Which country’s batsmen are the easiest on the eye?

[PhatBoy]

Was having a think about this during the Sri Lanka NZ test and I would have to say that as a general rule, percentage wise, Sri Lankan batsmen would have to be the ‘nicest’ players to watch over the last 30 years, in my opinion anyway.

Every country has had nice batsmen to watch in that time and Australia, India and South Africa as the three generally dominant sides in that time - especially with batsmen - have obviously had their fair share but that’s probably through weight of numbers: if you have 40 real good batsmen in three decades there is always going to be a lot of really graceful ones.

Sri Lanka haven’t had THAT many great batsmen but gee a lot of them have been nice to watch either through effortlessness or a near perfect looking technique:

Aravinda was a beautiful player to watch
Marvan Attapattu with that absolutely perpendicular front elbow up high driving off the back foot
Hashan Tillekeratne had an element of Brian Lara about his flourish and follow through
Jayawardene when he arrived was like a clone of Marvan with the added bonus that he was next to perfect against spin and had amazing wrists
Sanga doesn’t need explaining he was just gorgeous to watch, his pull shots and his cover drive were how you would teach someone to play them. It was like he was us Job a magic wand and just pointing at where he wanted the ball to go.
Matthews is a very very correct player with a text book technique
Mendis is also a lovely player on the eye

Even a noted basher like Dilshan was very loose limbed at the crease and extravagant

 

[Around the Wicket]

Australia's or South African womens side, few hotties in those sides.

 

[akkaps]

Australia's or South African womens side, few hotties in those sides.

Before this thread gets serious
Yaskita Bhatia and Kainat Imtiaz


And on a serious note. Sachin Tendulkar

 

[footyfan1978]

I was watching some highlights of a WSC ODI yesterday and just seeing Zaheer Abbas on there was so nice to watch his stylish stroke making.
Kim Hughes of similar time period and his batting in the Centenary Test at Lords is some of my most fond memories of being up late at night and just enjoying watching a batsmen make his craft look so nice and stylish to watch.

 

[dogs105]

Sri Lanka takes this.

 

[footyfan1978]

Sri Lanka takes this.

In general yes,
West Indies used to have stylish batsmen that also, actually were good, but then the Keith Arturton of their world come along and never really recovered.

Loved Lawrence Rowe when first started watching cricket. Not as easy on eye as Zaheer Abbas shot making was but still I rated for style.

 

[dogs105]

In general yes,
West Indies used to have stylish batsmen that also, actually were good, but then the Keith Arturton of their world come along and never really recovered.

Loved Lawrence Rowe when first started watching cricket. Not as easy on eye as Zaheer Abbas shot making was but still I rated for style.

Used to love watching Viv, not for style so much, as attitude and magnetism.
Aravinda de Silva was so good to watch. David Gower also.

It's hard to think of the Australians as being easy on the eye, as I'm familiar with so many. While there has been G Chappell, Hughes, M Waugh and Martyn, you also think of AB, Hayden, Boony, Taylor etc.

 

[footyfan1978]

Used to love watching Viv, not for style so much, as attitude and magnetism.
Aravinda de Silva was so good to watch. David Gower also.

It's hard to think of the Australians as being easy on the eye, as I'm familiar with so many. While there has been G Chappell, Hughes, M Waugh and Martyn, you also think of AB, Hayden, Boony, Taylor etc.

Kim Hughes footwork and drives were awesome on the eye. Chappell and his brother too. Mark Waugh was lovely to watch bat. Damien Martyn was easy on eye with his style but never really forgive him for his horrendous moments. David Hookes my favourite to watch.

 

[PhatBoy]

In general yes,
West Indies used to have stylish batsmen that also, actually were good, but then the Keith Arturton of their world come along and never really recovered.

Loved Lawrence Rowe when first started watching cricket. Not as easy on eye as Zaheer Abbas shot making was but still I rated for style.

Arthurton was a mediocre batsman, but ugly to watch he was not

His 157 at the Gabba in 1992 was a beautiful innings

 

[PhatBoy]

In fact the Gabba seems to have been a bit of a haven for ordinary West Indian batsmen to shine:

Arthurton, Sherwin Campbell and Adrian Barath have all made hundreds there in my lifetime

 

[footyfan1978]

Arthurton was a mediocre batsman, but ugly to watch he was not

His 152 at the Gabba in 1992 was a beautiful innings

He was relatively ugly to watch for me except when he just another wicket.

 

[PhatBoy]

He was relatively ugly to watch for me except when he just another wicket.

I found him very stylish. Had the high rapier backlift like Lara and a nice smooth drive, and liked to bat in a Greg Chappell hat


The Windies batsmen as a demographic I find very entertaining as a high percentage of them whether they’re good or bad, play a lot of shots, but excepting Lara, Hooper, and oddly in his own languid loose wristed way Chanderpaul, I’ve never found many of their main batsmen especially attractive and stylish.


Of the current group Holder is absolute poetry when he’s at the crease. He hits balls like dads do when they face their kids in the nets or when you’re playing against a junior in an informal senior comp, but the ball flies like it’s running away from his bat.

Mayers is lovely to watch too. Pity it only ever lasts half an hour


Pakistan would be as a country my next favourite I think.
Inzy was lovely on the eye, Babar Azam, MoYo, I never saw zaheer but everyone says he was graceful and elegant, and my favourite of all was Saeed Anwar

Still, they’re offset by some pretty unmemorable techniques: Younis and Misbah were both fairly mechanical, and Ijaz Ahmed was one of the most dog ugly batsman in terms of grace that I’ve ever seen

 

[footyfan1978]

I found him very stylish. Had the high rapier backlift like Lara and a nice smooth drive, and liked to bat in a Greg Chappell hat

It is all in the eye of the beholder. For me I found Gordon Greenidge very easy to watch on the eye but he was not graceful like a Mark Waugh or Zaheer Abbas, he was just very stylish in the way he batted overall and because he hit it so hard it not seen as graceful. Viv Richards was a more masterful batsmen than Gordon but I enjoyed watching Greenidge. Clive Lloyd was wonderful to watch too. Larry Gomes on the other hand, was real ugly batter for me but very effective.

 

[PhatBoy]

It is all in the eye of the beholder. For me I found Gordon Greenidge very easy to watch on the eye but he was not graceful like a Mark Waugh or Zaheer Abbas, he was just very stylish in the way he batted overall and because he hit it so hard it not seen as graceful. Viv Richards was a more masterful batsmen than Gordon but I enjoyed watching Greenidge. Clive Lloyd was wonderful to watch too. Larry Gomes on the other hand, was real ugly batter for me but very effective.

Don’t get me wrong I understand - I watched maybe a snippet of GG as a 5 year old but that was it.

I found Jacques Kallis incredible to watch even though he was accused of being boring because every shot he played was how you would paint a picture of how to play it, even his defensive shots I found lovely to watch.

Actually in defining batsmen by nationality now that I think about it, SA batsman have a particular style generic to a lot of them; think Gibbs, McKenzie, Du Plessis who all played with a really strong bottom hand. Alviro Petersen was another one. A consequence of the pace and bounce of their pitches I would assume. Steven Cook more recently.

They’ve had a whole sequence of ugly/pug ugly/fugly/pug fugly left handers too: Kepler, Gary Kirsten, Graeme Smith, Ashwell Prince, Dean Elgar

Kallis, Amla, QDK and AB aside, theirs is not a modern history of pleasant to watch batsmen.

Some of the newer guys are ok - Keegan Pietersen is lovely to watch and Markram is like a textbook


Actually there’s one: Daryll Cullinan. He was gorgeous against fast bowling

 

[footyfan1978]

Don’t get me wrong I understand - I watched maybe a snippet of GG as a 5 year old but that was it.

I found Jacques Kallis incredible to watch even though he was accused of being boring because every shot he played was how you would paint a picture of how to play it, even his defensive shots I found lovely to watch.

Actually in defining batsmen by nationality now that I think about it, SA batsman have a particular style generic to a lot of them; think Gibbs, McKenzie, Du Plessis who all played with a really strong bottom hand. Alviro Petersen was another one. A consequence of the pace and bounce of their pitches I would assume. Steven Cook more recently.

They’ve had a whole sequence of ugly/pug ugly/fugly/pug fugly left handers too: Kepler, Gary Kirsten, Graeme Smith, Ashwell Prince, Dean Elgar

Kallis, Amla, QDK and AB aside, theirs is not a modern history of pleasant to watch batsmen.

Some of the newer guys are ok - Keegan Pietersen is lovely to watch and Markram is like a textbook


Actually there’s one: Daryll Cullinan. He was gorgeous against fast bowling

South Africa have it for ugliest. I suspect it the way they taught to bat at young age by coaches there for some reason. But as with Cullinan, there sometimes some rare decent ones to watch. I really enjoyed Robin Smith and Allan Lamb but they had to play for England as South Africa was banned in their time. Like most, Kallis was kind of robot in style , so in a way, kind of boring but very good. Bit like Graham Gooch in style.

 

[PhatBoy]

South Africa have it for ugliest. I suspect it the way they taught to bat at young age by coaches there for some reason. But as with Cullinan, there sometimes some rare decent ones to watch. I really enjoyed Robin Smith and Allan Lamb but they had to play for England as South Africa was banned in their time. Like most, Kallis was kind of robot in style , so in a way, kind of boring but very good. Bit like Graham Gooch in style.

Robin Smith against pace was thrilling - absolutely thrilling. The faster they bowled, the more he loved it.

People remember Warnie’s impact on Daryl Cullinan as though he ended his career; he didn’t do anything of the sort and only got him out 4-5 times across roughly the same amount of series. Excepting those encounters Cullinan’s career didn’t suffer at all.

Smith on the other hand had an issue with pushing hard at the ball when spinners bowled to him and Warne really highlighted it and he was probably unfairly pushed into a premature exit from test cricket.

Considering how bad England were in the first half of the 90s - they relied heavily on Gooch who was approaching 40 and from memory well past it when he retired, Atherton who was very serviceable but never great, and a wicketkeeper in Alec Stewart, their handling of Smith whos record was absolutely fine, was atrocious