Selfish mother ****ers

[TheJediBrah]

To set Steve Waugh apart from the other selfish bastards is the fact that this was not something he did alone. He encouraged the whole team to play this way. He expected Ponting, Gilly and the other recognised batsmen to bat with the tail as normal and not try to protect them. So it was definitely not done to protect his average, rather it was done as some kind of tactic. Perhaps someone had recognised that once you start protecting the tail, you slow down scoring by a lot so that by the time you are out you have the same score but with a lot more wasted time.

I've often thought this. When a batsman goes about farming strike and protecting a tailender it always seems as though a lot of runs end up going to waste and they don't seem to really gain much.

 

[veganbob]

How Shane Warne is mentioned here mystifies me if we are still talking about players who cost their side the game. He is a massive douchebag but I almost literally can't think of anyone who was less likely to cost you a game.

Just as a side note, someone else had admitted to making that comment so you are verging on joining the tinfoil hat brigade if you still are accusing Warne. He has plenty of actual douchery to his name so no real need to pin anonymous comments on him.

Warne could have cost his team the world in 2003 but the team was too good. He got thrown out for cheating using drugs. If he had got caught earlier in his career he probably would not have taken many wickets. Easily the most selfish player given that if he played for another team his record wouldn't be as good as probably would have disgraced as the CHEAT he was.

 

[TheJediBrah]

Warne could have cost his team the world in 2003 but the team was too good. He got thrown out for cheating using drugs. If he had got caught earlier in his career he probably would not have taken many wickets. Easily the most selfish player given that if he played for another team his record wouldn't be as good as probably would have disgraced as the CHEAT he was.

Tell us how you really feel

 

[Burgey]

Warne could have cost his team the world in 2003 but the team was too good. He got thrown out for cheating using drugs. If he had got caught earlier in his career he probably would not have taken many wickets. Easily the most selfish player given that if he played for another team his record wouldn't be as good as probably would have disgraced as the CHEAT he was.

Ok

 

[vic_orthdox]

Honestly never thought Steve Waugh was selfish. His whole mode of operating as a leader was to encourage others to believe in their abilities.

I mean McGrath went from being a complete bunny to a more accomplished bunny during his career. Going from averaging 2 a season to averaging 10+ might not sound much, but it means he was batting 5 times longer later in his career than he was earlier.

In addition, Waugh's teams contained a tail of Gilchrist (!), Warne, Lee/Kaspa/Bichel, Gillespie and McGrath. There was never really cause to shield any of them from the strike, because all of them apart from McGrath all could have been legit #8s with the bat. Waugh's philosophy was to put his faith in them and from a team perspective it worked. Think Waugh has been unfairly tarnished as someone chasing the red ink when in fact he believed in his players.

It was a reputation established earlier, in the early and mid 1990s before he became captain.

 

[vic_orthdox]

I'm still peeved that Dean Jones is just being thrown into a team for no particular reason. Am I forgetting a particular reason that you could call him selfish?

Selfish person.

 

[Victor Ian]

Selfish person.

how?

 

[Red]

Warne could have cost his team the world in 2003 but the team was too good. He got thrown out for cheating using drugs. If he had got caught earlier in his career he probably would not have taken many wickets. Easily the most selfish player given that if he played for another team his record wouldn't be as good as probably would have disgraced as the CHEAT he was.

What drugs did he take?

 

[Furball]

Brian Lara's 400 not out

Great player and not sure if he has any other history of "selfishness" but that innings was a blatant a case of "**** the team and winning the Test, I want the record"

People who slam this innings always do a great job at missing its context.

The West Indies were 3-0 down having never been whitewashed in a home series. At the very least secure a draw and ensure England don't win 4-0.

Plus, no-one wants to live in a world where Matthew Hayden holds the record for Test highest score.

 

[quincywagstaff]

I've always had a high regard for Chanderpaul, but buggering off to an awards ceremony in the middle of your innings takes some beating.

Never knew about that Chanderpaul story before; that's hilarious.

The thing about Chanderpaul is that for all the success he had from mid-2000s onwards, did he ever play a Test innings that decided the course of a match positively for the Windies? I haven't checked it in detail but if memory serves even when Windies occasionally drew or won Shiv didn't play a pivotal innings.

 

[Furball]

Let's agree not to respond to one another moving forward thanks, I'm not sure if you're a young teenager or not, but I just don't have time anymore... I won't respond to you and I expect the same. Cheers.

If you could extend that courtesy to the rest of the forum that would be great.

 

[weldone]

Whats the criteria for a batsmen to be selfish... not taking risks? Batting for statistics? Not playing to the state of the game?

I really like that last definition. And for that reason, ultra-aggressive batsmen are as selfish as ultra-defensive ones for me.

If someone calls Kallis selfish because he was relatively slow, by the above logic Sehwag would be selfish too because he didn't really change his game when that was what the situation demanded.

TJB called Lara's 400* a selfish knock. I also think Tendulkar's 100th hundred against Bangladesh was a very selfish knock that cost us the game. That was probably the only time Tendulkar played selfishly in his entire career.

 

[S.Kennedy]

It did get a little unseemly, Tendulkar hanging around in the team for what seemed like an eternity just to get that silly record.

 

[sledger]

Tendulkar's last few years were a giant vanity project.

 

[quincywagstaff]

100% agree on Tendulkar; really should’ve finished up after the Oz 11/12 tour. And it wasn’t just that he went on too long but his attitude as well. I recall on that 11/12 tour he didn’t do one interview the whole tour which was strange because he was massively revered by the Oz cricketing public (and media) for his feats in Oz over the previous 20 years.

 

[TheJediBrah]

People who slam this innings always do a great job at missing its context.

The West Indies were 3-0 down having never been whitewashed in a home series. At the very least secure a draw and ensure England don't win 4-0.

Plus, no-one wants to live in a world where Matthew Hayden holds the record for Test highest score.

Context can only excuse so much. They weren't going to lose 4-0 after making 600+ in the first innings. There was no need to get 750. And it genuinely did cost them a big chance to win a Test

What drugs did he take?

Some form of diuretic

 

[Burgey]

100% agree on Tendulkar; really should’ve finished up after the Oz 11/12 tour. And it wasn’t just that he went on too long but his attitude as well. I recall on that 11/12 tour he didn’t do one interview the whole tour which was strange because he was massively revered by the Oz cricketing public (and media) for his feats in Oz over the previous 20 years.

One of my happiest cricketing memories was the abject disappointment and sadness on Jono's face when Tendulkar got out in the second innings of the Sydney test that series, caught off the bowling of Clarke of all people just when it looked like he might get the 100th ton. It was a beautiful, beautiful thing.

 

[OverratedSanity]

It did get a little unseemly, Tendulkar hanging around in the team for what seemed like an eternity just to get that silly record.

While it was pretty ****, he didn't hang around for the 100th 100. He played over a year after that ton.

 

[Daemon]

While it was pretty ****, he didn't hang around for the 100th 100. He played over a year after that ton.

Only in Tests though. After he got the 100th 100 in the Asia cup, he missed the next ODI series and then retired later in the year from ODIs without having played any since the Asia cup.

He almost certainly kept playing ODIs post WC because of that record.

 

[OverratedSanity]

Only in Tests though. After he got the 100th 100 in the Asia cup, he missed the next ODI series and then retired later in the year from ODIs without having played any since the Asia cup.

He almost certainly kept playing ODIs post WC because of that record.

Yeah I guess that's true. I don't personally think that was a big deal though.

It didn't really annoy me as much as his test retirement. Poor form for a full 18 months, had a home series against West indies conveniently and hastily organized so that he could get to 200 tests, at the expense of the SA tour which had to be cut short. Don't think it did the team any favors since Rahane had to play his first full series against the toughest attack in the world (although in a weird way it helped him to not debut at home).

Ghastly hairdo too.