A reader is extremely unhappy with Voges’ stratospheric Test average
Dick Stipe21-Feb-2016Cricket’s greatest statistic for as long as I have been alive has always been Bradman’s Test batting average, both for the poetic beauty of it being so close to a perfect century and its simply beyond comparison gap to the next best. Anyone who has had even a passing interest in cricket will have at some time come across the table headed by Bradman’s 99.94 and many will remember that the best of the rest is around 60. That single statistic has led to Sir Donald Bradman being spoken of as the greatest statistical outlier in any sport, at any time, anywhere on earth. Take a moment to think about that and you may start to realise why anyone who loves Test cricket should be deeply disturbed by the Adam Voges situation.For many of us who grew up playing cricket on the concrete pitches of the late 1970s and early 1980s cricket was always about batting and Bradman. It would be years before I heard any talk of Bradman the man or his questionable temperament but by the age of 10 I had learnt the numbers: 52 Tests, 80 innings, 10 not out, 6996 runs, Average 99.94 probably better than I knew the times tables. By 12, I had memorised the list of the greatest 10 batsmen in the history of the game and most of their averages as well:
Pollock 60.97
Headley 60.83
Sutcliffe 60.73
Paynter 59.23
Barrington 58.67
Weekes 58.61
Hammond 58.45
Sobers 57.78
Hobbs 56.94
At 12, I am sure my only real dream in life was to be the first Test cricketer to bridge that seemingly absurd gap between the Don and the best of the rest but by 14 I had come to realise that the good Lord had blessed me with a far greater mind for numbers than a body for wielding willow and thankfully other things grabbed my attention.Over the years though I have always held tight to that list of ten men that I first discovered in the back pages of Jack Pollard’s “Illustrated History of Australian Cricket”, and throughout my life it has been a constant. There have been times when the truly exceptional players of the past 30 years flirted with altering the list, Ricky Ponting at the peak of his powers from 2006-2009 got as high as 59.99, Jacques Kallis rose above Sobers briefly, Sachin always looked like he should rise above Pollock and Lara briefly did but both played the game until their averages had settled back among the mere elite in the lower 50s. Only Kumar Sangakkara has managed to enter that list in the entirety of my life and that was with a sustained finish to an exceptional career and just marginally above Jack Hobbs.Over the years I have read of the heroics of truly exceptional batsmen such as Doug Walters, Greg Chappell, Viv Richards, Neil Harvey and come to realise that each flirted with altering my beloved list at some stage of their career.Viv’s average was 60+ when Lillee bowled him with the last ball of the day at Melbourne in 1981, without doubt the greatest days test cricket I have ever witnessed, (god bless you Kim Hughes). Greg Chappell’s was as high as 58 in the middle of the Fire in Babylon days and Dougie Walters spent five years with an average of 60-plus. I wondered why older generations spoke so highly of Neil Harvey until I realised he averaged better than Bradman after 10 tests and maintained a 60-plus average for half his career before a rather precipitous fall as his powers deserted him with age. There have been others like our current captain Steve Smith who have ridden a purple patch at some stage of their career into the list but each has wearied and fallen much as I suspect Steve will.This weekend however that will all change. The little known fact about this list is that there has always been caveat of a minimum 20 innings and this has guaranteed the likes of Andy Ganteaume 1 innings – 112 average, Naveed Nawaz 1 innings – 99 runs, Vic Stollmeyer 1 innings 96 runs and Rodney Redmond 1 Test – average 81.50 are all little-known names that are not considered to have bridged the gap between Bradman and the rest. Even Barry Richards does not make the list with his 4 Tests, 508 runs at an average of 72.57.Voges will this week bat for the 20th time in Test cricket and with it will change forever that list I have long revered. This will be his 15th Test and at 36-and-a-half he is extremely unlikely to play many more. Australia’s next Test series are Sri Lanka in August (3 Tests), South Africa in Aus (4 Tests), Pakistan in Aus (3 Tests) and India in India in March 2017. Voges will inevitably always now be only one bad series away from the chop and his average is highly unlikely to drop below 75 when he is done.That is the simple maths of the equation but the greater impact to the game of cricket and Bradman’s legacy has to be considered. American pundits who have at times conceded that Bradman’s achievement outstrips those of Ty Cobb and Babe Ruth will now be armed with the argument that he was only 33% better than Voges rather than 66% better than everybody who has ever played the game. It may seem trivial but in a world where the 10-second soundbite and the 140-character Twitter feed are the pinnacle of intelligence that fact will matter far too much.I have no beef with Voges for seizing the chances he has been offered although I do remind all that he was given a chance in Test cricket because he promised to solidify our middle order against the swinging ball in England last winter and on that front he failed miserably. Scores of 31, 16, 1, 1 and 0 when the Ashes were up for grabs in the first, third and fourth Tests speak volumes for the legacy Voges should have in Test cricket.Never in my life can I say I truly do not wish to watch when it comes to Test cricket but frankly it will be nigh on impossible for me to show but a zot of interest in this weekend’s fare. Brendon McCullum will sadly exit Test cricket on the same day my beloved list will forever be sullied by a statistical anomaly that defies belief. I blame Rod Marsh and his selection panel, I blame the West Indies Cricket Board for having conjured such an appalling assortment of Test bowlers, I blame the Cricket Australia for allowing Test wickets in this country to now offer the same bland batting paradise at every Test venue and I blame the ICC for their destructive mismanagement of the greatest sport on earth.RIP my beloved list.
