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Dennis Lillee : The best cricketer of the decade of the 1970s?

Tusker said:
You should visit Chennai once in your lifetime (I suggest winter time for your own well being) to see what the fuss is all about.
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Curious then that Fowler and Gatting got 200 each in the same match in Chennai to no ill effect.
 
Dennis Lillee vs Viv Richards

[utube]t51RjEpw8E0[/utube]

Fascinating battle. Great 1 on 1 contest. Lillee looks seriously quick, and this was after he had some injuries.
 
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<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">One of the most fearsome pacers in the history of the game, we recognise the accomplishments of Dennis Lillee on <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/ICCHallOfFame?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#ICCHallOfFame</a>.<br><br>More 📽️ <a href="https://t.co/aSXRbERAgj">https://t.co/aSXRbERAgj</a> <a href="https://t.co/h6c07NlqkL">pic.twitter.com/h6c07NlqkL</a></p>— ICC (@ICC) <a href="https://twitter.com/ICC/status/1398209989056118786?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 28, 2021</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
 
He's up there but Gavaskar is the greatest test cricketer since Bradman which makes him automatically the greatest cricketer of the 1970s as well as the 1980s
 
His record against the 2 strongest sides of his era is not impressive. That only left the likes of England, India and NZ.
 
freelance_cricketer said:
He's up there but Gavaskar is the greatest test cricketer since Bradman which makes him automatically the greatest cricketer of the 1970s as well as the 1980s
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Completely agree... Gavaskar was special, his impact on Indian batting was much greater than Lillee's impact on Australian bowling. Lillee was great no doubt, just a bit behind Gavaskar.

Without Gavaskar India wouldn't have reached the #1 ranking in 1973/74 after series wins against WI in WI and England in England.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ICC_Men's_Test_Team_Rankings#Historical_rankings
 
He was box office sans doute. I'd rate his impact on the decade slightly below Sir Viv, but it's marginal.
 
Last Monetarist said:
He was box office sans doute. I'd rate his impact on the decade slightly below Sir Viv, but it's marginal.
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If you don't include the Super tests, he got the better of Viv. It seems that Viv hated him so much and was so desperate to dominate him that DKL got into his head. Something that you can't say about any other bowler.
 
It is Viv Richards. His peak of 1976-80/81 is arguably the greatest by a modern player.
 
Difficult to compare Richards to Gavsakar as both were such different players. Gavaskar being an opener probably edges it as he had to face fast bowlers from the start of the innings. From what I hear Lillee at his peak was like a machine so aggressive often dismissing a batsman with sheer fear. During that era Andy Roberts from the Windies 1970's gave Lillee great competition. I looked Andy Roberts up years back after watching Amitabh mention him in a dialogue from "Amar, Akbar, Anthony":rp. He truly was also seriously quick.
 
PakLFC said:
Difficult to compare Richards to Gavsakar as both were such different players. Gavaskar being an opener probably edges it as he had to face fast bowlers from the start of the innings. From what I hear Lillee at his peak was like a machine so aggressive often dismissing a batsman with sheer fear. During that era Andy Roberts from the Windies 1970's gave Lillee great competition. I looked Andy Roberts up years back after watching Amitabh mention him in a dialogue from "Amar, Akbar, Anthony":rp. He truly was also seriously quick.
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Gavaskar rated Andy Roberts as the most difficult to face
 
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">"There were few more exciting and intimidating sights than Dennis Lillee in his pomp, steaming in to bowl."<br><br>The great Australian paceman is celebrated on <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/ICCHallOfFame?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#ICCHallOfFame</a> &#55357;&#56391; <a href="https://t.co/WH36hRwCgc">pic.twitter.com/WH36hRwCgc</a></p>— ICC (@ICC) <a href="https://twitter.com/ICC/status/1398519735130628096?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 29, 2021</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
 
Happy Birthday to DKL - 72 years old on 18th July
 
Quite a player. He was one of those characters who almost becomes bigger than the game out here.

Every bowler of a certain generation wanted to be Lillee. He played in an era of fast bowling greats but is acknowledged among even that group as a great. The subject of a thousand great anecdotes.*

Then he went and basically single handedly charted the course for recognising & rehabbing fractured backs, analysing actions to prevent/fix them and became a fast bowling guru. It takes years to reap the fruit of his labours and Oz has had a production line of quicks ever since (a few, like Johnson almost handpicked by Lillee). The MRF pace foundation he started has helped usher in the golden age of Indian fast bowling, from Srinath onwards to Bumrah. That's a huge impact.

* I'll retell one of my favourites here, even if it is only unofficial cricket related. So some 20 years after retirement, Lillee is in the Oz town of Newcastle, enjoying a wine and a buzz goes around the pub- not only is Dennis Lillee in the joint, but so is Andrew Johns, the best rugby league player in the world, a local boy and one of the best to ever lace up a boot.

So a few drinks later, without precise explanation needed, half the pub is gathered out in the alleyway behind the building. Where Andrew Johns stands in front of a garbage bin, hastily gathered fence post in hand as the great Denniss Lillee (well into his fifties) marked out his run up with an empty beer can.

Like Warne- who would later claim Lillee as the inspiration behind his ability to control the feel of a moment, to harness the crowd, to heighten the drama until a batsman cracked- Lillee felt the moment. He reached his mark, he looked at Johns- musclebound, but fingers white knuckled around the fence post-, he looked to the crowd- who started the "slow clap" in increasing intensity....

Lillee let them build, and then moments before starting his run up... paused... by this stage Johns who tackles 120kg men for living every week is admittedly "sh**ting himself", facing Lillee- a few beers deep and holding a fence paling... Lillee pausing as the crowd reaches a crescendo... and undoes the top 3 buttons of his shirt, the crowd goes wild and he pours forward, liquid in motion just like the old days...

Oh to have been in that alley in Newcastle on that night, two legends of sports, unscripted...
 
hk031992 said:
[utube]t51RjEpw8E0[/utube]

Fascinating battle. Great 1 on 1 contest. Lillee looks seriously quick, and this was after he had some injuries.
Click to expand...

Worth noting, Lillee's team (WA) had been skittled for 76 in the first innings (50 over match). Lillee was FURIOUS, as we see in this over to Viv. Needless to say, Lillee bowled out QLD (and Viv) for 62 that day!

And they won the comp a week later, Lillee taking 8 in the final.
 
wrongun said:
Quite a player. He was one of those characters who almost becomes bigger than the game out here.

Every bowler of a certain generation wanted to be Lillee. He played in an era of fast bowling greats but is acknowledged among even that group as a great. The subject of a thousand great anecdotes.*

Then he went and basically single handedly charted the course for recognising & rehabbing fractured backs, analysing actions to prevent/fix them and became a fast bowling guru. It takes years to reap the fruit of his labours and Oz has had a production line of quicks ever since (a few, like Johnson almost handpicked by Lillee). The MRF pace foundation he started has helped usher in the golden age of Indian fast bowling, from Srinath onwards to Bumrah. That's a huge impact.

* I'll retell one of my favourites here, even if it is only unofficial cricket related. So some 20 years after retirement, Lillee is in the Oz town of Newcastle, enjoying a wine and a buzz goes around the pub- not only is Dennis Lillee in the joint, but so is Andrew Johns, the best rugby league player in the world, a local boy and one of the best to ever lace up a boot.

So a few drinks later, without precise explanation needed, half the pub is gathered out in the alleyway behind the building. Where Andrew Johns stands in front of a garbage bin, hastily gathered fence post in hand as the great Denniss Lillee (well into his fifties) marked out his run up with an empty beer can.

Like Warne- who would later claim Lillee as the inspiration behind his ability to control the feel of a moment, to harness the crowd, to heighten the drama until a batsman cracked- Lillee felt the moment. He reached his mark, he looked at Johns- musclebound, but fingers white knuckled around the fence post-, he looked to the crowd- who started the "slow clap" in increasing intensity....

Lillee let them build, and then moments before starting his run up... paused... by this stage Johns who tackles 120kg men for living every week is admittedly "sh**ting himself", facing Lillee- a few beers deep and holding a fence paling... Lillee pausing as the crowd reaches a crescendo... and undoes the top 3 buttons of his shirt, the crowd goes wild and he pours forward, liquid in motion just like the old days...

Oh to have been in that alley in Newcastle on that night, two legends of sports, unscripted...
Click to expand...

Brilliant.

One of those guys who seemed bigger than the game of cricket. Imran, Hadlee and Willis give him big props.
 
wrongun said:
Worth noting, Lillee's team (WA) had been skittled for 76 in the first innings (50 over match). Lillee was FURIOUS, as we see in this over to Viv. Needless to say, Lillee bowled out QLD (and Viv) for 62 that day!

And they won the comp a week later, Lillee taking 8 in the final.
Click to expand...

Awesome. Bowling out a team for 62 is ridiculously brilliant.
 
On July 18th the cricket world celebrates the 75th birthday of Dennis Lillee.The very sight of him running in to the bowling mark was one of cricket’s most captivating sights. Dennis Lillee pumped adrenalin or never say die spirit to an unparalleled height in his era and was an epitome of perfection in the art of fast bowling.

Lillee escalated competitivity to intensity of a Muhammad Ali-Joe Frazier boxing bout. If I ever wanted a bowler to resurrect a team from the depths of despair, there was no more appropriate character than Dennis Lillee. Arguably with Sir Viv Richards he was the most defining cricketer of the 1970’s. The resurrection he made after profusely suffering from a spine injury in 1973 in West Indies is cricket’s closest to Muhammad Ali’s comeback.

On the most docile strips it was his wide repertoire that would still make him come out on top. Lillee had every weapon in his armoury be it the outwsinger, the leg-cutter, the yorker, bouncer or a slower ball. He was the best ever exponent of the leg-cutter .Lillee blended all the components of pace bowling be it speed, movement, control, accuracy and versatility, like arguably no pace bowler ever.

Personally I consider Lillee a better bowler at fast medium in the late 1970’s than at tearway pace in the mid 1970’s.

When evaluating the greatest ever right arm fast bowlers it is a virtual tossup between Malcolm Marshall, and Dennis Lillee. I would consider Lillee the more classically complete or versatile, but Marshall the more creative who proved himself in the sub-continent, unlike Lillee. In my view Andy Roberts and Ray Lindwall came closest to Lillee in terms of classical all-round perfection.

Lillee never bowled in India and in his only series in Pakistan found it a sheer graveyard. This brought him down in estimation of the game's critiques and fans. Still I would like to remind readers that Lillee championed slow surfaces, like at Melbourne in 1979-80, Oval in 1981 and Adelaide v West Indies in 1979-80.

Lillee in the moral sense captured 459 wickets in 89 test matches, and averaged 23.92 and took 31, 5 wicket hauls and 7, 10 wickets hauls., if you add the World Series super tests and the unofficial games played against rest of the world His strike rate was exactly 52 balls per wicket. In official tests won Lillee had 203 scalps at an average of 18.27.

In ODI’s Lillee captured 103 wickets at 20.82 in 63 matches.

Statistically he was overshadowed by Dale Steyn, Glen McGrath, Malcolm Marshall, Richard Hadlee or Curtly Ambrose. However If you consider the opposition and situations in which Lillee captured his scalps, Lillee would arguably overshadow all of them, apart from Malcolm Marshall.

In my opinion, overall, in history of test cricket Lillee ranks only behind Sydney Barnes and Malcolm Marshall and combining ODI Cricket, only behind Wasim Akram and Glen Mcgrath.

In test cricket Lillee may just loose out by a whisker in my all-time World test XI, to Wasim Akram, Malcolm Marshall, and Curtly Ambrose, taking into account match-winning ability.

Ex stars like Colin Croft, Alvin Kalicharan , Javed Miandad Mudassar Nazar, Richard Hadlee Viv Richards ,Barry Richards Ian Chappell and Greg Chappell rate Lillee was the best ever pace bowler. Lillee has been chosen more than any pace bowler in all-time cricket world teams by former cricketers, capturing 53votes, 18 more than Malcolm Marshall.

More than anything I would like to remember Lillee for the joy and energy he radiated and derived from cricket. His avid sense of humour made him cricket's best loved characters. His memorable battles with Viv Richards or Derek Randall in the 1977 centenary tests will remain forever in a cricketing folklore.
 
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That would be Sunil Gavaskar who is also a GOAT contender overall in test cricket.

That being said, Dennis Lily was a monster
 
Top 3 players( in no particular order):

Sunil Gavaskar
Greg Chappell
Dennis Lillee

Honourable mention - Viv Richards( debuted in 1974 though)
 
sweep_shot said:
Typical Indian bias.
Viv is in a league above Sunil. :inti
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Sunny and Hayden are still the 2 best openers in test post ww2 tbf.

Both of these 2 have a fantastic technique that would have found success in any era.

Viv is obviously better then Sunny though, by miles.
 
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