don't mind me, I'm a bit of a sentimentalist, I love turning back the clock and listening to stories about the oldies.
Did you see Barry Richards, Graeme Pollock, Colin Bland, Eddie Barlow and Proccie play?
Denny
Sorry I am answering here.
Yes I did - can remember the test against the Aussies at the Wanderers when Eddie Barlow was bowling and the Aussie captain missed 3 balls totally and Barlow took off his glasses and went to him offering it to him. He clean-bowled the guy next ball - classic.
I saw a variety of matches in which the above played on both test and provincial level . Always top class.
Can you remember the cricket commentary on radio of Charles Fortune?
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Oh alright......your name change is noted.
I didn't see those immortals but we won't go there....still, I'd give my eye teeth to have seen them.
Charles Fortune.....yes I remember him, smooth, eloquent....a story teller. There was always a butterfly or a bee intermingled with his commentary.
And today we stuck with Nntini....
Denny
Fortune - "It reminds me of that game in 1938 etc' He would carry on with the story and then came back to the game he was commentating about shouting "He's out - he's out" . Really funny to listen to him.
Ntini is not a commentators backside, I like Tony Greig and even and some of the West Indies commentators - but the rest are few and far between.
Charles Fortune on AM radio was a legend but of the modern day commentators I bow to the legend of commentators.....Richie Benaud.
Firstly the man's intelligence, his knowledge and understanding of the game and his one liners..... and then that dry sense of humour. Yet with all that and more he remained a humble man.
Respect!
Agreed totally with you about Benaud - he knew the game and knew what he was talking about, What was funny for me was that Greig shortly after re-admission in 1992 was tormenting the other Aussie commentators when commen tating on games involving SA.
Lucky man.
I believe Graeme was a stroke player, an accumulator of runs using plenty of wrist with little if not any use of his feet?
Richards was more of an aggressive player who had plenty of power......more like a Viv Richards style of player?
Colin Bland had the reputation of knocking over the stumps from the outfield and was a solid middle order player. I forgot to mention Denis Lindsay, besides being a fine keeper he was also a reliable middle order batsman.
Proccie I believe had absolute belief in himself and was pretty effective with either bat or ball?
All of them had wonderful technique.
Denny
You are indeed correct. about the issue of technique. Greig said on an interview that he had no chance to make the SA team at the time - that is why he left to play in England.
Unfortunately the issue of technique has in the past two decades taken a dip. If you look at absence of technique in recent SA teams to realize it, Non-existent in the cases of Graeme Smith and Elgar are just two of many examples. They would make very good runs until found out by the bowlers and then start to misfire.
However, despite everything else AB was the most exciting player I have ever seen batting,
So what can you tell me about Eddie Barlow? I know he was an opener and a good one at that but what was he style like and who would you compare him with?
The batting changed drastically when the ODI's came in and even more so when the T20I's came to the fore, Traditional batting tool a dive and what batsmen now do is regarded as outrageous by the old-timers who cherished batting styles of the past.
None of the classical batsmen of the past will make the top 20 batsmen in the world today.
Nice to go down memory lane - but is it realistic at present?
I was just making a point about changes in batting technique resulting from the ODI and T20I formats of the game. I would rate AB is the player with the most outrageous shots in world cricket ever. However, I think if Richards and Pollock was exposed to the shorter format of the game they would have been successful.
The most highly rated test players in SA in the thirty years was Wessels and Kallis - but both had one problem - their strike rates in ODI's were too low. Kallis for instance had a career strike rate of 71 which was too low to be really a top class ODI batsman. However - he was a tremendous all rounder since his bowling was very good - so an automatic choice for the ODI team. . .
"The most highly rated test players in SA in the thirty years was Wessels and Kallis..."
You are right about Kallis.....but Kepler....really??
Kepler Wessels
Test ODI
41 34.36
G. Smith
41.95 37.98
H. Gibbs
41.95 36.13
AB de Villiers
50.68 53.50