Who faced easiest bowling attacks and conditions?

[ankitj]

Taking a leaf from a discussion in another thread, I thought I will put up this poll. I am naming following 5 batsmen that span more than last 100 years between them:

Jack Hobbs
Don Bradman
Garry Sobers
Viv Richards
Sachin Tendulkar

By no means, am I suggesting that these 5 have to be the best 5 of all time, but they are an easy choice because they form a near continuum with minimal overlaps; one starts his test career when his predecessor ends his. I want to know, if we were to normalize their batting averages, who do you think will get his average knocked down by maximum %? Exactly how much is a matter of speculation but let's see who CW thinks had it easiest among these. Consider both the general playing conditions in their days, and the specific oppositions they played against (Viv never faced Marshall, Bradman never faced O'Reilly, Hobbs never faced Barnes etc).

PLEASE NOTE: Don't knock me down for having an agenda. I am not out to prove Tendulkar is better than Bradman; I don't consider Tednulkar even the second best batsman and don't usually pick him in my AT world XI, so that's out of question (if you have followed my posts in past, you'd know it). This is a very genuine question and I am hoping for some healthy discussion. *fingers crossed*

 

[salman85]

I picked Tendulkar to piss you off,and then i read the OP

On a serious note,i'd say Bradman had the easiest time of the lot.Yeah,sue me cricket world.

 

[ankitj]

i picked tendulkar to piss you off,and then i read the op :d

LOL

My poll question should read - "Who among these faced easiest bowling attacks and batting conditions?" Any mod to edit?

 

[BlazeDragon]

Say what you want about attacks but if there is on thing Bradman did not face its easy conditions. The era he batted on was nothing but a bowler friendly era.

 

[salman85]

Did bowlers wear scary masks and have tear gas coming out of the balls as they were delivered?

 

[The Sean]

I imagine Bradman would take the biggest hit, and would thus go from being 45 points ahead of the rest of them to merely 40 points better.

 

[four_or_six]

LOL

My poll question should read - "Who among these faced easiest bowling attacks and batting conditions?" Any mod to edit?

Is that right now? I nearly changed it to easiest batting attacks and bowling conditions.

 

[Prince EWS]

The stats I just did in the other thread tend to suggest it was Richards. The attacks the others faced on average all stack up pretty close.

Sobers - 34.79
Hobbs - 35.04
Tendulkar - 35.32
Bradman - 36.16
Richards - 39.29

I really cbf explaining how I got those figures, and they're probably not exactly what you think they are, but the timing of this made me post it anyway. All in all it's a pretty useless post.

 

[Howe_zat]

Say what you want about attacks but if there is on thing Bradman did not face its easy conditions. The era he batted on was nothing but a bowler friendly era.

Really? Find that very hard to believe.

 

[Furball]

Say what you want about attacks but if there is on thing Bradman did not face its easy conditions. The era he batted on was nothing but a bowler friendly era.

Nah. Bradman and his contemporaries probably faced the easiest batting conditions there's ever been.

 

[ankitj]

Is that right now? I nearly changed it to easiest batting attacks and bowling conditions.

 

[ankitj]

Nah. Bradman and his contemporaries probably faced the easiest batting conditions there's ever been.

Hope that is not sarcastic because I took some pains to clarify my intentions

 

[BlazeDragon]

Nah. Bradman and his contemporaries probably faced the easiest batting conditions there's ever been.

Your missing a smiley in your post at the end.

 

[Furball]

Hope that is not sarcastic because I took some pains to clarify my intentions

Not sarcastic at all.

 

[The Sean]

Nah. Bradman and his contemporaries probably faced the easiest batting conditions there's ever been.

I'd argue that a lot of the past decade would give it a run for its money, but yeah - for the most part, bat pretty clearly dominated ball in the '20s and '30s.

 

[fredfertang]

Nah. Bradman and his contemporaries probably faced the easiest batting conditions there's ever been.

They did indeed, till it rained

 

[Ikki]

There's not much in it between them. Certainly not enough to take off 20-30% of a certain batsman's average off

 

[BlazeDragon]

Say what you want about attacks but if there is on thing Bradman did not face its easy conditions. The era he batted on was nothing but a bowler friendly era.

Forget that. I just took a closer look at the stats. Australia and England had very good batting stats. The other teams were bringing the overall average down. But they were all minnows back then from what it looks like.

 

[Agent Nationaux]

Tendulkar is facing pretty mediocre bowling on batting wickets at the moment. However during his career in the 90's he was facing some of the toughest bowling in better bowling friendly wickets.

Therefore Tendulkar's career must be split up into the different parts.

 

[zaremba]

Bradman faced some pretty good bowlers. Their Test averages were perhaps a bit dented by playing so much against him and the rest of the outstanding Aussie batting of the era, but Larwood, Voce, Verity, Tate, Wright, Bedser and Farnes were pretty useful.