Why are Allan Donald and Shaun Pollock underrated?

[shaz619]

Donald was quicker, but from 1998-2002 many players around the world thought that Polly had learned to be the first bowler in history to learn to control seaming it in and out with the same action. Plus he could bat.

Very hard to separate the pair of them.

From a Warwickshire perspective, we'd be spoilt for choice deciding who to pick as a fast bowler between Steyn, Pollock and Donald if it came to it in our best ever XI ! all have represented the Brummie Bears honourably [MENTION=865]Big Mac[/MENTION]

 

[Big Mac]

From a Warwickshire perspective, we'd be spoilt for choice deciding who to pick as a fast bowler between Steyn, Pollock and Donald if it came to it in our best ever XI ! all have represented the Brummie Bears honourably [MENTION=865]Big Mac[/MENTION]

And obviously we'd have the late, great Bob Woolmer in charge, who had plenty of experience coaching Donald and Pollock at both county and international level.

 

[emranabbas]

2 of my favourite players along with lance klusner all 3 very under rated

 

[saifi]

Donald and Pollock are respected. They are not celebrated. The reason is that they don't come from a team which is charishmatic like India or England or Australia. Your team has to be charishmatic and should have mad following for a player to be celebrated. Otherwise they end up being respected and looked up to when the time comes.

Charisma is mostly derived by fast bowlers.Replace india with Pakistan.They have Flair and unique brand of cricket.

 

[saifi]

I agree with your charisma comments except for the word "India".

The reality is, a team's charisma is derived exclusively from electrifying fast bowling. That's why English fans love Pakistan at their best, and it's why most non-Indian cricket fans consider India and Sri Lanka boring and unattractive even when their batsmen are superb and winning matches.

And it's why even an Englishman like me is desperately hoping that in The Ashes the Aussies field an attack of:

Starc
Hazlewood
Cummins
Pattinson

I literally could not care less if Finch, Warner, Smith and Maxwell score 460-2 in an ODI.

But get those four pacemen together in a Test match, even against my own team, and I'll be ecstatic.

hazlewood is not electrifying but AUS best fast bowler

 

[Mo Dipsy]

It saddens me that Allan Donald didn't have an opportunity to play international cricket until he was 25. If he had the opportunity to polish his skills even further in international cricket when he was younger, just like the other great fast bowlers of that era, I believe he would have been even greater by the time he was 25. In any case, he was fearsome and an absolute joy to watch. Definitely on par with Waqar for me.

 

[Hasan123]

From a Warwickshire perspective, we'd be spoilt for choice deciding who to pick as a fast bowler between Steyn, Pollock and Donald if it came to it in our best ever XI ! all have represented the Brummie Bears honourably [MENTION=865]Big Mac[/MENTION]

Donald is better than Pollock.

 

[hk031992]

Waqar and Donald along with Steyn are the three best attacking bowlers i have seen in my lifetime

 

[New Yorker]

true. But that's how it goes. you have to win against the best to be considered the best, especially if you are looking to be rated.
Same goes for Wasim and Waqar: would go missing against Australia and South Africa.

if one has to win against the best to be considered the best then no australian of that era could have been considered the best.

tautology tends to bite itself in the rear.

 

[Pete Rose]

tautology tends to bite itself in the rear.

No, this just sounds like extremism

 

[Rahul1]

No publicity. I'm pretty sure if you ask an average Indian cricket fan, they would be convinced that Jasprit Bumrah is a much better bowler than Allan Donald ever was. Hard to get noticed if you don't have a powerful media behind you.

I would really like to know what does Bumrah or India have to do with this thread.

 

[happydavy]

As someone rightly mentioned above, they are underrated or less talked about, because they weren't media/broadcasters' properties unlike their fellow asian cricketers. Pollock was perhaps one of the 3 best test all-rounders cricket has seen alongside sobers and kallis. Look how 55% of his wickets are in won matches all across the world. Similarly, when it comes to batsmen Graeme Smith as a test batsman was far better than Tendulkar or Lara simply because he won insane number of matches for SA all around the globe, yet you will seldom hear about him from commentators, they will only suck upto Lara and Tendulkar.

 

[Ab Fan]

Two of the greatest ever without any shadow of doubt.

 

[jnaveen1980]

Alan Donald was never under-rated. He was officially the first and foremost cricketer from South Africa adored by fans from other countries. (Ofcourse since their return). He earned the tag "white lighnting" for his 90 mph balls. His battles with Sachin were memorable. Probably the best fast bowler against Tendulkar.

 

[gazza619]

I used to love watching Donald bowl.

 

[Joseph Gomes]

Alan Donald was never under-rated. He was officially the first and foremost cricketer from South Africa adored by fans from other countries. (Ofcourse since their return). He earned the tag "white lighnting" for his 90 mph balls. His battles with Sachin were memorable. Probably the best fast bowler against Tendulkar.

He has become underrated in last decade. I barely see his name in any all time XI, for both tests and ODIs. He has better stats than Akram in both format in almost all major categories. Not sure if Steyn is responsible for his declining popularity.