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When I Was Wrong!

nightprowler10

Global Moderator
I don't usually make such calls until I see the player play regularly, but I did deviate from that trend on two occasions where I was proved wrong. Kamran Akmal and Mohammad Asif. I had thought that in Akmal we had found the next Wasim Bari, only I expected Akmal to be better. I still remember his catch of Trescothick at Lahore in 05 like it was yesterday. Asif was the next Fazal Mahmood for me, but he's turned out to be the next Shoaib Akhtar instead.
 

GIMH

Norwood's on Fire
DOn't often make serious calls on players, that I can think of, as I am **** at gauging potential. Have made plenty of crass predictions about how players will perform in a particular series, but not at the start of a series, and obviously balls up regularly when predicting how a series will go. (Anyone remember my posts prior to the 06/07 Ashes? :ph34r:)

Would like to emphasise, though, that the reason I haven't ****ed up is because I lack the balls to make good predictions when a player starts out. If you recall me doing so, please tell me, as I am sure there have been such instances :D
 

aussie

Hall of Fame 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.
Word out, was 12 during that summer also..
 

aussie

Hall of Fame Member
It might very well have been a very close series had England actually had the same players that had been the pillar for the success for the previous 4 series before that summer. Thorpe missed the entire series (he was safely our best batsman at the time), Vaughan was injured, Captain Hussain missed a number of tests, White was effectively useless with the ball and Giles missed a chunk of the series. I do think England get a lot of bad rap for this series, and I dont honestly think that Australia were as good a side as the one that toured India in 2004. If England had perhaps played the Ashes the summer before, things might well have been very different IMO.
Australia may have just still won, but it wouldn't have been one-sided.

One of the biggest disappointments besides the injuries was how ineffective the Gough/Caddic partnership was with the new ball expect againts an Slater.

When McGrath/Dizzy had the ball it seemed a different pitch & condtions..
 

zaremba

Cricketer Of The Year
Ian Healy. I saw his sub-standard performance in 1989 and thought that he was never going to make it.

Oh and Shane Warne. I watched his debut at Sydney in 92/92, saw him get spanked by Shastri and Tendulkar, and thought he was doomed to failure.
 

archie mac

International Coach
Ian Healy. I saw his sub-standard performance in 1989 and thought that he was never going to make it.

Oh and Shane Warne. I watched his debut at Sydney in 92/92, saw him get spanked by Shastri and Tendulkar, and thought he was doomed to failure.
:laugh: Almost as bad as my call on Lara:)

I had already read that he was being played far to early and that he was one to watch, or I might have been of the same mind

Rodney Hogg (not the sharpest tool in the shed) said he would be an all time great after facing him in Grade cricket:)
 

Precambrian

Banned
Jason illespie. The first time I saw him in some ODIs against India, I thought "Another guy to be cleaned up from International cricket by Tendulkar".
 

Richard

Cricket Web Staff Member
Australia may have just still won, but it wouldn't have been one-sided.

One of the biggest disappointments besides the injuries was how ineffective the Gough/Caddic partnership was with the new ball expect againts an Slater.

When McGrath/Dizzy had the ball it seemed a different pitch & condtions..
Yeah Gough and Caddick went to pieces at just the wrong time (and it wasn't because Australia made them do it or played them massively differently - both had bowled far worse in the previous match against Pakistan than they had for a long time). Cork and White at least had the excuse that they'd had serious injuries since bowling brilliantly the previous summer (and in White's case winter), though both were still a huge disappointment. But Gough and Caddick just couldn't sustain themselves for what could potentially have been the biggest series of their careers. And indeed neither ever came close to the heights they'd recently been achieving again afterwards either. Gough of course was basically finished after that series, which was such a shame.

The change of ball that season didn't help matters either. Ball swung way, way less in 2001 than it had in 2000 and before, and it's only in the last 2 seasons that we've got properly swinging cherries back again. This wasn't a problem for McGrath and particularly Gillespie, with their exemplary seam-positions, but it was a problem for all of England's seamers, except Tudor very briefly and gloriously.
 

Richard

Cricket Web Staff Member
Ian Healy. I saw his sub-standard performance in 1989 and thought that he was never going to make it.

Oh and Shane Warne. I watched his debut at Sydney in 92/92, saw him get spanked by Shastri and Tendulkar, and thought he was doomed to failure.
You were far from alone on either count.

Among those who wrote-off Healy was Michael Atherton; among those who wrote-off Warne was Matthew Hayden. And many others less famous besides.
 

Lillian Thomson

Hall of Fame Member
When Christopher Martin-Jenkins first started commentating on the radio in 1973 he described Frank Hayes as the next Dennis Compton. He was probably patting himself on the back after Hayes's debut century but three years and 6 ducks in 15 innings later he probably revised his view - though I doubt he went and beat himself over the head with a damp copy of the Radio Times for voicing his original opinion.
 

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