Unfulfilled Talents

The Breen Machine

The Breen Machine

Striker
Was watching some old Ashes highlights last night and Steven Finn was on, surely he falls into this category? 31 this year and not even in with a shout of an England recall after a promising start to his international career that had Michael Holding predicting he'd get at least 300 test wickets.

Vinod Kambli must get a mention too, arguably a more precocious talent as a youngster than Tendulkar.

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The Breen Machine said:
Was watching some old Ashes highlights last night and Steven Finn was on, surely he falls into this category? 31 this year and not even in with a shout of an England recall after a promising start to his international career that had Michael Holding predicting he'd get at least 300 test wickets.

Vinod Kambli must get a mention too, arguably a more precocious talent as a youngster than Tendulkar.

Add on...
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I don't even know who Kambli is

Simon Jones due to his injuries, I'd argue Flintoff didn't achieve what he could have.

Mohammad Amir for obvious reasons but also seems injuries have taken a toll. Common theme here Shane Bond, Shaun Tait....

Matthew Elliott
 
mikemanc said:
I don't even know who Kambli is

Simon Jones due to his injuries, I'd argue Flintoff didn't achieve what he could have.

Mohammad Amir for obvious reasons but also seems injuries have taken a toll. Common theme here Shane Bond, Shaun Tait....

Matthew Elliott
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Think Kambli still averaged over 50 from about 20 tests but off the pitch antics saw him fall out of favour.

Bond is a good shout, he was a top fast bowler but rarely able to stay fit. Matthew Elliott looked the part in his early Australia days but tailed off quite dramatically.

James Taylor for obvious reasons.
 
The Breen Machine said:
Think Kambli still averaged over 50 from about 20 tests but off the pitch antics saw him fall out of favour.

Bond is a good shout, he was a top fast bowler but rarely able to stay fit. Matthew Elliott looked the part in his early Australia days but tailed off quite dramatically.

James Taylor for obvious reasons.
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Yeah, Taylor seemed to be finding his feet at international level.

I heard Warne talking about Elliott recently said he could have been one of the best but for injuries. Coincidentally just after I posted youtube recommended me a video of Elliott and Mark Waugh running into each other whilst running a single, Elliott was carted off with a broken leg in his second test match. Wonder if that was the start of his injuries.
 
Chris Tremlett. Sadly his frame was just to big to handle the rigours of fast bowling day in day out. But at least he had that short period in the limelight on the Ashes tour 2010/11. At Perth on that WACA pitch there was some Aussies soiling themselves facing him. Just for a couple of tests he was fit and firing and awesome.
 
Mark Ramprakash. A beautiful player to watch, just lacked the mental strength

Ben Hollioake - could have been Flintoff before Flintoff was Flintoff.
 
TopCat said:
Mark Ramprakash. A beautiful player to watch, just lacked the mental strength

Ben Hollioake - could have been Flintoff before Flintoff was Flintoff.
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Yeah, that was tragic. Hollioake seemed to have turned a corner on the pitch too, getting that consistency he'd missed earlier in his career.
 
Loads of Aussie batsmen who just couldnt get into their side because it was so exceptional:
Stuart Law
Greg Blewett

Other players - Sylvester Clarke, Wayne Daniel. Atherton was a way better player than his 37 average suggested but his back injuries. Vaughan looked as if he could be one of the best batsmen to ever play the game in Australia but a good average of 41 could have been much better.
Actually Marc Cosgrove could have been anything he wanted when he started off but chose to be an unfit fat fuck. He was a brilliant player. I remember in the 2005 Ashes he was over here playing for Swalwell and he got called up by the Aussies for a fitness test and he went AWOL. He got into the one day side the following year did quite well but just refused the fitness regimes.
 
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rentaghost said:
Actually Marc Cosgrove could have been anything he wanted when he started off but chose to be an unfit fat fuck. He was a brilliant player. I remember in the 2005 Ashes he was over here playing for Swalwell and he got called up by the Aussies for a fitness test and he went AWOL. He got into the one day side the following year did quite well but just refused the fitness regimes.
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Good call -His ton that he scored for Leics at the Riverside last season to save the game was one of the most disciplined innings I've seen for a long long time.
 

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