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let’s remember some guys

thierry henry

International Coach
For NZ, yeah.

I put Howsie at about my age or there abouts, at least in his 30s...I can't believe he lived through Kyle's career and can't see the relevance and importance of how Millsy performed in Chappell-Hadlee, Commonwealth Series, Champions Trophies etc. Yeah they're not World Cups but his performances in those were outstanding. He was very good against Australia, over there too. His record in the sub-continent is impeccable. He was a new ball beast. And so what if he wasn't good at the death? They used him incorrectly, I harped on for the entirety of the career that they should bowl his 10 up front and find someone else to do the death work. From the time he almost let Pollock take 26 or so off a final over in Wellington to the end, it never suited him. He was best bowling his natural hard back of a length.

Surely World Cup performances are only relevant if you're fit to play in them. He was primed to do so in 2007 and 2011, and got injured (something that actually didn't happen that much in his career). And yes, I was one of the ones who advocated for him over Trent Boult in 2015. I get it wrong sometimes.
Yeah as a 35 year old NZ cricket fan since the early 1990s, if you were ignoring all ODIs apart from World Cups that would be a pretty miserable existence. We lived right through the eras of (a) JAMODIs being the core of the cricketing calendar and (b) NZ not being good enough to take games lightly.
 

Shady Slim

International Coach
I feel as if we’re getting away from the true definition of a ‘guy’. There’s a lot of random 3-4 capped players who did basically nothing - Slim’s definition seemed to be that the player had to have had a small peak or a wildly successful game, but then faded to oblivion.
sorta true though also the definition of a guy is a lot broader than the initial prompt i gave in the OP, so we don't need to police who is and isn't a guy all that harshly imo, as long as people aren't coming in here and calling thilan samaraweera a guy or whatever lol. michael beer's a great example, if you're from south africa he's a two test wonder but if you're an aussie he became a big bash hero and attained guy status for sure tbh

he got a mention earlier but i'd like to talk about sulieman benn, also known as big benn and the clocktower for his incredible height. imposing figure of more than two metres tall yet chose to blow his natural gifts by becoming an off spinner, albeit he was a left arm orthodox bowler which seems a bit less pathetic than right arm off spin itbt. admittedly, he had an incredible ability to bowl long spells in his on off time in the test side, often bowling more than 30 overs, including doing more than 50 against aus in aus which led to his first michelle at test level. however, aside from this, benn was not that good (elite nicknames though i do concede). existing mainly during the bleak years of windies cricket, just as they were hitting the very bottom of the crater, and disappearing before they begun to rise out of that crater. known primarily for his height, but secondarily for getting in to way more fights than his bowling style should allow and being a generally lazy fielder, the clocktower is a definite guy. he became the first ever to bowl two maidens against a test nation in a t20 (zimbabwe), and i am almost certain from memory the west indies lost that match too. such is the ballad of sulieman benn.
 

GoodAreasShane

Cricketer Of The Year
I tend to remember Benn having a stretch in the WI one day side where took one wicket in about 8 or so games. Around the same dark times where Scott Boland (a guy himself arguably) had a sustained run in the Australian ODI side
 

Moss

International Vice-Captain
One “guy” I really wanted to see succeed was Craig Spearman, mainly because I enjoyed watching him bat. Was quite an exciting shotmaker when he got it right, but his output for NZ was terrible (was seen as something of a one-day specialist when he was a better long form player IMO, and had a real tendency to throw away his wicket). English cricket followers probably saw the best of him during his time with Gloucesteshire.
 

Line and Length

Cricketer Of The Year
A guy I enjoyed playing with after his brief but stellar Test career was over is Bob Massie. A genuinely nice guy who was a great mentor to the younger guys at our Club.
 

thierry henry

International Coach
I will restrain my instinct to argue that 100+ ODIs over a period of 12 years is beyond guy status, and instead note that Maharoof was a surprisingly effective ODI wicket taker for someone I struggled to see the appeal of as a bowler.
 

BoyBrumby

Englishman
Steve Rhodes

An odd (read: Raymond Illingworth inspired) selection as England's test keeper in 1994 whose 11 match tenure was a bit of an interregnum between the Jack Russell and the Alec Stewart eras. Although the noble Gloucestershire eccentric master gloveman was recalled to the colours periodically thereafter, the gaffer was mostly saddled with keeping for the next decade.

Anyhoo, Raymondo had some strongly held ideas about selection (essentially Yorkshire and allrounders: good; Gus Fraser and specialists: bad) and dear old Bumpy (Bumpy Rhodes, you see?) was the beneficiary/victim of this.

Although a Worcestershire stalwart by the time of his selection, Rhodes had started his career with God's Own County and was a native son of France, hailing from Bradford as he did.

Illingworth wanted to use another Frenchman (albeit one with an Ocker accent) in Craig White at #6 to give his test XI a fifth bowling option and let it be known his keeper needed to score runs from #7, tacitly admitting he didn't much fancy Jack's batting by calling up Bumpy for the first time.

Started pretty well against NZ in the first series of the summer, 49 on debut & batting out the final day at Lord's to secure a draw with 8 wickets down, but then looked less at home against RSA's bowlers in the second rubber of 94, despite an average boosting 65* on a uncharacteristically flat Headingley, which was to remain his only test 50, in fact.

It was felt (by Illingworth) that Rhodes had done enough for the winter's Ashes where, with admirably selectorial consistency, he was given all five tests, got into double figures twice, averaged 9 for the series, was generally thoroughly cornholed by McDermott & never played for his country again.
 

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