Australia's Golden Generation of Crickers

[andremiller07]

Edit: Title should say CRICKETERS

After seeing the 2015 World Cup thread, it got me thinking about how amazingly stacked and incredible the talent pool at one point was in Australian Cricket. The reign roughly began during the 98/99 season (when Gilchrist replaced Ian Healy)and went on well past the mid 2000's (till about 2008-09) with Australia pretty much being untouchable in terms of talent produced and performance.

There was literally one point where they did Australia vs. the World it got that ridiculous the talent Australia had on there hands, they literally could have had 2-3 teams all competing to be the best team in the world. They also set the record for most tests won in a row (16 and later equaled that) and like 3 straight world cups

Just look at some of these names

Elite/Superstar Tier
Shane Warne: Top 2 greatest spin bowler ever and at times decent with the bat
Glenn McGrath: One of the greatest line and length bowlers ever shat on elite batsmen all the time
Ricky Ponting: amazing batsmen and always along with Jontey Rhodes was a top 2 fielder for a decade or so.
Adam Gilchrist: easily the best wicket keeper batsman of all time and maybe the most feared batsman so his generation

All-Star level
Waugh Brothers, Brett Lee, Andrew Symonds, Micheal Bevan, Jason Gillespie, Stuart McGail (limited due to Warnie), Damian Martin, Matt Hayden, Justin Langer, Mike Hussey (keep out for ages due to insane talent)

Excellent Role players
Micheal Clark, Andrew Bichel, Nathan Bracken, Daimen Fleming, Darren Lehmann, Shane Watson, Mitchell Johnson, Brad Haddin, Simon Katich,

Great Players who literally could have played in any other team but never really got much of a chance for Australia

Stuart Clark, Brad Hogg, , Ian Harvey, Shane Lee, Mike Hussey brother, Greg Blewett, Stuart Law, Ashley Noffke, Phil Jaques, Marcus North, Martin Love.

Honestly there's probably way more you could add in most of the categories I just came up with most of these off the top.

Truly one of the craziest reigns in any sport and insane amount of talent just pouring through at the same time.

[Cactus-Sack]

You could make a world class team of guys you didn't name.

[andremiller07]

You could make a world class team of guys you didn't name.

I agree the domestic scene at the time was unreal as well.

[Dresta]

You need to move Steve Waugh up a tier: 11, 000 odd runs @ 51, and one of the most successful captains of all time. Definitely 'superstar tier'

[BoogieWoogieMan]

I cried when they smashed India in the 2003 Finals.

[outbreak]

You could make a world class team of guys you didn't name.

Yulp. It's crazy when you look at the records of some of the older players in the shield these days and think that they never got a real shot at the Australian team. Some of them would have been all time greats if they were born in other countries. Even crazier when you factor in how small Australia's population is and how a lot of the top youths pass on cricket for AFL during as the AFL has more players per side, more teams and higher average and maximum wages. One of the positives of the IPL and Big Bash league is that it at least offers some financial incentives to players who can go both ways.

The state of domestic cricket is a bit sad here now, no one goes to the shield or the one day games these days and up until this season a lot of the shield wickets were rubbish but I hear they are trying to add more balance now and maybe if the day/night FC games continue that may help attendance. Not televising or providing streams for the shield hurts too, cricket australia used to stream all the games on their website but that seems to have stopped now. For the strongest FC domestic comp in the world it should be supported better than it is. Some of the A team selections have been off recently too with us playing older players instead of giving young talents a chance in other countries conditions when we send an A tour.

[Cactus-Sack]

Yeah, pitches have been much better this season, no more automatic 5 wicket hauls for any Tasmanian who can get a bit of swing (no offense Luke Butterworth).

[LiLharvard]

Great thread, brings back memories of that GOAT opening partnership Mark Waugh collaborating with Adam Gilchrist. Nobody could touch these two when they walked out in the middle the game would be toast after 20 overs.

[andremiller07]

Great thread, brings back memories of that GOAT opening partnership Mark Waugh collaborating with Adam Gilchrist. Nobody could touch these two when they walked out in the middle the game would be toast after 20 overs.

Yeap the elegance of Waugh and the brute force of Gilly, the two were also a ridiculous duo in the slips along with Warnie my lord some of the catches Mark Waugh took literally the best slip fielder I have ever seen in my life.

[outbreak]

The drift Warne got a long with the spin was incredible.

[andremiller07]

My favourite cricket player other than Gilly during that era was Bevan I mean the dude was literally the most clutch run chasers I have ever seen in my life. Literally every time in one day cricket the Aussies were in trouble dude would just rescue the innings all the time. His ability to chase down totals was 2nd to none.

[BoogieWoogieMan]

Great thread, brings back memories of that GOAT opening partnership Mark Waugh collaborating with Adam Gilchrist. Nobody could touch these two when they walked out in the middle the game would be toast after 20 overs.

I'd say the duo of Sachin/Sehwag are on par with those two.

[outbreak]

Hayden and Langer were an incredible pair in tests

[outbreak]

I'd say the duo of Sachin/Sehwag are on par with those two.

Didn't Ganguly and Sachin have a better record together?

[BoogieWoogieMan]

Didn't Ganguly and Sachin have a better record together?

Yup. You're right. Well, we're both right.

Gilchrist/Waugh = 3853 runs in 93 occasions

Sehwag/Sachin = 3919 runs in 93 occasions

Greenidge/Haynes = 5150 runs in 102 occasions

Gilchrist/Hayden = 5372 runs in 114 occasions

Sachin/Ganguly = 6609 runs in 136 occasions

I'm biased towards Sehwag, since he's one of my favorite players of all time.