5 Most Influential Cricketers of All Time

[smash84]

Has Tendulkar really been that influential for the game?

 

[Spooony]

lookup "ethnic black man"

In SA "Black" people include "Africans", "Coloureds", "Asians", .

 

[doesitmatter]

Has Tendulkar really been that influential for the game?

For 2 reasons atleast

1)
a) with his popularity soaring bcci led commercialization of the game through the early '90
making the BCCI the richest cricket board on the planet. This led to better pay for all players . Domestic players were looked after well. All the old players came under a pension scheme started by the board. All because of SRT without him nothing would have happened.
b) ICC which had 16K pound now had 16M pound in its coffers. Countries were inviting India leading to bigger TV rights with each board getting richer and eventually paying more money to their respective players.
c) Because of surplus money ICC aka BCCI started spreading cricket to new markets.

I know Dalmiya, India becoming an economic giant, reach of tv are factors but the lever that turned the wheel is Tendulkar

2) this has not been mentioned in this thread but another reason is During the 90's when the scourge of match-fixing was sweeping thru the cricketing world and with all eyes watching India SRT by his noble actions restored the faith in Indian cricket..There was this feeling among Indian fans Tendulkar will not let the country down. Is there a better inspiration than this for the countrymen?

I started with "Most recent ones" before i named the 5 most influential players. If you consider 100 years of cricket he may not appear in the list but most recent ones definitely... This is all IMO

 

[smash84]

fair enough

 

[gmal10]

1) WG Grace - The 'doctor' aka Father of Cricket

2) DG Bradman - Greatest cricketer ever, who also uplifted an oppressed nation during the WW2

3) CH Lloyd - Well described in the film 'Fire in Babylon', he transformed the way everyone viewed west-indies cricket. He was the reason players like Richards, Holding, Marshall sprung into the limelight.

4) SR Tendulkar - United Indians and cricket lovers around the world. Inspired a whole generation, including the likes of Virat Kohli, to take-up batsmanship.

5) AC Gilchrist - Redefined the requirements for a wicket-keeper. He is the reason wicket-keeper's are regarded as all-rounders.

 

[subshakerz]

Imran Khan should get a shout:

- Reverse swing. Yes, he didnt discover it, but he was the first to show its full potential in the 80s. You need real pace to make reverse swing deadly. I doubt if it was just kept to Sarfraz, it would have been as big a phenomenon as it is now and may have remained an anomaly. It took Imran, Waqar and Wasim to make reverse swing a permanent part of the fast bowling armory.

- Fast bowling. Imran broke the idea that subcontinent cricketers cant be fast bowlers. He was the trendsetter. Unlike Warne, who has no successor, Imran became the inspiration for a next generation of fast bowlers and has an actual legacy. Because of him, fast bowlers are permanently associated with Pakistan cricket.

- Neutral umpires. Again, he may not have been the first, but he was the loudest voice, and actually I think was the first captain to introduce them when WI toured Pakistan in 1986.

- Captain par excellence. I doubt any captain has had Imran's impact. Pakistan's mindset as a team shifted from defensive in the 70s to aggressive in the 80s onwards and has more or less stayed that way. It was a tectonic shift. Under his captaincy, Pakistan's profile as a cricketing nation was raised immensely, winning in England and India, drawing with no.1 WI side, and winning a World Cup. Yes, he had help, but without Imran, I doubt it would have happened.

 

[Blocky]

Lillee - tends to be the "This is the guy I wanted to emulate" for bowlers in the generations from Hadlee through to Lee
Tendulkar - self explanatory
Warne - self explanatory
Bradman - self explanatory
Steve Waugh - was probably the pinnacle of the professional cricketer during my twenties and early thirties.

 

[Burgey]

Imran Khan should get a shout:

- Reverse swing. Yes, he didnt discover it, but he was the first to show its full potential in the 80s. You need real pace to make reverse swing deadly. I doubt if it was just kept to Sarfraz, it would have been as big a phenomenon as it is now and may have remained an anomaly. It took Imran, Waqar and Wasim to make reverse swing a permanent part of the fast bowling armory.

- Fast bowling. Imran broke the idea that subcontinent cricketers cant be fast bowlers. He was the trendsetter. Unlike Warne, who has no successor, Imran became the inspiration for a next generation of fast bowlers and has an actual legacy. Because of him, fast bowlers are permanently associated with Pakistan cricket.

- Neutral umpires. Again, he may not have been the first, but he was the loudest voice, and actually I think was the first captain to introduce them when WI toured Pakistan in 1986.

- Captain par excellence. I doubt any captain has had Imran's impact. Pakistan's mindset as a team shifted from defensive in the 70s to aggressive in the 80s onwards and has more or less stayed that way. It was a tectonic shift. Under his captaincy, Pakistan's profile as a cricketing nation was raised immensely, winning in England and India, drawing with no.1 WI side, and winning a World Cup. Yes, he had help, but without Imran, I doubt it would have happened.

Since Imran retired, and indeed for a large portion of his time in charge, Pakistan has more often than not been a basket case. That's a heck of an influence.

 

[OverratedSanity]

Someone like Bosanquet worth a mention I think.

 

[YorksLanka]

Sanath Jayasuriya & Romesh Kaluwitharana - for changing the way of opening ODI batting with the pinch hitting assault they brought in '96 - not neccessarily THE most influential but they did influence the game..

 

[Blocky]

Sanath Jayasuriya & Romesh Kaluwitharana - for changing the way of opening ODI batting with the pinch hitting assault they brought in '96 - not neccessarily THE most influential but they did influence the game..

Arguably Greatbatch who inspired them to do it.

 

[Burgey]

Arguably Botham, who did it before Greatbatch.

 

[Blocky]

Arguably Botham, who did it before Greatbatch.

Not as an opening bat though, did he?

 

[Burgey]

Yeah, at that America's Cup tourney in Perth in 86-87 they used him as an opener to pretty decent effect. Went a bit ballistic, or at least that was his role. Greatbatch had that terrific WC in 92 didn't he, where he smashed it all over the place? I think Crowe was captain and he also used Dipak Patel as an opening bowler. Was great stuff.

 

[Blocky]

Yeah, at that America's Cup tourney in Perth in 86-87 they used him as an opener to pretty decent effect. Went a bit ballistic, or at least that was his role. Greatbatch had that terrific WC in 92 didn't he, where he smashed it all over the place? I think Crowe was captain and he also used Dipak Patel as an opening bowler. Was great stuff.

Yup, NZ'ers to this day will tell you had Crowe not injured himself batting against Pakistan that we'd have gone to the final and beaten England. Dipak as an opening bowler was a stroke of genius. I also think that was the first team you saw that had pretty much 8 people who could all bowl to a decent level.

 

[YorksLanka]

Arguably Greatbatch who inspired them to do it.

true, he did have a great wc in 92 didnt he?Sanath & Kalu, did it as an opening pair though,if one didnt smash you the other would..

 

[Blocky]

true, he did have a great wc in 92 didnt he?Sanath & Kalu, did it as an opening pair though,if one didnt smash you the other would..

I remember that series in about 1994-1995 that Kaluwitharana first came out and smashed the absolute crap out of Australia. He also played some amazing innings against the Kiwis in test cricket too.

Sanath is still one of the most vastly under-rated talents in the world.

 

[Blocky]

Come to think of it, as an event, the 1992 World Cup was probably the most influential if I think about it. For some reason it's the one that people remember fondly, the events like Jonty Rhodes diving full length to run someone out, Inzamam the Aloo smashing all in sundry as a dumpy looking teenager, the brilliance of Wasim and Imran, Australia doing terribly on home soil. The dibbly, dobbly, wibbly, wobbly of NZ getting us to the Semis.

 

[weldone]

For some reason it's the one that people remember fondly.

As an Indian supporter, I remember the 2011, 2003 and 1996 World Cups more fondly.

 

[anil1405]

true, he did have a great wc in 92 didnt he?Sanath & Kalu, did it as an opening pair though,if one didnt smash you the other would..

I remember a game where Kalu was the first man dismissed when the score was on 70 (i guess) and he was out for a duck.