Cook's12 months @ average of 96

While I think Cook is doing fantastically well and is in great form, whether he can be compared to greats like Tendulkar, Kallis etc is a different matter.

If you compare his stats to Kallis' you'll note that he has played around 50% less matches than Kallis, 146 matches verses 71.

The stats show that he is effectively on course to equal Kallis' records as Cook's records are about 50% those of Kallis':

100's: 40 vs 19
50's: 54 vs 26
Runs:11947 vs 5834

The big difference now is in average with Kallis on 57 and Cook on 49 however Cooks is likely to improve as may Kallis'.

The difference is that Kallis achieved his stats against bowlers like McGrath, Warne, Vaas, Bond, Kumble, Muri, Ambrose, Welsh, Lee, the great Pakistani fast bowlers and spinners etc etc while the only true world class bowler (potential great) these days is Steyn. Pitches now are also easier for batting and averages accross the game seem to be 10 - 15 up from 10 years ago (due to limited bowling and better batting surfaces).

Therefore, while Cook must be commended for his current run of form as it is not his fault that the opposition are not what they were but I cannot see how he can be seen in the league of Tendulkar, Kallis, Ponting and Lara whether he ends his career with similar stats or not.

A bit harsh, none of the great batsmen from yesteryear had to face raina, tendulkar and dhoni ( bowling with his gloves on, hardly used mind because he can't stop the ball behind the stumps) What a joke this Indian team is?

Kallis had to face England bowling to in the past and that was useless... Now the boots on the other foot. Suddenly England have all the aces and the standard as dropped? .

Don't get all defensive, reread my post, it makes perfect sense.

Believe it or not Kallis did not only play England his whole career. Besides Caddick, Fraser, Flintoff, Harmison (in form) etc particularly on English pitches were pretty decent bowlers. All better than most fast bowlers around today.

SA for example fielded a three prong fast bowling attack of Donald, Pollock and Ntini with a young Kallis being the fourth. Much stronger than Steyn, Morkel, Parnel and Tsotsobe.

Any logical cricket fan cannot deny that the level of bowling has dropped and that pitches favour the batsman more than in the past. It's a fact!

It's a strange thing with these averages. I don't think batsmen have got drastically better in the last 5-10 years, or the bowlers drastically worse, i Just think the pitches now offer more help to batsmen, and the one day game has increased scoring rates, added to improvements in bat technology and the greater prevelance of the Kook ball.

In other words, do i think that Kevin Pietersen is better than steve waugh even though their batting averages are roughly the same? no. Waugh in my view is the better batsman, because he achived an average of 50 when batting was a bit harder.

comment by ireallylikechristmas (U7573)
posted 16 hours, 43 minutes ago

"Hmmm, weren't most of those scores against 2 sides (India and Australia) in complete meltdown and Bangladesh?"

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My God. WhatACock you are.

He scored the majority of his runs against the number one team in the World and the deposed number one team in the World.

However, how did that spineless bunchOfShite ever get to no1 in the World?

Good post Town Cryer

Saw on t.v that Ian Bell is averages close to 90 in test that he has played since 2010.One of the reason for England's dominance in the last year and a half has been the form of Bell, Trott and Cook.

Really, we'd never have known that

bell averages 118 this calendar year.