Countdown to Twenty Three Hundreds.

[Making_Splinters]

I expect Cook to break practically every record for England by the time he finishes playing.

Between them Cook, KP and Bell are going to rewrite almost all the records its just a case of who ends up with the last laugh.

[shankycricket]

Didn't know that Splinters, thanks.

Hope Strauss does go past Hammond, Shanky. It would be great for the team, and special for us as supporters to have witnessed a great achievement by this group of players.

Of course. I'd love to see that happen. But I find it hard to be confident about it, going by the recent trends.

[Arthur Crabtree]

Lamb's conversion isn't too bad. Not as good as KP though. Whose is actually quite a bit better than Cook's now I look again. Not what you'd expect given KP's popular reputation for giving it away.

[Making_Splinters]

I don't however really see it as a special moment simply because it is mostly down to the amount these guys can play over the likes of Barrington or any of the older names on that list combined with the fact that England hasn't had a truly great batsman since the early 1960s and the pretty good ones we've had in the time massive runs were possible have thrown their 10k shots away for various reasons.

Yes England has some of the best batsman we've had in decades at present but a peice of me will always have Gower over Trott or Lamb over Bell.

[Arthur Crabtree]

A lot of those older players played a lot. Standards are good now. Gower etc had to play the West Indies. But they played some weak teams. Only Pakistan were really nearly as strong as WI, and there were the Packer years. Barrington played a lot of Tests.

[Making_Splinters]

Barrington played almost exactly the same number of tests as KP has now aside from it took him 13 years to do so, not the 7 it's taken KP.

[Arthur Crabtree]

So that made it harder for Barrington? Imagine burn out was less a problem for him. KP has played all those ODIs and T20s. Seven years in a plane.

They were probably in comparably successful England sides.

[Making_Splinters]

So that made it harder for Barrington? Imagine burn out was less a problem for him. KP has played all those ODIs and T20s. Seven years in a plane.

They were probably in comparably successful England sides.

And what has that to do with the subject of the thread?

I think it should be fairly obvious what the implications for being able to play a smaller number of tests even over a career nearly double the length should be with regards to this thread.

[Arthur Crabtree]

Fair enough.

[Making_Splinters]

It's not a comment on which player was better than who, just a simple observation that who ever becomes the next progressive holder of the crown will do so in no small part due to England's fairly barren crop of truly special English batsmen during the time where it has become possible to make huge numbers in the game though this time is probably in decline now with the increasing expectation of players to play different formats.

Here's a lovely little stat; if you consider international batting as a whole Tendulkar has around six thousand more runs than any other player in history and around nine thousand more than third place. For England KP is already only one thousand behind our leading figure.

[Aidan11]

I think Cook will be first to 23 but I think Strauss & KP will also do it.

[D/L]

Given the number of tests played by some players these days, the number of centuries they score, as an indication of their ability, shouldn’t be taken too seriously.

[DeltaAlpha]

Quite so, D/L, but I'd go further and say it's a matter of complete indifference to me. We have a list of numbers; we look at them and say, "Gosh, this one's bigger than the others!"

Great...

[meninblue]

Given the number of tests played by some players these days, the number of centuries they score, as an indication of their ability, shouldn’t be taken too seriously.

This is a general thought amongst most of the elder people who i have met. Not only in cricket but everything that happened in previous century is supposedly good in their view, whatever the current youth generation does is easy. As much as the previous cricketers efforts are recognized and respected, nothing can be taken away from the cricketers of the present. The fielding is doubly better nowadays. Also, even with flat wickets the bowlers of current generation have as good or better strike rate of the bowlers of previous era who bowled on uncovered wickets.


Cook is fantastic. I always believe that when a specialist batter gets set he should be looking for a double. Cook and KP possess those attributes. I think one of them will make it first.

[yorker_129-7]

Pietersen will almost certainly do it this summer. He looks in superb nick and he always like performing on the big stage, often against South Africa. In the long term Alastair Cook will break all England batting records, but short term KP will lead the way.