Sir Gary Sobers is quoted as saying that Symonds can't be considered a great all - rounder as his bowling is not up to the standard.
This made me wonder what or who is an all - rounder in cricket. Is he the one who excels with both the bat and the ball or is it enough for an all- rounder to be excellent in one and average in the other?
Admittedly, I haven't seen Sobers play, but having seen the likes of Ian Botham, Imran Khan, Kapil Dev and Sir Richard Hadlee in action, I always thought that an all-rounder is a player who can conjure up wickets or runs against the run of play.
They needn't necessarily score a ton and take a five for in every match. All they need to do is to split open the game by taking wickets or by scoring runs. At other times they can contribute with either the bat or the ball as any other player in the team.
If we are to take Sobers comment in its entirety, none of the all- rounders I mentioned above can be deemed as all - rounders.
Who do you think is an all - rounder, one who excels with both the bat and the ball or one who is proficient and at times brilliant either with the the bat or the ball?
7 comments:
I say it's the latter, you need to excel with at least one, and be fairly decent with the other skill. Also to be utilised during a test match for both skills, in all tests.
Imran Khan averages 22 with the ball and 38 with the bat
Richard Hadlee averages 22 with the ball, but only 28 with the bat.
Ian Botham averages 28 with the ball, and 33.5 with tha bat.
Kapil dev was 29.64 ball, 31.02 with bat.
Andrew Symonds averages 45 with the bat, and 37 with the ball. But he doesn't bowl that often, which in my eyes makes him a part time bowler.
Suave,
I dare not argue with facts.
may be its time to change the definition of all rounders...
with so many matches being played these days i cant see genuine all rounder surviving the vigorous of game...
The present day defnition is one who can do two things. Wicket keepers until recently were never treated as all rounders even though they may bat well. Those who have seen sobers will agree that symonds is not a very good bowler but by todays reckoning he is an all rounder, period. Sobers opened the pace attack , could throw with both hands ,was a great fielder, can bowl spinner, can rattle a batsman with vicious bouncers and do so many things with ease.. He could clear the field at will. But in chennai he never played a long innings. Engineer in madras test almost scored a ton before lunch.Sobers came in for some punishment. It was a rare loss of form.
Shoaib Malik is #1 and Afridi is #2 on Icc's Odi all rounder list and I don't consider them as all rounders, one can bat a bit and can't bowl at all, the other can bowl but can't bat at all.
Their is no body like sobers, but I did like Imran, Botham and Kapil dev were also good.
I once wrote about all-rounders. If you require the following:
- 20+ inns
- 2+ wickets per Test
- batting average above the overall average
- bowling average below the overall average
then you end up with just seven all-rounders in Test history (the averages I used were modified to take into account opposition strength and era, but even using regular averages, it would be about the same). Tthey were Jack Gregory, Billy Bates, Keith Miller, Imran Khan, Trevor Bailey, Ian Botham, and Trevor Goddard.
(Sobers didn't make the list because his bowling average was quite high. I've been told that this was because he was usually made to bowl to his weakness - bowling pace when the pitch took turn and the selectors picked spinners, and bowling spin when the pitch was fast and the selectors picked quickies.)
We would like the term 'all-rounder' to be more widely applied than to just seven players every 130 years, so you have to compromise somewhere. I would say something like: be decent with both skills, and bowl regularly.
Mr wasim
Imran was a better bowler, Botham a better batsman and as for kapil I always thought that the tag all rounder and greatness were thrust upon him.He was allowed a longer run than he deserved.He was a fine bowler though.
BTW I thought Hadle was also in the list of some people.
We had our own surti as sobers. Like soby he opened the atack, bowled spinners , and was a fantastic fielder.
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