Bradman is to Graeme Pollock as Pollock is to.....

[mr_mister]

just had a cheeky look at Vengsarkar because I heard he had a ridic golden patch


hit ~1800 runs, averaged 101 over 20 tests from Dec '85 to Nov '88

 

[OverratedSanity]

Heh. Would have done that if I had any tbh. Bradman's record feels like a ridiculous anomaly and he doesn't even suffer from a sample size issue. We have seen players like Sanga and Ponting going on ridiculous stretches for periods of 7-8 years and in my mind the peak would be the ability to sustain that over 15 years. Feels a lot like Rousey in MMA, where you are remarkably better than everybody else around you at that time but everybody else is maybe not good enough?

Hutton, Hammond, Headley and Compton must've been scrubs

 

[Zinzan]

just had a cheeky look at Vengsarkar because I heard he had a ridic golden patch


hit ~1800 runs, averaged 101 over 20 tests from Dec '85 to Nov '88

Amazed he doesn't make more ATG 80s sides, although Border, Richards, Miandad & Crowe is tough opposition.

 

[Burgey]

a lot of people have averaged a ridic high amount after 40-60 tests then after they played 100+ it dropped a steady amount, % wise. Not many dropped 25 points though, but % wise, he has a point


look at Gilly, Ponting.

Hell George Headley would be remembered in an even better light if he never came back after to play 2 tests after WW2 when he was way too old. He averaged around 70 before the last 2 tests he played in the late 40s and then in 1954 lol

Yeah but he played those tests over 20 years mate. At least 15 or 16 of them were after ww2 as well when he was an old man.

I know it's hard to believe anyone could be twice as good as so many of the great players we've seen, but it seems he was. It defies belief but it's true. He just was, because if you want to chop his average by 25-30% (or as some people do by 50% so he fits in with all the other greats) then you have to do the same with the likes of Hammond, Hutton, Headley, Sutcliffe and Hobbs. Which means you're putting this blokes in the same category as Graeme Wood, Gus Logic of Geoff Marsh as players. Which reallycant be right.

 

[Shady Slim]

i think the outlier point is less "we should not count bradman" and more "it's unfair to compare him to others because he's so absurdly good"

what are some other examples of such superiority? phar lap?

 

[Burgey]

Gretzky maybe

 

[Shady Slim]

tiger woods could have been in with a shout if he didn't turn crap after the affairs

ATG golfers in the norman era were plentiful so the best golfers looked comparatively less "the best" due to the competition

 

[jimmy101]

Michael Schumacher

 

[TheJediBrah]

none of those guys are even close to being as much better than everyone else as Bradman was

 

[Coronis]

i think the outlier point is less "we should not count bradman" and more "it's unfair to compare him to others because he's so absurdly good"

what are some other examples of such superiority? phar lap?

Black Caviar

Michael Schumacher

More like superior machinery.... and I'm still convinced Fangio was better.

 

[mr_mister]

Senna's record is nearly as good as Schumacher IMO


and Mario Lemieux's career is nearly as good as Gretzky's

 

[mr_mister]

yeah Slim kinda took the words out of my mouth

if we grade players out of 10 or whatever and give Bradman the full 10 as a batsman, then technically we have to give Hobbs, Sachin and Headley a high 6 low 7 at best coz Bradman had them beat, average wise, by a good 40%

And it sounds bloody silly to do that, if you were to grade players fairly you'd give Sachin a 9 and Bradman a 10 unless you want to give him a 14 out of 10. So basically, because he's an outlier we have to look at batting in a different light

 

[ankitj]

It's good to remember that Greame Pollock has the second best career average for anyone with a non-trivial sample size. This forum underrates him which sucks.

 

[Fuller Pilch]

Hamish Bond and Eric Murray

 

[Daemon]

That Pakistani squash player is always brought up when these comparisons are made. Has an insane unbeaten record.

 

[Zinzan]

That Pakistani squash player is always brought up when these comparisons are made. Has an insane unbeaten record.

Jahangir Khan. Yeah he won for ever and then NZ's Ross Norman finally ended his ridiculous streak. I remember as a young kid.

 

[vcs]

Jahangir Khan. Yeah he won for ever and then NZ's Ross Norman finally ended his ridiculous streak. I remember as a young kid.

Jahangir Khan and Jansher Khan used to be the only guys that could beat each other.

 

[Burgey]

Heather Mackay never lost a professional squash match in her entire career. That's insane.

 

[Zinzan]

I remember learning about this Heather Mackay when NZ's Susan Devoy was dominating womens squash late 80s/early 90s and had assumed she was the greatest ever. Only to learn Mackay won the British open (which was basically the world champs at that time) something like 16 years on the trot before hanging up her racquet.

 

[mr_mister]

What about that wrestler who's record was like 500-2