Most Boring Cricketer
Jackie Hewitt
Who do you think is the most boring cricketer?
My vote (apology to all Durham supporters) is James Boiling. In 1995,
first match of the season in The Parks Durham were down, and having been
cricket starved all winter, down I went and froze. It seemed to me that
Boiling bowled about 96 maiden overs, and was operating from both ends
at the same time. All the fielders were clustered round the bat, no runs
were being scored, and I would have nodded off except that I might have
got hypothermia!
I know Boiling is hardly a Shane Warne or Mushtaq Ahmed, but I have
never felt the same about slow bowling since, and I have a tendancy to
get a book out or go for a walk when Boiling bowls!
--
Jackie Hewitt
Courtney Walsh's Biggest Fan
See my tribute to Courtney
s_jag...@yahoo.com
> Who do you think is the most boring cricketer?
At the risk of being flamed, I think its Courtney ;) I nod off to sleep when
he runs in to bowl :)
jagadish - just kidding :))
-----== Posted via Deja News, The Leader in Internet Discussion ==-----
http://www.dejanews.com/ Now offering spam-free web-based newsreading
s_jag...@yahoo.com
> Who do you think is the most boring cricketer?
At the risk of being flamed, I think its Courtney ;) I nod off to sleep when
he runs in to bowl and I cant bear to see him bat :)
Aslam Siddiqui
Them are fighting words! Over to you, Jackie.
aslam
PS: I'm posting this as a test message. I am having problems with my server.
mco...@tpgi.com.au
In article <353C46...@oucs.ox.ac.uk>,> My vote (apology to all Durham supporters) is James Boiling. (snip)
> down I went and froze. (snip)
> I would have nodded off except that I might have got hypothermia!
Obviously a player who *doesn't* live up to his name!! ;-))
- MAC the Vic! (still pondering a response...)
Jackie Hewitt
Aslam Siddiqui wrote:
>
> Them are fighting words! Over to you, Jackie.
>
> aslam
> PS: I'm posting this as a test message. I am having problems with my server.
>
> > he runs in to bowl and I cant bear to see him bat :)
> >
> > jagadish - just kidding :))
> >
> > http://www.dejanews.com/ Now offering spam-free web-based newsreading
Courtney boring? Huh? Not from where I am sitting he isn't.
Flounces off stage left to console poor Courtney who is as devasted at
being called boring as I was to hear him called boring
:)
Cay Qel-Droma
Ashly Giles is pretty bad.
Regards
Mark Lyth
Rupinder Singh
Jackie Hewitt wrote:
>
> Who do you think is the most boring cricketer?
>
> first match of the season in The Parks Durham were down, and having been
> cricket starved all winter, down I went and froze. It seemed to me that
> Boiling bowled about 96 maiden overs, and was operating from both ends
> at the same time. All the fielders were clustered round the bat, no runs
> got hypothermia!
>
> never felt the same about slow bowling since, and I have a tendancy to
> get a book out or go for a walk when Boiling bowls!
> Jackie Hewitt
> Courtney Walsh's Biggest Fan
>
> See my tribute to Courtney
>
> http://users.ox.ac.uk/~jackieh/courtney_walsh.html
The present Indian manager ie Anshuman Gaekwad also rates high as
a boring cricketer. But as a batsman.
In a test match against Pakistan at Jalandhar in the 80's he
batted for two days to score 200. And the match was drawn without
the two team completing one innings. Seeing him bat was less fun
than watching chess in slow motion.
Sid Boyce
> he runs in to bowl and I cant bear to see him bat :)
>
> jagadish - just kidding :))
aford to nod off in front of the TV or in the stands.
Regards
--
... Sid Boyce...Amdahl(UK)...44-121 422 0375
-----------------------------------
Any opinions expressed above are mine and do not necessarily represent
the opinions or policies of Amdahl Corporation.
Tim Fountain
Jackie Hewitt wrote in message <353C46...@oucs.ox.ac.uk>...
>Who do you think is the most boring cricketer?
Greg Shipperd (was).
I remember going to a Shield match here in Launceston - before the ACB told
the TCA no more games were to be played at Australia's oldest first class
ground - Shipperd batted all day for 99*.
Not only is this incredibly slow batting, but almost every over in the final
session resulted in a single to Shipperd of the last ball. At least he mus
have scored slightly quicker earlier in the day - but that part does not
stand out in the memory like the frustration of that last session.
Sickeningly, his limited over performance was rarely any quicker. And this
man is now the coach of a Tasmanian line up with likes of DiVenuto in it!
[snip]
Tim Fountain - ti...@microtech.com.au
"Garbled, confusing and quite frankly duller than an in flight magazine
produced by Air Belgium."
- Kryten Red Dwarf ep. "Tikka to Ride"
Mike Holmans
Rupinder Singh <usi...@lexis-nexis.com> felt like saying:
>Jackie Hewitt wrote:
>>
>> Who do you think is the most boring cricketer?
>>
>> first match of the season in The Parks Durham were down, and having been
>> cricket starved all winter, down I went and froze. It seemed to me that
>> Boiling bowled about 96 maiden overs, and was operating from both ends
>> at the same time. All the fielders were clustered round the bat, no runs
>> were being scored, and I would have nodded off except that I might have
>> got hypothermia!
>>
>> I know Boiling is hardly a Shane Warne or Mushtaq Ahmed, but I have
>> never felt the same about slow bowling since, and I have a tendancy to
>> get a book out or go for a walk when Boiling bowls!
Which simply goes to prove that an average first-class slow bowler, even
on a non-turning early-season Oxford wicket, is too good for the
students to hit. Further proof that Oxbridge shouldn't have first-class
status. I do think that a student side is a good thing, and that it's
good for all if they get to play the counties. But what there should be
is a single British Universities side, as plays in the B&H, and I don't
mind too much if that has f-c status.
>
>The present Indian manager ie Anshuman Gaekwad also rates high as
>a boring cricketer. But as a batsman.
>
>In a test match against Pakistan at Jalandhar in the 80's he
>batted for two days to score 200. And the match was drawn without
>the two team completing one innings. Seeing him bat was less fun
>than watching chess in slow motion.
Oh yes, he was an absolute crasher. I'm glad you mentioned him. I've
already nominated Tim Curtis. There was an Australian in the 70s who was
really dull, too, but he was so dull I've forgotten his name.
Cheers,
Mike
The exciting AFU FAQ, and many other things, may be found at
http://www.urbanlegends.com
Raj
Hmmm.... Boring cricketers ?
How abt Gavaskar ? I remember him scoring 72 not out in a whole day's
batting. But he did score a 129 at run-a-ball against Marshall & Co.
Sidhu in his 1st incarnation as a strokeless wonder: scored his debut
century w/o a boundary (also against Marshall & Co. ).
Mudassar Nazar, the Pak opener was pretty bad too, he still holds the record
for the slowest Test century (but he had a very interesting bowling action).
But the top bore has to be Geoff Boycott. Oh boy! The only player to be
dropped after scoring a 200 (for slow batting, in Tests, in the '70s, that
must have taken some doing).
Also remember a Pak opener-keeper called Tasleem Arif. Scored a 200 at Eden
Gardens, taking 2 whole days. Kept doing stretch exercises all the time.
Gaekwad might have been a boring batsman, but he made life interesting by
managing to get hit by even medium pacers. Must have been one of the worst
players of pace, for an opener.
I love this thread. Looking fwd to contributions from Oz, Kiwi & WI.
--
Indian cricket team: Seth Dalmiya's private nautch group.
--
Raj (rda...@tsoft.com)
Mike Holmans wrote in message ...
Kumar Venkataraman
Raj (rda...@ss.tsoft.com) wrote:
: Gaekwad might have been a boring batsman, but he made life interesting by
: managing to get hit by even medium pacers. Must have been one of the worst
: players of pace, for an opener.
Boring player, agreed. But he made his way into the Indian side in '75
with a century for Comb. Univ.s against the visiting West Indians.
Then in the Madras test, he scored some 80 something (top score)
against Roberts types. As a opener. Did not acheive much later,
but not a bad player of pace as such.
mose...@netcomuk.co.uk
Did'nt Bill Lawry bore for Australia ?
He's only marginally more interesting as a commentator but does tend to
go on a bit about Victorians
MRM
Rajesh Viswanathan
Raj wrote:
> Hmmm.... Boring cricketers ?
>
> But the top bore has to be Geoff Boycott. Oh boy! The only player to be
> dropped after scoring a 200 (for slow batting, in Tests, in the '70s, that
> must have taken some doing).
Also remember that he had to bat alongside Chris Tavare, who in my mind was
terrible to watch, at least in that Keith Fletcher-led England tour of India
(was it 1981?) , and together, they were amongst the most boring pair of batsmen
I've seen. I'd just begun to get hooked onto cricket, and watching Boycott and
Tavare together almost led me to listen to my parents and turn the TV off....
But then, there were the Bothams and Lillees who made up for it all....
Cheerio,
Rajesh (http://people.netscape.com/rajesh)
"Hanging is not enough for a teller of puns. He should be drawn and quoted"
David Shepherd
Boycott-Tavare?
Boycott was slow, but he was a classical opener (a dying art) and
a workman rather than a natural at the art too, but he went for
his shots when the bad balls came along. Never boring.
OTOH Tavare could ignore a plum and block it. I think his idea
was to bore the bowlers to death so that the man at the other end
could cash in..? ;-)
dave
John Tomlin
For those of you too young to remember - i.e. most of you - Trevor
Bailey, variously known as "Stonewall" or "Barnacle" Bailey, raised
boredom to a height which can scarcely have been equalled in cricket.
I have seen him score in single figures per hour, for hours on end.
Amazingly, he also seemed to be able to bowl boringly as well, even
though he was quite effective.
**************************************************************************
* John Tomlin (tomlin@almaden#ibm#com) Speak for my Employer? Get real. *
* (Change # to . to get my actual e-mail address) *
* "The Australians brought to our Victorian pastime a terrible realism *
* and cunning" .... Neville Cardus in "English Cricket" *
* http://linus.socs.uts.edu.au/~tomlin *
**************************************************************************
Jackie Hewitt
John Tomlin wrote:
>
> Jackie Hewitt wrote in message <353C46...@oucs.ox.ac.uk>...
> >Who do you think is the most boring cricketer?
>
> For those of you too young to remember - i.e. most of you - Trevor
> Bailey, variously known as "Stonewall" or "Barnacle" Bailey, raised
> boredom to a height which can scarcely have been equalled in cricket.
> I have seen him score in single figures per hour, for hours on end.
> Amazingly, he also seemed to be able to bowl boringly as well, even
> though he was quite effective.
>
>
tedious watching Phil Weston stuck on 91no for 20 overs at Worcester
last Saturday. He isn't normally boring, but he excelled on that
occasion. Got an ironic ripple of applause when he finally got to 92,
and much muttering from the members when he got out on 95.
Richard Lighton
In article <353E32...@netcomuk.co.uk>, <mose...@netcomuk.co.uk> wrote:
>
> Did'nt Bill Lawry bore for Australia ?
> He's only marginally more interesting as a commentator but does tend to
> go on a bit about Victorians
>
than Bailey or Boycott--was Ken "Slasher" Mackay.
37 tests from the mid 50s to 1962-63, average in the thirties, number
of balls faced per innings seemed like a thousand.
--
Richard Lighton | Cricket--a game which the English, not being a spiritual
(lig...@idt.net) | people, have invented in order to give themselves some
Wood-Ridge NJ | conception of eternity.
USA | --Baron Mancroft
mondy
How about Chris Tavare as a boring bat? We have a few bores here in Italy
too...I imagine you probably don't know that..
John Tomlin
In article <6hn4pb$e...@u2.farm.idt.net>,
Richard Lighton <lig...@u2.farm.idt.net> wrote:
>In article <353E32...@netcomuk.co.uk>, <mose...@netcomuk.co.uk> wrote:
> >
> > Did'nt Bill Lawry bore for Australia ?
> > He's only marginally more interesting as a commentator but does tend to
> > go on a bit about Victorians
> >
>Far more boring from that era (or any other, IMO)--more boring
>than Bailey or Boycott--was Ken "Slasher" Mackay.
As I posted earlier in this thread, I think Bailey takes the cake -
beating out such worthy competitiors as Slasher.
>37 tests from the mid 50s to 1962-63, average in the thirties, number
>of balls faced per innings seemed like a thousand.
I dont know if we can resolve this, so lets evade the issue in the
time-honoured r.s.c way - a "Most Boring XI".
We're rather over-subscribed for opening bats (if we count Bailey in that
position, which isn't necessary of course - he could bore anywhere in
the line up), and have 2 all-rounders as well. So lets start with
G. Boycott
W. Lawry
T. Bailey
K. Mackay
Now, how about some boring specialist bowlers, middle order bats and a WK?
Cheers ... John
Mike Holmans
tomlin@almaden*ibm*com.? felt like saying:
>
>I dont know if we can resolve this, so lets evade the issue in the
>time-honoured r.s.c way - a "Most Boring XI".
>
>We're rather over-subscribed for opening bats (if we count Bailey in that
>position, which isn't necessary of course - he could bore anywhere in
>the line up), and have 2 all-rounders as well. So lets start with
>
>G. Boycott
>W. Lawry
>T. Bailey
>K. Mackay
>
>Now, how about some boring specialist bowlers, middle order bats and a WK?
For a boring specialist bowler, I would like to nominate Richard
Illingworth because he hardly ever did anything but bowl defensive
nonsense without turning it. I would also nominate Gus Fraser: if a
relentless technician like Boycs is in the side, then you've got to
reckon a medium-fast line and length bowler who hardly ever does
anything wrong, and always looks tired and glum, is a candidate.
Until the recent Caribbean series, I'd have nominated Shivnarine
Chanderpaul as a candidate for the middle order, but unfortunately he
appears to have discovered some shots. People have already mentioned
Chris Tavare, and I'm sure he should be in the side.
I can't be bothered to think of many more for the moment, because I'm
busy. Tomorrow, unless someone pre-empts it, I should have time to
search my archives to consider the excellent candidates from New
Zealand, many of whom were so dull that my mind has blocked them out
entirely.
Shuvo Brahmachari
> > >
> > > Did'nt Bill Lawry bore for Australia ?
> > >
>
> time-honoured r.s.c way - a "Most Boring XI".
>
>
>
>
Bapu Nadkarni from India was a pretty boring bowler. I think he holds
the record for the most no. of maidens or something. Richard Ellison of
England was pretty boring bowler too. I've yet to see a fast bowler
who's boring, but McDermott on his dull days could come pretty close.
Rodney Hogg is another guy who comes to mind. Here's my vote for the
all time boring XI.
G. Boycott
C. Tavare
A. Gaekwad
W. Lawry
T. Bailey
R. Shastri
L. Gomes
K. Mackay
B. Nadkarni
R. Ellison
R. Hogg
Bob Dubery
>
>Jackie Hewitt wrote in message <353C46...@oucs.ox.ac.uk>...
>>Who do you think is the most boring cricketer?
>
>Greg Shipperd (was).
I remember him. Little bloke. Kept wicket as well. He toured SA with
Hughe's rebel team. Not the quickest scoring player in the world, but
he could stick around. He drove some of the local bowlers to
distraction - they had to work really hard to get Shipperd out.
>Sickeningly, his limited over performance was rarely any quicker. And this
>man is now the coach of a Tasmanian line up with likes of DiVenuto in it!
Well.. as anybody who has heard Boycott or - more recently - Wessels
commentating will know, these plodders realise the need for urgency
once they retire.
---
The e-mail address in the headers is bogus :-)
to mail me unknot mega...@KNOTglobal.co.za
Bob Dubery
>Also remember that he had to bat alongside Chris Tavare, who in my mind was
>terrible to watch, at least in that Keith Fletcher-led England tour of India
>(was it 1981?) , and together, they were amongst the most boring pair of batsmen
>I've seen. I'd just begun to get hooked onto cricket, and watching Boycott and
>Tavare together almost led me to listen to my parents and turn the TV off....
>
>But then, there were the Bothams and Lillees who made up for it all....
Yes there were... and there's the rub, because both types of players
are valuable in cricket. You need dashers and plodders.
Elsewhere in this thread Greg Shipperd is mentioned. Some might see
him as staid, boring, but when I saw him playing for Hughe's rebel
Aussie side it seemed to me that he was invaluable - he and Dyson were
the 2 players in the side that you could rely upon to stick around for
a while, to drop anchor when the going got tough.
There's a nice little passage about this in Brearley's Phoenix From
The Ashes. I clear my throat ..ahem... and quote:
'In these conditions, however, against some fine bowling by Alderman
and Lillee he (Tavare) looked competent and solid. By mid-afternoon,
Willis was saying of him... "I *do* enjoy watching Tav bat."
Similarly, front-row forwards, who like fast bowlers are the
engine-room of the ship, appreciate safe, solid kicks for touch from
their backs rather than fancy play which has them chasing back to
their own corner flag!'
I guess it depends on your point of view. I sometimes go to Rugby and,
when I do, often have a bit of a moan about the flyhalf who wins
ground by kicking for touch. But if I had been part of the scrum that
won the ball that the flyhalf kicked I might think rather differently.
Brearley is right!
Wessels used to be roundly criticised by the self-styled cogniscenti
in SA. The truth, really, is that he was a tough, uncompromising and
reliable cricketer - not wont to give up his wicket cheaply and at his
best when the going was tough. There have been many occasions over the
last couple of years on which I have wished Wessels was still in the
side.
There are genuinely boring cricketers (I suppose) but seemingly dour
batsmen like Wessels, Boycott, Tavare, Shipperd can be most reassuring
and valuable when the going gets tough. And in such circumstances I
would describe them as steady, doughty even redoubtable.
Flamboyance is not all.
Casper
Mike Holmans wrote:
>
> tomlin@almaden*ibm*com.? felt like saying:
> >
> >I dont know if we can resolve this, so lets evade the issue in the
> >time-honoured r.s.c way - a "Most Boring XI".
> >
> >position, which isn't necessary of course - he could bore anywhere in
> >the line up), and have 2 all-rounders as well. So lets start with
> >
> >G. Boycott
> >W. Lawry
> >T. Bailey
> >K. Mackay
> >
>
> Illingworth because he hardly ever did anything but bowl defensive
> nonsense without turning it. I would also nominate Gus Fraser: if a
> relentless technician like Boycs is in the side, then you've got to
> reckon a medium-fast line and length bowler who hardly ever does
> anything wrong, and always looks tired and glum, is a candidate.
Boring bowlers? How about Courntey Walsh? :-)
Casper
Jackie Hewitt
Grrrrrrrrrrrr.
Chris Weston
In article <6YNvuUA+...@jackalope.demon.co.uk>, Mike Holmans
<pos...@jackalope.demon.co.uk> writes
>
>I can't be bothered to think of many more for the moment, because I'm
>busy. Tomorrow, unless someone pre-empts it, I should have time to
>search my archives to consider the excellent candidates from New
>Zealand, many of whom were so dull that my mind has blocked them out
>entirely.
--
Chris Weston
MG
Casper wrote:
>
> Mike Holmans wrote:
> >
> > tomlin@almaden*ibm*com.? felt like saying:
> > >
> > >
> > >G. Boycott
> > >W. Lawry
> > >T. Bailey
> > >K. Mackay
> > >
> > >Now, how about some boring specialist bowlers, middle order bats and
> > >a WK?
Can't go wrong with Jackie McGlew in the middle order I think - he could
also captain the team.
Bit tricky finding a boring wicky though - Godfrey Evans was a boring
bat, but anything but as a keeper. Brian Taber's a pretty boring name -
I nominate him as keeper.
And one of the most boring bowlers in post-war cricket was Tom Cartwright
Another boring bowler from way back was the Middx and Eng bowler John
Price, who had a 200-yard, two-phase run up and bowled a brisk medium
pace with a following wind.
--
Mike Gooding
"You're pretty brave in cyberspace, flameboy"
"Step inside"
Max Ratcliffe
>> > >Now, how about some boring specialist bowlers, middle order bats
John Emburey would surely qualify for his bowling. Maiden after maiden, no
danger of any wickets ever being taken.
Ember's batting on the other hand was ideosyncratic enough to disqualify him
forever from being a boring batsman.
Max
Pete
Geoff Boycott perchance :)
Pete
\
>Martin(?) Snedden! He of the 'even slower ball'.
>--
Pete
Ray Bright
I think he spinned a ball ..... once
Steve Shadbolt
David Shepherd <david.s...@virgin.net> wrote:
>Boycott-Tavare?
>
> Boycott was slow, but he was a classical opener (a dying art) and
> a workman rather than a natural at the art too, but he went for
> his shots when the bad balls came along. Never boring.
Mind you he was incredibly boring later in his career when compared to
his early career when apparently he was quite a dashing bat! Boycott
decided that the openers job was to stay there and see off the
oppositions opening bowlers and also pick up runs where he could. He
did this very well, he stopped playing risky shots, he pushed the ball
around picking up ones and twos and hit the occaisional four off the
bad balls.
As David pointed out he was a classical opener and what ever people
thought of him as a person he did a good job for England when he
played.
>
> OTOH Tavare could ignore a plum and block it. I think his idea
> was to bore the bowlers to death so that the man at the other end
> could cash in..? ;-)
>
Ian Botham actually admired Tavare for his batting in the series where
he made his name for slow batting (can't remember off hand which one
but I suspect it was the 1981 Ashes). Tavare was bought in to shore
up the batting and above all *not* to get out, which as Botham pointed
out he did. He didn't score many runs but he did stay there.
Tavare could also be a very exciting bat in county cricket.
Steve Shadbolt
shad...@logica.com
These are my opinions not Logica's
Ben Morgan
> Casper wrote:
> > Boring bowlers? How about Courntey Walsh? :-)
> >
> > Casper
You mean you've never seen him bat??? How can anyone say his batting is
boring?
Ben M
mco...@tpgi.com.au
> Did'nt Bill Lawry bore for Australia ?
> go on a bit about Victorians
>
Hey nothing wrong with that mate!! ;-)
- MAC the Vic!
(reminded of the chant at the MCG for a NSW bowler who took a hat-trick in
a ODI for Australia a couple of season's back : "He's so good, he could be
a Vic-torian..... !")
-----== Posted via Deja News, The Leader in Internet Discussion ==-----
http://www.dejanews.com/ Now offering spam-free web-based newsreading
Jim Garner
There was an opening bat for Oz in the fifties and sixties name of Mackay,
commonly known as Slasher Mackay. He got his nickname, not for his
batting style but for the effect he had on the attendance. His most
remarkable feat was to out-bore Trevor Bailey.
--
Jim Garner, sage and dogsbody.
an...@freenet.carleton.ca http://www.ncf.carleton.ca/~an410
(613) 526-4786; 759B Springland, Ottawa, ON K1V 6L9 Canada
"The best-laid femmes go oft astray"
ms
Max Ratcliffe wrote:
>
>
> John Emburey would surely qualify for his bowling. Maiden after maiden, no
> danger of any wickets ever being taken.
> Max
You don't like bowlers bowling maiden after maiden with no danger of
any
wickets ever being taken ? Well, Imagine this :
It's 1964, and you are sitting there in Madras watching England play
India. The
English batsmen are possibly eager to enjoy as much of the sun as they
can, and
proceed to bat exceedingly slowly, and one Nadkarni fellow, left arm
spinner,
keeps on bowling obnoxiously economically and tightly over after over.
Maiden
after Maiden. No danger of any wickets ever being taken. His figures in
the
first innings ? 32-27-5-0
CG Borde slightly more entertaining at 67.4-30-88-5
What an innings that must have been .Sheer entertainment .
ms ( not saying Nadkarni is most boring cricketer...just talking about
boring
cricket, not boring cricketers... )
Oracle
Pete wrote:
>
> Ray Bright
>
> I think he spinned a ball ..... once
M:: he helped AUS tie the test with India though.
My "most boring cricketer". Rizwan-Uz-Zaman of Pakistan (toured India
in 87). How he managed to play for country (excluding the fact that he
was Imran's God-son) is a mystery. Along with Chris Tavare, he
contributed to the waning of the popularity of test cricket.
Regards,
M
--
Mail : ma...@wam.umd 'dot' edu
Jack Bramah
In article <35404E...@cuckoo.land.com>, MG <Cl...@cuckoo.land.com>
writes
--
Jack Bramah <ja...@catland.demon.co.uk>
Ser galego é máis ca nacer en Galicia
The Wog
He contributed two pieces of excitement:
1) Scoring a century with the ball, a very rare feat in ODI's (Aslam -
any stats on this?)
2) Being denied that great diving "catch" off Gchappell (umpires said
"Neither of us were watching the catch attempt") which later set up the
underarm delivery.
The Wog
The Wog
Yes, I had the misfortune to see Tavare belt Australia all around the
park for a quick 90 in a ODI. Even Boycott was able to cut loose in the
ODI, it's said because the stats didn't count.
Then again, the normally exciting Cronje (who was the first to go after
Warne and try to hit him out of the attack, and the park) played one of
the most excruciatingly dull innings ever seen on the first day of the
Sydney Test, when there was no need to do so.
The Wog
Graham
Rajesh Viswanathan wrote:
> Raj wrote:
>
> > Hmmm.... Boring cricketers ?
> >
>
> > But the top bore has to be Geoff Boycott. Oh boy! The only player to be
> > dropped after scoring a 200 (for slow batting, in Tests, in the '70s, that
> > must have taken some doing).
Then how is it that Boycott held the record for the highest score in a one-day
competition (Benson & Hedges?) for 10 years or more?
An example, possibly from the aforementioned innings -
One delivery was placed between mid-off and cover for four. Mid-off moved wider and
cover moved closer but the next ball went between them for another four. For the
third ball the two fielders almost appeared to be in line, but Boycott, with a broad
grin, avoided the gaping holes left to either side of them and threaded the ball
through for another four.
And what about when he was bowling to Viv Richards in a Test Match? Viv had made
lots of runs, as usual, and Geoffrey was bought on as an act of desperation. His
first ball, round the wicket, was a slow away swinger but subsequent balls swung
late. However, it was not his bowling which destroyed Richards but the way he
bowled. Sleeves buttoned down he paced back to his mark, turned his cap so that the
peak was to the rear, ran in and bowled. Then he reversed his cap and walked back,
turning the peak rearwards again before bowling. This pantomime continued for every
ball, with the crowd thoroughly enjoying it. Richards seemed to enjoying it as well,
but not for long as he was soon out; not to Boycott but I think he should have been
awarded an "assist" for that wicket.
Boycott was a great batsmen who, if in form, could score centuries quickly; but if
out of form could still score a century - it would just take a lot longer.
Graham
Mike Holmans
Balrog <pi...@mines.of.moria> felt like saying:
>In article <353C46...@oucs.ox.ac.uk>, Jackie Hewitt>Most people writing to this thread complain about long, slow scoring
>innings. Obviously one day lovers because that's what test cricket is all
>about.
>
Excuse me!
I'm not a one-day lover, yet I'm quite happy to say that I've seen some
very, very dull innings. Just because Test cricket needs grafters, and
they do a heroic job, doesn't mean that when someone like Gaekwad comes
out to bat, I can't decide that this woud be a damn good time to go to
the bar and have a drink or six with a friend rather than watch over
after over of him padding the ball away.
Anyone who says that Test cricket is never boring is simply dishonest.
Sridhar
Graham wrote:
>
>
> Boycott was a great batsmen who, if in form, could score centuries quickly; but if
> out of form could still score a century - it would just take a lot longer.
or rather, the other way around.
Mike Holmans
Graham <graham....@usa.net> felt like saying:
>Rajesh Viswanathan wrote:
>
>> Raj wrote:
>>
>> > Hmmm.... Boring cricketers ?
>> >
>>
>> > But the top bore has to be Geoff Boycott. Oh boy! The only player to be
>> > dropped after scoring a 200 (for slow batting, in Tests, in the '70s, that
>> > must have taken some doing).
>
>Then how is it that Boycott held the record for the highest score in a one-day
>competition (Benson & Hedges?) for 10 years or more?
It was the Gillette Cup Final against Surrey. Boycott had been
scratching around. Brian Close came in to join him. He said to Boycott,
"If you don't hurry up, I'm going to run you out."
Boycott hurried up.
Boycott was a dedicated technician who didn't believe in throwing his
wicket away.
Anshuman Gaekwad and Tim Curtis were bores.