Murali's latest action analysis photo!

[Rachael]

Warne and MacGill are both down as down as "Leg Break Googly Bowler", Brad Hogg is down as "Slow Left Arm Chinaman Bowler": any of those three would walk right into most Test teams as a specialist bowler. Katich is also down as "Slow Left Arm Chinaman Bowler".. and I suspect even he is better than what the SA, Eng or the WI can offer in that department.

Curiously, though, with all those options.. it was Lehman's (as I understand it, occasional) Slow Left Arm Orthodox stuff that got the nod in Sri Lanka.

[Zeke]

For anyone remotely interested... It seems that the Murali/Baseball image I created has somehow made it's way into the pages of a national Australian publication - the Herald Sun newspaper.

I'm famous, in an anonymous sort of way!

[Narasim Iyengar]

Rachel.....something tells me either you're taking the mick a little here or you haven't watched much cricket recently. Brad Hogg would into most teams as a specialist bowler ? Which Brad Hogg is that ? Surely not the Brad Hogg who has taken precisely 1.5 wickets per first-class match over his career.

Aus has Warne and MacGill and White on the up-and-coming.
India has Kumble and Harbhajan (not to mention Tendulkar)
Pakistan has Saqlain,Kaneria and Malik
SL has Murali, Chandana and Herath
Bangladesh has Rafique and Islam Rana
We have Giles
NZ has Vettori
SA have Adams

All the above are, at worst, markedly better bowlers than Hogg.

Hogg would get into the Zimbabwe side as a specialist bowler, possibly the Windies if they were desperate but they have Gayle and Sarwan who are perfectly capable of doing a job.

Just not sure which teams you would have him walk into............

[Teatime FatCat]

Don't agree there Narry baby. I think Hoggs problem is that he tends to bowl over the wicket alot and it negates hs effectiveness. If he bowled around the wicket he'd be a handful.

I think he is a better bowler than anything in Zim, he's better than Giles or Batty. he's definately better than Sarwan, and he's probably better than White at this stage.

If he was English, I'd have him forced to bowl round the wicket, and have him in the team like a shot!

[Narasim Iyengar]

Narry baby ?

I agree that he bowls over the wicket a lot, but you then have to ask why that is the case. Surely a more penetrative and commanding bowler would not be restricted to the defensive lines bowling over the wicket. Comparing him to MacGill, for example, he has less variety and he turns it less, and you still pretty much get the four-ball per over a la MacGill. Is he better than White ? It's s hame that we won't now get t o see White play vs SL but a couple of Ausxie mates of mine reckon he's highly promising. Playing Hogg ahead of him would be a backwards step. He may get in ahead of white right now but he can't hold a candle to either Warne or MacGill. I would also take issue with your rating him higher than Giles. Now I'm not the King of Spain's greatest fan, far from it. He shouldn't have been given 35 caps to turn in the sort of all round performance he did in the last Test. That said, it's not that he has been spectacularly bad, just that he's not a match winner. His record in Tests and domestic cricket is better than Hogg's. Besides, you can use the over the wicket argument about Giles too..........You're missing the point about Sarwan. My point was not to say that he is a frontline bowler, far from it, but in the general scheme of things, the Windies have always tended to focus on pace and use slow bowlers to break up the batsmen's rhythm. I doubt that Hogg would walk into their side simply because he wouldn't fit into their side. Would you drop any of the quicks for Hogg ? I wouldn't.

[Teatime FatCat]

Ah well Narry Man,

My previous comments may well have been coloured by my desperate wish to see a Left Arm chinaman bowler take the world by storm!

I've read that White is promising but that he turns it far less than Warne or MacGill, which may lead him to bowl more defensively.

I'm afraid I can't offer any statistical argument to the Giles point, I'm just going to be stubborn and say that he's a better bowler, and would play ahead of Gilo.

Sarwan point taken and conceeded!

We'll just have to agree to disagree on the Giles / Hogg debate, but perhaps concede that both are better than anything SA have!

[Narasim Iyengar]

If a left arm chinaman bowler was good enough to take the world by storm, there's every chance they would. Hogg is not that man, unfortunately for you and Australia. You may have to wait a little longer.

I'll agree that agreeing to disagree on the Giles/Hogg debate is probably about as far as we can get.........but SA ? Paul Adams has never LOOKED convincing but his Test record isn't that bad......

O M R W Ave Best 5fers 10fers SR Econ
Warne 5147.3 1454 13145 517 25.42 8-71 27 8 59.7 2.55
MacGill 1407.5 292 4441 152 29.21 7-50 9 2 55.5 3.15
Hogg 129 25 452 9 50.22 2-40 0 0 86.0 3.50
Giles 1387 302 3761 94 40 .01 5-67 3 0 88.5 2.71

Adams 1475 339 4405 134 32.87 7-128 4 1 66.0 2.98

Fine, he's more expensive, but his role in that side, given it has tended to be packed with quality seamers over the last ten years, is to take wickets. He takes an over longer than Warne per wicket at a cost of just 3.5 runs per wicket more than MacGill. It really pains me to say it but Paul Adams has actually done pretty well for himself over the last eight years. I reckon Giles would kill for a record like Adams'......the runs he has scored and will probably continue to score are secondary. Bowlers are picked to take wickets. Interestingly (and in a way similar to Giles I'd imagine) Adams has performed best against India and Pakistan, whereas Giles is Pakistan and Sri Lanka (though he is the only person ever to have Sachin stumped....and I was there !!!! Get in Gilo !!!!!!) - teams you'd have expected to have seen him off more easily.

[Miles Cooper]

Originally Posted by Narasim Iyengar

Just not sure which teams you would have him walk into............

He could walk into my pub team....mind you, we'd ask him to leave.

[Narasim Iyengar]

He could bat at 7 for the mighty Perivale Phoenicians 2nds !!!!!!