The Cricket Thread

[Sniffer]

Good show by Matthew Potts to take 10 wickets (and counting) in the game between Leicestershire and Durham. Perhaps needed a break for the last two tests of the summer but he's had a cracking season.

 

[Paddingtonwolf]

Somerset lead approaching 200 at tea with 6 wickets in hand. Maybe they might go for it a bit more now.

 

[Deutsch Wolf]

Good show by Matthew Potts to take 10 wickets (and counting) in the game between Leicestershire and Durham. Perhaps needed a break for the last two tests of the summer but he's had a cracking season.

Bags of promise. Needs to learn how to bowl to left handers though, it's a major flaw for him at the moment.

 

[Deutsch Wolf]

Match figures of 13-101

 

[Deutsch Wolf]

Thought for the evening:

Was Graeme Hick unfairly pilloried in the 1990s (when bowling attacks were arguably stronger, and pitches arguably more difficult than they are now)?

His Test record:

65 Tests, Ave 31.32, 6 x 100s, 18 x 50s

Vs Ollie Pope (who I think we would all want to keep in the team for a long time to come):

30 Tests, Ave 31.00, 2 x 100s, 9 x 50s

 

[Tony Towner]

No, 65 Tests for an average of 31 is poor, as is 1 100 per 10. Needs to be 35 to be worth your place without being great and closer to a ton every 5 or 6 Tests - although Atherton did rob him of one.

Hick's biggest issue was the expectation that came with his eventual qualification. He was held to a high level and struggled to cope with it mentally. One of the many saviour's of English cricket

 

[North Shropshire Lad]

Hick's downfall I think was his brilliance away from test match cricket. If he'd have been as bang average as most, the expectations in an England shirt wouldn't have been as great. In fairness, he was probably in the wrong place at wrong time but will I'm sure look back himself and wonder quite why it didn't work out for him. I think mental toughness in an era when such things were dismissed all too easily probably played a part. A legend at New Road though and rightly so.

EDIT: Tony types quicker and seems to agree.

 

[Deutsch Wolf]

Management was crap then too. I mean we didn't even technically have a permanent captain, they were only officially announced ahead of a series. Athers had absolutely no say in selection for his whole time in charge. Very easy to have two bad games in a row and you'd be dropped, brought back, dropped again.

He was very much undervalued in ODIs which we were awful at back then. Averaged 37 with the bat and 34 with the ball. Played 120 of them as well. Excellent record.

 

[sycophantia]

Another problem for Hick was he had to wait 7 years(?) to play test cricket, probably missed quite a few of his best years when he was on fire

 

[Deutsch Wolf]

He was 25 when he made his debut, so maybe missed 3-4 years tops.

First game against an attack of Ambrose-Patterson-Walsh-Marshall. At 90s Headingley as well. I mean Marshall was almost at the end (as was Patterson, as it turned out) but that's some starter question.

 

[Tony Towner]

He was 25 when he made his debut, so maybe missed 3-4 years tops.

First game against an attack of Ambrose-Patterson-Walsh-Marshall. At 90s Headingley as well. I mean Marshall was almost at the end (as was Patterson, as it turned out) but that's some starter question.

No, he's right it was 7 years 84-91. He'd have been picked in 86 if he were English

 

[Deutsch Wolf]

No, he's right it was 7 years 84-91

The qualifying period is right - but England were never ever going to call up an 18 year old batsman in 1984, were they.

 

[Tony Towner]

The qualifying period is right - but England were never ever going to call up an 18 year old batsman in 1984, were they.

They would have in 86

 

[Paddingtonwolf]

Which is where the four years really starts isn’t it?

 

[Tony Towner]

If you want to lose one. The point being there were 4-5 years where all cricket fans said when this guy gets into the team he'll be brilliant. When he did he couldn't cope with it. May have benefited him more if they could have fudged the system back then like they did with Archer more recently.

 

[Paddingtonwolf]

I definitely agree on once we were into 87 and 88. There was clamour for him to be allowed in and rightly so.

 

[Tony Towner]

He scored 2k Championship runs in 1986 - not going to pretend that isn't Wiki assisted though. We lost home series' to India and NZ that Summer so he'd have been picked at some point I'd have thought

 

[Paddingtonwolf]

Middle order in 1986? Gower, Gatting, Smith, Lamb?

We had good players there although.

Edit Smith is wrong. Put Botham after Lamb and the point stands!

 

[Tony Towner]

Middle order in 1986? Gower, Gatting, Smith, Lamb?

We had good players there although.

Edit Smith is wrong. Put Botham after Lamb and the point stands!

Wilf Slack, Mark Benson and Chris Smith all played Tests that Summer. Bill Athey was eventually moved up to open

 

[sycophantia]

No, he's right it was 7 years 84-91. He'd have been picked in 86 if he were English

Wow, Ive never been right before