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Allan Donald

JBH001

International Regular
I rate AD as one of the best ever - and was lucky enought to see him in his prime.

He, Waqar, and Wasim are the fast bowlers I most enjoyed watching in the 90s.
 

Perm

Cricket Web: All-Time Legend
I was never fortunate enough to see him play, but I have seen a video of that incident between him and Michael Atherton and it will stick in my mind forever.
 

Richard

Cricket Web Staff Member
Allan Donald is my favourite seam-bowler, bar none. Even Dominic Cork and Angus Fraser I didn't enjoy seeing have success as much as him.

I only became truly aware of him in 1998, but in that year and the following he was quite patently the best seamer around, even at the age of 32 and 33. That is quite amazing.

And he was rather good for quite some time before that, too.

Should get Hingston in this thread, too, obv...
 

jot1

State Vice-Captain
I've been a big fan of his until he made some very negative comments about us during the World Cup. I felt he should have been cheering us on and, maybe, even giving good advice.
As a bowler there are very few his equal, so in that respect I will always rate him very highly.
 

Prince EWS

Global Moderator
Allan Donald is my favourite seam-bowler, bar none. Even Dominic Cork and Angus Fraser I didn't enjoy seeing have success as much as him.

I only became truly aware of him in 1998, but in that year and the following he was quite patently the best seamer around, even at the age of 32 and 33. That is quite amazing.

And he was rather good for quite some time before that, too.

Should get Hingston in this thread, too, obv...
Slightly off topic, but regarding Cork, I was "fortunate" enough to see highlights of him bowling during the Sky rain delay fill-in (which was ridiculously shown on Foxtel despite the coverage being delayed 4 hours..) and he didn't look anything like the medium-pace nibbler that people made out. He was reasonably tall and he seemed to be getting a lot more pace than he's been given credit for on this forum.
 
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BoyBrumby

Englishman
Slightly off topic, but regarding Cork, I was "fortunate" enough to see highlights of him bowling during the Sky rain delay fill-in (which was ridiculously shown on Foxtel despite the coverage being delayed 4 hours..) and he didn't look anything like the medium-pace nibbler that people made out. He was reasonably tall and he seemed to be getting a lot more pace that he's been given credit for on this forum.
He was quick enough (at least before his injury) for batsmen not to take liberties, but unfortunately he used to get a bit carried away sometimes and tried to bounce & york everyone out which made him far less effective than he could've been if he'd bowled more of his natural length.

WRT AAD I can't help but think he'd have been more fondly remembered if he'd done the decent thing like every other saffie seems to & played for us. (:p)
 

jot1

State Vice-Captain
WRT AAD I can't help but think he'd have been more fondly remembered if he'd done the decent thing like every other saffie seems to & played for us. (:p)
Well, at least he's willing to teach your lot, so think fondly of him, anyway.:)
 

Richard

Cricket Web Staff Member
Slightly off topic, but regarding Cork, I was "fortunate" enough to see highlights of him bowling during the Sky rain delay fill-in (which was ridiculously shown on Foxtel despite the coverage being delayed 4 hours..) and he didn't look anything like the medium-pace nibbler that people made out. He was reasonably tall and he seemed to be getting a lot more pace that he's been given credit for on this forum.
He was quick enough (at least before his injury) for batsmen not to take liberties, but unfortunately he used to get a bit carried away sometimes and tried to bounce & york everyone out which made him far less effective than he could've been if he'd bowled more of his natural length.
I agree with DB that he often overdid (still does, in fact) the short stuff but what injury do you speak of? :huh: To my knowledge Cork never had a serious injury in his career until 2003, when he (sadly) played half the season with a chipped bone in his ankle. :sick: Not sure what you're on with trying too hard to York everyone - the Yorker is one of his best balls and has earnt him some of his best and most spectacular dismissals. Can't see that he overdid it at all - if anything, later on he didn't really use it enough.

And regarding his speed, not sure how much you (more @ Rob now) saw of him back in t' day, but I think it's a real shame there were no accurate speedguns in 1995. He was never Donald-style pace or anything, that much is obvious, as even with Donald at 32 in 1998 he was outpacing all the Englishmen. But he was still mostly in the early 80s (late 70s at the slowest) (mph speak obv) in 2000 and I wonder how many people on this forum (esp non-Brits) have formed inaccurate impressions of his speeds. His speeds are probably little different to, for instance, Mohammad Asif or Glenn McGrath (for most of his career - remember he was still occasionally hitting 90mph in WC99).
 

silentstriker

The Wheel is Forever
Also loved his trash talk. Got into the head of Dravid and took his wicket, which is hard to do, and which I admire immensly.
 

BoyBrumby

Englishman
I agree with DB that he often overdid (still does, in fact) the short stuff but what injury do you speak of? :huh: To my knowledge Cork never had a serious injury in his career until 2003, when he (sadly) played half the season with a chipped bone in his ankle. :sick: Not sure what you're on with trying too hard to York everyone - the Yorker is one of his best balls and has earnt him some of his best and most spectacular dismissals. Can't see that he overdid it at all - if anything, later on he didn't really use it enough.
Surprised you don't remember as he's one of your favs; he did his back on the Pakistan tour of 00/01 and played none of the tests on that or the subsequent tour. Was never as effective after for mine.

WRT the yourker, I personally thought he overdid it on occasion as his best length (IMHO, obv) was always a fullish good length to allow the ball to swing, which was his major weapon.
 

The Sean

Cricketer Of The Year
A great, great fast bowler - stood out as one of the very best even in an era of great quicks.

FWIW, he shares the new ball with Trueman in my all time world fourth XI.
 

Richard

Cricket Web Staff Member
Surprised you don't remember as he's one of your favs; he did his back on the Pakistan tour of 00/01 and played none of the tests on that or the subsequent tour. Was never as effective after for mine.
Uh, yeah, don't know how I forgot about that... :wacko:

I'd disagree he was never again as effective: he was terrible in the summer of 2001, when he barely swung so much as a single delivery (though he wasn't alone there: that was the summer when they changed something in the manufacture which only seems to have changed back this season, and finally balls are swinging properly like they should do in this country again). But he was very much back to his best in 2002, and was very poorly used by the England selectors that summer: picked for Tests when he shouldn't have been, meaning he missed loads of domestic cricket he should have been playing, and perhaps had he played he'd have done better when he was picked for the Tests at the right time.

Then the following season, as I say, he chipped a bone in his ankle and, obviously, had his effectiveness reduced. After that, he moved from seam-friendly Derby to flat Old Trafford and I'd say that was a bad career move even if he'd had enough of the Derbyshire merry-go-round. Since he's gone to Lancs he's never looked like being the same bowler, really.
WRT the yourker, I personally thought he overdid it on occasion as his best length (IMHO, obv) was always a fullish good length to allow the ball to swing, which was his major weapon.
A Yorker allows the ball to swing, though. The swinging Yorker is more deadly even than the swinging good-length ball.
 

Matteh

Cricket Web: All-Time Legend
Always been a fan of Donald. Mostly for the sheer passion he clearly has and because he stuck out with his warpaint, plus he was a Warks. player. He's playing at the Warks. 125 anniversary game and i'll definitely be in attendence to watch the guy live.
 

Richard

Cricket Web Staff Member
Was thinking :blink: Mitchell posting in a thread like this? :blink:

Then I remembered the Warks connection. :)
 

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