Greatest batsman on wet pitches

[Vijay Arumugam]

This will be a subjective discussion. But it will be fun to have some good dialogue on the same.



Most of us will agree to the fact that Sir Don Bradman is the greatest batsman of all time (I know we can nitpick on his one or two grey areas (if there are any) and try to pull the great man down).

My question is who was the greatest batsman on Wet pitches? It required some skills to score runs on those pitches wherein both the spinners and seamers will be more than handful.

I will have the following 3 choices:

Victor Trumper/Jack Hobbs/George Headley

Trumper’s efforts in England in 1905 and Hobbs’s performance in 1926 stand out. Even Headley has some impressive performances on wet pitches.

Do we have to include Sutcliffe/Hammond/Hutton in this elite list?

Will we have to exclude Bradman based on his “none too impressive” scores on wet pitches?

Will we have to question Jack Hobbs since he has allegedly used his pads “unfairly” as the second line of defense to make full use of the outside the off stump LBW rule? Please give your points/Views.

[Andy Mellon]

Hmmm. Interesting question, but is this discussion so relevant today as it would have been in the past. The best 'wet pitch' batsmen would have been those forced to play on sticky wickets and in the modern game, playing on 'wet pitches' probably isn't going to be allowed on Health & Safety grounds.

I suppose another side to this question would be to look at those players who perform well in damp conditions - i.e. those which are overcast and humid or overcast and damp. These conditions are still fairly common today, and if you can play well in these conditions, you are a good batsman.

An example I would use who seems to struggle with such conditions is Michael Clarke of Australia. He's played well in dry, hot conditions but has seemingly failed in damp, overcast conditions. This is evidenced by a poor performance against the Black Caps in New Zealand and also a poor batting average in England last year. I'm sure he's got the ability to overcome this deficiency in the long term, but it is a weakness at the moment seemingly.

Now, who are the best players in the world in overcast conditions? Currently, you'd expect players such as Thorpe and Kallis to fare well in such conditions; though you wouldn't necessary reel their names off given the question of who plays well on 'wet pitches'

Interesting question - and I don't really have the answers!! Anyone else out there with more of an idea?

[Paoli]

Welcome to the board, Vijay. First of all, how old are ya mate!!! Your knowledge of cricket stems alot further than mine.

I'll consider a few modern day ones.

Mahela Jayawardene
Nathan Astle
Andrew Flower

Probably the three best wet pitchers I've seen.

[Rachael]

Originally Posted by Andy Mellon

I suppose another side to this question would be to look at those players who perform well in damp conditions - i.e. those which are overcast and humid or overcast and damp. These conditions are still fairly common today, and if you can play well in these conditions, you are a good batsman.

Interesting question - and I don't really have the answers!! Anyone else out there with more of an idea?

This, to me, is the same question as "who are the greatest batsmen today"... because you are basically looking at the art of playing lateral movement.. and to my mind that's THE great test of a batsman: anyone with a good eye and good timing can look stunning when the ball is coming through on a predictable trajectory (think of all those "stand and deliver" ODI batsmen like Sehwag, Jayasuria, Hayden, Gayle, Symonds, Flintoff) but few seem to have the time, touch and judgement to cope well when the going gets tough.

Of course, the problem here is that many fairly ordinary batsmen do well in such conditions more through method and discipline (playing a line, refusing to be drawn, not worrying about middling the ball or how they keep the ball out): guys like Kirsten, Richardson and Hussain fall into that camp and are to my mind no better than the stand and deliver merchants.

Those who do NOT qualify here must include Vaughan (only great series came on Aussie pitches facing very little lateral movement) and Laxman (ultimate exemplar)... but the list of tose who CAN do it might well turn out to be pretty short: if I had to take a wild punt, right now, I'd perhaps back Kallis.