3rd greatest cricketer pre-bradman era?

[Nikhil99.99]

W.g grace and hobbs are accepted by most as the top 2.But who does CW think was the 3rd greatest cricketer pre-bradman era?

 

[trundler]

Hard to do past Barnes

 

[cnerd123]

Wilfred Rhodes

 

[karan_fromthestands]

Professor Albie Dumble

 

[Nikhil99.99]

Professor Albie Dumble

Please don’t bring your stupid opinion abt before players here.Better not comment.If you don’t know abt them then shut your mouth up.

 

[karan_fromthestands]

Please don’t bring your stupid opinion abt before players here.Better not comment.If you don’t know abt them then shut your mouth up.

 

[a massive zebra]

George Lohmann should be an option. He's barely a worse bowler than Barnes, plus the best slip fielder of his generation and a capable batsman.

Also if you're going to include guys like Monty Noble and Herbie Taylor, Ranji should definitely be an option too.

 

[Prince EWS]

Alfred Mynn

 

[Red]

CTB Turner was better than Barnes

 

[mr_mister]

Barnes for me. First great bowler to play in an era where there were test batsmen actually performing consistently (Trumper, hill, etc) and still has that 19th century style awesome bowling record. Makes me think he had less help from the pitches than Lohmann

 

[The Sean]

Fred Spofforth the big miss in that list for me.

 

[trundler]

Barnes for me. First great bowler to play in an era where there were test batsmen actually performing consistently (Trumper, hill, etc) and still has that 19th century style awesome bowling record. Makes me think he had less help from the pitches than Lohmann

Matting wickets in SA were probably just as helpful but pitches did improve by a lot in England and Australia was fairly high scoring in that decade. Noble, Trumper, Armstrong and Hill all averaged 50+ in Shield I think. Barnes definitely faced a much higher quality of batting.

Also, things get more and more murky the further back we go. If Mynn is there, Fuller Pilch should be too..

 

[TheJediBrah]

Professor Albie Dumble

I googled this and the only thing it sends me to is this thread

guessing not a real cricketer

 

[Nikhil99.99]

Matting wickets in SA were probably just as helpful but pitches did improve by a lot in England and Australia was fairly high scoring in that decade. Noble, Trumper, Armstrong and Hill all averaged 50+ in Shield I think. Barnes definitely faced a much higher quality of batting.

Also, things get more and more murky the further back we go. If Mynn is there, Fuller Pilch should be too..

Mynn was probably ahead of pilch.Before W.G came Mynn was regarded the greatest cricketer and pilch the greatest batsman.

 

[karan_fromthestands]

I googled this and the only thing it sends me to is this thread

guessing not a real cricketer

 

[Nikhil99.99]

Fred Spofforth the big miss in that list for me.

Spofforth certainly has bigger reputation than others.But lohmann,Ferris,turner ,Briggs have better stats.
Wally Hammond considered Spofforth to be the greatest.He had Spofforth so high.

 

[Coronis]

He liked a shag did Wally. I’m betting Spofforth did too with that stache

 

[trundler]

Mynn was probably ahead of pilch.Before W.G came Mynn was regarded the greatest cricketer and pilch the greatest batsman.

There's also Alfred Shaw.

 

[The Sean]

Spofforth certainly has bigger reputation than others.But lohmann,Ferris,turner ,Briggs have better stats.
Wally Hammond considered Spofforth to be the greatest.He had Spofforth so high.

Yeah agreed - Spofforth's stats were excellent but there were several others better. What seems to set Spofforth apart (similar to WG, though not quite to the same level of course) was his sheer status within the game. He was virtually unchallenged as the greatest figure in early Australian cricket, and his impact on the international game in its formative years was enormous.

On a side note regarding stats, I always feel that for 19th century players, particularly bowlers, they almost need to be split into two groups - those who got to play South Africa and those who didn't - such was the statistical boost that a lolstats match (e.g. Johnny Briggs 15/28!) or series against South Africa could provide.

 

[cricketsavant]

Got to go for Trumper who batted brilliantly in the age of poor wickets. The average of less than 40 does not look great now but was very useful back then.