Undervalued Cricketers

[PhatBoy]

Bevan.

Barely gets spoken about these days, mainly because he wasn’t really involved in the test side of that era (Despite averaging 57 with 68 100’s in FC cricket).

Like Steve Smith was played as a specialist spinner at the start of his test career, who ended up taking 29 wkts @ 24 in his 18 tests. Unlike Steve Smith he barely got another opportunity and is close to the best FC player of the last 30 years.

Probably our goat ODI player and arguably the only Australian that would make an all time ODI best XI.

Bevan was never picked at the start of his career as a spinner.

He went to Pakistan in 1994 and played as a pure batsman.

Later when it became apparent that he couldn’t cut it as a batsman he took a bagful at Adelaide as a second spinner but that’s it.

 

[Damon_3388]

Temba Bavuma is one of the first names to come to mind, usually scoffed at as a mere quota pick but has provided many important, gritty innings when South Africa have been in trouble. In addition to that, he's an outstanding fielder.

Averages 34.58 with the bat in Tests, with 13 fifties and just one hundred. I feel like he'd be perceived a lot differently if he converted a few more of his fifties into tons.

 

[Blue1980]

Nah, I think Johnson is a few pedestals above them in my book.

He was definitely shit for a few years, but destroyed England at home in arguably the most brutal fashion since Lilee/Thommo and did the same to what will go down as an ATG South African team in their own back yard.

I have him on the Thommo/Gillespie rung tbh, only below McGrath/Lillee and above Harris/Alderman.

Johnson is hard to rate because his best is almost as good as anyone ever, but he didn’t do that often enough. Still overall very good test record.

Maybe because I began following cricket in 1990 I rate McDermott very highly as he was an excellent bowler when he came back in from 91 until he retired. Shame he missed those tours to England in 93 and windies in 95.

 

[Scorpus]

George Bailey in ODIs.

Career batting average over 40 from 90 ODIs, a very handy lower order player. Easy to forget him considering he played in an era where our team had lots of over 40 average players (Watson, Clarke, Smith, Warner and several others) but right now we'd take that sort of player for granted

 

[footyfan1978]

Nah, I think Johnson is a few pedestals above them in my book.

nah, he is the same as them all. A few brilliant series and then quite a few not even close. Their brilliant series were great though and why they all made it.

 

[barrackers]

Daryll Cullinan, at least in Australia where his record was atrocious. Omitting Australia his average goes from 44 to 49, omitting Australia and Pakistan it's 51.6.

http://www.howstat.com/cricket/Statistics/Players/PlayerOpponents.asp?PlayerID=0395
http://www.howstat.com/cricket/Statistics/Players/PlayerCountries.asp?PlayerID=0395

 

[Wolfs]

Jason Holder.

 

[PhatBoy]

Daryll Cullinan, at least in Australia where his record was atrocious. Omitting Australia his average goes from 44 to 49, omitting Australia and Pakistan it's 51.6.

http://www.howstat.com/cricket/Statistics/Players/PlayerOpponents.asp?PlayerID=0395
http://www.howstat.com/cricket/Statistics/Players/PlayerCountries.asp?PlayerID=0395

This. Only player who avoided the Devon Malcolm onslaught of 1994 - smashed 90-odd at the other end. He was a ripping player of pace bowling and oddly a pretty decent player of spin as well, he just had a mental stumbling block when he played Australia.

 

[Blue1980]

This. Only player who avoided the Devon Malcolm onslaught of 1994 - smashed 90-odd at the other end. He was a ripping player of pace bowling and oddly a pretty decent player of spin as well, he just had a mental stumbling block when he played Australia.

Well basically a mental stumbling block against Warne.

 

[Len Nicodemo]

Ben Hilfenhaus. Performed admirably in the 2009 Ashes when both Johnson and Siddle didn't live up to expectations and cleaned up the Indians in 2011/12 with a lineup consisting of Sehwag, Dravid, Tendulkar and Laxman.

Agree. Really good bowler who had his fair share of injuries but at his best could swing it like Hermann Rockefeller.

Stuart Macgill another one. When Warne was out we had another great leg spin option in macgill who did very well.

 

[Len Nicodemo]

Alex Tudor was an underrated talent, quick bowler that was handy with the bat, then he got cleaned up by Brett Lee at the WACA and career over.

Gee I remember that. That was a brutal ball but played really badly. Could’ve killed him.

 

[Wolfs]

This. Only player who avoided the Devon Malcolm onslaught of 1994 - smashed 90-odd at the other end. He was a ripping player of pace bowling and oddly a pretty decent player of spin as well, he just had a mental stumbling block when he played Australia.

I remember reading that Cullinan did score a lot against India, Pakistan and SL. I hope facts back me up.

 

[t_94]

Saeed Anwar was an exceptional player that no one really talks about anymore.

 

[PhatBoy]

Saeed Anwar was an exceptional player that no one really talks about anymore.

King of Beards

 

[Len Nicodemo]

Doug Bollinger has elite stats at test level.

 

[Len Nicodemo]

That’s one of the reasons he’s derided a bit though. He got those wickets through literally little more than willpower and the fact that he could drive his body to bowl at reasonable pace (I’ve read the figure 150 in here about him - that’s utter bullshit but nonetheless he was around 140 often) and at least hit a spot repeatedly.

His slimming down robbed him of any pace and without any tricks to offset that diminished speed it’s left him fairly toothless

No, his hat trick ball was 148km I believe.

 

[Doss]

Michael Hussey - it's not that people don't think he was good, but I don't think we realised quite how valuable he was until we didn't have anymore.

One of my very favourite Australian cricketers.

 

[newblueo]

Quite a few already been mentioned

Damian Martyn class till Stephen Fleming ruined his career lol
Ash the bin giles. Won the poms the ashes yuch!
Ross Taylor is elite.
Chris Roger's to do what he did at his age legend.
Michael kasperwich best out swing you will see
Shaun Pollock

 

[PhatBoy]

Michael Hussey - it's not that people don't think he was good, but I don't think we realised quite how valuable he was until we didn't have anymore.

One of my very favourite Australian cricketers.

I really liked Hussey and he was clearly elite, and he’d be a colossus in the current line up, but I’ve got a feeling having looked into his career once before, that he had an awful habit (if you can say that about making runs) of saving his best work for when the going was good. The blinding exception to that was the Sydney test against Pakistan but unfortunately for all involved it carries a bit of an asterisk.

Edit: just looked, of his 19 test centuries, 13 came in innings where other batsmen scored centuries, and two more came when there was a 95 and a 99. Another was the Pakistan test, another saw 4 of the 5 batsmen before him pass 50. None of this makes him a bad player or anything, but he certainly thrived when the going was good, or someone else was assisting in the heavy lifting.

 

[Doss]

I really liked Hussey and he was clearly elite, and he’d be a colossus in the current line up, but I’ve got a feeling having looked into his career once before, that he had an awful habit (if you can say that about making runs) of saving his best work for when the going was good. The blinding exception to that was the Sydney test against Pakistan but unfortunately for all involved it carries a bit of an asterisk.

Edit: just looked, of his 19 test centuries, 13 came in innings where other batsmen scored centuries, and two more came when there was a 95 and a 99. Another was the Pakistan test, another saw 4 of the 5 batsmen before him pass 50. None of this makes him a bad player or anything, but he certainly thrived when the going was good, or someone else was assisting in the heavy lifting.

Boxing Day 2005 is the biggest blinding exception of all.

 

[Gough]

I never warmed much to Hussey. Great cricketer but not a lot of flair with the bat and seemingly a personality to match.

 

[Doss]

I thought Hussey was actually aesthetically pretty good to watch.

 

[PhatBoy]

Played nice shots but was too ‘arms not wrists’ for my visual pleasure

 

[Wolfs]

I don't think Ross Taylor is under-valued.

Everyone rates him high.

 

[JackOutback]

I really liked Hussey and he was clearly elite, and he’d be a colossus in the current line up, but I’ve got a feeling having looked into his career once before, that he had an awful habit (if you can say that about making runs) of saving his best work for when the going was good. The blinding exception to that was the Sydney test against Pakistan but unfortunately for all involved it carries a bit of an asterisk.

Edit: just looked, of his 19 test centuries, 13 came in innings where other batsmen scored centuries, and two more came when there was a 95 and a 99. Another was the Pakistan test, another saw 4 of the 5 batsmen before him pass 50. None of this makes him a bad player or anything, but he certainly thrived when the going was good, or someone else was assisting in the heavy lifting.

Is that an indictment on Hussey or just a reflection of how good the team was at the time.

I enjoyed watching Hussey play and I like seeing genuinely good people get rewarded.