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Who is Sri Lanka's best ever cricketer?

Who is Sri Lanka's best ever cricketer?

  • Muttiah Muralitharan

    Votes: 34 81.0%

  • Kumar Sangakkara

    Votes: 3 7.1%

  • Mahela Jayawardene

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • Aravinda De Silva

    Votes: 4 9.5%

  • Chaminda Vaas

    Votes: 1 2.4%

  • Other

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Total voters
    42
smash84

smash84

The Tiger King
Pratters said:
When did I say that? I am saying that when we consider him the most devastating bowler at a time, it has to be taken with a pinch of salt.
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Dude, you seem to be changing the time period all the time.

But still. 14.5 at home and 21 away over 5 different countries is freaking outstanding over a period of 8 years
 
Pratters

Pratters

Cricket, Lovely Cricket
Imran's lbws

Away 21 out of 118 which is around 16%.
At the same time, his lbws at home is 38/118 which is 30%.
 
smash84

smash84

The Tiger King
Pratters said:
You think averaging 14.50 at home with an unhealthy amounts of lbws and 21 away during the same time is normal without influence of umpires?
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Did you see the reverse swing?

I know for a fact (having seen some myself) that some of those lbws were just fine.

You're being very disingenuous if you think all 38 of those lbws were not on merit.

Besides, everybody had partial umpires in those days. Aus, WI, India, England, NZ. Everybody
 
hendrix

hendrix

Hall of Fame Member
Pratters said:
Imran's lbws

Away 21 out of 118 which is around 16%.
At the same time, his lbws at home is 38/118 which is 30%.
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1. More LBWs in the SC due to lower bounce and reverse swing.

2. Are you accounting for plumb LBWs clear nicks not given in away tests? Because it was Imran himself who led the drive for neutral umpires.
 
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Pratters

Pratters

Cricket, Lovely Cricket
Lillee's average at home is actually the same as his overall career average. Imran averages 19.2 at home compared to the career average of 22.80 and an average in India of 28. Probably tells us more about the umpiring at the time than how devastating Imran was as a bowler at the time. Note - I am not saying he was not devastating or any thing. Just the home average of 14.50 looks alarming with the proportion of lbws. It's not ingenious. It's actually quite natural to question it, as is his difference in records in Pakistan and India, I might add.
 
viriya

viriya

International Captain
Pratters said:
For the sake of analysis, it has to be done for Murali. You cannot ignore it. So when you compare him with bowlers like McGrath and Hadlee and Lillee stating the average of 19, keep this in mind. Murali was a great but this is the worse line to show his greatness - that he averaged 19 for x period.

I mentioned O'Reilly yesterday. There is no way you can say Murali was greater than an O'Reilly or a McGrath or a Lillee conclusively. They are all greats in their own rights. Don't throw stats at me. Prove it with logic if you can and I might want to pay attention. What made Murali more dangerous than O'Reilly for example.

Also, for the record, the most lethal bowler for a period of time was possibly Waqar and not Murali. Waqar too 180plus wickets at 18.5 between 1990 and 1994. If you remove Zimbabwe, it is still 157 wickets at 19.30. Also, there have been people with better stats like Imran for a period but people who saw Waqar at the time widely acknowledge how devastating he was at the time. As I have mentioned million times, if you want people to take your points seriously, give explanations, not stats. Else it feels like a robotic or machine like interaction.
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You are saying don't use stats then you bring up averages. Bowling averages are deceving - it doesn't tell you the whole story. What's better - a bowling average of 21 with 7 WPM or one 19 with 5 WPM?

I would argue the former.

Without Ban + Zim, he averaged 20.87 @ 7 over 51 tests.. that is insane. Bill O'Reilly didn't manage anything close in his career.. Only legitimate counter is Barnes who only played 27 tests.
 
smash84

smash84

The Tiger King
Pratters said:
Lillee's average at home is actually the same as his overall career average. Imran averages 19.2 at home compared to the career average of 22.80 and an average in India of 28. Probably tells us more about the umpiring at the time than how devastating Imran was as a bowler at the time. Note - I am not saying he was not devastating or any thing. Just the home average of 14.50 looks alarming with the proportion of lbws. It's not ingenious. It's actually quite natural to question it, as is his difference in records in Pakistan and India, I might add.
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Interestingly, what is Lillee's average outside England and Australia?
 
viriya

viriya

International Captain
smalishah84 said:
Imran, not Waqar has the greatest post ww 2 peak of any bowler. Something like 150 wickets at 14 or something ridiculous like that. Also from 1980-1988 236 wickets at an average of little over 17 and a half.

From 1980 to 88 Imran has a better avg and sr than hadlee or marshall. So if you are a stats guy you might want to check this out :p. Does make for compulsive reading

Stats analysis: Imran Khan | Cricket | ESPN Cricinfo
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Imran definitely had an insane peak, but it didn't last long (<40 tests). I consider that period the greatest all-round peak of all-time.
 
Pratters

Pratters

Cricket, Lovely Cricket
viriya said:
You are saying don't use stats then you bring up averages. Bowling averages are deceving - it doesn't tell you the whole story. What's better - a bowling average of 21 with 7 WPM or one 19 with 5 WPM?

I would argue the former.

Without Ban + Zim, he averaged 20.87 @ 7 over 51 tests.. that is insane. Bill O'Reilly didn't manage anything close in his career.. Only legitimate counter is Barnes who only played 27 tests.
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Bill O'Reilly averaged 22.6 over his career actually. He was regarded as one of the best bowlers ever. But if you say, I will obviously have to believe he wasn't nearly as good as Murali because Murali had 800 wickets and Bill O'Reilly didn't.
 
viriya

viriya

International Captain
Pratters said:
Bill O'Reilly averaged 22.6 over his career actually. He was regarded as one of the best bowlers ever. But if you say, I will obviously have to believe he wasn't nearly as good as Murali because Murali had 800 wickets and Bill O'Reilly didn't.
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I consider Bill O'Reilly to be a top 15 player, but if you are looking for a career similar in length to his (27 tests), Sydney Barnes is a much crazier example. 16.43 @ 7.2 over 26 tests. And this isn't the Lohmann era of cheap wickets either.
 
F

Fuller Pilch

Hall of Fame Member
Pratters said:
Took 118 wickets in Pakistan @ 14.36 per wicket. 38 of those wickets were lbws. In the era of notorious home umpiring, I will take this record with an asterik.
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As a comparison Miandad was only given out lbw 8 times in 64 tests in Pakistan and 25 times in 60 tests away from Pakistan.
 
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