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Where Are the Legends?

Line and Length

Line and Length

Cricketer Of The Year
Since 1997, Australia Post has issued annual stamps to honour Australian Legends. Fittingly, Don Bradman was the first to be acknowledged that year. Since then we have had 6 Olympians, 14 tennis payers (Laver and Court in 2003 then 12 more in 2016 when they completely overlooked Lew Hoad!) 8 footballers (of different codes) and 6 associated with horse racing. In addition we have had writers (11), singers and others in the music industry (8), actors and TV stars (9), Chefs (5), Scientists and even 6 fashion designers. One year Dame Edna earned a whole set of 4 stamps for 'herself' plus one for Barry Humphries while in 2011 4 feminists including Germaine Greer were featured.
This year I was hoping we might see more sporting legends - either cricket or golf - but alas we have 4 comedians. Is it me but I don't find Magda Szubanski either funny or legendary.
If you were to select 6 cricketers (excluding Bradman) for a set of Australian Legends, who would they be? Perhaps 3 from a bygone era and 3 reasonably contemporary might be a good split.
 
Line and Length

Line and Length

Cricketer Of The Year
My selections would cover a number of eras:

Victor Trumper - In his second Test match appearance, in 1899 at Lords, he made 135. After that innings, the great English batsman W. G. Grace approached the Australian dressing room and presented Trumper with his own bat, declaring, "From the present champion to the future champion." That bat now belongs to the Australian Museum collection in Canberra. Trumper went on to be the first batsman to score 8 test centuries.

Bill Ponsford - Regarded by many as Australia's best ever opening bat. Between 1926 and 1928 his performances were Bradmanesque, scoring centuries in 10 consecutive first class matches. Only Bradman and Merchant have scored over 10,000 runs in first class cricket at a better average than Ponsford (13,819 at 65.18).

Alan Magilvray - Played several first-class seasons for New South Wales in the mid-1930s before becoming the doyen of Australian cricket commentators. He became identified as the voice of Australian cricket through his ABC radio broadcasts. He brought test cricket into thousands of Australian homes before the advent of TV.

Keith Miller - Was an Australian test cricketer and a Royal Australian Air Force pilot during World War II. Miller is widely regarded as Australia's greatest ever all-rounder. His ability, irreverent manner and good looks made him a crowd favourite. He, and England's Dennis Compton, became the pin-up boys of cricket after WWII.

Dennis Lillee - Rated as the outstanding fast bowler of his generation. Lillee was known for his fiery temperament, 'never-say-die' attitude and popularity with the fans. By the time of his retirement from international cricket in 1984 he had become the then world record holder for most Test wickets (355). This was despite numerous setbacks associated with back injuries.

Shane Warne - Widely regarded as one of the greatest bowlers in the history of the game. In 2000, he was selected by a panel of cricket experts as one of the five Wisden Cricketers of the Century, the only specialist bowler selected in the quintet and the only one still playing at the time.

I somewhat reluctantly overlooked Richie Benaud. He also deserves "Legend" status but, as these are suggestions for Australia Post's Australian Legends honour I felt that, being honoured with a stamp issue earlier this year for his contributions to broadcasting, he had already been acknowledged.
 
TheJediBrah

TheJediBrah

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Tom Flint said:
If Australia had Anderson for the last 10 years they might have been able to win a series in england
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as stephen will tell you, Anderson would have been lucky to even get a game if he was Australian given how ordinary he is in Australia
 
GoodAreasShane

GoodAreasShane

Cricketer Of The Year
Tom Flint said:
If Australia had Anderson for the last 10 years they might have been able to win a series in england
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Yeah Australia really could have used someone with an Ashes bowling average of 34.55, that's the sort of talent that would just make the entire team soooooooo much stronger
 
stephen

stephen

Cricket Web: All-Time Legend
Yeah nothing wrong with Australia's bowling attacks over the last decade. Perhaps they could have used different tactics but the talent has been good enough. Collapsing every time the ball moves off the straight has been the problem.
 
morgieb

morgieb

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Yeah in none of those Ashes series was our bowling collared. Rather our bats just **** the bed. It's not like Anderson's been that brilliant in the English Ashes Tests he's played either.
 
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