Why isnt Shaun Pollock regarded as one of the great all-rounders..?

Question

Ian Botham who is known as one of the greatest all-rounders of all time averages 33 with the bat and 28 with the ball in test cricket

Shaun Pollock averages 33 with the bat and 23 with the ball in test cricket :)

Ok i know its easier to bat these days.

BUT

When great all-rounders are being mentioned, how come Shaun Pollock's name never comes up?

Answer 1

Shaun Pollock to me is the best allrounder South Africa has ever produced!!

Answer 2

very nice point i think he is not in thous legendary allarounder

because his first 20 matches he diden't hav any centuries

in them but trust me in the future he is going to be well

this is the best answer i could giv u  

Answer 3

He was a good allrounder & should be recognised as such.

Answer 4

may be he did not win that many matches for SA

Answer 5

He is popular, but he isn't seen too often. If Pollock somehow would have related himself with international cricket, I am sure he would have surely gained popularity.

Answer 6

i think that shaun get more chances to bowl than bat.. he comes very late in order.. and in hansie cronje tensure he have very little chance to come to bat.. and i observed that in many occasions he come to bat when more wickets falls or some overs remain... so thats why he not get many chances to show his batting skills. where he could win the match on his own... but i think he should come in list of greats.. Nice Question

Answer 7

Suppose that the greatest all-rounder is measured as 1,000. How much is Shaun Pollock on that scale ? I tried to measure batsmen/bowler all-rounders mathematically, following your query. Out of 2,515 test match players, there are 67 players who can be considered as all-rounders, meaning that some 'good' level of bowling and batting was achieved by them. The greatest of them all was Gary Sobers who measured a perfect 1,000. The complete list is given below;

Gary Sobers (1,000); George Faulkner (962); Imran Khan (939); Trevor Goddard (907); Ian Botham (876); Keith Miller (855); MH Mankad (829); Richard Hadlee (825); Chris Cairns (740); Kapil Dev (684); Shaun Pollock (677); Anthony W Greig (672); Richard Benaud (656); Jacques Kallis (644);  John M Gregory (641); Alan Davidson (631); George Giffen (605); Montague Noble (578); Andrew Flintoff (571); Wasim Akram (565); Manoj Prabhakar (560); William Barnes (535); DJJ Bravo (527); Dennis Atkinson (526); Anthony MacGibbon (517); Brian McMillan (513); Salim Durani (506); James H Sinclair (497); Paul Strang (494); Heath Streak (486); RJ Shastri (484); O'Neil G Smith (480); Irfan Pathan (477); Gregory RJ Matthews (476); Daniel Vettori (474); George Ulyett (462); John Briggs (454); JDP Oram (448); Clairmonte C Lewis (444); Trevor Bailey (444); Azhar Mahmood (443); Gerald Gomez (438); Charles Kelleway (433); Warwick Armstrong (429); Joseph Ratnayake (416); Shahid Afridi (406); Dattaray Phdkar (403); Bernard Julien (393); Wilfred Rhodes (391); Abdul Razzaq (384); RG Nadkarni (381); Patrick L Symcox (379); Robert W Barber (372); Leonard C Braund (362); George Hirst (357); Frederick R Brown (349); Lance Klusener (339); Nico Boje (335); Geoffrey Miller (329); Thomas Veivers (328); Rusi Surti (325); John W H T Douglas (316); Craig White (305); Lala Amarnath (298); Roger H H Binny (286); Dipak N Patel (282); Syed Abid Ali (275).

Shaun Pollock scored just 2 centuries and 16 50s in 108 test matches. Kapil scored 8 centuries and 27 50s in 131 matches. Botham scored 14 centuries and 22 fifties in 102 matches. Imran Khan scored 6 and 18 in 88.

Shaun did not have many centuries for people to remember his batsmanship and hence his 'all-rounder' status. Shaun is a better bowler than Kapil Dev but Kapil Dev is a better batsman than Shaun. Essentially, they are both similar in performances.

One-in-a-Million: Before you declare Shaun Pollock as the best all-rounder produced by South Africa, please read about George Faulkner and Trevor Goddard. You will change your opinion.

Answer 8

You got a point.  While Shaun Pollock can be compared with Richard Hadlee and Imran Khan to some extent, he cannot be compared with Ian Botham and Kapil Devr as both of them have scored lot more runs and centuries in test cricket than Shaun Pollock.

However, he has to be considered as one of the great all-rounders.

Answer 9

You bring up a good point..Not enough recognition of his efforts..

I did not think he was really that good,but upon looking at his averages they are only slightly below Botham's averages and we all know what a terrific player "Beefy" was..

Pollock was always a great competitor when playing against Australia,always took wickets and scored well..

Kallis has always been known as South Africa's best all rounder,but i think Pollock is just as good,Pollock i suppose you could say is a quiet achiever,(not much controversy surrounding him i think you could say he is not spoken about that much as not many really remember him for much)not really heard of much over here in Australia,as i say Kallis is known more as an all rounder over here than Pollock is...

But as you say it is easier to play these days so his averages are just that-average..

Answer 10

Yess...He is one great all rounder and should be regarded as such...But maybe people are too busy looking at the new comers(I mean who have come after him...like Symmo,Clarke...blah blah blah...)

But anyway let's hope tht he'll be considered as one....

Answer 11

Polly was one great allrounder, for sure. You don't judge players just with their stats. You have to consider the contribution one made to the team, how important was that and in what circumstances. Shaun Pollock's contribution to the team cannot be discounted by any means.

He was a bowler par excellence, bit underperformed with the bat. But he had played important knocks at crucial junctures of a match many a times in his career.

Why he is not mentioned as an allrounder? Maybe he was a much better bowler than an average allrounder. He was impeccably accurate with his line & length. And most of his batting had come at the top of the tail. That is, after all the proper batsmen had come & gone. He was considered more like a bowler who could bat than a batsman itself. He was too good a bowler, and his exploits with the bat went unnoticed in the long run.

Answer 12

I whole heartedly agree Kooks.

His batting average is 10 over his bowling average and VERY few players have ever achieved that.

He was one of my favorite batsmen to watch in full flourish. His languid flowing style was reminiscent of Mark Waugh.  I only wish he batted higher up so he could have scored more runs.

To all those saying he lacked runs - He batted at 8 and 9 most of the time where there was simply no time to score "large"

I am a genuine Shaun Pollock fan and I believe at his peak he was every bit as dangerous as Glen McGrath.

Answer 13

I guess it's just one of those incongruous things about cricket, some of the greats are doomed to never be recognised. Despite how good he was (is) Pollock has always been pretty unassuming and inconspicuous so passes people by when it comes to being noticed for his achievements and so has never got the accolades he deserves.

If you ever get the chance you should listen to his commentary on TMS. He's very knowledgeable and funny.

Answer 14

You see this happen ocassionally. I guess he just isn't 'fashionable'. But I agree with you, he was a great all-rounder, & should be remembered as such.

Answer 15

because its hard to step in the shoes of~~~ Imran Khan, Kapil Dev ,Richard Hadlee, Ian Botham,Sobers

,

Answer 16

First of all "Thank U" for choosing my ans. It was my 1st 10 pts.

In earlier stage of Shaun's carrier he was a great bowler & he was recognised as a tail-lender but at the end of his carrier he also batted well enough & won some critical matches for SA.SA not properly utilised his talent as ENG. used Ian Botham .  

  

Answer 17

You're right, Shaun Pollock is one of the greatest all-rounders. I think the problem with him is that he never really had an extraordinary, spectacular performance that captured the public imagination. He was simply consistently good throughout his career. There were never any great highs or lows, he was steadily successful. Add to that his fairly quiet personality, and his impeccable behaviour on and off the field, and you see why he can sometimes be unnoticed.

Pollock was one of the best. He is every bit as great as the four great all-rounders of the 1980's: Ian Botham, Imran Khan, Kapil Dev and Richard Hadlee. He would not be out of place in that particular pantheon.