Best cricketer you've ever watched.

[Villan For Life]

All from 36 years of watching live cricket:

Batsman: Sir Viv
Bowler: Warne
Fielder: Trevor Penney
Keeper: Adam Gilchirst - for his all-round contribution to the team and a decent glove man
Captain: Michael Vaughan - always seemed to be one step ahead of the opposition and made things happen
All Rounder - Sir Beefy

[Villafirst]

Brian Lara. End of - pure genius. 501 anybody?

[DaveD]

First "proper" game of cricket I ever went to see was England v West Indies ODI at Old Trafford in 1984, when I was 13.

Viv Richards scored 189 no. Smashed the likes of Willis and Botham all around and out of the ground. Put on over 100 with Michael Holding for the last wicket, who scored 12.

Still haven't seen anything like it. Doubt I ever will. He's the man for me.

[Broughty-Villian]

someone mentioned elegant, I was lucky enough to see Hadlee play Pelsall in his testimonial year.


but I have been (as have others on here) to see some fine cricketers, and cannot compalin at some of the names been mentioned.

As an acclaimed fast right arm....ill go with whispering death...Holding. I loved watching him bowl



no one has mentioned Boycs

[olaftab]

Mike Proctor without any question.

[Villafirst]

Hopefully, in 10 years time, Sam Hain will be mentioned?....

[pooligan]

Best ever cricketer i have ever seen? Wow,that is a hard one,in fact in over 50 years of watching cricket i don't think i could pick just one.

As a Bear, i would have to go for the likes of Lara, Donald,Willis and Small and Doshi. Going back to a earlier era, i would also have to mention Jameson,,Kallicharran,Kanhai,Amiss,Gibbs and MJK Smith

On a wider front, Sobers,Procter,Warne,Richards,McGrath,Clive Lloyd ,Hadlee,Botham,Flintcroft and  Knott come to mind

[lovejoy]

Mike Proctor without any question.

Close the thread, we have a winner.

[passitsideways]

As a biased Aussie and young whippersnapper, I'll throw Ponting in there mostly because he hasn't got a mention just yet. Superb batsman and unbelievably good fielder who caught everything and hit the stumps more often than not. Tendulkar and Lara probably better batsmen among contemporaries (with other contenders such as Sangakkara, Dravid, Hayden, etc.), Kallis has the all-round chops, and a lot of superb bowlers to think about, but Ponting is one of the guys I grew up watching summer after summer.

[lovejoy]

As a biased Aussie and young whippersnapper, I'll throw Ponting in there mostly because he hasn't got a mention just yet. Superb batsman and unbelievably good fielder who caught everything and hit the stumps more often than not. Tendulkar and Lara probably better batsmen among contemporaries (with other contenders such as Sangakkara, Dravid, Hayden, etc.), Kallis has the all-round chops, and a lot of superb bowlers to think about, but Ponting is one of the guys I grew up watching summer after summer.

Didn't play the game in a good enough spirit for me.

[Chinchilla Bathhouse]

I think in the first two Warwickshire matches I ever saw - as a young kid in the early eighties - Kalli made a century. I didn't know much about cricket then but he was clearly a wonderful batsman.  It was in the days of Anton Ferreira and Geoff Humpage (who lived down the road from us).  And Norman Gifford, who was in his late seventies, I think.

I remember a lot of brilliant performances in the glory years of the early nineties; I saw Trevor Penney take some absolutely unbelievable catches; Allan Donald was frightening in his pomp; I also remember someone (I can't remember who) smashing a six into the Eric Hollies and it landed right in the bag of the man in front of us and squashed his sandwiches.  He'd seen the ball coming and made a hasty lurch to his left, so he didn't see where it went.  I dipped into his bag and retrieved it, after which he held aloft a completely destroyed cheese and tomato bap.  (It may have been the same match where there was a tannoy announcement that went, "Would the owner of a light blue Lada..." the rest of the message completely lost in loud guffawing from all round the ground). 

Funnily enough, in spite of our success in that era, the best performance I can remember was from Robin Smith, who scored a majestic century for Hampshire in a one-day quarter final.  He was on another planet that day, we just couldn't bowl anywhere to him. Everything went to the boundary.  Quite brilliant.

[passitsideways]

As a biased Aussie and young whippersnapper, I'll throw Ponting in there mostly because he hasn't got a mention just yet. Superb batsman and unbelievably good fielder who caught everything and hit the stumps more often than not. Tendulkar and Lara probably better batsmen among contemporaries (with other contenders such as Sangakkara, Dravid, Hayden, etc.), Kallis has the all-round chops, and a lot of superb bowlers to think about, but Ponting is one of the guys I grew up watching summer after summer.

Didn't play the game in a good enough spirit for me.

Well, yeah, he was kind of a prick. But that shouldn't be relevant to this kind of conversation though.

[Dave Cooper please]

Mentioning Ponting gives me another excuse to post this:

I just love the look on his little rat-featured face as he trudges off.

[Monty]

What a time that was. The atmosphere was completely ridiculous.

[Ron Manager]

Fiery Fred Trueman. The Muhammed Ali of great fast bowlers. If he was still alive today he would tell you so as well!