Cricketer of the Century rates Gupte above Warne

Sobers says recent Australian teams aren't the best

Cricinfo staff

February 27, 2006


Sir Garry Sobers, one of Wisden's Five Cricketers of the 20th Century, believes Australia's sides of the past decade fall short in any debate over the game's greatest teams. Steve Waugh's men won an unprecedented 16 Tests in a row and the outfits captained by Waugh, Taylor and Ponting have dominated the world, but Sobers told The Australian there were other more powerful squads.

"I never saw Bradman's teams play but you don't even have to go back that far," Sobers said. "I don't think they would have even won a single Test against Clive Lloyd's team, to tell you the truth. Look at how the Aussies struggled against Steve Harmison in England. What would they have done against an attack with Michael Holding, Joel Garner, Colin Croft, Andy Roberts, Malcolm Marshall? (that is soo true!!) The Aussies have done so well for all these years because of two players: Shane Warne and Glenn McGrath."

Warne was also a Cricketer of the Century, but Sobers picked Subhash Gupte as his all-time favourite slow bowler. "Warne's a great, but the best legspinner I've ever seen is still Gupte," he said. "He could do things that I still don't believe all these years later." Gupte played 36 Tests for India, taking 149 wickets at 29.55, and died in Trinidad in 2002. Warne currently holds the world record with 659 victims at 25.15 over a 14-year career.

© Cricinfo

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Sobers is dead right...The aussies look great cause there are some pathetic teams out there who cannot beat an OK team (if compared to the past). So looks like cricket is loosing talent

Well i wudnt want to argue with the 2nd best player in the history of cricket so i wud just agree with him

LOL. The fact that Gupta is better than Warne is kinda strange. But maybe cause of the fact that there arent so many great batsmen nowdays, warne is bound to pick all of them.

If u play 200 test matches, ofcourse u r going to have more wickets...

I think Warne has played around 150 test matches n then he reached 600 wickets....So he shouldnt be considered a great player. For me the only positive thing that people should laud at is his longevity in Test cricket...

OMG Warne shudnt be considered a great player? how does that make any sense. Have u seen any spinner better than Warne? SObers can say this cause he has been around cricket for over 60 yrs but no one even comes close to warne in modern era.

One more example of a Great player who isnt good in talking..Warne is a alltime great and the best spinner ever.no two ways about it.
Sobers is well off looking at his own team which god knows has gone lower and lower that its taken for granted that Windies is never going to win anything meaningful.
While AUS has gone from strenth to strength WI has gone from being bad to worse,there gotta be polls as to which is the worst WI team ever,the team of late 90s or 2000 or 2001 or 2002 or 2003 or 2004 or 2005 or 2006..its getting worse every single day and their captain wouldnt find a place in most international teams with his technique and record

well he is definitely right, the aussies really dont have much of a challenge. cricket in 70's and 80's used to be really competitive. you had these great fast bowlers and these great batsmen.

well he is quite right comparing to 70s to 80s cricket couse cricket has been changed alot nowdays nowdays cricket is much easiyer than early days i would say not the best one from all the time but i would say great team in nowdays but sobers is also right that they r not best at the all the time

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sobers dead right

he is still alive man

lol ... what the hell?

who told you he is dead man he is still alive just chaeck on cricinfo
right now his is 69 years 214 days

lol ..... he said SOBERS IS DEAD RIGHT!!! which is different from SOBERS IS DEAD, RIGHT?

heheheheheh this was funny!

MO YO leave the forms and concentrate on ur batting!!!

hehe yeah u see even a small "comma" can make a hell lot of Diff