Polls don’t mean zilch. I remember McGrath vs Marshall poll on this very forum where McGrath got like 8 votes vs Marshall’s 30.. Anyone who follows cricket knows gap between the two isn’t significant (if there is any gap at all in the first place)..
It's true that any given poll on anything doesn't have to be the right answer. It's also true that any given poll can be far away and totally off the money.
But generally, with a relatively large source of votes, and without any bias involved, it will tend to lead you to the truth, most of the time.
My gut feeling about the posters here, is that 95+% of people are generally well educated cricket fans, who give an honest opinion.
I'm still new to the game here, and in a short time I've felt like I've learnt a lot, particularly regarding reflecting each players value to the team
in comparison to their opponent, and weighing up as many bits and pieces as possible. When I saw the Kallis/Border comparison I immediately
thought Kallis, but after reading all the comments etc I actually knew it was much closer than my initial reaction, so that thread in particular has
made me change views and thoughts on initial reactions.
The fun part for me is to try and back the winner, place your bets and then see what others have to say on the issue.
Don't think I have backed a loser yet, although Kallis /Border ended in a draw I believe. However if I see a poll where the figures are more than 2/1
against, I'll certainly think I'm wrong and will look forward to all the comments as to why my thoughts were astray.
So to say that these polls mean ZILCH is a tad unfair to all the decent posters here.