The Cricket Thread (part 8) - from Jan 2024

Only 55 … This is a bit of a shock.

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Wow. Was he suffering from any illness? Far, far too young…

I swear it was his birthday a day or two ago, judging by social media. Great batsman for England during a difficult era. Quite shocked

Completely shocked. That generation of cricketers seems to be dying in the 50’s, what’s up with that?

He’s been seriously ill for two years, had to quit coaching due to it. Terrible news.

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That absolutely sucks, always loved Thorpey

He played in an era where we sucked, but he was always there fighting tooth and nail for us. One of , if not our best bats in the 90s and early 2000s

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RIP Thorpey. Heartbreaking news. Way too young!

Even though I knew what thread I clicked in, and knew who died…don’t call him that.
Gave me a heart attack.

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Don’t jinx the Thorpedo, Wim…

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Back in the mid/late nineties, Mrs Wim interviewed this 14 year-old kid that had been selected for the Australian swimming team.
Big things were expected of him, apparently.

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High praise for Thorpe from Wasim Akram. Best left-handed he bowled to apparently. The love out there for him seems to be very sincere from those who knew him

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I get that it’s his perspective and that it’s customary to be full of praise in these circumstances but gee, Brian Lara was handy. Just saying!

No slight on Thorpe either, whose record is outstanding.

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What a bummer.

I always really liked him as a player. He was one of the few blokes they had in that era who was good enough to go up against the strong Australian teams of the time (averaged 45.7 against Aus, with three centuries, including one in Perth). Averaged more than 40 everywhere he played except South Africa (31.4) and Zimbabwe (two Tests). I admired him a lot.

I saw Alex Tudor being interviewed last night, as a commentator for the Hundred, and an ex-teammate of Thorpe’s at Surrey.

He was full of praise for Thorpe as a teammate but my mind went back to the Test where Tudor was left stranded on 99* as England won. I think he’d been the night-watchman.

I don’t recall their exact scores but it was something along the lines of Tudor being 95+ and England needing about 25 to win. Everything says “let’s get the young bloke to the ton”, but did Thorpe? No, he didn’t, he hogged the strike, and there was no urgency to get the runs, either by wickets or by time.

I thought that was pretty un-Australian and wouldn’t have been surprised if harsh words were spoken in the pavilion.

Similar thing happened in Andrew Strauss’s first Test when he made a ton in his first dig and was well on the way to a second ton, batting with Nasser Hussain, when there was a case where one batsman had to sacrifice himself in a run-out. You’d expect the batsman at fault, Nasser, to make sure he was the one, but no.

About the only thing I remember of Alex Tudor was Binga nearly sending him to Valhalla.

Was that the bouncer in Perth? That was beyond brutal

“Well, I think it goes hand in hand if you’re tricky to face you’re most likely the best Bowlers that you know I have played against. The number one bowler for me that was tricky, deceptive and for me maybe the best bowler that I’ve played against would be Wasim Akram. I think that he had what it took to make you look very silly even if you’re coming off scoring 400. I thought he had ability to get you out,” said Lara on Fox Cricket.

West Indies legend Brian Lara reveals the six toughest bowlers he faced in his career | Cricket Times

Maybe Akram had Lara’s measure a little bit?

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So Akram only got him out a couple of times in tests. I don’t have time to look at ODIs.

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Yeah wow only two scores over 50 in 7 tests. Says a fair bit about the mastery of Wasim :ok_hand:

He needs to make up his mind. He said Anderson was the greatest fast bowler just a month ago.

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