Steve Smith over Mark Waugh? Pick your best catcher – runs are a bonus!

You’re claiming Gilchrist – who had to leave NSW to get a decent chance, as an example of NSW bias? Sure am! The official CNSW/CA pecking order is; 1. Born, bred & playing for NSW 2. Born & bred elsewhere but playing for NSW 3. Born & bred in NSW, but playing elsewhere 4-6 Daylight 7-9 A bit more daylight 10. Others hth

Errrr. MEW took money from a bookie for a 'pitch report'.

Mark Waugh is the best fielder I have ever seen in my 74 years just made it look effortless

You're claiming Gilchrist - who had to leave NSW to get a decent chance, as an example of NSW bias? And conveniently leave off the long time selection of Wade as Australian keeper, not to mention Inglis, Philippe, Carey all being worse keepers than Peirson and Harper.

That would be interesting, especially with keepers.

Mark Waugh

That’s easy, Mark Waugh over a cheater any day

Ian Chappell came in when Bob Simpson was around. Thomson only came in at the end of his test career and then WSC came. Bob Simpson and Mark Taylor are the two who were the main slip fielder from the start of their careers, against both pace and spin. The other thing to consider is bowling, Bob Simpson bowled the most as well, Greg Chappell and Mark Waugh also did a fair amount of bowling, Ian Chappell was a part-timer. Mark Waugh once Taylor was out of the way and he could field to the spinners was over 2 cant remember the exact number.

Indeedily. His fielding was like his batting, significantly under-rated. Has there ever been a more accurate throw from inside the ring? Not that I can think of. There must be a stat somewhere that shows how many times a fielder ran out batters? It's certainly a false memory, but AB just never seemed to miss the stumps in ODIs. Bloody show-off.

Allan Border was an excellent slips fielder as well.

Paul, is it really so absurd to treat catching ability as a criterion on which to select keepers? I quite agree that someone who is the best available batter to bat in a particular spot is going to have to be a very poor fielder to not get picked ahead of a superior fielder who is an inferior batter. It may necessitate "hiding" him to an extent, but the better bat will almost always get chosen, since they'll mostly be judged on their primary skill of batting, and the important but secondary skill of fielding will be a tie-breaker only. However, it's a lot harder to argue that fielding is only a secondary skill for a keeper. Maybe nowadays batting skill is just as important, but it's surely still a balancing act in selecting between 2 possibles, one of whom bats better but keeps worse, and the choice doesn't automatically go to the better bat. It's worth bearing in mind that a keeper (in addition to taking possibly hundreds of deliveries missed or left by the batter in a test innings and fielding numerous returns from the field, one or two of which have the potential to see a run-out) will make something like 4 dismissals per test on average. For most slip fielding specialists if you get to 1 per test on average you're doing pretty well. The more catches (or possible stumpings) coming in your general direction, the more chance there is the better keeper or fielder will take one that the lesser keeper or fielder will not. Because more chances come to a keeper than come to any one slip fielder, there's more opportunity for the superior keeper to show that superiority than there is for a superior fielder (and more chance of a catch taken rather that dropped being important). So considering who is the best keeper rather than just who is the best batter seems fair enough to me.

In test match cricket most batsman are caught in the slips. If a player is the best slips fielder it doesn't matter how good they are elsewhere they will be in the slips because thats where the catches go. Close in around the bat next priority, Outfielding is not a priority you put your worst catchers at mid off, mid on because they wont get a catch in that region.

Well I hate to harp butttt, the only time it happens is when NSW has a stake to the best batsman/stopper. eg. Gilchrist, Haddin & Nevill. On a higher level, I'm quietly confident that the stats kept by the States & CA would stats on missed chances. Something that'd be handy to shut biased commentators and fanbois up. Aside: Remember how comms used to sagely pronounce that any ball from a finger spinner that went past the outside edge was an arm ball or a toppie? Along came SuperSlomo and suddenly those deliveries became "natural variation". Top giggle that.

Catches / matches ratio Ponting 1.2 Both Chappells 1.4 Tubby 1.5 Simmons 1.8 ------ Both Chappells missed out on many nicks as Thommo and Lillee had many sink into Bachus' gloves. I'd say they were the equal of Tubby with Simmo being a clear #1

Waugh was a great slipper, no doubt. Made it look so easy. Smith rarely drops them so hard to say how much additional value is actually created. Healy was a top keeper, but I can;t remember him taking too many that Gilchrist would have dropped. GS Chappell and MA Taylor also excellent slippers. But I think the additional value from very good to great fielders is not as significant as batting differentials. The problems start when you have no good slip fieldsmen.

Tish Boom!