Sorry what i failed to write was: I think the ODI format of teh game has caused this positive effect … coz this game is tilted towards Batsmen so a WK who can bat a bit helped his team to have a deep batting order … guess this ned of teh hour effected that more and more upcoming WK spent some thoughts/time about their batting abilities …
I haven’t done a reaserch on how WK stats look like after the ODI format became popular but would like to do this in a few days to see whether my guess/thinking is based on facts or not
On the basis of the levels of fruitful discussions presented in this thread by quite a number of distinguished Cricketnama members and rather opening a brand new thread where we would have to start from scratch, I thought I might as well bring this one back from oblivion and present this excellent article on the role of Wicket-Keeper batsman published on CricInfo dated May 22nd, 2006.
No doubt about it. We can't compare a single keeper from today's lot to the games greats like Dujon, Bari and Rashid. I know there were others as well in Black and White days but I can't recall names other than these which I loved to watch in 80s and 90s.
^ I second that, personally I myself enjoyed Saleem Yousuf's keeping the most. He was very quick, considering Imran Khan and Wasim Akram throwing thunderbolts at 90mph. His batting in B&H tournament 1987 was pure entertainment.
