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Natural talent vs hard work

$achin_rockz

Cricket Spectator
Hi everyone, this forum looks like a great place to discuss so I joined. Hi, Im from the UK, 17 years old and love cricket, I support England.

As my first thread I'd like to hear your guys thoughts on who you think are the most 'naturally gifted' batsmen and those who you believe have worked hardest for their skills. I started thinking about this when in the Times Sports supplement this week there was a compasison between Ponting and Vaughn, I'm of the opinion that Vaughn is less naturally gifted than Ponting however that does not make him less of a batsmen on the contrary, he may just have had to work harder to get where he is.

So what do you guys think, who are the most naturally gifted batsmen?
 

Link

State Vice-Captain
Vaughan less gifted then Ponting?? Aw man, obviously you did not watch the last ashes series. Also how do you propose to measure natural talent, in that is it distuinguishable from learnt things
 

SpeedKing

U19 Vice-Captain
Most all batsmen at test level have loads of natural talent but if you are looking for batsmen who are hardworkers and had to work to absolute limt of their ability to make runs, you cant find much better than Hussain and Richardson. I cant think of any other batsmen who had rather minimal talent [in comparison to other batsmen, excluding any Bang and most Zimbos batemen] but used it so effectively
 

cricket player

International Debutant
SpeedKing said:
Most all batsmen at test level have loads of natural talent but if you are looking for batsmen who are hardworkers and had to work to absolute limt of their ability to make runs, you cant find much better than Hussain and Richardson. I cant think of any other batsmen who had rather minimal talent [in comparison to other batsmen, excluding any Bang and most Zimbos batemen] but used it so effectively

Why excluding zim and bag,they have some very hard working cricketers and talented as well, :)
 

SpeedKing

U19 Vice-Captain
because i dont really know alot about their players apart from the obvious ones like Taibu, the Flowers, i cant think of anyone else
 

SpeedKing

U19 Vice-Captain
Langeveldt said:
Most naturally talented, probably Shahid Afridi..

Hardest worker, Gary Kirsten..
Most talented, current between Gayle and Afridi, All time, the obvious 1 "the Don"

Hardest worker-i said Hussain, but ATM, between Thorpe or Kallis.

all time maybe Boycott
 

kendall

U19 Vice-Captain
Tendulkar and Lara being the best batsmen of the generation are clearly the most talented. Mark Richardson was the obvious hard worker. Kallis and Thorpe are very hard workers but they obviously have a lot of talent aswell.
 

Sir Redman

State Vice-Captain
International cricketers who say that cricket is 99% hard work don't know what they are talking about, since they are the ones with all the natural talent. Yes, Mark Richardson had to work extremely hard to become a good batsman but he does have natural talent. He has naturally got massive powers of concentration and a good work ethic - these are natural talents.You cannot face 150 km/h bowling and not have natural talent - the reaction speed necessary to do that is far too high for someone who does not naturally have fast reactions.
 

Link

State Vice-Captain
yeah your right, but in realation to gifted talent, he is lowest in the pecking order in international cricket. the man has lots of limitations. he does play OD cricket for his county team.So when you compare him to someone who has shots like gilchrist or flintoff, then you see what they mean
 

Blaze

Banned
I read an article on Michael Clarke and it looks as if he worked extremelly hard but he is also naturally gifted..
 

Sir Redman

State Vice-Captain
Link said:
yeah your right, but in realation to gifted talent, he is lowest in the pecking order in international cricket. the man has lots of limitations. he does play OD cricket for his county team.So when you compare him to someone who has shots like gilchrist or flintoff, then you see what they mean
Yes I know players like Gilchrist are rediculously gifted. I just think that some players - Richardson for example - are extremely gifted with their ability to concentrate and work hard. Some people just do not have the natural ability to concentrate for long periods of time, whereas Richardson can do that naturally.
 

Son Of Coco

Cricket Web: All-Time Legend
Sir Redman said:
International cricketers who say that cricket is 99% hard work don't know what they are talking about, since they are the ones with all the natural talent. Yes, Mark Richardson had to work extremely hard to become a good batsman but he does have natural talent. He has naturally got massive powers of concentration and a good work ethic - these are natural talents.You cannot face 150 km/h bowling and not have natural talent - the reaction speed necessary to do that is far too high for someone who does not naturally have fast reactions.
Maybe what they're saying though is that there's a lot of people about with talent, but it takes a lot of hard work to get to the top. There's not a person in the world born capable of handling 150km/h deliveries from the outset I'd imagine, it'd be something you'd become accustomed to handling through hard work and discipline.

I'm basically trying to say it's a combination of both...in a long-winded way. A bit of natural talent helps, but it'll only get you so far without hard work. (Mark Phillipoussis is a prime example of this in the tennis arena)
 

tooextracool

International Coach
oh commone, how in the world someone can mention chris gayle as being talented and then not mention sachin tendulkar who is arguably the most talented player ever is beyond me.
 

tooextracool

International Coach
SpeedKing said:
Most talented, current between Gayle and Afridi, All time, the obvious 1 "the Don"

Hardest worker-i said Hussain, but ATM, between Thorpe or Kallis.
err kallis? the hardest worker?
despite the fact that he has one of the best techniques around and is capable of playing every shot in the book?
 

Son Of Coco

Cricket Web: All-Time Legend
tooextracool said:
err kallis? the hardest worker?
despite the fact that he has one of the best techniques around and is capable of playing every shot in the book?
that doesn't mean he's not the hardest worker though...
 

tooextracool

International Coach
Son Of Coco said:
that doesn't mean he's not the hardest worker though...
presuming the definition of hardest worker is someone whos not naturally gifted and therefore had to work more for his runs than someone who is, then hes certainly not.
 

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