Watto to retire from international cricket

[dontcloseyoureyes]

**** off marc you annoying ****.

 

[Black_Warrior]

If LO specialists were given a bit more attention and respect in Australia, he would have been hailed as one of the very best ever to play for Australia.

 

[vic_orthdox]

Only caveat it's worth adding from those numbers is his bowling workload was around half a full stint per game so raises the issues of doing both at the same time. Still impressive but not being treated as a frontline bowler as such.

How many teams in modern day ODIs bowl only five players these days though?

 

[Burgey]

Saw an article saying he's gone out ranked as the number one T20 all rounder. Handy tstl.

Probably not seen a more maligned Australian player in my time watching tbh. Have been guilty of having more than a few cracks at him myself. Fair to say he's been a gun LO player and had quite a few good moments in tests as well. I wish he hadn't been injured in 06/07 and had the chance to bat six behind that line up when he was establishing himself instead of moving around the batting order a lot to cover up weaknesses in the years following that series.

 

[Prince EWS]

Only caveat it's worth adding from those numbers is his bowling workload was around half a full stint per game so raises the issues of doing both at the same time. Still impressive but not being treated as a frontline bowler as such.

How many teams in modern day ODIs bowl only five players these days though?

Here's how many overs per match the other Australians bowled in that time period:

JJ Krejza - 8.85
CJ McKay - 8.67
XJ Doherty - 8.56
BW Hilfenhaus - 8.42
B Lee - 8.32
DE Bollinger - 8.30
RJ Harris - 8.28
JW Hastings - 8.27
MG Johnson - 8.27
NW Bracken - 8.27
GD McGrath - 8.23
SW Tait - 8.04
NM Hauritz - 7.88
PJ Cummins - 7.67
B Laughlin - 7.47
SR Clark - 7.37
GB Hogg - 7.36
PM Siddle - 7.36
JR Hopes - 6.27
SR Watson - 5.59
SPD Smith - 4.96
A Symonds - 2.54
DJ Hussey - 2.25
MJ Clarke - 1.79
AC Voges - 1.67
CL White - 0.58

So it's fair to say he wasn't always a frontline bowler, but 'half a stint' undersells him too. All those players down to Siddle were definitely playing as specialist bowlers and together they averaged around 8 overs per match, which means Watson was getting through 70% of the quota of the average frontliner.

It wasn't so much that he was always bowling that much less than a full quota either -- in 14 games he didn't bowl at all due to injury, meaning he averaged 6.65 overs per game when he was playing as an allrounder which is getting pretty close to full quota territory, and in those games he still averaged 47 with the bat.

 

[mr_mister]

lol Krezja our workhouse

 

[Jono]

Took another deliciously handsome douchebag in Kohli to end the deliciously handsome douchebag Watto's career.