Comments on: Love Michael Clarke’s batting, admire Michael Hussey

By: hoot

hoot — Fri, 28 Dec 2007 06:04:56 +0000

Went back and palyed Gradw Cricket for a while and then played many years with Lindfield in the Sydney Shires comp

By: Terry Kidd

Terry Kidd — Sun, 18 Nov 2007 21:00:46 +0000

Does anyone know what became of Peter Toohey?

By: spiro zavos

spiro zavos — Sat, 17 Nov 2007 05:55:37 +0000

The degree of difficulty in batting like Peter Toohey, Mark Waugh or Michael Clarke is jmuch higher than for players who grind out the runs. Bob Simpson came into the NSW team, which was extremely strong at the time, as a teenager with a dazzling, McCabe-like game. But when he was dropped for failing to score the bucket- ull of runs expected he went off to West Australia ande reinvented himself as a grinding, prolific runscorer, a bit like Steve Waugh. Of course, it’s history that he flourished (if this is the right verb) in churning out his runs with a mininum of flourish and charm.
Give give me the young Simpson or Michel Clarke to watch any day. But the old Simpson or the prolific Michael Hussey to win matches with the weight of their run-making are the match-winners – unfortunately.

By: Terry Kidd

Terry Kidd — Wed, 14 Nov 2007 21:55:43 +0000

Agreed Ali Khan …. however in my time I loved to watch Doug Walters, Paul Sheehan, Greg Chappell, Mark Waugh, and now Michael Clarke …. all were/are elegant strokemakers who on their day made/make batting look easy. There is one other who seemed to be on the same track, who could play effortlessly, but then seemed to fall away and disappear … one Peter Toohey …. he was in the vein of Doug Walters but never seemed to reach the heights to which he seemed destined.

By: Ali Khan

Ali Khan — Wed, 14 Nov 2007 03:47:57 +0000

Well thought out and executed article, I would agree that there are some players you would pay twice the entry fee to see play. Mark Waugh was an artist at work, the lazy elegance was just so arrogant, Clarke is in the same vein. However the modern era is seeing more ‘production lines’ rather then raw talent.. Especially in Australia

By: Nixon Gill

Nixon Gill — Wed, 14 Nov 2007 02:30:03 +0000

Nicely written Spiro, M.Clarke for me is like Mark Waugh, you’d walk over your mother in law to go see him bat, sadly we saw too much of Steve & not enough of Mark.
If I get to see one of Michael’s Test hundreds live I’ll be happy.

By: Lenny

Lenny — Tue, 13 Nov 2007 21:50:04 +0000

Interesting analysis, Spiro. There’s something special about seeing a beautiful stroke-maker in full flow. When you see talent like Clarke, it becomes clear why there has only ever been several hundred cricketers to make the Australian Test team.