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Players who retired too early.

GIMH

Norwood's on Fire
Stellar contribution, mate. Try reading the thread.
I’ve read the thread. I’ve also read CW for 16.5 years and Thorpe and Gower are highly rated, as they also are by people I talk cricket with away from here and at games.

The second part of your sentence was the same low grade trolling as the other day. It’s boring. I like you lad, you contribute well to discussions when you engage but you’re a really rubbish troll because you do it repetitively and just aren’t that funny when you do it.

So yes.
 

trundler

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I’ve read the thread. I’ve also read CW for 16.5 years and Thorpe and Gower are highly rated, as they also are by people I talk cricket with away from here and at games.

The second part of your sentence was the same low grade trolling as the other day. It’s boring. I like you lad, you contribute well to discussions when you engage but you’re a really rubbish troll because you do it repetitively and just aren’t that funny when you do it.

So yes.
Thorpe and Gower are genuinely underrated and no one ever mentions them when talking about great English players, or even picks them in drafts. One line in jest and you've gone off. Thanks for the drive by discussion killer.
 

BazBall21

International Regular
Without checking, I'd guess that his best performances from 1982 onwards were against Australia, so the downhill skiing accusation is a bit harsh to our antipodean cousins. Again without checking, I think he made some decent contributions against WI, apart from during the 1984 blackwash, when his batting won't have been helped by being captain.

As for being underrated, GIMH is right. Most discussions about England's best post-WW2 middle order normally include Gower, even he doesn't make the final cut.
Record against Richard Hadlee is exceptional. Three hundreds against him in his prime all at no3 but elsewhere he sometimes got sorted out against top quality attacks. Australia 1981, WI 1984, Pakistan 1987 etc. Brilliant player though and did well on both WI tours imo which obvs contradicts the suspicions he couldn’t get tough runs.
 

trundler

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Yeah agree that players should not be punished for playing too long during an evaluation of comparison.
And also think May and Compton’s reputations in England being so big is definitely helped by how good they were at home.
Going back to Cowdrey, I think I rate him over Dexter and Gooch for example.
Compton being England's biggest superstar alongside Hutton immediately after the War probably contributes more than any factor. That and perceived artistry. I think in terms of mass appeal only Botham has since come close from what I've read. May has a ridiculous peak ICC rating and as dodgy as those are that's probably indicative of something too.
 
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BazBall21

International Regular
Compton being England's biggest superstar alongside Hutton immediately after the War probably contributes more than any factor. That and perceived artistry. I think in terms of mass appeal only Botham has since come close from what I've read. May has a ridiculous peak ICC rating and as dodgy as those are that's probably inductive of something too.
Yeah what Denis did after the War was special.

May kept making big runs in low-scoring games around then. The Aus and SA series’ in the mid-50s. It’s why he scored highly during an exercise conducted on twitter a while back when someone divided players’ batting averages by the combined average of the other players (both sides) in the Tests in which they played. He was outstanding at home.
And yet while he was never a total home bully like Haynes/Warner he never reached those heights away.
 

Pap Finn Keighl

International Debutant
Richard Hadlee
Played 7 tests in his last year, averaged 34 with bat, took 35 wickets at 23+
Thats the equivalent of a batsman averaging 75 ?
 

trundler

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Yeah what Denis did after the War was special.

May kept making big runs in low-scoring games around then. The Aus and SA series’ in the mid-50s. It’s why he scored highly during an exercise conducted on twitter a while back when someone divided players’ batting averages by the combined average of the other players (both sides) in the Tests in which they played. He was outstanding at home.
And yet while he was never a total home bully like Haynes/Warner he never reached those heights away.
Our own @chasingthedon did a piece on impact runs and May featured fairly high on that one too. Whilst looking at his career I noticed that he played for only a decade though. May or Cowdrey is the classic brilliance or prolonged consistency dilemma I suppose.
Edit: here it is

Hanif has a very good rating too.
 

GIMH

Norwood's on Fire
Thorpe and Gower are genuinely underrated and no one ever mentions them when talking about great English players, or even picks them in drafts. One line in jest and you've gone off. Thanks for the drive by discussion killer.
Was posting about Thorpe this afternoon so erm not really drive by is it. You know full well I wouldn’t have batted and eyelid if you hadn’t stank out the Bairstow thread the other day
 

trundler

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Was posting about Thorpe this afternoon so erm not really drive by is it. You know full well I wouldn’t have batted and eyelid if you hadn’t stank out the Bairstow thread the other day
Grow a thicker skin mate. You've added nothing to the discussion so you're free to piss off.
 

AndrewB

International Vice-Captain
May kept making big runs in low-scoring games around then. The Aus and SA series’ in the mid-50s. It’s why he scored highly during an exercise conducted on twitter a while back when someone divided players’ batting averages by the combined average of the other players (both sides) in the Tests in which they played. He was outstanding at home.
And yet while he was never a total home bully like Haynes/Warner he never reached those heights away.
Combined average of all batsmen (1-7) in May's 66 Tests is 29.98 (or 25.29 for all players).
For comparison, the figure for Barrington's 82 Tests is 38.04 (or 31.85 for all players).
 

BazBall21

International Regular
Combined average of all batsmen (1-7) in May's 66 Tests is 29.98 (or 25.29 for all players).
For comparison, the figure for Barrington's 82 Tests is 38.04 (or 31.85 for all players).
I wonder how they would fare if their career timings were swapped more than I should do.
 

trundler

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May's standardized average shoots up to 54 according to PEWS's thing too. Barrington still out of reach at 62 though.
 

Starfighter

Cricket Web: All-Time Legend
Combined average of all batsmen (1-7) in May's 66 Tests is 29.98 (or 25.29 for all players).
For comparison, the figure for Barrington's 82 Tests is 38.04 (or 31.85 for all players).
Not so sure about the usefulness of that exercise. The fact that NZ had an absolutely appalling no-hoper side in 1959 who averaged 12 compared to England's 33 doesn't automatically make May better.
 

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