I might way into this one with my view on Ricky Pontings batting ability.
He is in my opinion, and I am not a Ponting lover by any means, the most naturally talented Australian batsman I have seen in my almost 40 years of watching cricket.
People should enjoy this guys batting over the next couple of years while he is still around, we may not ever see his like again.
I am not knocking either M or S Waugh, Border, Gilchrist, Walters or Ian Chappell when I say the above.
PS I might add anyone who thinks Greg Chappell was anywhere near as good a cricketer as Ian is only reading statistics. There is no comparison, Ian was the toughest player to wear the green and gold in my time and thats something when you have seen the toughness of both Border and S Waugh.
I used to know an old guy who was a member of the SCG who told me he saw all Bradmanns career, the last few years of Trumpers, and he told me the best he had seen was McCartney, followed by Trumper, then Bradman. He described Trumper and McCartney as freaks and Bradman as a machine. He said you always knew Don would make runs, but when the other 2 did it was a real treat.
He is in my opinion, and I am not a Ponting lover by any means, the most naturally talented Australian batsman I have seen in my almost 40 years of watching cricket.
People should enjoy this guys batting over the next couple of years while he is still around, we may not ever see his like again.
I am not knocking either M or S Waugh, Border, Gilchrist, Walters or Ian Chappell when I say the above.
PS I might add anyone who thinks Greg Chappell was anywhere near as good a cricketer as Ian is only reading statistics. There is no comparison, Ian was the toughest player to wear the green and gold in my time and thats something when you have seen the toughness of both Border and S Waugh.
I used to know an old guy who was a member of the SCG who told me he saw all Bradmanns career, the last few years of Trumpers, and he told me the best he had seen was McCartney, followed by Trumper, then Bradman. He described Trumper and McCartney as freaks and Bradman as a machine. He said you always knew Don would make runs, but when the other 2 did it was a real treat.
I am not old enough to really weigh into the debate on the Chappell's because I didn't have the luxury of seeing them play. Picking Ian in my side was purely based on what I have heard from older family members which backs up what you have both said!
How instumental was he in bolstering the lower orders confidence in scoring runs? He had special training sessions for the lower order that specifically focused on BATTING! I admit there is an element of self interest for him in that, being a middle order batsman, but selfless acts are pretty hard to find. Anyone remember Gillespie's double century? It was against Bangladesh but a double century is a double century, no? 
