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[play-yourself-in]

I was just thinking about my own, very poor, cricket career which is in limbo at the moment while I live overseas.  I have played with some players much worse than myself (I am pretty poor) who have somehow scored 100s and taken bags of wickets.

One lad springs to mind who batted with his feet and legs together, hovered the bat about 6 inches of the ground with no back lift and got a ton one game!

Who (no names please) is the worst player you've seen do well?

I just hope one day I become one of these players! 

[brycenz]

I used to play with a lad who would bowl wobbly 90km/ph and he had an incredible nack of taking a lot of wickets.
Not sure what his best figures were while I played with him, but I definitely witnessed some handy 6+ wicket hauls

[Bats_Entertainment]

Stupid thread, in my opinion. You are only ever as good as the amount of runs and wickets you get.

[LateBloomer]

Stupid thread, in my opinion. You are only ever as good as the amount of runs and wickets you get.

And how many do you get?

An isolated incident as he went for plenty after but I got out to a filthy long hop from a part time off spinner a few years ago. As I rocked back to pull it rolled along the ground and bowled me! A combination of the bowler, the pitch and the batsman being absolutely terrible

[t2ylo]

Who is this Will?

[Bats_Entertainment]

And how many do you get?

Not many. I don't claim to be any good.

[Kulli]

Maybe more the worst looking player you've ever seen do well.

Years ago we had an aussie lad turn up, good lad, keen enough, didn't look like he'd played much proper cricket before.

Had an inter club pre season game and he whacked 20 odd, enough to get a run in the 4's top order. Proceeded to batter runs everywhere for the 4's, then the 3's and then the 2's and even managed the odd outing for the 1's. I think half his secret was convincing bowlers that he was no threat and was just opening the batting because someone was on holiday.

[meats]

Aussie came over and got a duck in his first game for the club playing in the 3s. Think he now captains Australia.

[TGB1997]

In a Sunday development game the opening bowlers struggled as the pitch was very slow and it just sat up nicely for the batsmen, the skipper turned to me as a frontline spinner to try and slow the runs down which did as the pitch was turning miles (in my view turning too much) but I got us back in the game bowling my 8 overs 1 wicket for 26 which turned the game around. However our normal keeper came on to bowl some part time spin and somehow managed to bag himself 3 wickets for 21 bowling basically pies, it was quite amusing in some ways fielding at deep mid wicket watching this.

[Bats_Entertainment]

Aussie came over and got a duck in his first game for the club playing in the 3s. Think he now captains Australia.

This doesn't surprise me. Playing low level cricket can seem like a different game altogether.

[Buzz]

Aussie came over and got a duck in his first game for the club playing in the 3s. Think he now captains Australia.

Steve Smith remains the worse looking player I have seen and I have absolutely no idea how he does it.

[rahul_1987]

Steve Smith remains the worse looking player I have seen and I have absolutely no idea how he does it.

I second that..if you look him play, you are likely to think that he wont last long but i think what matters at the end is how many runs you score and not whether you look good playing or not.

[northernboy1987]

Steve Smith remains the worse looking player I have seen and I have absolutely no idea how he does it.

Everytime I see him bat I'm convinced it won't be long till he gets "found out" due to his technique but there he is 51 Tests in with 18 tons and an average over 60, shows how much I know

[felix]

This doesn't surprise me. Playing low level cricket can seem like a different game altogether.

Evidently this is true.  When I was playing modest level league cricket in Kent in the mid 90s, Richie Richardson (who was a pretty decent bat  ) came to play a season for Lashings in the same league as us, when they were a "proper" club and not just playing charity games.  I didn't play against him but I recall that his returns were very poor and he said in an interview how difficult the pitches were for him.

[jamesisapayne]

Stupid thread, in my opinion. You are only ever as good as the amount of runs and wickets you get.

It's not a stupid thread at all. I think it actually raises a rather valid point - With so much emphasis on technique in cricket, especially when young players have had raw natural ability coached out of them in order to conform to MCC coaching manual instructions, are we seeing a change towards a more result driven player.

Ultimately the old adage of 'it's not how, it's how many' does ring so true, but if that's the be all then why do so many people queue up to watch the Tendulkar's, the Ponting's, the Bell's, the Pietersen's of this world above other players. It's because they're all brilliant players but all classical, elegant and 'easy on the eye'.

Regarding Steve Smith I personally find him unwatchable, but that's not because of his batting style at all. I actually rather like watching him bat, but it's the amount of fidgeting and OCD repetitiveness during his pre ball routine that I can't stand - much the same way I find David Warner annoying due to him constantly messing with his gloves. Both great players though.