The Unpopular Cricket Opinions Thread

[Gollum]

Here are mine:

 

1. We were losing Chepauk 2004 against Aussies, final day rain saved us there. That team was extremely fragile in 4th innings chases and we were up against an ATG unit at the peak of its powers.

 

2. 2003 tour to Aus is over rated. Without Mcgrath very little joy in getting a drawn series there.

 

3. 2005 Ashes is bloody over rated. The 2 wins England got were in both tests that Mcgrath wasn't a part of. Without Mcgrath that great Aussie team wasn't that intimidating tbh. 

 

4. In the 90s I felt Lara was a better ODI batsman than SRT. Only attitude and laziness prevented him from establishing himself as the GOAT batsman later on. 

 

5. Murali, Saqlain, Bhajji and Ajmal have befitted greatly because of leniency w.r.t chucking rules. Without doosra all of them weren't that good. We need to give more credit to Swann, Ash and Lyon for having clean actions and being so successful without the doosra.

 

6. Kumble was our MVP in tests for a large part of his career. While we had the fab 5 and what not, without Kumble we would have been a minnow level team for greater part of 90s-2007 era. 

 

7. In ODIs Kohli is clearly inferior to SRT. In tests it doesn't even warrant a comparison.  Had to make this point in light of media's tamasha over this the last year or so.

 

8. Bradman is the GOAT batsman in test cricket and any comparison with others is blasphemy, kinda similar to Major Dhyan Chand's status in field hockey. Viv is the ODI GOAT and the gap between him and no 2 (SRT) is quite big.

 

9. Ishant Sharma is actually a good test bowler who is genuinely unlucky. Last cycle he won us Lord's and gave us the Wellington test on a platter only for others to screw it up.

 

10. Vijay is our number 1 overall test batsman, Che is number 2, Kohli only 3rd best.

 

11. KL Rahul is potentially our best batsman, even better than Kohli. He is the only one who can give Lord Smith a run for his money.

 

12. Cook is a legend, Anderson is a legend, Swann is a legend. All 3 are undisputed ATGs. 

 

13. Graeme Smith is at least as good as Kallis, Sanga, Dravid. Best opener since Sunny, even better than Cook, Hayden and Viru.

 

14. Kallis is the GOAT cricketer. Also most under rated cricketer of all time, no praise is high enough for this man.

 

15. Dhawan is the number 1 ODI batsman presently, his stellar performances in ICC tourneys alone warrant his name in discussion among ATG ODI bats. 

 

16. SA team from 2006-15 deserves as much respect as WI and Aus. They went undefeated overseas all these years, an almost unthinkable feat.

 

17. Zak is over rated, Srinath was much better than him. Also during his peak years (2007-10) he was more often than not outbowled by Ishant, Sressanth, RP etc.

 

18. Saha is the best pure keeper I have ever seen and he must have debuted at least by 2012, Dhoni had no business staying on for so long.

 

19. IPL is an abomination and should be cut down to size. 

 

20. Greg Chappell was actually a good coach. I believe Kirsten reaped the benefits of the hard decisions made in the Chappell era. 

 

I will add more when I get time. Post your opinions. 

 

 

[beetle]

Point 9....bhuvi took 6 important wkts too so Ishant did not win it.

He performed very well along with bhuvi.

 

Point 19...ipl is the best thing to happen to Indian cricket in recent times.

We have got good players who have got recognition because of ipl.

[bhakum20]

Asif is/was the best bowler since Mcgrath retired, not Steyn

[Gollum]

3 minutes ago, beetle said:

Point 9....bhuvi took 6 important wkts too so Ishant did not win it.

He performed very well along with bhuvi.

 

Point 19...ipl is the best thing to happen to Indian cricket in recent times.

We have got good players who have got recognition because of ipl.

It's ok, just my opinion I may be wrong . That's the point behind this thread, write opinions you feel strongly about but may be in minority view or just plain and simple wrong. Please share your honest opinions however ludicrous they may sound to others . 

[goose]

1. India needed 220 to win with Sehwag teeing off and you think rain saved US? 

Edited December 29, 2017 by goose

[Gollum]

1 minute ago, goose said:

1. India needed 220 to win with Sehwag teeing off and you think rain saved US? 

Sehwag has mostly been mediocre in 4th innings chases and by law of averages he was due for a failure after his 150 in the 1st dig. How many times have you seen Viru firing in both innings of a test match? That pitch was crumbling apart and that Indian team fared much worse against lesser attacks on day 5 Indian pitches, eg Udal 2006, Bangalore 2005...... Besides you probably don't remember the high quality bowling by Aus that series, I have never seen our batsmen made to feel so helpless by a visiting team. 

[goose]

2 minutes ago, Gollum said:

Sehwag has mostly been mediocre in 4th innings chases and by law of averages he was due for a failure after his 150 in the 1st dig. How many times have you seen Viru firing in both innings of a test match? That pitch was crumbling apart and that Indian team fared much worse against lesser attacks on day 5 Indian pitches, eg Udal 2006, Bangalore 2005...... Besides you probably don't remember the high quality bowling by Aus that series, I have never seen our batsmen made to feel so helpless by a visiting team. 

Why not pray for the whole test to be rained off in that case?

[Gollum]

4 minutes ago, goose said:

Why not pray for the whole test to be rained off in that case?

I didn't get you.

 

We could have chased 120-130 on that final day pitch, 220 was way beyond reach. Remember how we huffed and puffed our way to get 130 in Chepauk 2001. And in that series we had prime SRT, peak Dravid, peak Laxman while Aussie bowlers weren't as deadly as they were in 2004. Also we were riding a high wave of confidence in 2001 coming from the GOAT test in Eden Gardens, in 2004 we were coming from a massacre in Bengaluru. 

 

I would have been sadder had we broken the Martyn-Gillespie partnership earlier and got a modest target of below 130, only for rain to wash out complete day 5. But looking back I am happy because if not for rain we were heading to Mumbai facing a whitewash at home.

[goose]

I am utterly astonished at your stance on this. Sehwag had just hit 155 in the 1st innings and had raced to 12 (3 boundaries) in the 2nd innings and you are happy the match was abandoned? We'll never know what would have happened but as an India supporter I don't understand how you could be happy the game was rained off. It was heartbreaking.

[goose]

3 hours ago, Gollum said:

Here are mine:

 

1. We were losing Chepauk 2004 against Aussies, final day rain saved us there. That team was extremely fragile in 4th innings chases and we were up against an ATG unit at the peak of its powers. Disagree. Sehwag was well on his way.

 

2. 2003 tour to Aus is over rated. Without Mcgrath very little joy in getting a drawn series there. Disagree. The Aussies still had an aura then despite the odd change in personnel. Again why bother tuning in at all?

 

3. 2005 Ashes is bloody over rated. The 2 wins England got were in both tests that Mcgrath wasn't a part of. Without Mcgrath that great Aussie team wasn't that intimidating tbh. See above. 

 

4. In the 90s I felt Lara was a better ODI batsman than SRT. Only attitude and laziness prevented him from establishing himself as the GOAT batsman later on. Counter factual

 

5. Murali, Saqlain, Bhajji and Ajmal have befitted greatly because of leniency w.r.t chucking rules. Without doosra all of them weren't that good. We need to give more credit to Swann, Ash and Lyon for having clean actions and being so successful without the doosra. Agree

 

6. Kumble was our MVP in tests for a large part of his career. While we had the fab 5 and what not, without Kumble we would have been a minnow level team for greater part of 90s-2007 era. Minnow is a stretch, we had some of the all time batting greats. But yes you do need 20 wickets to win a game.

 

7. In ODIs Kohli is clearly inferior to SRT. In tests it doesn't even warrant a comparison.  Had to make this point in light of media's tamasha over this the last year or so. Agree. To compare players across eras, you have to compare them to their peers. 

 

8. Bradman is the GOAT batsman in test cricket and any comparison with others is blasphemy, kinda similar to Major Dhyan Chand's status in field hockey. Viv is the ODI GOAT and the gap between him and no 2 (SRT) is quite big. Disagree on both counts. Smith averaging 82 in 1st innings has demonstrated that statistics alone can leave plenty to be desired. Bradman was also very unorthodox. Bradman's average is largely a function of his 2nd innings average of 104. That indicates a very different approach to the second innings versus modern test cricket. 

 

9. Ishant Sharma is actually a good test bowler who is genuinely unlucky. Last cycle he won us Lord's and gave us the Wellington test on a platter only for others to screw it up. HAHAHAHA

 

10. Vijay is our number 1 overall test batsman, Che is number 2, Kohli only 3rd best. We'll know in 18 months. 

 

11. KL Rahul is potentially our best batsman, even better than Kohli. He is the only one who can give Lord Smith a run for his money. No idea

 

12. Cook is a legend, Anderson is a legend, Swann is a legend. All 3 are undisputed ATGs. Great players, England legends (not sure about Swann). Certainly none are ATGs

 

13. Graeme Smith is at least as good as Kallis, Sanga, Dravid. Best opener since Sunny, even better than Cook, Hayden and Viru. South Africans in general are underrated so you may have a point here.

 

14. Kallis is the GOAT cricketer. Also most under rated cricketer of all time, no praise is high enough for this man. He is in that tier of batsmen along with Ponting who crept up on us through sheer weight of runs. They were not always so highly regarded. Tendulkar had no records whatsoever when Wisden rated him second only to Bradman. But love his understated approach to the game.

 

15. Dhawan is the number 1 ODI batsman presently, his stellar performances in ICC tourneys alone warrant his name in discussion among ATG ODI bats. I have a problem with any player that can't do it in tests with exception of Yuvraj

16. SA team from 2006-15 deserves as much respect as WI and Aus. They went undefeated overseas all these years, an almost unthinkable feat. That's a stretch. Underrated perhaps but not on par with Aus and WI come on.

 

17. Zak is over rated, Srinath was much better than him. Also during his peak years (2007-10) he was more often than not outbowled by Ishant, Sressanth, RP etc. HAHAHA in his second incarnation was the best left armer if not best swing bowler in world. Holds my respect for going to Worcestershire and returning twice the bowler. Meanwhile Ishant is taking selfies dressed in Nigerian leather.

 

18. Saha is the best pure keeper I have ever seen and he must have debuted at least by 2012, Dhoni had no business staying on for so long. Dhoni rated the best keeper in world by many certainly to spin bowlers. 

 

19. IPL is an abomination and should be cut down to size. Agree. T20 is cannibalising test cricket the greatest format

 

20. Greg Chappell was actually a good coach. I believe Kirsten reaped the benefits of the hard decisions made in the Chappell era. Yes and no. Good coach but not for india. 

 

I will add more when I get time. Post your opinions. 

 

 

 

Edited December 29, 2017 by goose

[gattaca]

No 2004 test if Gillespie can survive close 180 deliveries from top spinners like Bhajji and kumble on 4th day pitch. We could easily win the match. You should see a match to make a guess. The pitch was slow had no bounce and less turn. Chennai 2001 was a different pitch. You can’t compare pitches which are 2 years apart make a deduction.

[gattaca]

How is cook a legend lost ashes 4-0 in 2014 while kohli scored lot of runs against same attack. Again scored nada in the matches that matter in the 2017 ashes. He gets scottt free ? This bending over for goras is appalling. He can’t handle the pressure of ashes simple and can’t bat against good fast bowlers. He had major problems against McGrath and Stuart Clarke their is video made a Aussie fan on how to dimisss cook shows his technical issues while he started.

 

Edited December 29, 2017 by gattaca

[Unleashed]

2 hours ago, Gollum said:

Here are mine:

 

1. We were losing Chepauk 2004 against Aussies, final day rain saved us there. That team was extremely fragile in 4th innings chases and we were up against an ATG unit at the peak of its powers.

 

2. 2003 tour to Aus is over rated. Without Mcgrath very little joy in getting a drawn series there.

 

3. 2005 Ashes is bloody over rated. The 2 wins England got were in both tests that Mcgrath wasn't a part of. Without Mcgrath that great Aussie team wasn't that intimidating tbh. 

 

4. In the 90s I felt Lara was a better ODI batsman than SRT. Only attitude and laziness prevented him from establishing himself as the GOAT batsman later on. 

 

5. Murali, Saqlain, Bhajji and Ajmal have befitted greatly because of leniency w.r.t chucking rules. Without doosra all of them weren't that good. We need to give more credit to Swann, Ash and Lyon for having clean actions and being so successful without the doosra.

 

6. Kumble was our MVP in tests for a large part of his career. While we had the fab 5 and what not, without Kumble we would have been a minnow level team for greater part of 90s-2007 era. 

 

7. In ODIs Kohli is clearly inferior to SRT. In tests it doesn't even warrant a comparison.  Had to make this point in light of media's tamasha over this the last year or so.

 

8. Bradman is the GOAT batsman in test cricket and any comparison with others is blasphemy, kinda similar to Major Dhyan Chand's status in field hockey. Viv is the ODI GOAT and the gap between him and no 2 (SRT) is quite big.

 

9. Ishant Sharma is actually a good test bowler who is genuinely unlucky. Last cycle he won us Lord's and gave us the Wellington test on a platter only for others to screw it up.

 

10. Vijay is our number 1 overall test batsman, Che is number 2, Kohli only 3rd best.

 

11. KL Rahul is potentially our best batsman, even better than Kohli. He is the only one who can give Lord Smith a run for his money.

 

12. Cook is a legend, Anderson is a legend, Swann is a legend. All 3 are undisputed ATGs. 

 

13. Graeme Smith is at least as good as Kallis, Sanga, Dravid. Best opener since Sunny, even better than Cook, Hayden and Viru.

 

14. Kallis is the GOAT cricketer. Also most under rated cricketer of all time, no praise is high enough for this man.

 

15. Dhawan is the number 1 ODI batsman presently, his stellar performances in ICC tourneys alone warrant his name in discussion among ATG ODI bats. 

 

16. SA team from 2006-15 deserves as much respect as WI and Aus. They went undefeated overseas all these years, an almost unthinkable feat.

 

17. Zak is over rated, Srinath was much better than him. Also during his peak years (2007-10) he was more often than not outbowled by Ishant, Sressanth, RP etc.

 

18. Saha is the best pure keeper I have ever seen and he must have debuted at least by 2012, Dhoni had no business staying on for so long.

 

19. IPL is an abomination and should be cut down to size. 

 

20. Greg Chappell was actually a good coach. I believe Kirsten reaped the benefits of the hard decisions made in the Chappell era. 

 

I will add more when I get time. Post your opinions. 

 

 

I agree with most of your points however-:
1) You're underrating Kohli here, whilst he's not better than Sachin but the difference between them isn't that great particularly due to the fact that Kohli has single handedly won more matches in ODI than Sachin ever did, although Kohli has played in a much more superior team.

2) Pujara is horrendously overrated as a test batsmen. Great in home conditions, but has done nothing overseas, I'm hoping that change until than Kohli remains our best batsman.

3) Anderson and Cook are ATG. Swann isn't, he was excellent but not ATG.

4) Disagree about IPL, it's a blessing in disguise.

5) Greg Chappell was excellent coach but just think that in international cricket, as a coach you need to have more man management skills than coaching, hence I believe Shastri is an excellent choice for us.

 

[Gollum]

In stead of getting offended at my points please share your radical opinions here, that was the point of this thread. I don't really want to argue over every point . 

[beetle]

Just now, Gollum said:

In stead of getting offended at my points please share your radical opinions here, that was the point of this thread. I don't really want to argue over every point . 

You should post this in your first post.

 

 

[Gollum]

@gattaca I believe we would have lost the Chepauk test purely based on the bowling strength of Aus and how much we struggled with the bat that series. I am ok if you disagree, this is an 'unpopular opinions thread' and not 'conventional wisdom thread', so I am excused.

 

And no Cook is a legend based on his exploits in Aus 2010-11 and India 2012....he owned the opposition in both the series' and let us admit it, India and Australia have been the toughest places to tour in the last 15 years or so. He may have had problems against Mcgrath and his inferior clone but he is not alone in that regard. Still 21 year old baby Cook got a stunning 100 in Perth against Mcgrath-Clark-Warne, I watched that innings live and was mighty impressed. 

[diga]

1. Ganguly too overstayed in his captaincy. His legacy should be bigger than it actually is now

2. Kapil Dev was pure passion..he blocked a lot of young pacers in his quest for record. 

3.Kumble as a coach would have taken us to at least 1series win against SA/Eng/Aus

[Gollum]

21. SRT wasn't all that great against spinners. Sure he eviscerated Warne but had big issues against Murali, Saqlain, Swann, Lyon, Vettori, Price, Giles, Paul Harris etc. Also against mystery spinners, no matter how mediocre, he had problems.

 

22. Gambhir too had weakness against spin. I never really understood when fellow posters hailed him as a maestro against spin. IMO even in the present team Che and Vijay are better than Gambo in that aspect, yet they don't get the plaudits.

 

23. Wasim Akram is overhyped in red ball cricket. I don't see why his name should be thrown around with the likes of Mcgrath, Ambrose, Donald, Steyn etc. Guy feasted on the lower order and more often than not the top test batsmen of his time had the wood over him. He was a colossal ODI bowler agreed, but in the truest format of the game he underachieved.

 

24. We weren't that bad in the 90s . We won a fair share of multi nation ODI tournaments and were quite strong at home. Even in overseas tests we were cheated once in SA, met a scary Australia in 1999, lost honorably in England and gave some resistance in NZ against a very tough unit. Only in SA, esp 1996 did we get wrecked but 1 disaster in a decade should be ok. In 1991-92 Australia we copped so many bad decisions that I feel like excusing those chaps, unrealistic to compete against 13 men. 

 

25. Dravid was a good captain. He knew how to handle bowlers and his field settings were spot on. He inculcated the art of chasing in our team, we were weak chasers before his reign. Unfortunately the 2007 WC fiasco painted a gloomy picture about him, same Dravid led us to series wins in WI 2006 and Eng 2007. 

[Gollum]

2 hours ago, goose said:

I am utterly astonished at your stance on this. Sehwag had just hit 155 in the 1st innings and had raced to 12 (3 boundaries) in the 2nd innings and you are happy the match was abandoned? We'll never know what would have happened but as an India supporter I don't understand how you could be happy the game was rained off. It was heartbreaking.

My stance got stronger after the 2005 and 2006 home tests against Pak and England. We were never good in 4th innings run chases in India until Chepauk 2008. 

[goose]

Tendulkar is crap

 

there you go...