Cook retires from international cricket

comment by United_kaz (U9943)
pretty much all these bowers as great as they were played in a very defensive era of test and even odi cricket to a extent
======================================

That is complete and utter nonsense

I was first of all talking about tests and not T20 or ODI so have no idea where that came from. But also, maybe the reason ODI batsman score more and at a faster rate are because the bowlers are nowhere near as good.

Secondly, why is it the moment there is a tough pitch, there are so many low scores in Tests, because in general the pitches are roads nowadays and have very little for bowlers.

Finally, did you ever even watch cricket in the 90s? the decade Afridi hit 100 off 37 balls, Jayasuriya hit 50 off 17 balls. In 1996, that Sri Lanka side were hitting 300 with ease. Literally every team had an opening pair that were aggressive and in the final overs. I could go on and on.

Only English players were behind the times and they rectified that in the 2000s with players like Trescothik, Flintoff and KP.

comment by Greatteamswinit4times- a terrible enemy (U6008)

posted 46 minutes ago

comment by JustTrue - (Ronnie wins his 7th Masters Snooker Title) (U13155)
posted 41 seconds ago
Conversely, many people that only started watching sports in the past 10-15 years feel they can judge players from 20-25-30 years ago by simply looking at a few YouTube clips of them.

McGrath, Ambrose, Waqar, Donald, Pollock, Walsh, Wasim, McDermott were the bowlers. You think current fast bowlers are better than them. Seriously?

----------------------------------------------------------------------

I don't think there are many around at the moment that are better than them, I also think that if you look at how the game has changed, then maybe those bowlers would have had to change some things in modern cricket. Maybe not the ones who had outright pace and or height like Waqar, Donald, Ambrose etc. But would Pollock been as successful today? Would batsmen allowed him to bowl at them as he used to? T20 and One Day cricket has meant that batsmen are more aggressive and not willing to allow bowlers to settle in the same way.I'm not saying that would be the case, but I am saying it is very difficult to compare.
=========================================

Now you make a much better point than the other poster. Yes, Pollock and even an old Ambrose/MCGrath may struggle in T20 cricket, but I still think that not only their skill but the confidence with which they bowled and were able to find wickets for their Captain, they would've adapted really well.

I think a bowler like Wasim would probably be even more dangerous in T20, Donald,and Waqar may have had the odd bad match, but they would've been lethal with their yorkers and bouncers.

I was first of all talking about tests and not T20 or ODI so have no idea where that came from. But also, maybe the reason ODI batsman score more and at a faster rate are because the bowlers are nowhere near as good.
--------------
if you don't think the rise of t20 cricket has a ripple effect to all formats then your not worth debating

T20 has had both a bad and bad effect on batting, but you are not worth debating with I agree, because you seem clueless about cricket.

You call a whole era of cricket defensive becuase of no T20 yet you ignore that many aggressive players played in that era.

Stick to a subject you know about. Your knowledge of cricket is a joke.

you don't read very well do you, how does the odd player and innings negate the fact that that era was more defensive than now?

your the idiot who thinks cook is not a England great, pretty much sums up your knowledge of the game

Aggression can be in both batting, field setting and bowling, why should it be restricted to ONLY batting?

But I don't want to ruin this thread with the bickering, but if you watched ODI cricket worldwide in the 90s, the last thing you would call it is negative. This was the decade that Gilchrist started opening and I could give 100 examples, but it's nothing to do with this topic, so I say we agree to disagree here.

for every 100examples in the 90's I could give you a 10000 in this last decade, like I said the game in the 90's was different, scores of 240-250 in odi were considered difficult targets, yes they may have been a bit of movement to those bigger 300 scores late in the decade but the game scoring wise has moved on massively since then as a whole, but like you say agree to disagree

Folks u all make fair and good points. Let me pictch in my two cents. My grandfather told me that in 80’s and 90’s, batsmen had it tough due to pitches, not having the best equipment for e.g even the bats and the list goes on.. U see how rules have been changed in odis in favor of batsmen. T20 is just batsmen’s game....... U may not compare different eras but try to make a decent estimate instead of guessing.

So all in all, I think it was more tough for batsmen to score in previous decades and you see the difference of quality today between tests and T20.... Players like Raina, Yuvi, can never succeed in Tests and it’s shows the difference between men n boys. That is why I rate batsmen like Sachin, Lara higher in that decade. I know we have Kohlis n Root etc; but they have it lot easier compared to past generations!

I also feel that bowlers were more talented and I’m sure they would adapt much better than today’s trundlers in any format..

Comment Deleted by Site Moderator

Do you see any difference then in bat sizes or quality from previous decades? How about ODIs rule changes to favor batsmen? Now whoever brought up ODIs n T20 aggression by batsmen in today’s time; I can tell most of the time they play on roads compared to previous decades!

Also they don’t have the best technique to play if pitches have something for bowlers. Barring few players like Kohli and I don’t see the quality of batsmen like Sachin, VVS Laxman, Viv Richards in today’s era. I saw some videos how fierce was Richards in his prime without much protection (helmet, etc n just imagine how he would have done now with today’s bat quality/size, pitches, and rules in favor of batsmen!