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  • 4 months later...

Dickie Bird must be one of the most loveable and most respected people in sport. He is genuinely as kind and good natured as you would think. Still has strong opinions about cricket, particularly with the technology issue, but as I said to him, Dickie, not everyone was as good an umpire as you. You didnt miss much.

I would dearly have loved to see Harold Larwood bowl. The actual technology cannot say how fast he was but certainly he was extremely quick. The thing with fast bowlers is that they dont do that well on their own. They get tired too quickly. A spin bowler can keep his wend up by himself, but the fast lads, no. Of course if you get a pair of them, Lilian Thompson, then its devastating. Given four of them, any West Indies fast bowlers from the late 70s to early 90s would have done it. Its only time before we get all dewy eyed over Broad and Anderson and start naming pubs after them.

With Chulla I tend to agree but without removing the danger completely. Would not be a sport without it. Rugby for instance is now faster and more spectacular because many injury-causing actions are illegal. With cricket, the short ball is useful but its the resort of the poor bowler if overused. Some of the really greats used it sparingly, with the exception of Lillee and Thompson, who enjoyed terrorising batsmen. Wasim Akram and Waqar Younis were a terrific pair and more hostile to batsmen because they pitched it up and swung it. So did Glenn McGrath.

The one person I would NOT have in a fantasy team would be Muralitharan. I would have no balled him. I know that he was exonerated but I maintain my position.

Absolute givens for any team would be Garry Sobers, Shane Warne, Viv Richards, Sachin Tendulkar and Glenn McGrath as they were totally unique. Number three batsman - Joe Root. Give it time. Barry Richards is probably in that honoured group. For fast bowlers I think I would go for the Pakistani pair. With back up by Whispering Death - Michael Holding and Malcolm Marshall.

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Thought with that long speel Mercury i'd find summat to disagree with................but can't..............lol.

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