Is this the greatest Trio ever Lara, SRT, Ponting

[grkrama]

This three little men have have given a lot to cricket fans allover the world,are they the best trio to live and entertain us in the same era ?
There has been a lot of argument about who among them is the best , but with their retirements is the golden era of cricket over.
Was this the Decade when 3 legendary cricketers Graced us.

 

[sifter132]

This three little men have have given a lot to cricket fans allover the world,are they the best trio to live and entertain us in the same era ?
There has been a lot of argument about who among them is the best , but with their retirements is the golden era of cricket over.
Was this the Decade when 3 legendary cricketers Graced us.

Well I was about to take issue with this until I looked up more details. I thought Lara and Tendulkar were relatively weak in the early 2000s when Ponting came on strong, but they certainly had their moments in that time. So I'll vote yes But others deserved to be mentioned though...

For batting trios what about after the 2nd World War? In the mid 50s, Hutton and May made a lot of runs, while Walcott and Weekes were still going strong for West Indies. Neil Harvey was excellent around then too. Are they considered legendary cricketers? Perhaps not, but they were all playing very well at the same time which is relatively unusual.

But there must be other contenders: Sobers, Graeme Pollock and Barry Richards on the 1970 Rest of the World tour would be a memorable one for the oldies out there. Viv Richards, Sunil Gavaskar, Greg Chappell in the late 70s as well.

And I'm sure a fast bowling trio made up of 3 of Lillee, Hadlee, Imran, Holding, Roberts would make an impressive and entertaining trio as well.

 

[grkrama]

Should definitely have a list of bowling trio as well.
Well im not good on detail with the mid 50s batman, will have to get more info on those
batsman and update.
Of Sobbers ,Pollock and Barry richards - Sobers is the name that's lasting, Pollock to an extent mostly because his talent is oft talked about, but both barry and pollock while both talented players they never fulfilled their potential and brought joy to fans like sobers did.

Viv,Sunny and Greg are top contenders definitively.I dont know if it would be fair to compare these two gen but if it we were to, How would they be rated.
If we think of purely entertaining crowds,The trio of Lara SRT Ponting would be ahead of the other trio but VIV may eclipse all three of them individually sure but cant say the same about sunny or greg (not to the extent of other guys*debatable sure would love to hear your thoughts on this)
In regards to the attacks they were up against, the older Trio wins it against pace department while the younger trio had to content with some genuinely good Pace men as well the best spinners in warne,murali,anil etc also sharp athletic fielding .

Also the consistency of this trio except for their few lean patches favor them more.

So i think these factors gives them an edge over the older ones.
What other factors should be taken into account?

 

[blockerdave]

it was "a" great decade for some legendary players, certainly - especially when you consider that you didn't include kallis, chanderpaul, sangakarra* etc.

but i think in every decade you will find several players at their peak, who pass into "all time" greatness, and it's rare that you can't name several... it's always easier to call the era with which you're most familiar the golden age.

i think also, in the current era there is more test cricket, and so the all time run scorer lists get skewed towards the current era which gives an illusion of greatness where there might not be, especially considering how many truly great bowling attacks (or partnerships of at least 2 or 3 bowlers) are there to face?

*for me sangakarra is comfortably an all time great up there with almost anyone you care to name, and is "undervalued" in a big way - when not playing as keeper he has scored over 8000 runs at 69.86, which is absolutely phenomenal

 

[grkrama]

^I rarely have seen Kallis or Chanders Counter punch their team out of trouble, Kallis would definitely be the best cricketer of this era if we consider as an allround cricketer.

Sangakara is definitely underrated, he will go down as a great ,but its doubtful whether he is up there with the top 3, especially if you read this thread by sifter
http://www.planetcricket.org/forums...vs-top-bowlers-study-last-25-years-87936.html
His performance drops against better bowlers.

 

[blockerdave]

^I rarely have seen Kallis or Chanders Counter punch their team out of trouble, Kallis would definitely be the best cricketer of this era if we consider as an allround cricketer.

Sangakara is definitely underrated, he will go down as a great ,but its doubtful whether he is up there with the top 3, especially if you read this thread by sifter
http://www.planetcricket.org/forums...vs-top-bowlers-study-last-25-years-87936.html
His performance drops against better bowlers.

interesting thread from sifter for sure, but i take issue with some of his bowling selections, and if you make a few changes (i think flintoff and harmison are more worthy english selections than fraser and broad, and Ajmal for Akhtar seems reasonable too - Ajmal is one of the greatest spinners ever, Akhtar was fast but inconsistent) and Sangakarra's performance is much better. take runs scored purely as a batsman (not when keeping as well) and he has the highest average by a distance.

 

[blockerdave]

digging deeper and doing some bowling analysis, really the only change i made was bringing in caddick for broad, but sangakarra still comes out well if you consider only runs when not playing as a keeper

 

[sifter132]

Should definitely have a list of bowling trio as well.
Well im not good on detail with the mid 50s batman, will have to get more info on those
batsman and update.
Of Sobbers ,Pollock and Barry richards - Sobers is the name that's lasting, Pollock to an extent mostly because his talent is oft talked about, but both barry and pollock while both talented players they never fulfilled their potential and brought joy to fans like sobers did.

Viv,Sunny and Greg are top contenders definitively.I dont know if it would be fair to compare these two gen but if it we were to, How would they be rated.
If we think of purely entertaining crowds,The trio of Lara SRT Ponting would be ahead of the other trio but VIV may eclipse all three of them individually sure but cant say the same about sunny or greg (not to the extent of other guys*debatable sure would love to hear your thoughts on this)
In regards to the attacks they were up against, the older Trio wins it against pace department while the younger trio had to content with some genuinely good Pace men as well the best spinners in warne,murali,anil etc also sharp athletic fielding .

Also the consistency of this trio except for their few lean patches favor them more.

So i think these factors gives them an edge over the older ones.
What other factors should be taken into account?

Good thoughts

Just on the Viv, Sunny, Greg Chappell trio - I think Viv certainly was a fabulous entertainer, Greg Chappell too because he was such a stylish player and scored freely. Sunny, not so entertaining I think, but underrated in that regard as well. I would put Ian Botham in there instead if it was for pure entertainment. Botham's problem was that his batting was very hit and miss. Not close to the same class as the batting in the Ponting, Tendulkar, Lara trio. Just think of the team Somerset had in the late 70s and early 80s there: Viv Richards, Ian Botham and Joel Garner!

 

[ethybubs]

In chronological order:

SF Barnes, Trumper and Lohmann

Bradman, Hobbs and Hammond

Miller, Sobers and Trueman

IVA Richards, Lillee and Marshall

Lara, Tendulkar and Warne.

In my opinion, these are the best trios to have played at (roughly) the same time and it is impossible to pick a best between them.

 

[asprin]

^ Surprised to see Ponting not make the last list.

 

[blockerdave]

In chronological order:

SF Barnes, Trumper and Lohmann

Bradman, Hobbs and Hammond

Miller, Sobers and Trueman

IVA Richards, Lillee and Marshall

Lara, Tendulkar and Warne.

In my opinion, these are the best trios to have played at (roughly) the same time and it is impossible to pick a best between them.

Great list, but i'd have the quibble that Hobbs wasn't really a contemporary of Bradman, certainly not with both at their peak. his last series being the 1930 series where bradman scored his 900 runs but hobbs' last century was in 1929. Hobbs really should be a contemporary of Barnes Trumper and Lohmann - that's a quartet really.

I'd put Sutcliffe up with Bradman and Hammond. Only Englishman with a career test average over 60.

 

[sifter132]

I don't think Sobers and Miller really were concurrent either. Miller was done by mid 50s.

I would put Imran Khan in that Richards, Lillee trio. That's a star studded trio for sure.

Lara, Tendulkar, Warne was pretty massive as well - I don't think any trio has had that much global appeal. Tendulkar obviously was gigantic...but Warne captured the cricket world's imagination, as did Lara with his great style and his record breaking innings. 3 massive stars.

 

[ethybubs]

I don't think the cross over of players careers is so important so much as their careers impacting the same audience. So I would say that even once a player has retired (if they are good enough) their name will continue to be a part of current world cricket for years, take Shane Warne for example, and once Miller has retired people are still thinking about him while sobers is at his height as a cricketer. As for Bradman, Hammond and sutcliffe they were judged by people next to Hobbs as surpassing him as greatest all time batsman or being compared as the next great English batsman. I also think this point will be proven when in 5-10 years from now the rising Indian, and world, batsman are still being compared to Tendulkar and even for younger audiences who didn't see Tendulkar his name will impact their generation and he will stay a cricketing idol.