the game from what went before.

The 80's was pure pace in your face. The WIndies quicks ran roughshod over all comers, with a hint of protest from Pakistan, led by the charismatic Imran. Speaking of which, it was also the era of the 4 Aces, the best AR from England (Botham), India (Kapil), NZ (Hadlee)

The 70's was revolutionary and exciting with something for everyone, punctuated by World XI matches and the advent of ODI.