Failed players that surprised you

[maniac]

I was just thinking about this after starting the Raina thread because definetely here is a guy who looks like a million bucks in ODI's but looks like a total failure in tests despite having a problem playing short pitch bowling where at the same time players like S.Waugh and Dada overcame this problem to become greats of the game... Here are some examples of players whose failure was a surprise to me Yuvraj Singh:One of the best ODI players....weakness against spin...Looks very comfortable against pace and I have seen him play really good ODI innings in testing conditions but was never able to cement the test spot...Always a mystery Mohd Sami:Make fun of him all you want...we were just drooling over the fact that Aaron and Yadav were touching 140-145 but here is a guy who consistently bowled 150+ and I saw some spells of his in the early part of his career especially in ODI's and my thought was Pak had found another world class bowler but really a weird career.Got all the chances in the world but never cashed in. Mohd.Ashraful:Enough said...I have seen him play 1-2 may be his only 1-2 innings against worldclass attacks where he did look the part to be a star for Ban standards but despite million chances today is a total joke. Stuart Clark:Whatever happened to this guy....Looked like the next MCGrath...had a very good outswinger,decent pace and impeccable line and length...Did not succeed at the highest level though Dwayne Bravo:Looked like a world beater and the next big allrounder but today an average bits and pieces player Feel free to add more or I will add more once I remember more names

[maniac]

More names Nick Knight,Harmison,M.Hayward(the SA bowler),Praveen Amre,V.Kambli(his own fault),Jermaine Lawson(WI pace bowler),Sherwin Campbell(the WI opener) Please be honest with your opinions don't bring in some of the legends we tried in the 90's

[maniac]

Umar Akmal might be another guy who might be added to the list one day to be fair enough to him he did look like he had a very good technique Kaluwitharana:some of his stroke play in Aus he was much better than Jayasuriya but surprising to see the contrasting careers I am only mentioning players who had a fair share of chances...please don't bring in prospects who didn't get a chance,fluke players and injured players

[sreej]

Stuart Clark:Whatever happened to this guy....Looked like the next MCGrath...had a very good outswinger,decent pace and impeccable line and length...Did not succeed at the highest level though

Really? Stuart Clark has an impressive international record. It was baffling that they even dropped him a few years ago. Maybe he was getting injured too often or they wanted to "blood young players". The reason still escapes me.

[Sooda]

Clark had a fine career but was oldish by the time he even made his debut, late 20's or 30's even maybe?? Due to the likes of McGrath still being around for so long. Amre's failure, as I understand it, was more to do with farcical selectors rather than anything on his part. You could point to some of the Indian pacemen- seeing what they could have been, R P Singh, Irfan were pretty good at their best.

[Pagalpanti]

Rohit Sharma

[MCcricket]

The biggest failure was Graeme Hick , in terms of hype and success, Sanjay Manjrekar.Herschelle Gibbs who was touted as a fantastic player,Dominik Cork , Shaun Tait.

[Yoda-esque]

Always felt that Carl Hooper had a silky game but did not achieve his full potential. dFIsCqB-3uw

[maniac]

Always felt that Carl Hooper had a silky game but did not achieve his full potential. dFIsCqB-3uw

Good one...Definetely an awesome player to watch when in full flow

[maniac]

I personally consider the likes of Chris Harris in that category because beleive me I have seen him play some elegant innings despite being labelled as a ODI specialist. and talking about Kiwi talent Chris Cairns needs to be in that category too if we consider Yuvraj an unfilled talent then Cairns should be in a similar category too

[Jersey #10]

The other way around, a guy who looks totally out of context with technique is probably the best ODI player there is today. No one would have thought that this guy could make it so far. Even today, looking at how sloppy is footwork is, how raw his stroke making looks, he looks far from international class but then he is a class apart for some reason. MSD

[maniac]

The other way around, a guy who looks totally out of context with technique is probably the best ODI player there is today. No one would have thought that this guy could make it so far. Even today, looking at how sloppy is footwork is, how raw his stroke making looks, he looks far from international class but then he is a class apart for some reason. MSD

And surprisingly has done decently well for himself at the test level too

[Jersey #10]

And surprisingly has done decently well for himself at the test level too

and is more consistent than anyone I could remember in the recent memory.

[Jersey #10]

When I think of someone who could have achieved the greatest things in this game with very good technique, many shots under his belt but has failed miserably due to lousy attitude then it's Rohit Sharma.

[maniac]

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a1fXK33ZqrM]afridi 37 ball 100 - YouTube[/ame] How about this guy...Doing this in your 2nd ever game in international cricket to what he is now

[Jersey #10]

^I don't see anyone breaking that record for a long time. Sachin's 200* is probably more prone than a 37 ball 100. *I don't see anyone breaking his other record for a long time either (ball eating one)

[Laaloo]

Tendulkar

[punjabi_khota]

WTF Sharma ? He is not a failure you dumb****s...he is just an unfinished player right now...wait for a few years jeeez

[maniac]

^I don't see anyone breaking that record for a long time. Sachin's 200* is probably more prone than a 37 ball 100. *I don't see anyone breaking his other record for a long time either (ball eating one)

No matter how ordinary the attack is to score 100 runs in a span of 37 balls is difficult to achieve...I am not writing off retard's innings but seeing his ability since then,This was definetely a fluke and obviously the chance for ths repeating is very less... Tendulkar's 200 can be achieved by a highly skilled player with good temperament,stamina in the right conditions.....Tendulkar's effort was against a good bowling attack but I definetely see a good player matching it very soon atleast against a minnow bowling attack on a flat track.

[maniac]

Rohit Sharma is not a failure...The guy hasn't even played a test match yet... see Umar Akmal's example above....I said he might join this list soon Yuvraj atleast for now looks like might be nearing the end of his test career...Even if he does a 'Tendulkar' and hits a purple patch when critics thought it was all over for him,given the amount of chances he has had so far and his tenure in international cricket ,as of now he is considered a failure