The 3000/300 Club Part 2

The Analysis

The Club:

• Botham
• Khan
• Dev
• Hadlee
• Warne
• Pollock
• Vaas
• Vettori

General Observations:

• The club splits into 2 distinct tiers: the four who played in the 70s and 80s, and those who played in the 90s and 2000s
• Of the latter group, Warne and Vaas are really just bowlers who played long enough to score 3000 runs. While talented with the bat, they were for their bowling prowess with batting as an occasional bonus. Vettori and Pollock are more deserving of the label all-rounder
• The quartet from the 80s were just as useful with the bat as with the ball. Each could be counted on to make runs - especially Botham and Khan. Hadlee aside, they scored many more hundreds than the more recent members
• However one must point out that the all-rounders of the 90s and 2000s era that could bat as well as they bowled were either injured too often (Flintoff, Cairns) or not as useful (Kallis) to achieve the 3000/300 club

Another focus to take is the nature of the teams in which these players performed:

• Botham and Khan played in very talented teams (including players like: Willis, Gower, Gatting, Akram, Miandad and Quadir) which makes their achievements even more impressive
• Hadlee and Kapil Dev largely carried their teams (the bowling in particular) which is impressive in a different sense given the success New Zealand and India experienced while they played
• Warne and Pollock played in the two strongest teams of their era. I think this largely accounts for Shaun Pollock's statistical anomaly where by his averages match those of the 1980s but he took just 1 10WM and 16 5WHs. he had to bowl at the same time as Donald and co but could not sustain the kind of spells that ensured Warne's 700+ wicket tally
• Vaas and Vettori carry their teams like Hadlee and Dev, in the bowling and batting respectively

Specific Points:

• Despite Ian Botham's legend status in the Ashes, his records against India (5 hundreds!) and New Zealand (3 hundreds and 6 5WHs) are just as impressive
• A strange quirk, given the competition between the Four 80s all-rounders, Kapil Dev did not score a hundred or fifty nor take a 10WM or 5WH against New Zealand. He played 10 matches against the Kiwis
• Daniel Vettori's stats are somewhat bolstered by pickings against Zimbabwe and Bangladesh (1 hundred and 5 5WHs). This offsets a horror record against South Africa. Strangely though he as a consistent record against Australia (6 5WHs)

All 8 member of the 3000/300 Club were and are fantastic players in some way or another so picking the best/my favourite is a difficult decision. For share ability to win a match with bat and ball, often both, I would pick Ian Botham between 1977 and 1982. However Warne would be my favourite to watch bowl by quite a margin with his mastery of all but the wrong'un (ironic given the title of this blog) and on-field energy.

On a patriotic note I should point out that Richard Hadlee had to be the most professional. ESPN's Legends of Cricket book noted that while most all-rounders have periods of dominance at which point you would select them in an All Time XI, if Paddles were to be picked it could be the Hadlee from 1980-1990 - such was his consistency.

Also, while researching this topic I prepared a table comparing the 8 players careers at the 87-match-mark (the least amount played by one of them). If anyone is interested in seeing it, I can email it to you if you put your address in a comment after this post.

Well that's it from here and I hope to see you again
It's good bye for now