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Old December 29, 2012, 01:52 PM
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shuziburo shuziburo is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by BanCricFan
Its quite silly that some people think Rafique was overrated. Infact, Rafique would have been one of the great SLAs had he played for a better side. He was an amazingly intelligent bowler, had fantastic rhythm and the master of the arm ball. Just imagine the amount of wickets he would have picked up if BD could make the oppositions bat in the 2nd Innings and on the 4th or 5th day pitches!
There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics. I don't fully believe it, but being involved in scientific research for nearly 25 years, I do know that statistics don't always tell the whole story. MAK Pataudi, among many others, (rightly or wrongly) considered Erapalli Prasanna the best off-spinner of all time. However, Jim Laker had much better stats. In contrast, if India had a small total to defend, he would go with Chandrasekhar. Why? Because Chandra was the only bowler in his disposal who could truly demolish a batting lineup on his day. There are many more examples, but I don't have the time for a long post.

Unless you have followed a cricketer when he was playing, it is difficult to speculate whether he was under- or overrated. It is a fact that Rafique did not get to exploit the 4th or the 5th day pitch, which has to be taken into account in rating him. Statistics are not produced in a vacuum. Finally, the people who really can rate him properly are the batsmen who batted against him. I didn't have the time to find any, though. Anyone?
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