What is your problem? I take one friendly crack (which initially was suppose to be a joke until you took it to heart) at England a few weeks ago, you take it the wrong way and you go back to hating me? =/
It's nothing to do with that. I can't even remember the joke you're on about. If you post something I don't agree with, I'll contest it, doesn't matter who it is.
If you think that Southee doesn't have the potential to match Clark, Caddick, Gough, Lee, MacGil and Srinath then you've obviously never seen him bowl. Remember when he cleaned up England on the first day of a Test match on debut? He has some serious talent. It wasn't long ago that you were singing the praises of Southee either. Kyle Mills is also, a way better Test bowler then Stuart Broad as their Test records indicate.
I don't think Southee will be as good as Clark, Gough, Lee or MacGill. He'll be a good Test bowler, but he won't be as good as those 4, especially Gough. Southee took a 5fer against England in the first innings, but looked completely flat after that. In the 2nd innings he did nothing, and it's a trend that's continued throughout his career so far.
Also, I can't wait to see Broad vs Australia. You'll soon change your tune when you see how much he's improved. In the series against West Indies he was been fantastic, and was one of the only bowlers to be consistently threatening (alongside Fidel Edwards), and the only bowler to take wickets on a consistent basis. Anderson bowled better than him in the final Test, but Broad's figures are far better. 12 wickets at 30 on 4 of the flattest tracks I've seen in world cricket is a tremendous effort. So when the balls swinging and moving off the seam he'll be a real handful. Dismiss it as much as you want, but I can see you eating your words come the end of the series.
If you'd actually been watching the series then you'd realise that no other batsman from both sides (South Africa & Australia) has constantly dominated in the same fashion as Hughes has. Which is incredible for a 20 year old. Just because Hughes makes it look easy doesn't mean it is easy, because the results of the other batsman in the series speak otherwise. All I'm saying is that I think Hughes will be a way better batsman then Chanderpaul by the time his career finishes.
That's the thing Ben. I have been watching the series, and Hughes has batted well, I'm not denying that. But there is no way you can say that Hughes will definitely be a better batsman than a man that's been playing international cricket for 15 years and has an average over 50 with 21 Test Hundreds. Sure, Hughes has had a good start, but so have alot of players, doesn't necessarily mean he'll continue to build on it.
Look at Alastair Cook, was hyped as the next big thing when he burst onto the scene, but then people worked out how to get him out and it took alot of mental toughness to battle through that and start scoring runs again. Now, Cook has gone from being rated as the next big thing, to just a good, run of the mill Test opener. You can't categorically say that Hughes won't go the same way, he certainly didn't look anywhere near as dominant today, could have got out 4 times at least.
South Africa is much harder to tour then England, because unlike England, South Africa actually has bowlers that take advantage of bowler friendly conditions. South Africa's obviously harder to tour because only a handful of batsman have averaged over 50 in those parts in the last 15 years.
Only a handful? There have been 11 batsmen that have averaged over 50 in Test Cricket in South Africa in the last 10 years with a minimum of 5 Matches. Then you've got 2 more guys that average 49, so unless you're from Norfolk, that's more than a handful, and considering the bowling is apparently so much worse in England, only 3 more players average over 50 in England, and only 6 batsmen average over 50 in New Zealand having played 5+ matches.
Also, it's brilliant that it's the Australian slagging the English bowlers off for not making the most of conditions, when the fact is, the last time Australia toured England, we beat you, with our bowlers being all over your batsmen with a mix of pace, conventional and reverse swing. I'm not sure Matthew Hayden would agree with your hypothesis either, considering he averaged 34 in England, and 49 in South Africa............