Who would you happily pay to see play?

Sheek--I must remember to come to Other Sports more often. Fantastic clean fun this with no gripes and wringing of hands. Hockey---Ric Charlesworth and Jamie Dwyer. This sport is so fast I am surprised Australians dont support it more. Triathalon...Emma Snowsill...what a pocket rocket. Rugby League...Cement Gillespie,Ray Brannigan and the Wombat Aussie Rules...Mike O'Loughlin Tennis...Evvone Cawley and Muscles Rosewall Golf....Tiger Woods and John Daly Boxing...Muhammed Ali...made America and the World sit up and take notice. I rank him the greatest sportsman of all time.He had the biggest hands of anyone I know. The only man I have ever been in awe of. Cricket..Gary Sobers..played scratch golf either left or right handed. Colin Bland..the greatest fielder who evrer wore whites. Forget Viv Richards or Jonty this guy was immense. Mark Waugh,G and I Chappell,Lille,Tendulkar,Ponting,Dravid,Warne. Shane Warne was pure theatre..the four measured steps,the knowing look,the mesmeric twirl of the ball and the delivery,tounge sticking out,the trajectory all sorcery and the subtle drift,the batsmans gasp as the ball bit and spun and hissed. Poor batsmen. They had no chance.

Gilchrist

Great subject, highly subjective ... and rather phallocentric! The best team, in all senses of the phrase, that I have ever seen - and after 10 years as a sports journo I saw plenty - is the Australian women's hockey team in their eight years with Ric Charlesworth as coach. They had an 83% win rate, were superbly fit, always displayed great sportsmanship and were tremendous role models. Hardly an ego in sight, they all spoke beautifully (none of this 'yeah, nah mate' crap), were never involved in any unsavoury off-field incidents and were never satisfied with their last performance - continually striving to improve. About 30 minutes before Cathy Freeman won gold at the Sydney Olympics, the Hockeyroos destroyed Holland 5-0 in a second round match that knocked the Dutch out of gold medal contention. It could easily have been double figures, such was their dominance over a side that envied the Australians and refused to accept that Charlesworth's band were the better side from 1993-2000. Afterwards the Dutch goalie blamed biased umpiring for the loss! Sounds like a few football teams to me. The Hockeyroos' performance that night was clinical, like raptors hunting in a pack, covering all bases and allowing no prey to escape. Their gold medal two nights later was a formality and the icing on the cake. I am still in awe of them. If that team had had wall-to-wall media saturation over 8 years - and I mean live TV every weekend - women's sport may have come a lot farther than it has, and a great sport may have a substantially larger player base.

As a kid I was blown away by stories of Ethiopian runner Abebe Bakila, who won back to back Olympic Marathons in 1960 & 64, running in bare feet. He was the first black African to win an Olympic gold medal, & showed the way for generations of great runners who followed. American Edwin Moses was a freak 400m hurdles runner, winning the gold medal in 1976 & 84. He would have won the treble if USA didn't boycott the 1980 Moscow Olympics. Russian Serhei Bubka was an amazing pole vaulter. Won the gold in 1988 & then stuffed up the next two Olympics which he could've/should've won in his sleep. Of course, can't forget a couple of Britons - Sebastian Coe, Steve Ovett & Daley Thompson. Raelene Boyle was a wonderful sprinter. Should've won the 1972 Munich 100/200m double but for a drug fuelled, cheating East German. Jamaican Merlene Ottey won a swag of silver & bronze medals but no Olympic gold. In any case, you just drooled at her extraordinary physical beauty & graceful running. Michael Johnson of course with that unusual but highly effective running style of his. And as impolitically correct as it is, Ben Johnson winning the 1988 100m final was just unbelievable. The eventual 3 medaliists - Carl Lewis, Linford Christie & Calvin Smith were pretty useful runners!!! Australia II winning the America's Cup in 1983 was a mighty achievement. Torvil & Dean, the list goes on & on..........

From left field (and maybe even left wing) - Larry Corowa, 1970s Balmain Tigers winger, a joy to watch.

Sheek Alan Knott - great choice for WK!

Dave, I agree on Slater. Swap him for Langer. When I was compiling my cricket list I had a nagging feeling I had missed someone. My allcomers cricket XI (c.1969-present): Barry Richards (SA), Sanath Jayasuriya (SL), Viv Richards (WI), Graeme Pollock (SA), Javed Miandad (Pak), Gary Sobers (WI -- vc), Imran Khan (Pak - c), Alan Knott (Eng - k), Wasim Akram (Pak), Mike Holding (WI), Bishen Bedi (Ind), Ian Botham (Eng - 12th man). Alternate XI; G.Greenidge (WI), K.Srikkanth (Ind), B.Lara (WI), S.Tendulkar (Ind), C.Lloyd (WI - c), Kapil Dev (ind), M.Dhoni (Ind - k), M.Procter (SA - vc), R.Hadlee (NZ), C.Ambrose (WI), Harbajan Singh (Ind), L.Klusener (SA - 12th man). Gee, I could easily pick 3 or 4 XIs here!

I did pay to see Viv Richards - -- (and Greenidge, Haynes etc in WIndies tour here in 88/89) I did pay to see the '1989' AFL finals series, and ensured I attended all the Geelong matches so as to see Gary Ablett (snr) - - - that was money very, very well spent. In the '90s I was very satisfied with money spent that my team North Melb had two of the best game breakers in Carey and McKernan, To specifically pay to see people in more recent times - probably Warney. With the young kids - too often, not in a position to think about it - - probably my pay to see world XI - Greenidge, Jayasuriya, Lara, Tendulkar, Richards, D.M.Jones, Gilchrist, Akram, Imran, Kapil, Botham, Marshall, Warne......hmm, is that 11 yet???? Yeah, look for cricket - Dave's list is pretty spot on.

Pip Both :) Brought great joy to many of us on the Windy Hill terraces with his 100 plus goals in 1972. Was able to jump vertically onto opponents shoulders without a run up...truly a spectacular marker?? of the ball.

Michael Jordan, Roger Federer, Fernando Torres, James Hird, Kaka, Kewell, Kostya Tszyu, Manny Pacquiao, Mark Waugh, Steffi Graf, Tony Modra.

MVDave did you mean spectacular or bespectacled??

Too many but here goes; Viv Richards and Gary Sobers WI Cricket, Ian Botham, Dennis Lillie (actually saw all of them live at MCG) Busby Babes (ManU 1950s before Munich crash), Brazil 1970s WC winners team, Maradonna, Pele, Charlton/Law/Best, C Ronaldo, Kaka, could go on re football AFL - John Coleman, Jezza (saw several times live), Peter McKenna (Coll FF), Geoff Blethyn (spectacular Ess full forward), James Hird (saw several times live), Phil Carman and a few more Boxing - Muhamed Ali v Joe Frazier

My favourite Aussie cricket XI (c.1969-present): Matt Hayden, Micahel Slater, Ian Chappell (c), Greg Chappell (vc), David Hookes, Darren Lehman, Adam Gilchrist (k), Jason Gillespie, Shane Warne, Dennis Lillee, Jeff Thomson.Ricky Ponting(12th man).

Jeff Thomson, Denis Lillee, Brian Lara, Andy Roberts, Viv Richards, Michael Holding, Joel garner, Adam Gilchrest, Ricky Ponting, Greg Chappell, David Hookes, Darren lehman, Shane Warne, Imran khan, Wasim akram, Waqar Younis, Malcom Marshall, Kapil dev, Mulri , Mendis, Sangrakara, Jayirasira, shane bond, Dhoni, Curtly Ambrose, Alan Donald, Barry Richards Graham Pollock, Gary sobers, Shahid Afridi, Ian Botham.

...'scuse me while I kiss the sky [ner, ner, nerrrr...ner ner nerrrrr...dvv dvv nerr]

Jimi Henrdrix - I'd pay to see him play. Sorry - I'll get my coat .....

Has anyone mention Don Bradman yet? Given the little footage there is of him, I would definitely pay to go and watch the Don. I did get to see Warnie play live on many occasions and would love to get the chance again. and I agree with Kazama - Jordan in his prime was great to watch on TV. I would've loved to watch him live.

Jeez, well there's probably about 20,000-odd football players I'd pay good money to see. Probably Gianfranco Zola would be top of the list, he was my favourite player growing up. A guy who I hope to see in action in the next couple of years is Valentino Rossi. Possibly the greatest motorcycle racer of all time, and maybe the #1 sportsperson in the world right now. Would have loved to see Michael Jordan, Magic Johnson or Larry Bird play, or the Orlando Magic when we had Shaq, Penny, Horace Grant, Nick Anderson, Dennis Scott etc. I never got to see Gary Ablett senior, Jason Dunstall, Tony Lockett or Stephen Kernahan play live, so I'd love a chance to see any of them, or one of the old State of Origin games. Of the sportspeople I've already seen, and would pay anything to see again (it's not possible in most cases): Ayrton Senna, Michael Schumacher, Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell, Nelson Piquet, Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal, Marat Safin, James Blake, Tony Modra, Darren Jarman, Mark Ricciuto, Andrew McLeod, Wayne Carey, Craig Bradley, Michael Voss, Jason Akermanis, Harry Kewell, Tim Cahill, Mark Viduka, Tony Vidmar, Alvaro Recoba, Shane Warne, Adam Gilchrist, Michael Bevan, Dean Jones, Brian Lara, Sachin Tendulkar, Ricky Ponting...I'll stop now, but I could go on forever.

Bloody hell - this is pretty open ended!! For starters, I carry this in my Roar profile, but just in case you haven't seen it before, here's a classic goal from Eder from the 1982 WC (in which every 2nd Brazilian goal was a classic): http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=zbj3MYBS7SI Aussie rules fans aren't that great at acknowledging players from other clubs (or even acknowledging other clubs full stop), but we'll pay to see this every time: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TyVQMK7Hiac Not only was it billed the match of the season (even the century), with both teams having come in at 14 wins, zero losses, but remarkably - it actually lived up to the hype!! So this clip comes at a point where scores a locked with a minute to go and every player is absolutely dead on his feet, such as been the intensity of the contest. The ball is actually in the air before you see Gardiner arrive from the left of screen, watch carefully, he must have covered at least 30 metres to make the marking contest, he's something like 5th in line to the ball!! With eyes only for the ball, he grabs it cleanly, absolutely crashes through the pack, and knocks 3 Geelong defenders to the ground like skittles. Watch it from the reverse angle - it's brilliant!! Replay it for good measure.

Also in no particular order : Lillee and Thomson Doug Walters Mark Ella David Campese (minus any interviews) Simon Poidevan Stephen Larkham Sterling Mortlock