Ravi Bopara

[SUFCEssex]

Taken from BBC.

Kevin Pietersen has been nominated in three categories in the annual International Cricket Council awards, including cricketer of the year.
The batsman faces Ricky Ponting, Glenn McGrath, Shivnarine Chanderpaul and seven others for the top award.

He is also named alongside Monty Panesar and Ryan Sidebottom for Test player of the year, and is England's only nomination for one-day player.

Ravi Bopara and Chris Tremlett are up for the emerging player award.

 

[Yorkshire Blue]

Well done Ravi.

I expect this award will go to a Bangladeshi player though.

 

[BLUEBLOOD]

I thought the emerging player award should go to Otis Gibson :hilarious: :hilarious:

All joking aside, 37 (??) years old, in his final season before retirement and the guy has gone from being a journeyman pro to an absolute star.. talk about going out at the top !!!

 

[Matt the Shrimp]

Was Otis ever a journeyman? Surely he would have walked into most Test sides if he'd represented a nation with saner selectors than the Windies?

:confused:

 

[Yorkshire Blue]

Was Otis ever a journeyman? Surely he would have walked into most Test sides if he'd represented a nation with saner selectors than the Windies?

:confused:

Who would you have dropped for him? Curtly? Courtney? Ian Bishop? Kenny Benjamin?

Maybe in the late 90s there wouldn't have been much between Gibson and the third seamer when it was someone like Nixon Maclean or Franklyn Rose, but thats marginal at best and the Windies were actually still a decent team getting decent results. They only narrowly lost 3-2 to Australia, in Australia. They beat England 3-1 at home in 1997-98, when Gibson would have been 29, so its difficult to criticise not selecting him then as they were still winning games.

By the time Ambrose and Walsh had retired around 2000-01(?), Gibson wasn't even playing Red Stripe games, and had opted for the rand and was on the verge of retirement himself. I think he retired in 2001 to become a coach only to make a comeback in 2004 at Leicestershire, after realising he was still better than the players he was coaching.

I think the Windies selectors have a lot to answer for, but I don't think not picking Ottis Gibson is one of them, although I think he could have done a temporary job this summer, but at age 38 when they are in a rebuilding phase I won't hold it against them.

 

[BLUEBLOOD]

Was Otis ever a journeyman? Surely he would have walked into most Test sides if he'd represented a nation with saner selectors than the Windies?

:confused:

Yeah, i spose i'm being a little unfair with journeyman, but i maintain that he's hardly ripped up any trees during his career... or maybe its just that i've only really noticed how well he has performed this year, simply because he has been so outstanding

 

[Matt the Shrimp]

Who would you have dropped for him? Curtly? Courtney? Ian Bishop? Kenny Benjamin?

None of those, obviously...

Maybe in the late 90s there wouldn't have been much between Gibson and the third seamer when it was someone like Nixon Maclean or Franklyn Rose

I never really rated McLean that highly, and personally I'd always rated Gibson higher than Rose.

They beat England 3-1 at home in 1997-98, when Gibson would have been 29, so its difficult to criticise not selecting him then as they were still winning games.

McLean got the nod throughout the series - in truth, it was between him and Gibson for the third seamer's slot. Gibson only ever played two tests for the Windies - and to be fair, got carted to all sides during both - but at the end of the day appears to have lost out for the sin of being a decent one-day player (and a far better batsman than McLean).

True, you can't argue with the result during that particular series, although that was down almost entirely to Messrs Ambrose, Walsh, Hooper & Ramnarine (with big wins for the Windies on the bunsens of Bourda & St. John's) rather than McLean's 5 wickets at 40.6 during the series...

By the time Ambrose and Walsh had retired around 2000-01(?), Gibson wasn't even playing Red Stripe games, and had opted for the rand and was on the verge of retirement himself. I think he retired in 2001 to become a coach only to make a comeback in 2004 at Leicestershire, after realising he was still better than the players he was coaching.

That's a fair point... his loss, ultimately - although since he only played one Test in 1995 and another in 1999, perhaps you can hardly blame him.

although I think he could have done a temporary job this summer, but at age 38 when they are in a rebuilding phase I won't hold it against them.

Indeed not. They would have been slaughtered in the press back home for picking him, I'm sure! Still, are they really rebuilding? Your & my fave player, Chris Gayle, is still there...

:thump: