Who is your favourite cricketer?

[Choora]

AS far as my fav is concerned, my avatar says it all

There is another great Indian guy who is yet to play test cricket, he's already one of my big favourites8D

 

[V Reddy]

There is another great Indian guy who is yet to play test cricket, he's already one of my big favourites8D

Balaji :P

Mine are Sehwag and Ramprakash.

 

[Gotchya]

Imran Khan no second thoughts...or were there, he was a hero in my child hood days

 

[Rik]

That's what they're saying in the ICC about Bangladesh's Test status.... (except they might have really been drunk)

It's been said at many times for many reasons for many years...

 

[artvandelay]

For me, it has to be "the man"...Imran Khan

Followed closely by Wasim Akram

 

[vandemataram]

my all time favourite player as a bowler would be the best swing bowler ever born: wasim akram.

Not sure about "ever", for now we have Nehra , the "young Akram" , & if he can continue with the impressive performance which he displayed during the WC, then we might see another legendary left armer in the game!

 

[vandemataram]

BTW, my fav's are Gavaskar, Dravid, Ravi and Nehra!

 

[PY]

Hailing from Essex 'n all, I have to go for unarguably one of the greater England batsmen.....Graham Gooch. Scored a couple of quality first-class tonnes while I was watching in Colchester and that 333 for England v India was rather majestic in a powerful way.

 

[Mr Mxyzptlk]

This is just a side note but it just popped into my head. IMO, Mongia and Taufiq Umar time the ball so well when playing straight. It's quite nice to watch.

Lol. Ignore this comment. It's just me bored.

 

[Neil Pickup]

Not sure about "ever", for now we have Nehra , the "young Akram" , & if he can continue with the impressive performance which he displayed during the WC, then we might see another legendary left armer in the game!

Yeah, and if Andy Bichel continues we'll have another Botham...

And if Andy Symonds keeps averaging @ around 100...

Do you seriously believe that Nehra can challenge Wasim?

 

[royGilchrist]

we should keep a track of who has been getting the most votes, looks like Imran, although for that everyone must only select one player.

Strange no one chose Miandad There havent been many unique individuals like that in cricket ever, I remember that one time in New Zealand, he was standing next to the square leg umpire, and Martin Crowe (?) played a defensive shot on the leg side. The ball went close to Miandad, and Crowe came out of his crease a bit as many batsmen do after playing a shot when there is no close in fielder. Miandad casually and calmly grabbed the ball, made it look like as if he was throwing it to the mid on fielder, and then threw the ball, no-look, towards the batting stumps. Martin Crowe did not realize what happened until the ball had went by the wicket, I think he was looking for the ball in the hands of the mid on fielder. They shwoed the replay and the ball missed by a few inches with Crowe well out of his crease.

It was a dead test match with no result in sight, but everyone got a good chuckle out of it, none more than Miandad. I think he had seen Crowe walk out of his crease after playing the shot on previous occasions, and was looking for an opportunity.

Ironically the other player I can think of is Lillee (the incident with the apple, and the betting on a the 'followed-on' match) who might be close in terms of the antics and unique personality of Miandad. Cant think of another at the moment.

I guess I will cheat a bit and choose a couple of more players as well...

Abdul Qadir - No bowler has been more artistics (not sure how to explain this), more stylish, maybe Holding.

Michael 'whispering death' Holding - For the above mentioned reason, even though I did not see that much of him, thats why I would hope they would make Mohammad Akram play more so we could see someone similar.

Azharuddin and Mark Waugh - Most daring and most stylish batsmen respectively.

Gus Logie - Im not sure no one else will have this He was so unusual on the field though, diminutive with everyone so much taller than him, and the best outfield fielder I have ever seen, also a weird batting style.

God, I miss the old WI flair so much these days, current WI dont have it and no one else does either...

 

[Rik]

I have fleeting memories of Botham as quite a character...

 

[Anil]

All-time favourite 3 batsmen, 3 bowlers, 1 fielder and 1 all-rounder from each team(My list contains only players who were playing/have played from when I first started following cricket):

India:

Batsmen: Sunil Gavaskar, Sachin Tendulkar, Gundappa Vishwanath
Bowlers: Kapil Dev, Javagal Srinath, Zaheer Khan
Fielder: Mohammed Azharuddin
All-rounder: Kapil Dev

Australia:

Batsmen: Ricky Ponting, Greg Chappell, Allan Border
Bowlers: Dennis Lillee, Glenn McGrath, Shane Warne
Fielder: Ricky Ponting
All-rounder: No one really

West Indies:

Batsmen: Clive Lloyd, Viv Richards, Brian Lara
Bowlers: Malcolm Marshall, Michael Holding, Curtly Ambrose
Fielder: Gus Logie
All-rounder: No one really

England:

Batsmen: David Gower, Graham Gooch, Geoff Boycott
Bowlers: Ian Botham, Darren Gough, Bob Willis
Fielder: Derek Randall
All-rounder: Ian Botham

Pakistan:

Batsmen: Javed Miandad, Zaheer Abbas, Inzamam Ul-Haq
Bowlers: Imran Khan, Wasim Akram, Abdul Qadir
Fielder: Salim Malik
All-rounder: Imran Khan

New Zealand:
Batsmen: Martin Crowe, Stephen Fleming, Nathan Astle
Bowlers: Richard Hadlee, Shane Bond, Chris Cairns
Fielder: Most of the New Zealanders are fantastic fielders
All-rounder: Richard Hadlee

Sri Lanka:

Batsmen: Aravinda DeSilva, Arjuna Ranatunga, Roy Dias
Bowlers: Muthiah Muralitharan, Chaminda Vaas, that's about it
Fielder: Muthiah Muralitharan
All-rounder: No one really

 

[Langeveldt]

LOL!! I only asked for one name!!!!!

But i feel compelled to add my two cents -

Format = Fave batsman then fave bowler, then anyone else I like!


AUSTRALIA- Mark Waugh, Stewart MacGill, Glenn McGrath

ENGLAND - Michael Vaughan, Ashley Giles, Jimmy Anderson, Alec Stewart

INDIA - Sachin Tendulkar, Zaheer Khan

NEW ZEALAND - Stephen Fleming, Shane Bond, Chris Cairns

PAKISTAN - Saleem Elahi, Mushtaq Ahmed, Shoaib Akhtar

WEST INDIES - Ricardo Powell, Curtley Ambrose

ZIMBABWE - Grant Flower, Neil Johnson, Murray Goodwin, Andy Flower, Heath Streak

SOUTH AFRICA - Herschelle Gibbs, Allan Donald, Charl Langeveldt, Fanie De Villiers, Nicky Boje, Hansie Cronje, Lance Klusener, Brett Shultz, Neil McKenzie

 

[royGilchrist]

Anil: My list contains only players who were playing/have played from when I first started following cricket

Hey Anil...You must be really old, to have seen Don Bradman play

 

[royGilchrist]

Yeh Botham was a character, but in those days living in Pakistan there was no cable access, and we only got to see matches involving Pak, and typically with Pak Botham was always in a ****ed off mood, never upto any antics, just a lot of bad blood.

 

[royGilchrist]

wow talk about 'iron fisted' censorship

 

[Ringua]

Its difficult to limit the option to just one player, but if that is the case then i would probably go for Imran khan , for he was a champion both as a player and as a captain.I mean who could have imagined a team with just 3 extraordinary players in Imran, Javed and Abdul Qadir matching the great West Indies team of the 80's?? (back then W's were not in Pak team) It was Imran who taught the team to play like tigers, and had Imran not played for Pakistan, then i have a fairly good idea what Pakistan pace attack would have been during all these years, probably as good as Indias!


Others that i can think of are VIV Richards, probably the most destructive batsmen ever and Sachin Tendulkar whose dedication to his game is remarkable!

 

[Eyes_Only]

In no particular order

D Bradman
G Sobers
J Garner
V Richards
B Brown
K Miller
B Woodfull
S Tendulkar
I Healy
J Rhodes
R Hadlee
S Fleming
S O'Donnell
R McCosker (He is the guy who had his jaw smashed in the Centernary Test and was born and raised in the same town as me)
L Klusener
The Waughs
The Chappells
F De Villiers
A Donald
D Pretouris
A Blignaut
And too many more to name! :P

 

[R_Powell_fan]

there are quite a few.......but...
Ricardo Lloyd Powell
Ramnaresh Sarwan