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Originally posted by funguy:
And if cricket was unable to produce FIVE batsmen who could play well outside of off balls, cricket would have actually died in 1800's.
Sambs, your statement is purely based on Mc Grath's One-Day bowling. He is a different animal in test cricket. Since one-day cricket is designed to be a batsman's game (2 fielders outside the circle restriction and 5 fielders always inside after the 15 overs) a bowler's only option to keep the batsmen in check is to bowl off or outside of off line. Also, anything an inch down the legside is called wide anyway. So you can not blame McGrath for chosing off line. This is the deck he has been dealt with and he has to make the best out of it.
Have a watch at his bowling in the Caribbeans or against England in test matches. He bowls VERY aggressively and brings the bowl upto batsman's chest area quiet frequently.
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Couldn't agree more.
McGrath is a top class act. Anyone would love to open their bowling with McGrath. If I were to make a World XI team, it would inlcude McGrath. His strategy may bore the mass amount of the audience, but what matters is he gets wickets at a very low rate (isn't that what a bowler should do!?).
The problem with McGrath is, he doesn't get much plublicity, mainly because Warney is hogging all the media attention with his antics, and Brett Lee with his pace bowling.
"Chicken Legs" may even be deemed "under rated" by far, with all the ego's in the Australian lineup. McGrath got headlines after his verbal abuse incident.
Personally, I find each country tries to raise the ego's of their players, in order to pyschologically bring down opposing players.
Some players I find to be over rated are:
Sehwag - Time will tell for this guy to be compared to the standards of Tendulkar. (as previously mentioned by other members).
Shane Bond - True, he may be the most efficient bowler for the Kiwi's, there is still more for him to show. (I may be asking too much from Bond.. Shane Bond).
Vaughan - It's very obvious, that a man who hit runs after runs because One Day Captain the next day. His name wasn't even mentioned EVER to take over the captaincy after Hussain.
Shahid Afridi - He may do nothing to raise his plublicity, but his bat says all. Afridi knows that the fans love sixers, and it's the fans that make the rating whether your over or under.
Naseer Hussain - Being Test captain has given him "Lord" status in England. After being captain he has been getting praises after praises but never performed with the bat.
