Crio’s Q? Loved and Unloved?

Virat Kohli is a wonderful batsman. A great talent. A joy to watch?

 

I’ve not seen enough of this series (unfortunately, because Aus v India has been arguably the best contest of recent decades) but I’ve seen him bat and watched the Australians respond ungraciously (another example of a side inheriting a coach’s characteristics?)

Unattached to twittersphere’s coat-tails, I can’t quite fathom the supposed disdain for India’s new captain.

Home fans have peculiar relationships with visiting players. Sometimes they are just the pantomime villain (Pietersen, Broad) or generously hugged if judged as unthreatening (Tuffers etc).

The clincher, in general, is to abide by the nationalists’ agenda – arrive for battle, lose, concede defeat.

But, although it is understandable to want the local boys to do well, the counter is that you want to see the best challenged by the best…otherwise just watch Commonwealth Games swimming.

I’m not being all “sports puritan” here – I didn’t like Viv, Botham, Harbhajan, probably Hadlee if I’d bothered to watch him. Absolutely agree with heckling Murali.

I am a big fan of Vettori, Atherton, Mahela Jayawardena…

John Snow copped it from Aussie fans. Lillee was rightly lauded – but arguably a wanker.

 

Here’s the challenge… teams, in batting order, of those appreciated v despised.

Comments

  1. Whilst it is to late in the night for me to pick the 2 teams I wonder about do we really want to see the locals win?
    I believe thre are many out there who think the other way! Just thought of three for the despised team from the last 10 years – Warner, Watson,Wade. The three “W,s” all Wankers

  2. matt watson says

    Hated
    1. Chris Broad (England) – for whacking the stumps in the Bicentennial Test in 1988 when he went out
    2. CJ Tavare (England) for his slow batting – spent 90 minutes with his score on 66 in the first innings of the Perth Test in 1982/83, then took 63 minutes to get off the mark in the second innings
    3. Surav Ganguly (India) – just because he stayed in separate hotels to his teammates and made Steve Waugh wait in the middle for ten minutes before he came out to toss the coin
    4. Hansie Cronje (South Africa) – overrated batsman who overrated money
    5. Javad Miandad (Pakistan) – apparently LBW just three times in Pakistan in his career – constantly annoying and provocative
    6. Ian Botham (England) – knew he sounded arrogant and didn’t care because he backed it up with heroics. Keeps sticking to his side of the story regarding an alleged fight with Ian Chappell, despite witnesses backing Chappell’s version
    7. Bob Taylor (England) – used to clap each ball the batsman left, which annoyed me
    8. Richard Hadlee (New Zealand) – got Dean Jones out cheaply during the 1986/87 series
    9. Harbajan Singh (India) – Ricky Ponting was his bunny for a while. Singh aggravated the opposition and me. Key figure in an unsavoury incident in 2007/8 that almost cancelled the Test series against Australia
    10. Derek Underwood (England) – deadly Derek was always dangerous. I was always nervous when he bowled
    11. Colin Croft (West Indies) – only because he shoulder-charged New Zealand umpire Fred Goodall
    12. Arjuna Ranatunga (Sri Lanka) – went to court in Australia to have a match ban overturned and was successful. Average batsman too.

    I must say that I don’t hate any of the men above. I’ve never hated a great Test cricketer. There are certain incidents I don’t like about them. Otherwise, aside from Hansie, I respect their careers. There are some legends on that list.

  3. That’s a great list, Matt. Not wishing to be a pedant, but Javed Miandad was given out LBW seven times in Pakistan from 73 Test dismissals. Conversely, Bill Lawry was never dismissed LBW from 50 outs in Australia.

  4. G’day Crio you might be right when you used the term, Lillee, a wanker : but it was certainly not a chant i recall from days in the outer from the 70’s and 80’s. Any way down to tin tacks I always want to see us win.

    This desire by some Australians and membe sof the press club to regularly bag our players grates on my nerves. It is like a new version of the cultural cringe. bag the Aussise, alwatys suport their opponents, Aussise are sledgers, bullies, bad sports, etc,etc is execeedingly tedious. As the old Russin adgae goes facta are stubborn things. What if our players had done the following;

    Racially abuse an opponent, ie Habrajahn, assault an umpire, ie Croft, threaten a commentator in a press box, ie IVA Richards, threw a stump through a door, ie Cronje. I can go on and on, but Australian players do not have a monopoly on bad behaviour , despite the loud, pious bleatings of some.

    To me the nonsenical chanting of aussise, aussie, oi,oi, or whatever it si ,is as bad as the constant desire by some to lambast our cticketers for all, and everything. They are two sides of the same coin.

    Glen!

  5. Good list Matt. I’d have Prior as my keeper in the deTest team- low cheat.
    On the other side of the ledger I’d happily put Joe Root and ABdeV in my batting order. Hopefully Overseas cricket fans would have Gilly high on their “loved” list, though I fear they’d fill a deTest team with aussie attitudes!

  6. I’m a bit with Glen on this – ungracious behaviour is not the sole property of Aussie cricketers. English bowler Graeme Swan comes to mind. What a jerk. And the Poms were all given MBEs after beating us in 2005. Give me a break!

  7. Malcolm Ashwood says

    Pretty disappointing this post , imo , particularly the comment re , Darren Lehmann having known , Darren a long time a tough competitor on the ground , but respects cricket traditions and the 1st person to bury the hatchet over a drink off the ground .
    Totally agree with , Glen and Dips

  8. Slept on it overnight
    Loved team in batting order:-
    Barry Richards (SA)
    Conrad Hunte (WI)
    Lindsay Hassett (Aust)
    Colin Cowdrey (Eng)
    Garry Sobers (WI)
    Frank Worrall (WI) Capt
    Adam Gilchrist (Aust)
    Merv Hughes (Aust)
    Max Walker (Aust)
    Fred Trueman (Eng)
    Phil Tufnell (Eng)

    Prefer to call other side The Unloved:-
    Geoff Boycott (Eng)
    Davis Warner (Aust)
    Shane Watson (Aust)
    Dean Jones (Aust)
    Ted Dexter (Eng) Capt
    Matt Wade (Aust) or Matt Prior(Eng)
    Ian Botham (Eng)
    Richard Hadlee (NZ)
    Peter Pollock (SA)
    Graeme Swann (Eng)
    Harbajan Singh (Ind)

  9. kath presdee says

    I suppose he came from too early an era, but why is Douglas Robert Jardine absent from the “Hated”/”Despised”/”Unloved” lists?

  10. Dave Brown says

    Here’s my crack, Crio (said the actress to the bishop):

    Appreciated:
    Sangakkara
    McCullum (wk)
    Kallis
    M Crowe
    Aravinda de Silva
    Chanderpaul
    Laxman
    Worrell (c)
    Vettori
    Hadlee
    Garner

    Despised:
    Pietersen
    Miandad
    Jardine (c)
    Kohli (for the sake of argument)
    Ranatunga
    Botham
    Akmal
    Symcox
    S. Broad
    H. Singh
    J. Anderson

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