The Unpopular Cricket Opinions Thread

[Chalks]

- Mark Waugh is underrated because he "only" averaged 41 in tests, Steve is overrated, and selfishly played for not outs.

- Over rates are overrated. Who cares if teams only bowl 12 overs an hour?

- Ball tampering (some methods) should be legal. Cricket is too much of a batsman's game as it is.

[diehardpacer]

->The credit for 2007 WC T20 win should go to Chappell. Dhoni,Yuvi,Utthappa,Gambhir,Irfan,RP,Sreesanth got constant backing from Chappell over other seniors & they got the result. Major change was fitness and fielding standards.My gut feeling says we would have gone till the semis had the selectors supported Chappell's agenda of juniors over seniors.

->In that time,the team was divided in 2 camps,pro Ganguly camp & pro Chappell camp.

Ganguly camp - Sehwag,Yuvi,Bhajji,Zaheer,Laxman,Kumble,Nehra

Chappell camp - Most younger players,Irfan,Kaif,Dhoni,Raina

->Karun Nair is overrated.Yes he scored 300 vs Eng.But even Jayant Yadav scored 100 against them.Eng team was very weak by that time.After that 300,he got injured & since his return,he has only 2 50s in first class & India A matches.The selectors have rightfully not selected him again despite public pressure.

->Kohli has failed chasing in almost all the tests.

->Our team selections are terrible due to regional quota & advertiser lobby pushing their players.There is nothing wrong in having most players from one particular region if they are that good.

->India top 3 are too slow in ODI and T20s. Wasting Powerplays is recipe for disaster.

->Current Indian team barring Pujara is terrible against spin.They are decent against pace but are sitting ducks whenever there is swing.

->Dhoni's team neither had the process nor the results. Kohli's team lost by small margins in Eng & SA compared to the complete surrender what Dhoni's team did.

->Dhoni batted decently in Eng despite his terrible technique . He didn't fish outside offstump & hit everything hard whichever he tried to connect,which means the edges went to boundaries instead of slips.

->SA team despite all criticism against spinners were outstanding in attempting the blockathon.

->Warner & Smith got over punished.No other team would have banned their top players this long for ball tampering.Sachin,Dravid and lot of other greats were involved in ball tampering & none were punished.

->The Aus series result would have been different if Warner & Smith had played & Starc & Hazlewood were not returning from injuries.The Aussies made their issues worse by not picking their best team.

 

[Stan AF]

On 1/17/2018 at 8:13 PM, MechEng said:

16.) Pakistan are a better test team than India. At least they drew 2-2 in England which is awesome, with our kaptaan's attitude we are surely goint to lose 5-0 

 

Man, you got it almost right. 4-1

[mishra]

Joe Root can play odi cricket.

[sandeep]

35 minutes ago, mishra said:

Joe Root can play odi cricket.

I didn't see the thread labelled "obvious facts".  

[mishra]

1 hour ago, sandeep said:

I didn't see the thread labelled "obvious facts".  

Not really. He is always considered not fit for limited over Cricket. Like Dravid

[sandeep]

1 hour ago, mishra said:

Not really. He is always considered not fit for limited over Cricket. Like Dravid

By whom?  He has worked hard to keep his dotball % really low, and embraced his role as the anchor for that free-hitting team.  His numbers are right up there, and have been for quite some time.  T20 is where he isn't that effective.  

[Vijy]

1 hour ago, mishra said:

Not really. He is always considered not fit for limited over Cricket. Like Dravid

I don't people consider root to be like dravid. of the fab 4, he is arguably the second best in ODIs. Kane is technically more sound (scores more 50s) and Smith has some clutch knocks, but root is a pretty complete ODI batsman.

[MechEng]

I have finally come to the conclusion that Sunil Gavaskar is India's greatest batsman. This after watching Kemar Roach's spell, he's not even express fast but with little encouragement see what West Indies bowlers can do.

Even Fab 4 did not score runs with ease in West Indies as they did in England and Australia, this also holds true for the weakest West Indies attacks. 

When West Indies bowlers are on song, forget attacking you must have water tight defence to survive these guys. Even best pullers/hookers would struggle against such bowling.

Edited January 25, 2019 by MechEng

[Vilander]

 

Not exactly cricket but still

 

Desis = Indians only.

 

Desis /= Indians Pakistanis and BD. Pakistanis are pakistanis and BD are BD they are not from one Des to be called Desis. Only doves from India want to have some romantic umbrella term to remince with pakistani folks stuff like " i would love to visit pakistan some day " - yeah like you would live to tell the tale  " yeah its the gormint that is dividing people" - yeah like its not pak that is sending terrorists. 

 

So yeah no Desis as umbrella term pls. If north americans try that south asian ****, educate them on the difference. For starters, Indian does not send terrorists to other countries. 

[MechEng]

7 minutes ago, Vilander said:

 

Not exactly cricket but still

 

Desis = Indians only.

 

Desis /= Indians Pakistanis and BD. Pakistanis are pakistanis and BD are BD they are not from one Des to be called Desis. Only doves from India want to have some romantic umbrella term to remince with pakistani folks stuff like " i would love to visit pakistan some day " - yeah like you would live to tell the tale  " yeah its the gormint that is dividing people" - yeah like its not pak that is sending terrorists. 

 

So yeah no Desis as umbrella term pls. If north americans try that south asian ****, educate them on the difference. For starters, Indian does not send terrorists to other countries. 

Quite true. The exclusive nature is more evident when Indian Muslims are seen as Muhajirs.

[MechEng]

Graeme Hick is England's best ever player of spin bowling, possibly ahead of KP and Cook. He averaged 50 in 1993 tour of India. It is equivalent to an Indian batsman averaging 50 on those NZ green tops in 2002. I doubt even Hayden of 2001 would have averaged 50 in that series. What say  @Gollum

[Gollum]

3 hours ago, MechEng said:

Graeme Hick is England's best ever player of spin bowling, possibly ahead of KP and Cook. He averaged 50 in 1993 tour of India. It is equivalent to an Indian batsman averaging 50 on those NZ green tops in 2002. I doubt even Hayden of 2001 would have averaged 50 in that series. What say  @Gollum

He was good sure, but best 'ever'.....I will hold my horses. Not just KP/Cook, England have produced the likes of Gatting, Thorpe, Gooch, Gower in the last 40 years, if you go further back there will be more. Among the few knowledgeable elders I have talked to, Barrington gets a lot of praise for his exploits against spin, he was the greatest defensive batsman of his era.  

[Gollum]

@MechEng I wouldn't compare the 1993 home tracks with 2002 NZ greentops. The India-England test series featured gigantic scores, especially by the home side. The likes of SRT, Kambli, Azhar had monster series....NZ 2002 was a farce where teams would get bowled out for 100-200 and matches would get over in 2 days. 

 

Hick was good but I am sure 2001 Hayden would have done well if transported to the '93 English side. Young Kumble was deadly but Raju, Chauhan were rather mediocre. And our quicks then were harmless trundlers. 

 

Around the same time, Jimmy Adams wrecked us bad at home...single-handedly drew that series in what must count as one of the greatest batting feats by any batsman overseas. He was like a higher version of Andy Flower back then and frankly towered above Sachin and Lara for a couple of years in the ultimate format. 

Edited January 30, 2019 by Gollum

[ExtremeBrainfade]

On 12/29/2017 at 5:14 AM, Gollum said:

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.

Is the doosra officially dead and buried in high-level cricket?  

[Gollum]

20 minutes ago, ExtremeBrainfade said:

Is the doosra officially dead and buried in high-level cricket?  

Yes 

 

Bhajji does it often but then IPL is neech level cricket. 

[Laaloo]

Sachin is the greatest cricketer to have ever graced this gods green earth.

[zen]

drop rohit  

Edited May 17, 2019 by zen

[maniac]

12 minutes ago, Laaloo said:

Sachin is the greatest cricketer to have ever graced this gods green earth.

That being an unpopular opinion is unpopular:)

[Gollum]

14 minutes ago, Laaloo said:

Sachin is the greatest cricketer to have ever graced this gods green earth.

That's a popular opinion. Unpopular would read "Sachin has always been a midget choker". 

Edited May 17, 2019 by Gollum