Shane Warne - the myth

[Fuller Pilch]

John Traicos - 3 "home" tests for SA in 1970, then 22 years later played 3 home tests for Zim and 1 away test.

 

[Burgey]

John Traicos - 3 "home" tests for SA in 1970, then 22 years later played 3 home tests for Zim and 1 away test.

Great find, though I suspect the record he actually holds is having a 22 year test career and never actually playing away.

 

[Burgey]

... and have Darrell Hair umpiring.

You'd think the Australian sides from that era would have begged Hair not to no ball him so he'd keep bowling, preferably from both ends.

 

[honestbharani]

Great find, though I suspect the record he actually holds is having a 22 year test career and never actually playing away.

His "away" test for Zim was in South Africa?

 

[Burgey]

That's what I thought the post was saying, but reading back it doesn't say that at all lol.

I'm not sure why, but I had an idea he played some club cricket out here in the 80s or 90s too.

Edit: immigrated here post-cricket, as it turns out.

 

[honestbharani]

I think Traicos played against India once, though not sure if it was in India or Zim.

 

[Fuller Pilch]

Yeah he played a test in India.

 

[subshakerz]

I get annoyed with commentators calling Warne the greatest bowler ever or next to Bradman or something like that. So he is definitely overrated especially in the Western press.

Having said that, while I used to rate Murali ahead of Warne, I now lean in favor of Warne. Their overall records are close enough but Murali's entire game was defensive, containing the batsman, drying the runs and waiting for a wicket. He didn't have many answers when the batsman would counterattack. Warne was more naturally aggressive. This is a point that I have heard Lara, Sidhu and others point out.

'Murali was a very defensive bowler, I liked to attack' - Jayawardene - ESPN Video

Muttiah Muralitharan preferred to attack only when he felt in control, says former Sri Lanka captain Mahela Jayawardene

www.espn.com

 

[TheJediBrah]

I get annoyed with commentators calling Warne the greatest bowler ever or next to Bradman or something like that. So he is definitely overrated especially in the Western press.

Never heard that claim myself, and I've followed a lot of the "Western press". More that his personality and theatrics pushed him ahead of the rest more than just his ability.

 

[subshakerz]

Never heard that claim myself, and I've followed a lot of the "Western press". More that his personality and theatrics pushed him ahead of the rest more than just his ability.

I've heard plenty especially former English cricketers calling him that. And he was the only bowler in Wisden's 5 cricketers of the 20th century.

 

[vcs]

I guess you could call McGrath also defensive, if that's the case.

I think leg-spin is a harder art to master to the extent that Warne did it (though Murali is literally the only off-spinner I've seen bowl the way he did, so I'm not sure if that's a point in his favour), for me Warne wins comfortably on aesthetics. But I don't think Murali was inherently the more defensive bowler (if he was, you also have to account for the fact that Warne was backed up by much superior bowlers so could afford to be more attacking).

 

[_00_deathscar]

I've heard plenty especially former English cricketers calling him that. And he was the only bowler in Wisden's 5 cricketers of the 20th century.

They would though, since none of them knew how to handle Warne.

 

[TheJediBrah]

Important to note that Wisden is pretty English-focused, and I'd almsot say that Warne was more of a celebrity there than in Aus

 

[Lillian Thomson]

The Wisden Cricketers of the Century was a joke for many reasons. Of the 100 member panel 28 were English and included idiots like Derek Pringle. They were allowed 5 votes each. No one could bring themselves to not vote for Bradman, but many of the 10 who didn't vote for Sobers admitted it was because he was bound to get in anyway and they wanted to include a personal favourite. Hence the likes of Pelham Warner and Lance Gibbs got a vote.

 

[trundler]

Worrell and Imran not making it is simply baffling.

 

[Burgey]

Worrell and Imran not making it is simply baffling.

Imran did make it. He tied 10th with Hadlee

 

[ankitj]

Imran didn't. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wisden_Cricketers_of_the_Century

 

[Burgey]

See above.

 

[OverratedSanity]

He didnt make the top 5 but he did make the list

1.​	Sir Donald Bradman	100​
2.​	Sir Garfield Sobers	90​
3.​	Sir Jack Hobbs	30​
4.​	S. K. Warne	27​
5.​	Sir Vivian Richards	25​
6.​	D. K. Lillee	19​
​	Sir Frank Worrell	19​
8.​	W. R. Hammond	18​
9.​	D. C. S. Compton	14​
10.​	Sir Richard Hadlee	13​
​	Imran Khan	13​
12.​	S. M. Gavaskar	12​
13.​	S. F. Barnes	11​
​	Sir Leonard Hutton	11​
15.​	W. J. O'Reilly	10​
16.​	I. T. Botham	9​
17.​	H. Larwood	6​
​	R. R. Lindwall	6​
​	S. R. Tendulkar	6​
20.​	R. Benaud	5​
​	G. A. Headley	5​
​	Kapil Dev	5​
23.​	R. G. Pollock	4​
​	W. Rhodes	4​
​	V. T. Trumper	4​
26.​	T. G. Evans	3​
​	M. D. Marshall	3​
​	Wasim Akram	3​
29.​	Sir Alec Bedser	2​
​	C. V. Grimmett	2​
​	F. S. Trueman	2​
​	F. E. Woolley	2​
33.​	C. E. L. Ambrose	1​
​	K. C. Bland	1​
​	A. R. Border	1​
​	B. J. T. Bosanquet	1​
​	B. S. Chandrasekhar	1​
​	I. M. Chappell	1​
​	Lord Constantine	1​
​	A. A. Donald	1​
​	A. P. Freeman	1​
​	L. R. Gibbs	1​
​	M. A. Holding	1​
​	C. H. Lloyd	1​
​	S. J. McCabe	1​
​	B. Mitchell	1​
​	K. S. Ranjitsinhji	1​
​	M. W. Tate	1​
​	Sir Pelham Warner	1​

 

[trundler]

You could make 5 lists of people who should've been there ahead of Warne.

Was talking about the top 5.