Cricketers who have had a lasting impact on how the game is played.

[weldone]

SJS wrote a piece that rather disproves this notion: Cricket Web - Features: Bradman to Sehwag : Redefining Great Batsmanship by Defying Tradition (Part 1)

From that excellent piece from SJS, apparently the only thing that changed with Bradman is this:

"The world understood, over time, that while changing conditions may not alter the fundamentals of the game, the basics could be adopted and harnessed by talented individuals to obtain the best results under varying conditions. As conditions continue to change over time and vary greatly from one country to another cricketers need to be adaptive enough to add to the vocabulary of batsmanship even while remaining largely true to its basic grammar."

But the followings, which was the crux of Bradman's batting technique, didn't bring any immediate change:

"His fantastic early judgment and great footwork meant he drove almost everything he could reach from the crease or by jumping out which he did often to lesser pace because of his amazing early judgment of length and great footwork. And yes he pulled almost everything he couldn't drive but he did it again by fantastic early judgment of line and length and by moving fully back and across - quickly and decisively."

I don't think anyone in the 50s and the 60s imitated this with much success.

Of course, Bradman thought it was Tendulkar who played a bit like him (style-wise). Bradman made this remark watching the Tendulkar of the 90s. I have a feeling that he would have found that more in the Sachin of the last 3 years (2007-10), if he could see them. Not necessarily because Sachin too drives every ball he can and pulls the rest (which is not the case), but because Sachin, of late, has a very very simplified batting technique (or philosophy).

 

[Burgey]

Douglas Jardine.

 

[Top_Cat]

Dean Jones for pushing the gaps, hard-running, etc. in ODI batting although his contemporary Javed Miandad could lay claim to that one too.

 

[Athlai]

Hansie

 

[nightprowler10]

Bart King, surely. [/broken record]

 

[NUFAN]

Trevor Chappell.

 

[vic_orthdox]

Mike Gatting, for popularising the reverse sweep in Australia...

 

[Top_Cat]

Mike Gatting, for popularising the reverse sweep in Australia...

Good shout, got a whole country full of blokes who can play it about as well as Gatt.

 

[subshakerz]

Without wishing to detract from Warne's greatness, I think his actual influence on the world of spin bowling is perhaps over-rated. It's not as though there's been a crop of quality legspinners emerging after he did. There have been a few (Kaneria and a couple from India) but no more than there were before he emerged.

I agree with this. Spin bowling was not dead until Warne came, in fact it was quite popular in the subcontinent. Mushtaq, Kumble and Murali came around the same time Warne did. All Warne did was give spin bowling *** appeal in the Anglo countries, but even after he left he didn't leave a legacy.

You could make a far stronger case that Imran Khan had a bigger influence on pace bowling in the subcontinent. Until he came, there was no true express pace bowler of note, some saw it as a biological impossibility. And he had an actual legacy from the 2Ws, Shoaib, Amir, Zaheer, Malinga, etc.

 

[SJS]

Although it cant be said to have left a lasting impact on the game (in fact it is so rarely commented upon as to be not known amongst cricket fans today) but Sobers showed an amazing new type of aggresive batting.

Most batsmen who have an all round aggression by which I mean who will be aggresive towards, pace and spin alike, tend to cut, pull and hook marvellously and jump out to spinners to make good length a bit of a myth. Bradman is the epitome and the greatest example of such aggressive batting.

Sobers is the only, as far as I can think, great aggressive batsman in history who made a mockery of good length but never jumped out of the crease (or almost never).

Where as other great aggressive batsmen have, and still do, gone out to convert the good length ball into a half volley, Sobers went back and converted it into a short enough length to be driven of the backfoot with power and without risk. He wasn't doing it with the primary purpose of cutting down risk but because he was such a fantastic backfoot driver that he just found it so much more convenient and playing the ball so late gave him much better control over what he was doing.

I think in the famous innings of 256 against Lillee there is at least one shot where he drives even the faster bowler off the backfoot off a ball that isn't short and to which many batsmen would have gone forward in defense.

 

[BoyBrumby]

He's the highest test wicket taker, but Murali is the elephant in the room, isn't he? Regardless of what apologists say it was his unconventional action that was the driving force behind the current nonsense of a law on throwing we currently have.

 

[Daemon]

 

[SJS]

Did anyone mention Bosanquet ?

 

[BoyBrumby]

Did anyone mention Bosanquet ?

Indeed so. He was my first thought:

Two first examples I thought of were:

Bernard Bosanquet, progenator of the googly (or "The Bosie" as Richie always called it, after its creator). Bowled fewer than 1000 balls in tests, but def changed wrist spin forever.

Mark Greatbatch, averaged a tick over 30 in tests but was the first player to really make a go of "pinch hitting" in ODIs. Seems incredible it was only 18 years ago.

 

[vic_orthdox]

I agree with this. Spin bowling was not dead until Warne came, in fact it was quite popular in the subcontinent. Mushtaq, Kumble and Murali came around the same time Warne did. All Warne did was give spin bowling *** appeal in the Anglo countries, but even after he left he didn't leave a legacy.

You could make a far stronger case that Imran Khan had a bigger influence on pace bowling in the subcontinent. Until he came, there was no true express pace bowler of note, some saw it as a biological impossibility. And he had an actual legacy from the 2Ws, Shoaib, Amir, Zaheer, Malinga, etc.

What about Kapil?

And Warne's legacy isn't going to be straight away, but in the next generation. Coaching juniors, simply you see wrist spinners everywhere nowadays, and just spin in general is something that young kids grow up wanting to do a lot more than when even I was 7-10 years old, where everyone just wanted to bowl rapid like Dennis Lillee and Merv Hughes.

 

[Daemon]

What about Kapil?

And Warne's legacy isn't going to be straight away, but in the next generation. Coaching juniors, simply you see wrist spinners everywhere nowadays, and just spin in general is something that young kids grow up wanting to do a lot more than when even I was 7-10 years old, where everyone just wanted to bowl rapid like Dennis Lillee and Merv Hughes.

From personal experience, at junior levels, kids find it hard to make runs off spinners, usually due to the slow pace and inability to read spin. Most young bowlers turn to spin because it's less tiring and more rewarding, earning you bagfuls of wickets at a young age.

It's a different story when you move up the age group though.

 

[GotSpin]

And Warne's legacy isn't going to be straight away, but in the next generation. Coaching juniors, simply you see wrist spinners everywhere nowadays, and just spin in general is something that young kids grow up wanting to do a lot more than when even I was 7-10 years old, where everyone just wanted to bowl rapid like Dennis Lillee and Merv Hughes.

Agree. You could even argue that Steve Smith is the first of a generation that was highly influenced by Warne.

 

[Nate]

Kevin Pietersen, all of a sudden it was possible for ye poms not to be totally useless at cricket.

 

[GIMH]

Douglas Jardine

Douglas Jardine.

Get your own posts, ****.

 

[Days of Grace]

What about Kapil?

I'll give a shout out for Kapil Dev.

Proved that there could be such a thing as a successful Indian pace bowler. Also lead India to its world cup triumph in 1983, thus proving that India could indeed win major tournaments and one day become the best in the world...

No small legacy, that.