Watched all the great players from 1964 till 1983 no doubt Barry Richard's and Graeme Pollock were the very best in the world of cricket Thank you for the memories
I remember reading that Tony Greig once used one of Pollock's bats and was amazed at how heavy it was. He blocked one ball and it just sped off to the boundary.
Trevor Goddard, one of the best all-rounders ever... Peter Pollock, great fast bowler (116 wickets at 24.00)... Denis Lindsay, wicketkeeper batsman who averaged 37.00... John Traicos, decent off spinner...
Sobers didn't caress it, he hit it with more power than anyone I've seen, but he was still poetry in motion & had the genius ability to place it through the fieldsmen like no other before him except perhaps The Don had done. In a word he was electrifying!
@@nandamuriramesh You idiot... Bradman's batting average in tests was almost DOUBLE that of all the other leading batsmen of his era. If the bowling was so weak, then why couldn't anyone else average more than 60, let alone 99.94 ? Bradman averaged an astounding 110.19 in the Sheffield Shield (the domestic 4 day matches between New South Wales, Victoria, Queensland and South Australia.) It was a STRONG competition back Bradman's day. He played against some GREAT bowlers. It just amazes me to read ignorant comments from on RUclips - contrary idiots who are always trying to talk down Bradman's achievements and argue that Viv Richards was better, or Sachin Tendulkar was better, or Virat Kohli is better. It's just laughable. Bradman was a genius... the GREATEST OF ALL TIME.
@@kunalsingh3121 There have been lots of great batsmen. But none as great as Bradman. Maybe one day, there will be another true genius who will average 100. But until then...
He was a real meastro!! I have not seen another batsman in world cricket whom caressed the ball nonchalanty with precision like that. ..Not even Sobers and I saw quite a lot of videos of Sobers..
Grahame Pollock 's average is more than 60 and it is the second highest , if i remember. Sad we could not see Barlow, Barry, Pollocks, Proctor, Clive Rice because of Apartheid. But India saw Clive Rice visted and witnessed Rice bowling and batting , a true all rounder. Alla Donald did great display of fast bowling. Peter Christen . Cricket world could not witness. But In England country they excel . Barry took apart all the fast bowlers and he is the opening attcking batsman the world had ever seen.I would rate him better than viv Richards.
@@pradeepkumar-vm5ue I saw both Barry and Viv (mostly on tv) and I would tend to agree. I never saw Graeme play because he did not play county cricket in the seventies which is why this video is so welcome. Barry was technically more correct than Viv but he could improvise just as well (I mean things like the "inside out" shot). He wasn't as powerful as Viv but he was strongly built. What made him so special were those things which can never be captured in figures (though his figures were pretty impressive) - things like footwork, timing, placement and the sheer joy he gave to those watching a master toying with high class bowling and subjecting it to his will. He could play all the power shots but also the delicate late dabs and wristy flicks that we sometimes associate with Asian players. It is very hard to compare the two players, even though they belonged to almost the same era (Viv made his test debut 5 years after Barry), because of their radically different circumstances. Viv was playing for one of the greatest test teams in history whereas Barry was denied that opportunity. So the psychological dynamics were different - Barry was a "lone wolf" playing professionally for teams which could afford to pay him. But of course they both played county cricket in the seventies and Barry would never have been considered inferior to anybody at that time until he left county cricket in 1977. Test teams touring England would look forward to the Hampshire fixture to catch a glimpse of this great player and he would often reciprocate by saving his best performances for the matches against the touring teams - as if to try and make the point that he belonged rightfully to the arena of international cricket. I remember in this regard his 94 against Lillee and Thomson when Hampshire played the touring Australians in 1975. In his early years the challenge was to prove that he was a great player despite being denied the stage on which to prove it so he had enough motivation to score heaps of runs for Hampshire. Later, that was no longer enough motivation and the long English seasons sapped his enthusiasm and he couldn't wait to pack his bags to go and play for Packer, where at last he was granted his wish to compete against the best and, although nearing the end of his career, performed outstandingly there. And while we are talking about opening batsmen, Barry Richards and Hampshire, let us not forget Barry's opening partner at Hampshire Gordon Greenidge. What an opening pair they were! "Worth the price of admission on their own" as the old saying goes.
@@pradeepkumar-vm5ue Well only time Viv and Barry played together were for the World XI against Lillee and co in first supertest series and Viv pipped Barry by 120 odd runs and 2 100's atleast...Silly to rate a player who only played 1 test seried better than perhaps the greatest ever in I.V.A Richards...
Richards and Pollock? Goodness me, what a scary thought. Truly lamentable, South Africa becoming isolationists at that time. Probably the greatest team ever.
Yes I must admit I think this was our strongest team ever..we had guys like Kenny Mcewan, Clive Rice, Mike Proctor, all really stars who just waited I the wings that time to be included also...now imagine Eddie Barlow, Barry Richards, Graeme Pollock, Clive Rice, Mike Proctor ( whom scored 6 x hundreds in domestic season and fearsome pace bowler), Kenny Mcewan, Garth Le Roux( also very fast)..... All in the same team. Even much stronger then the 1970 team that beat the Aussies 4 -zip..!! I just think at that period we would have given the Windies something to talk about.....it would have been a titanic battle between those 2 teams forsure!!
Pollock - tall, strong, heavy bat, power. Richards - medium height, super light bat, finesse. One thing they shared was to exist in a slower time than than the bowler.
Bradman used to talk shit at times pretty much evident from his all time XI....,,,Hard enough to imagine someone better than Viv Richards but both Barry and Graeme were brilliant players....
@@kunalsingh3121 He was on the ball on most things, though. He said tendulkar played most like him (and sachin went on to clinch all major records), he said murali is going to be a great bowler (murli went on to get most wickets) and he was opposed to apartheid era south africa as early as the 60s.
@@BinaryRex18 Well anyone can predict that Muralidharan will became a great bowler can't think there is rocket science behind that...No denying Tendulkar's greatness probably best from India overall and third greatest in my book after I.V.A Richards and Brian Lara...but fact is 3 greatest paceman of his era were Glenn Mcgrath, Allan Donald and Wasim Akram and he never had a stellar series performance against them in a sense of scoring at avg of 50+...Viv Richards, Brian Lara and even Steve Waugh had more sucess against ATG of their era's...Viv had a great series against Lillee, Hadlee, John Snow, Bob willis, Botham and Imran even after fading away and tossing his best no.3 spot he still had a great series against Wasim Akram and Imran Khan in 1988...Lara was brilliant against Mcgrath and co in 1998/99...Viv Richards vs Pakistan in 1980/81 and Brian Lara vs Aus in 1999 are best performances from lone batters i saw against quality attack..Brian is even better than Viv in these regard... No denying Tendulkar greatness he was brilliant. .
The Greatest XI of All Time 1 Jack Hobbs 2 Len Hutton 3 Don Bradman (Cap.) 4 Sachin Tendulkar 5 Viv Richards 6 Gary Sobers 7 Adam Gilchrist (W/k) 8 Shane Warne 9 Wasim Akram 10 Dennis Lillee 11 Sydney Barnes
Without doubt the best. And he could fill a ground just by being in the team batting first. His charisma on the field was amazing. Viv Richards plus plus. His disdain of bowlers was plain to see. This with actually only small movements of the feet. All he used was a still head and perfect eye - hand coordination. His cover drive was sublime. Majestic. He would have broken all batting records. And set many. And he would have been devastating in today's limited over stuff.
@@nandamuriramesh I think Bishop Marshall, Garner and co would have been too much for us. We would have had a superb batting line up though and I don't think Lamb or Smith would have got in so it certainly would have been interesting
@@nandamuriramesh Remember those great West Indies frontline bowlers other than Sylvester Clarke and Malcolm Marshall never got to bowl at the Wanderers or Kingsmead. I do think Bishop, Garner and co would have cleaned us up at those two venues in their prime because those were two fast wickets in their day. Kingsmead also had a bounce variation based on the sea tides from the Indian Ocean nearby. Then Gordon, Greenidge, Desmond Haynes, Clive Lloyd and Viv Richards would have found our bowlers easier than theirs too. Going on that I do feel they would have beaten us most of the time. That West Indies team was the best in the history of the game. Way better than Steve Waugh's Australia team.
@@bunnychowmuncher I agree, WI were way better that Waugh's team. But I would add that WI were much stronger 79-84 Than for 85-94 Best teams of the past 50 years: WI 79-80 AUS 74-76 SAF 69-70 IMO
Jujjupee n Rowdy ian chepel 👡👌 but wht a Nasty players in South Africa Eddle Barlow Bari Richeads n pat Pollack G. Pollack stunning Shorts but bloody didn't allow to play even Bangladesh allowed bcaz of fear so onee by one came to play frm S Africa 🙌🙌
Watched all the great players from 1964 till 1983 no doubt Barry Richard's and Graeme Pollock were the very best in the world of cricket
Thank you for the memories
I remember reading that Tony Greig once used one of Pollock's bats and was amazed at how heavy it was. He blocked one ball and it just sped off to the boundary.
I love Ian's stories. You can just hear the passion in his voice for the beautiful game.
What a fantastic story. Thank you Ian Chappell. Greetings from South Africa 🇿🇦.
Mike proctor, clive rice, barry richards, graham pollock,eddie barlow thats the best south african side right there..
Trevor Goddard, one of the best all-rounders ever... Peter Pollock, great fast bowler (116 wickets at 24.00)... Denis Lindsay, wicketkeeper batsman who averaged 37.00... John Traicos, decent off spinner...
@@carlmarks8170 My god, we never got to see dozens of fantastic cricketers because of apartheid.
Vince van der bilj
@@jakesharpe8056
Barry Richards reckoned Van Der Bijl was a superb opening bowler...
And Ali Bacher was no mug either...and a brilliant administrator.
it a shame that he didn't play test matches he was a great player one of the best all time
I am from Port Elizabeth and Graeme was my neighbour.
Graeme played 23 Tests for the South Africa. Springboks at the time
Sobers didn't caress it, he hit it with more power than anyone I've seen, but he was still poetry in motion & had the genius ability to place it through the fieldsmen like no other before him except perhaps The Don had done. In a word he was electrifying!
Sobers was actually better than Don Bradman. I have seen a live match of Sir Don Bradman , the English bowling was very weak.
@@nandamuriramesh The pitches themselves though were quite bad though.
@@nandamuriramesh You idiot... Bradman's batting average in tests was almost DOUBLE that of all the other leading batsmen of his era. If the bowling was so weak, then why couldn't anyone else average more than 60, let alone 99.94 ? Bradman averaged an astounding 110.19 in the Sheffield Shield (the domestic 4 day matches between New South Wales, Victoria, Queensland and South Australia.) It was a STRONG competition back Bradman's day. He played against some GREAT bowlers. It just amazes me to read ignorant comments from on RUclips - contrary idiots who are always trying to talk down Bradman's achievements and argue that Viv Richards was better, or Sachin Tendulkar was better, or Virat Kohli is better. It's just laughable. Bradman was a genius... the GREATEST OF ALL TIME.
@@carlmarks8170 Yes but Viv, Tendulkar and Lara can bat too..
@@kunalsingh3121 There have been lots of great batsmen. But none as great as Bradman. Maybe one day, there will be another true genius who will average 100. But until then...
Truly inarguably among top five batsman in the world
Unofficially Top 5
1 Lara
2 Viv
3 Don
4 Hobbs
5 Pollock
He was a real meastro!! I have not seen another batsman in world cricket whom caressed the ball nonchalanty with precision like that. ..Not even Sobers and I saw quite a lot of videos of Sobers..
But Sobers was More complete and destructive than Pollock.
Grahame Pollock 's average is more than 60 and it is the second highest , if i remember. Sad we could not see Barlow, Barry, Pollocks, Proctor, Clive Rice because of Apartheid. But India saw Clive Rice visted and witnessed Rice bowling and batting , a true all rounder. Alla Donald did great display of fast bowling. Peter Christen . Cricket world could not witness. But In England country they excel . Barry took apart all the fast bowlers and he is the opening attcking batsman the world had ever seen.I would rate him better than viv Richards.
@@pradeepkumar-vm5ue I saw both Barry and Viv (mostly on tv) and I would tend to agree. I never saw Graeme play because he did not play county cricket in the seventies which is why this video is so welcome. Barry was technically more correct than Viv but he could improvise just as well (I mean things like the "inside out" shot). He wasn't as powerful as Viv but he was strongly built. What made him so special were those things which can never be captured in figures (though his figures were pretty impressive) - things like footwork, timing, placement and the sheer joy he gave to those watching a master toying with high class bowling and subjecting it to his will. He could play all the power shots but also the delicate late dabs and wristy flicks that we sometimes associate with Asian players. It is very hard to compare the two players, even though they belonged to almost the same era (Viv made his test debut 5 years after Barry), because of their radically different circumstances. Viv was playing for one of the greatest test teams in history whereas Barry was denied that opportunity. So the psychological dynamics were different - Barry was a "lone wolf" playing professionally for teams which could afford to pay him. But of course they both played county cricket in the seventies and Barry would never have been considered inferior to anybody at that time until he left county cricket in 1977.
Test teams touring England would look forward to the Hampshire fixture to catch a glimpse of this great player and he would often reciprocate by saving his best performances for the matches against the touring teams - as if to try and make the point that he belonged rightfully to the arena of international cricket. I remember in this regard his 94 against Lillee and Thomson when Hampshire played the touring Australians in 1975. In his early years the challenge was to prove that he was a great player despite being denied the stage on which to prove it so he had enough motivation to score heaps of runs for Hampshire. Later, that was no longer enough motivation and the long English seasons sapped his enthusiasm and he couldn't wait to pack his bags to go and play for Packer, where at last he was granted his wish to compete against the best and, although nearing the end of his career, performed outstandingly there. And while we are talking about opening batsmen, Barry Richards and Hampshire, let us not forget Barry's opening partner at Hampshire Gordon Greenidge. What an opening pair they were! "Worth the price of admission on their own" as the old saying goes.
@@pradeepkumar-vm5ue Rice was up there with Kallis
@@pradeepkumar-vm5ue Well only time Viv and Barry played together were for the World XI against Lillee and co in first supertest series and Viv pipped Barry by 120 odd runs and 2 100's atleast...Silly to rate a player who only played 1 test seried better than perhaps the greatest ever in I.V.A Richards...
One of The DHS legend
The only other guy that was classic with his style was Barry Richards....his technique..
Richards and Pollock? Goodness me, what a scary thought.
Truly lamentable, South Africa becoming isolationists at that time. Probably the greatest team ever.
Yes I must admit I think this was our strongest team ever..we had guys like Kenny Mcewan, Clive Rice, Mike Proctor, all really stars who just waited I the wings that time to be included also...now imagine Eddie Barlow, Barry Richards, Graeme Pollock, Clive Rice, Mike Proctor ( whom scored 6 x hundreds in domestic season and fearsome pace bowler), Kenny Mcewan, Garth Le Roux( also very fast).....
All in the same team. Even much stronger then the 1970 team that beat the Aussies 4 -zip..!! I just think at that period we would have given the Windies something to talk about.....it would have been a titanic battle between those 2 teams forsure!!
agreed BARRY RICHARDS WAS ALL TIME CLASSIC PLAYER .UNFORTUNATE THEY WERE ALL OUT OF WORLD CRICKET RECOGNISED BODY
Pollock - tall, strong, heavy bat, power. Richards - medium height, super light bat, finesse. One thing they shared was to exist in a slower time than than the bowler.
Aubrey Faulkner as well
Bradman speculated that if SA hadn't been banned, Richards and Pollock probably would've ended up as the best batsmen ever.
Aside from Bradman himself...
@@carlmarks8170 no, he legitimately thought Barry would become better than him. I think with hindsight we can say he was wrong, lol.
Bradman used to talk shit at times pretty much evident from his all time XI....,,,Hard enough to imagine someone better than Viv Richards but both Barry and Graeme were brilliant players....
@@kunalsingh3121 He was on the ball on most things, though. He said tendulkar played most like him (and sachin went on to clinch all major records), he said murali is going to be a great bowler (murli went on to get most wickets) and he was opposed to apartheid era south africa as early as the 60s.
@@BinaryRex18 Well anyone can predict that Muralidharan will became a great bowler can't think there is rocket science behind that...No denying Tendulkar's greatness probably best from India overall and third greatest in my book after I.V.A Richards and Brian Lara...but fact is 3 greatest paceman of his era were Glenn Mcgrath, Allan Donald and Wasim Akram and he never had a stellar series performance against them in a sense of scoring at avg of 50+...Viv Richards, Brian Lara and even Steve Waugh had more sucess against ATG of their era's...Viv had a great series against Lillee, Hadlee, John Snow, Bob willis, Botham and Imran even after fading away and tossing his best no.3 spot he still had a great series against Wasim Akram and Imran Khan in 1988...Lara was brilliant against Mcgrath and co in 1998/99...Viv Richards vs Pakistan in 1980/81 and Brian Lara vs Aus in 1999 are best performances from lone batters i saw against quality attack..Brian is even better than Viv in these regard...
No denying Tendulkar greatness he was brilliant. .
The Greatest XI of All Time
1 Jack Hobbs
2 Len Hutton
3 Don Bradman (Cap.)
4 Sachin Tendulkar
5 Viv Richards
6 Gary Sobers
7 Adam Gilchrist (W/k)
8 Shane Warne
9 Wasim Akram
10 Dennis Lillee
11 Sydney Barnes
Impossible for to have test XII without Lara
@@anoopgovind1 ok
Graeme Pollock.
And Ian Botham.
Bradman (God of Batting) rated three players highly ,of all the players he has seen.
1.Gary Sobers
2.Graeme pollock
3.Sachin Tendulkar.
He never rated Sachin high. He said, he bat's like him. That's all. But he openly praised Sobers, Pollock, Frank Worrell, Fred Trueman, Len Hutton etc
@@svgkm
Bradman picked Sachin in his team.
Shane Warne also picked.
@@svgkm
Gary sobers also talked highly about Sachin just a year back in 2023.
Best X1_ Sunil Gavaskar , Sachin Tendulkar, ViV Richards, Brian Lara, Javed Misndad , Garry Sobers, Imran khan ( C) , Adam Gilchrist ( WC) , Dennis Lillee, Waseem Akram, Shane Warn.
You forgot Don Bradman
@@carlmarks8170 don can't survive post 60 era
Graeme Pollock probably the greatest batsman South Africa ever produced!😁🏟️
Yes, and not forgetting B.Richards, Kallis, Nourse, de Villiers, Amla, Smith...
Kallis is a legend
Without doubt the best. And he could fill a ground just by being in the team batting first. His charisma on the field was amazing. Viv Richards plus plus. His disdain of bowlers was plain to see. This with actually only small movements of the feet. All he used was a still head and perfect eye - hand coordination. His cover drive was sublime. Majestic. He would have broken all batting records. And set many. And he would have been devastating in today's limited over stuff.
Him and Richards are at the top for me
One day cricket i will put Herschelle Gibbs in the line up.
unfortunate;y SA didnt play cricket for next 20years - otherwise they could have been the undisputed champions by 90s
We had a very good side but I still think the West Indies were better than us at the time. The tussles would have been good though.
@@bunnychowmuncher thanks Joseph for clarification.i was a bit too carried away by the brilliance of Barry richards and pollock
@@nandamuriramesh I think Bishop Marshall, Garner and co would have been too much for us.
We would have had a superb batting line up though and I don't think Lamb or Smith would have got in so it certainly would have been interesting
@@nandamuriramesh Remember those great West Indies frontline bowlers other than Sylvester Clarke and Malcolm Marshall never got to bowl at the Wanderers or Kingsmead. I do think Bishop, Garner and co would have cleaned us up at those two venues in their prime because those were two fast wickets in their day. Kingsmead also had a bounce variation based on the sea tides from the Indian Ocean nearby.
Then Gordon, Greenidge, Desmond Haynes, Clive Lloyd and Viv Richards would have found our bowlers easier than theirs too.
Going on that I do feel they would have beaten us most of the time.
That West Indies team was the best in the history of the game. Way better than Steve Waugh's Australia team.
@@bunnychowmuncher I agree, WI were way better that Waugh's team.
But I would add that WI were much stronger 79-84
Than for 85-94
Best teams of the past 50 years:
WI 79-80
AUS 74-76
SAF 69-70
IMO
2nd best batsman after sir viv..
Sobers was better thanthe don
Jujjupee n Rowdy ian chepel 👡👌 but wht a Nasty players in South Africa Eddle Barlow Bari Richeads n pat Pollack G. Pollack stunning Shorts but bloody didn't allow to play even Bangladesh allowed bcaz of fear so onee by one came to play frm S Africa 🙌🙌
I think it was fear of an international boycot.