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When I Was Wrong!

Richard

Cricket Web Staff Member
Don't worry - IIRR there's little more than 15 years or so between yourself and Mister Brumby.
 

Uppercut

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:laugh:

I may be a tad older than most of you guys but in '34 was not even a twinkle in my father's eye - and even if I had been as he was a devout Hampshire man he had worries of his own until 1961
So how were you led so badly astray? :ph34r:
 

fredfertang

Cricket Web: All-Time Legend
So how were you led so badly astray? :ph34r:
Well aged 4 he moved me from a location from where Hampshire would have been my natural calling to the middle of Lancashire and when I started showing an interest in the game he did nothing to dissuade me from becoming a Lancashire supporter - you may think that is poor parenting - I would agree but I am the victim and have been caused years of stress and anxiety as a result of which I am the dysfunctional individual you lot now have to put up with ...............

..............I wonder if there's anyone I can sue?
 

Richard

Cricket Web Staff Member
Aye, I did. Fortunately it turned-out not to do him any long-term harm (or, at least, appears not to have done).

Didn't exactly do well in the Tests in Australia though did he? Certainly would've been better for his record if he didn't play.
 

Precambrian

Banned
Aye, I did. Fortunately it turned-out not to do him any long-term harm (or, at least, appears not to have done).

Didn't exactly do well in the Tests in Australia though did he? Certainly would've been better for his record if he didn't play.
I don't think he'd be the same bowler he is now, but for the initiation by fire in Australia. Made him hard and confident to be successful anywhere. And getting Ponting, arguably he best test batsman then, would give him a bucketload of confidence to be successful against any batsman.
 

G.I.Joe

International Coach
Aye, I did. Fortunately it turned-out not to do him any long-term harm (or, at least, appears not to have done).

Didn't exactly do well in the Tests in Australia though did he? Certainly would've been better for his record if he didn't play.
But not for his bank balance :p
 

Richard

Cricket Web Staff Member
I don't think he'd be the same bowler he is now, but for the initiation by fire in Australia. Made him hard and confident to be successful anywhere.
You know, I actually thought this about him when I first saw him - back in 2006 on the India u19s tour of England where I watched these two games. He struck me as already better than most seamers I'd seen play for India (and he had not even quite turned 17 at the time), and clearly with more potential than anyone bar Munaf Patel. Much of this was to do with his height and the ability he already had (Walsh-esque) to move the ball in as a rule but out without any discernible change of action. But he also had the impressive quality of being obviously level-headed.

My only hope was that he wasn't rushed. He was, a bit, but as I say, it doesn't seem to have done him any long-lasting damage, though he clearly still had a bit to learn in his early Tests.
And getting Ponting, arguably he best test batsman then, would give him a bucketload of confidence to be successful against any batsman.
He's done that since too!
 

Precambrian

Banned
You know, I actually thought this about him when I first saw him - back in 2006 on the India u19s tour of England where I watched these two games. He struck me as already better than most seamers I'd seen play for India (and he had not even quite turned 17 at the time), and clearly with more potential than anyone bar Munaf Patel. Much of this was to do with his height and the ability he already had (Walsh-esque) to move the ball in as a rule but out without any discernible change of action. But he also had the impressive quality of being obviously level-headed.

My only hope was that he wasn't rushed. He was, a bit, but as I say, it doesn't seem to have done him any long-lasting damage, though he clearly still had a bit to learn in his early Tests.

He's done that since too!
I think you are a bit trying hard to defend your statement. :)

There is absolutely no point in thinking that he was initiated early, because even though stats say otherwise, he did a splendid job in Australia. His tiff with Ponting, which he won by a mile and then some, instilled the confidence in other bowlers that they could also get the Aussies out in their backyard. And Tendulkar did a similar job with the bat, which marked the superb comeback from Indians at Perth and Adelaide which they carried onto the ODIs.

I confess that I didn't also expect him to do a good job in Australia. I fancied Pankaj Singh ahead of Ishant. Glad I was proved wrong.
 

Richard

Cricket Web Staff Member
Regardless of the fact he may have had some amount of positive impact on the series, the fact is he didn't actually do all that well overall - and India did lose the series, so any positive impact was decidedly limited.

I'd still prefer it, all in all, if he'd debuted at a later date. Even now he's still more promise than deliverance - sure, his part in the Mohali victory was important, but he only took 4-110. His 7-114 in the previous game (only the second really impressive performance he's put in in a Test, the Kanpur game against SA being the other) was of course a more against-the-tide effort.

Don't get me wrong, I rate Sharma as a bowler of massive potential but I don't think the Tests he's had so far will do him all that much good. Though if he goes well in the remaining 2 Tests this series I'd be quite happy to say he merited selection from the start of this series onwards.
 

Richard

Cricket Web Staff Member
Well, a 3 year contract for $900,000 per year would definitely have been adequate compensation for a poor statistical record initially. :p
You think? I reckon he'd have had that (and much at a later date) in no time anyway.

Unlike match figures, which are with you forever, money keeps coming and is only good.
 

Tom Halsey

International Coach
- Really thought England may have won the Ashes in 2001
Yes, same, believed the hype that year.

Thought Simon Jones would get pasted by the Aussies in 2005, not sure if I posted that on here or not.

Thought Ian Bell would have a very good Test career indeed.
 

Richard

Cricket Web Staff Member
Anyone under the age of 20 (that is, as of the start of that series, not now) I defy to have not believed England had a damn good chance in 2001 (I was 15 that summer BTW).

Sadly, no-one ever budgets for injuries, nor the number of dropped catches there were in the opening 2 Tests of that series.
 

Prince EWS

Global Moderator
Thought Simon Jones would get pasted by the Aussies in 2005, not sure if I posted that on here or not.
Haha yeah that's one I forgot that I'll definitely put my hand up for. I said something like "If England persist with selecting Jones over Anderson, they have no hope of winning the Ashes" on another forum. No-one dug it, thank god. :p
 

Richard

Cricket Web Staff Member
ITBT, while I was far from keen on Anderson, I certainly wasn't expecting Jones to have anything like the success he did at Old Trafford at Trent Bridge. That truly came, if not quite out of nowhere (as he'd demonstrated he could bend the ball around corners before), then certainly out of the blue. Until that series I'd never thought of him as all that good.

Many Australians badly underestimated him as well, I recall social being particularly vocal.
 

Lillian Thomson

Hall of Fame Member
Enjoying reading this thread:laugh:

It has jogged my memory; when Mark Taylor played his first Test against the WI was bowled by a yorker off a no-ball, and was very late on it. A few runs later he was bowled by another yorker and again he was very late on it. I wrote him off for the 1989 Ashes tour

I think he scored 800+ runs:wacko:

The England attack that summer consisted entirely of 4th seamers at Test level (based on their ability at the time with Botham and Dilley past it) except maybe for Angus Fraser and he was just starting out.
 

Manee

Cricketer Of The Year
I don't think he'd be the same bowler he is now, but for the initiation by fire in Australia. Made him hard and confident to be successful anywhere. And getting Ponting, arguably he best test batsman then, would give him a bucketload of confidence to be successful against any batsman.
Indeed. Prior to Australia, Ishant was terribly raw and came along leaps and bounds in that tour.
 

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