john snow

[Blackhoundrise]

ooh...

[Imrankniazi]

A really whippy action and seems quite pacy off the pitch. Snow was rated very highly especially by the Australians who lost the 1970/71 ashes.

He could run through the opposition on any condition when on song. A quality that no English bowler for the next two decades was able to consistently match, with the exception of Bob Willis.

It'd always be Trueman - Snow - Willis for me among the post-War English bowlers.

[Biggus63]

@Imrankniazi -Ian Chappell rates him the best opposition fast bowler he faced. Let that sink in....not Roberts, Holding, Proctor, Garner, Imran etc. Snowy was a moody cuss but apparently he used to get a bit worked up versus we Aussies. I only saw him when he was past his best so I have to take Ian's word on it.

[Imrankniazi]

@Biggus63 I cannot say that I'm surprised. Lillee rates Snow second only to Roberts in his autobiography. He needed a man like Illy to handle him and that's why fell away when less tactical men took over the English captaincy.

Apart from his bowling, Snow was an excellent mentor and his role in shaping the considerable talents of Imran Khan and Sandeep Patil cannot be over-emphasised.

[Biggus63]

@Imrankniazi - Both Roberts and Snow had the special ability to make the ball do nasty things on flat wickets. Although I'm an Aussie, Roberts was a bit of a hero for me in my youth.

[Imrankniazi]

@Biggus63 Good for you, sir.

I'm much younger than you and it's mostly through reading that I know these players. Roberts was a feared figure in India as well and my father watched his 12-wicket haul in Chennai, 1974. That was quite some Test (famous for the Vishwanath vs. Roberts duel) and many believe that it was one of the quickest efforts of bowling ever witnessed in our nation.

Marshall in Kanpur, 1984 must have come pretty close though :-) Pity that DKL never bowled here!

[Biggus63]

@Imrankniazi -I remember Viswanath well. I ran into him at a bookstore in Perth in 1977/78. There I was checking out the books in the cricket section and I sensed someone beside me-the man himself. I was surprised at his diminutive stature but entranced with his elegant play. A delight to watch!

[Imrankniazi]

@Biggus63 You've met a lot of cricketers. Are you from Perth? Did you ever play for Western Australia yourself?

I had the good fortune of attending D K Lillee's pace academy in Chennai for one season. Got to see the man just once, but his 10-minute talk was really something special.

[maxlogica]

why didnt you post the video with him running and barging gavaskar out of the way because he was too shit to get him out

[Imrankniazi]

@maxlogica Was that really necessary? Please grow up and appreciate good cricketers.

[maxlogica]

@Imrankniazi The truth is always necessary....

[Imrankniazi]

@maxlogica That truth is not relevant to this video. Since you forced me to go down that route, let me say that neither Sunny nor Snow were the poster-boys for onfield gentlemanly behaviour.

But they were exceptional cricketers and that can't be denied. Snow had his incidents on the field, but that doesn't take away from the fact that he was a match-winner with a rare ability to run through any side.

[maxlogica]

@Imrankniazi Or run through and barge into an indian who had the audacity to bat against his colonial master....

[Imrankniazi]

@maxlogica Dude why do you make this a racist/political issue? Snow was temperamental and so was Gavaskar (on other occasions). The fact that one man was white-skinned while the other was brown-skinned is a non-issue here.

Snow was even penalised for that incident and even he would agree that he deserved that. It was just a misdemenour on the field. Leave it at that!

Everybody has some racist/political opinions (including myself), but leave sports out of the realm.

[maxlogica]

@Imrankniazi Cricket has been riddled with racial connotations from its beginnings by the nature of it being born by the british empire and spread to its colonies around the world....the 70's was littered with such incidents e.g snow barging into gavaskar , holding destroying tony grieg and england at the oval 1976

[Biggus63]

@maxlogica -Snowy didn't just hate Indians and West Indians, he hated Aussies and some of his team as well. He really just hated anyone with a bat in their hand, just like Lillee and Curtly Ambrose did too. Common fast bowlers 'White line fever', that's all. Your thinking is intellectually lazy.

[Imrankniazi]

@maxlogica It's a simple contest between bat and ball. Most fast bowlers have this ultra-aggressive streak as Biggus correctly points out. You are trying to create an issue where there is none.

Snow assisted Sandeep Patil and helped him groom into a Test-class batsman. By his own admission, Patil became much better at playing the moving ball after Snowy's support. Why would he do that if he hated Indians, as you claim?

[maxlogica]

@Imrankniazi A simple contest between bat and ball...ahhh...if only my son...if only.