Who is the best cricketer ever who never played test cricket?

[Night_wolf]

talking about Steve Tikelo in other thread made me think about players who was good enough for test cricket but never played one.

we had many cricketers who played test cricket for Bangladesh without deserving to play even a single one, kinda make me even sad for tikelo

anyway who in opinion is the best cricketer never to play test cricket?..i think there could be some Saffars one too

[Zunaid]

At the top by a wide margin would be Clive Rice.


Other candidates huffing and puffing behind Rice might be Siddons, RTD, and of course Tikolo.

[Gowza]

yeah clive rice, probably some other south african's, RTD.

[roman]

Siddons, RTD, Odumbe, Tikolo

From BD Nannu..

[sum_1]

One name that comes to my mind (not well known like the ones above) is Utpal Chatterjee, a former left arm spinner from Bengal. He was the spearhead of the Bengal attack for more than a decade, and picked 500+ wickets in just 120 odd FC matches. Unluckily for him the time span of his career coincided with that of Anil Kumble. On a different country, on a different time, perhaps things would've been different for him.

http://www.espncricinfo.com/india/co...yer/27603.html

[Night_wolf]

Originally Posted by sum_1
One name that comes to my mind (not well known like the ones above) is Utpal Chatterjee, a former left arm spinner from Bengal. He was the spearhead of the Bengal attack for more than a decade, and picked 500+ wickets in just 120 odd FC matches. Unluckily for him the time span of his career coincided with that of Anil Kumble. On a different country, on a different time, perhaps things would've been different for him.

http://www.espncricinfo.com/india/co...yer/27603.html

i think players like Utpal Chatterjee,RTD(south african),Siddions etc were/are good enough to play test cricket no doubt but one thing that was against them was/is that there were/are better players in their generation then them. Brad Hodge is another player who has an test avg of 50+ yet played only a handful of tests because Aus had better players at that time. If Hodge was around this time for Aus he would have been one of Aus's great test players.

but players like Clive Rece, Tikelo etc were better then their generation yet couldn't play test for one reason or another, they IMHO are the most sufferers

[Gowza]

Originally Posted by Night_wolf
i think players like Utpal Chatterjee,RTD(south african),Siddions etc were/are good enough to play test cricket no doubt but one thing that was against them was/is that there were/are better players in their generation then them. Brad Hodge is another player who has an test avg of 50+ yet played only a handful of tests because Aus had better players at that time. If Hodge was around this time for Aus he would have been one of Aus's great test players.

but players like Clive Rece, Tikelo etc were better then their generation yet couldn't play test for one reason or another, they IMHO are the most sufferers

RTD lost out because of his country and i guess he never chose to convert like others did but really he's a quality all rounder i mean look at his FC stats and most of them are county matches. i'm sure there are a number of south africans who lost out due to apartheid, those guys really lost out.

i don't think there would be that many who missed out completely due to a team being so strong that they couldn't get into the XI, i guess in regards to that you'd look at the era's of the WI domination and australia's domination. bowlers like wayne daniels and sylvester clarke didn't get to play much because it was so tough to break into their team but generally those sort of players at least get a couple or a few more matches, they just don't get a whole career. maybe some indian batsmen....looking at india's current batting stocks surely some will miss out.

[Gowza]

Garth Le Roux

http://www.espncricinfo.com/ci/conte...yer/45975.html

and Vince van der Bijl

http://www.espncricinfo.com/ci/conte...yer/47683.html

were probably 2 of the best fast bowlers never to play test cricket, both were south african.

[Gowza]

david hussey has to be up there as well. also jamie cox, dene hills even jimmy maher (some bad last years really hurt his record though).

[Gowza]

Sheridan Raynor was supposedly a very good batsman, at least according to sobers. only played 1 FC match though, he came from bermuda. sobers wanted him to trial for WI but he wasn't allowed to.
http://www.espncricinfo.com/ci/conte...yer/23740.html

ed joyce is a current one.

bart king, he was a great bowler and could bat a bit
http://www.espncricinfo.com/usa/cont...yer/25637.html

ole mortensen was a great fast bowler from denmark who played county cricket with terrific results.
http://www.espncricinfo.com/ci/conte...yer/23927.html

michael di venuto...he was pretty good.

ken mcEwan the south african batsman.
http://www.espncricinfo.com/Australi...yer/46510.html

Mahadevan Sathasivam from sri lanka, some considered him the best batsman of his time but he never got to play test cricket.
http://www.espncricinfo.com/ci/conte...yer/50606.html
http://www.lankanewspapers.com/news/...552_space.html

franklyn stephenson was a great WI all rounder who didn't play test cricket.

[layperson]

Shahriyar Rahman from Bangladesh. Too bad he stopped playing after school cricket. He would have broken all records !