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Greatest Era of Sports…

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Tue, Mar 24, '26 at 6:53 PM

@CCW

dude, everybody saw Anderson’s career. It took place in the 21st century entirely and most if not all of their tests were broadcasts through cable television. I remember Anderson’s first big performance actually happened in a World Cup against Pakistan under lights at Newlands, Cape Town in 2003. All the England commies were going gaga while Michael Holding and Ian Healey were the only two stating his head falls away when he was bowling. And that kept him out of the side as a regular for years. Imagine Anderson could only make the team after Harrison dominated cricket for two years then returned to the homesick, low confidence wreck he started as. Simon jones was frequently injured and still was a surer pick than Anderson. Which goes back to my original point. There has been a definite and marked decline in cricketing standards and skills over the last 20 years or so which in no small way contributed to Anderson’s successThere have been exceptions but the skills, even of the performing teams have diminished in a way that can be quantified. Almost no Australian knowing the off stump from their you know what so every time they come up against a quality paceman: bumrah, Ramada, Jansen, Shamar, Seales, they falter and falter badly. India being whitewashed on the back of an off spinner in Satner who barely turns the ball would have been unthinkable even ten years ago but here we are. But then everything with the millennial( my generation) and genz( even worse) is fast food and actually acquiring skills through practice is almost non existent

Dale Steyn on the other hand was a genuinely great paceman. A man who asked 90s stalwarts like Tendulkar , Dravid and Ponting serious questions every single time he faced them. And he did this over a long period of time. From about 2008 til 2016

Tue, Mar 24, '26 at 7:05 PM

@WIfan26

Tellin yuh. Anybody who saw Angus Fraser or looked at clips of him during his jousts with the WI would know that. The first West Indies loss at Kensington Oval in 59 years was on the back of twin centuries from Alec Stewart and 8-75 from Angus Fraser.


Anderson has one advantage over 90s England players as well. The level of psychological abuse those players were subjected to by Illingworth and co was unbelievable. Dudes like Devon Malcolm were regularly dropped if they had one bad spell despite their game changing talent. It is not surprising to me that two players from that era struggled with serious mental issues(depression )and possibly both took their own lives. We know Graham Thorpe took his own life and we are not sure about Robin Smith. Not everyone has the cool of David Gower or the larrikin personality of Botham to survive that stuff.That never happened during Anderson’s time. England went to Australia in 2013, was bulldozed and England ended up firing Kevin Pietersen

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