In all seriousness I believe that Sanga is a very good batsman and undoubtedly the best left handed batsman of our generation but personally for me he is not the greatest ever. I know this might sound ridiculous to some of you because if you really look at it, there are not many good lefties going around in test today hence we overlook lefties of the past era or even before that.
For me, he comes in the top 3 but misses out as the greatest or second greatest. I personally believe that the greatest left handed batsman ever is Graeme Pollock and those who were lucky enough to see him bat will absolutely testify this claim. I personally never witnessed him on any form of broadcast but I've met with people, serious old cricket fanatics who have seen him and trust me they are still in love with him even after witnessing all the Sanga heroics and run fest happening currently, and the best part is their all Pakistani folks. You can say that once an opinion is made it's very difficult to change but these people are extremely sane and very objective in their opinion in their daily lives so I stand firm to believe that their judgement can be taken as a good benchmark. You all might disagree with all this as it is only imaginative on your part to hear me and make out a decision based on someone's story about another imaginative companions but this is what I believe is in my opinion. I would really appreciate if anyone could testify for this as I have never seen him play but if there is someone out there in PP who has seen him play, I would like to have their opinion as well.
Another great left handed batsman who I was lucky enough to see is BC Lara and man could this guy bat. 90s was an era where almost all top cricketing nations had brutal fast bowlers, baring a few teams and the way he dominated attacks was a treat to watch. BC Lara was a clutch player for me and his best would come out when the going got tough, I think he sort off enjoyed the competitive nature of the game and the extra pressure while taking the phainta to the bowlers, no matter who they were. BC Lara was in another league for me, someone who i seriously rate very highly even up till today. Maybe I would have had different views of Graeme Pollock had I seen him but these two clearly are the 1 and 2 for me.
Before moving on I would like to say that these are subjective personal opinions and have nothing to do with stats or how many runs/ matches they have scored or played respectively. I also would like to add that because cricket is a causation based game it is very difficult (again in my opinion) to rate a player based solely on stats. You can certainly have killer stats but there are other factors also that determine how good you are as a cricketer. Mental aspect is part of it but being a batsman you should be able to
1. Time it from ball 1
2. Hold your own when the going gets tough (In foreign conditions - I mean it in a different way other than stats (I am referring to play and miss/ fishing outside off etc; something to do with technique)
3. Mental Strength (Against Sledging etc)
4. Have an all round game (dominant on all sides of the pitch + tempo of innings)
5. Decent Stats
Having all five is clearly asking to much from a human cricketer but for me Pollock and Lara had at least 4 of the above 5. Sanga has the last three attribute clearly but lacks 1 and 2 in opinion, hence he makes no 3. in my all time greatest left hand batsman list.
Going a little off topic now, I believe that batsman who hold their own in a hostile fast bowling spell + time it perfectly from ball one are more deserving of applause than cricketers with boasted stats and lacking the former attributes. Stats are a decent metric but not the end of the world when it comes to gauging better players. They only give part of the story and can be sometimes extremely misleading. For instance lets take an example, Mark Ramprakash and Nick Knight (Both I think have represented England) have one of the most outstanding stats I've ever seen in county cricket, not so knight but Ramprakash was a domestic beast. According to the numbers Mark Ramprakash should have been the next Bradman but sadly enough he only represented England in a handful of games and never got his international career going. Why do you think that happened, because Ramprakash had only #5 attribute (from the above list) in his armory and as soon as he was thrown into international cricket, where the other four attributes are needed he couldn't translate that domestic performance into real test/ODI figures. On the contrary, Alec Stewart who has decent stats in English county was a much better clutch player for me than Ramprakash even though he himself extremely lacked #1 and #4.
Based on the above analogy, for me at least Sanga is no 3 in the all time left handed batsman list.
Apart from Graeme and Lara I personally think that the Waugh Brothers, Miandad, Sunil Gavaskar, Justin Langer, VVS Laxman and Ross Taylor are some of the players that have 4 of the 5 attributes I mentioned earlier and hence I rate these above stat gods who I personally think are good bats but I would never want them to be my clutch players.
Again, this all is something totally subject - If I offended someone then I truly apologize in advance
Cheers
) Clown!
