Arthur Crabtree wrote:Openers used to see the shine off the new ball back then
Which is why, in my mind, no opener pre-1990 should be considered. There isnt the same type of true skill that the modern day game has now developed. Players are simply batting test match style innings.
Gooch played a lot of his matches inside the 1990s (49 games) and strikes at 54. Gower, Hick, Stewart and Botham range from the high 70s to 66 as openers in this time, so if anything Gooch played a very significant porportion of his matches as a weight on the team, others who played small amounts of matches performed much better.
And in the 1990s, Tendulkar was striking at 95 (32 matches), Anwar and Jayasuriya are around the 80s. Waugh was 82. Lara in the high 70s. Crowe is 20 SR above Gooch..... Every team had someone who would have walked past him into a team.
He's not, for about 40% of his career when the game develops to higher scores, a person that would even get into a team of the best 11 openers of a five year period, and arguably wasnt even in the top 3-4 options for his own team.
Puttting him in an all time XI is an insult to the skill base of ODI. If anything, Amiss stands well above anyone pre 1990s for England