Neil Harvey 167 vs England - 2nd test MCG 1958/59 ASHES

[TopGearDog431]

Probably a longshot but do you have any Larwood, Lindwall or keith miller footage??

[Flagfalls]

This video is pure gold. And the footage is so clear!

[inxia38]

I love watching Harvey and O'Neill time the ball so beautifully. I'd love to see modern batsman have their techniques shown up by having to use those bats.

[padresfan112]

all the players seem to have awful techniques that probably won't survive in today's game. even harvey who was supposedly one of the most elegant players of the era has a pretty ugly one.

[MrCains820]

Time of uncovered wickets back then. Tony Lock's throwing is unbelieveable. How'd he get away with that?

One thing I would say about today's cricket is that the quality of bowling attacks in test cricket is pretty weak apart from England and South Africa. Pakistan had a useful bowling line up last year (until they were banned) which made England looked fairly ordinary. As for the Windies against the modern teams, I'd fancy Marshall and Holding against them.

[ludocrat]

I know it can never be proved and that it will piss off any real oldies watching, but I have to say that compared to today's test cricket this looks like a colts match. The top five batsmen of the current England team would annihilate that 'attack'. And England's frontline bowlers would destroy any period batsmen, including Neil Harvey.

Hell, I think if the current top batsmen of any of the top three test sides faced even the 70s Windies team, they'd mash them.

Players today are just better.

[robelinda2]

@ludocrat I fully appreciate your comment, its just hard to tell how batsmen from previous era's would've adapted. But i agree some of the cricket looks pretty ordinary at time in these old clips.

[ludocrat]

@robelinda2

Robbo, my theory is that one man - Dennis Lillee - changed everything. I could explain my theory but I reckon you're a genuine cricket man so you might just know exactly what I mean.

[robelinda2]

@ludocrat Certainly a very good theory, requires some thinking....he was a step up in pace bowling....

[ludocrat]

Unpack your 'step up' idea and you have it. Apply it to more than just DKL being a better bowler than any other in history, or that any batsman could handle, and you have it.

He started the cricketing equivalent of an arms race. And it hasn't stopped since.

[ConcreteLake]

@robelinda2 acc to richie benaud, frank tyson was the fastest bowler he ever saw (and that includes jeff thomson), that was in '54-'55, so i doubt very much that lillee was a step up in anything. due to perspective foreshortening and some other camera terms that i won't pretend to understand, most of this bowling looks ordinary, but there's really no way to say for sure without having seen any of it. but richie's seen it all; and i'm happy to take his word for it.

[eusebium7]

@ludocrat Ones who actually played in previous eras, and who were sage judges, rate Tyson and Larwood (and Eddie Gilbert for that matter) as fast as any, with Thomson right up there. It's hard to see how Lillee revolutionized anything, except by being very great. He clearly was influenced by Freddie Trueman for example. He didn't take the game to a higher plane or anything. The current game is pretty mediocre. This Aust side would be thrashed by most of its predecesors. It is rubbish.

[noffty1209]

@ludocrat I think I see where you are coming from, but the game of perhaps only even 30 years ago is a different game to the one being played today. To try and judge someone as 'better' than someone else when they are in essence almost playing a different sport is probably a forlorn task. Don't denigrate these players, they are different, not worse.

[shrikanthk]

@ludocrat the fact is that this was an overrated english side and it got the treatment it deserved.

Poor cricket gets punished regardless of the era. Be it Peter May's 1958-59 Englishmen or Dhoni's 2011 Indians!

Your argument of "colts standards" back then would've made sense if May's Englishmen had done well in that series with this sort of attack. But they didn't. Mediocrity always gets punished regardless of eras

[ConcreteLake]

@ludocrat if a hack like eoin morgan were to face this "colts attack" with those thin toothpicks they used to use as bats, he'd struggle to get the ball off the square, nevermind annihilate the attack...all that before being hit on the head and declared dead on the pitch many times over, of course, if the bowler happened to be some nasty chap like keith miller in a bad mood.

[ConcreteLake]

@ludocrat if a hack like eoin morgan were to face this "colts attack" with those thin toothpicks they used to use as bats, he'd struggle to get the ball off the square, nevermind annihilate the attack...all that before being hit on the head and declared dead on the pitch many times over, of course, if the bowler happened to be some nasty chap like keith miller in a bad mood.

[ConcreteLake]

Btw, i'm not an oldie nor am I agiest. I just think it's not very intelligent to state anything with such certainty across different eras without having seen it all, esp outlandish things like you said

[ConcreteLake]

@ludocrat Btw, i'm not an oldie nor am I ageist. I just think it's not very intelligent to state anything with certainty across different eras without having seen it all, esp outlandish things like the stuff you typed

[padresfan112]

wow tony lock. the most blatant chucker ever.

[eusebium7]

@ludocrat Utter rubbish, you have no idea what you are talking about. All highlights reels tend to show bad bowling, althoug this instance Bailey and Statham are hardly bowling badly, Harvey is batting well. Statham is bowling objectively fast. Laker is putting massive revs on the ball. You have no frigging idea what you are talking about, ignoramus. As one who saw Aust hammered regularly by the WI pace attack, let me tell you that they were far and away superior to any current attack

[eusebium7]

@ludocrat Anyone who has seen Bradman or Miller, knows you are simply talking out of your arse.

[eusebium7]

@eusebium7 What kind of highlights package will people watch in 50 years of the Hobart test just gone? Mitchell Starc's bowling, Hughes' batting, Ponting, Haddin snicking 2 balls in a row with the same shot, you'd have to conclude that it was park cricket! And you have the gall to say that modern cricket is better! As Boycs would say, roobish. As Trueman woould say, I don't know what's going off out there.

[GalaxyHop]

@ludocrat Well considering how the current England team fared against Pakistan recently, not sure they could have handled Laker and Lock--especially had it occured on an uncovered sticky wicket.

[sganeshkumar1989]

3:03 such a Beautiful sweep shot.

[sganeshkumar1989]

Thanks @Robelinda2 ,nothing is impossible for you!

[madaboutsleep]

These are great clips! What a wonderful batsman was Neil Harvey. Played all the shots with such elegance too.

[mrsamoa69]

Nice vid heard about Tony Lock but first time I've seen him bowl looks like he chucking it do you have anything with some Fred Trueman in it please?

[Voltairec]

Tony lock is the clearest chucker ever....and Aussies have the gall to call Muthaiah;-)

[robelinda2]

@Voltairec Just like chicks were funny looking with weird breasts in the 50's, so too were bowling action just a tad retarded sometimes.....

[saustfootball]

@Voltairec And an Australian umpire also did something about that issue at the time too, Colin Egar called Ian Meckiff (an Australian at that) for throwing about 4 years later.

[eusebium7]

@Voltairec Lock was pretty sus, but as far as standards were 'so bad', Tony Lock in his 40s was Lillee's first captain at Western Australia...and in his 40s had no difficulty mixing it, just as Brian Close stood up to the WIndies in 1975, just as Goochie had no problems with 90s bowling (superior to 2000s) yet was not all that successful against Lillee and Thomson and the WI pace quartet.Border too could have gone on and on, I guess what would he have preferred, 90s England or 70s WI?

[Voltairec]

I hereby confer 'Treasure Trove' award to Rob on behalf of many, many cricket fanatics like me! Long live Rob!!!!