Three best from each test nation

[The Sean]

And he took 2,000 wickets, and 1,000 catches.

That he did - a highly competent spinner and a truly great fieldsman. But it was always his batting that most excited and enraptured those luckly enough to see him play.

 

[Lillian Thomson]

Looking at the other choices there doesn't seem to be any real criteria so;

England - Hobbs-Trueman-Botham
Australia - Bradman-Lillee-Warne
West Indies - Sobers-Richards-Marshall
Pakistan - Hanif Mohammad-Imran-Miandad
India - Merchant-Gavaskar-Tendulkar
South Africa - Richards-Pollock(g)-Donald
New Zealand - Turner-Crowe(m)-Hadlee

 

[Matt79]

Aus: Bradman, Miller, Gilchrist
Eng: Hobbs, Hammond, Barnes
WI: Sobers, Marshall, Richards
SA: Pollock (R.G.), Donald, Kallis
SL: Murali, Jayasuriya, Aravinda
Ind: Tendulkar, Gavaskar, EDIT: Kapil Dev, sorry Rahul.
Pak: Imran, Wasim, Waqar
NZ: Hadlee, Crowe, Turner
Zim: Flower, Streak, ummmm Taibu

 

[The Sean]

Australia: Bradman, Miller, Warne
England: Grace, Hobbs, Barnes
South Africa: RG Pollock, Faulkner, Donald
West Indies: Sobers, Richards, Marshall
New Zealand: Hadlee, Crowe, Donnelly
India: Tendulkar, Gavaskar, Kapil Dev
Pakistan: Imran, Wasim, Javed
Sri Lanka: Murali, Aravinda, Sangakkara
Zimbabwe: A Flower, Streak, Houghton

 

[FRAZ]

Pakistan

Imran Khan, Wasim Akram, Javed Miandad

No Shoaib Akhtar ! I am surprised Jono !

 

[pasag]

Bradman, Chappell and Lillee for Australia but it's very hard to leave out Miller, Warne, McGrath and Lindwall amongst many others. Off the top of my head would go for Sobers, Viv and Marshall from the WI with Headley and Ambrose just missing out. England would be Hobbs, SF and Hammond. Personal preferance has Hammond above Hutton and Sutcliffe but wouldn't mind others disagreeing as they're all in the very top echelon of English bats.

 

[BoyBrumby]

If we're looking at best players in absolute terms (how they performed against their peers), rather than greatest impact or personal favourites:

England: WG Grace, Jack Hobbs, SF Barnes
Australia: Bradman, Miller.....dunno, so many to choose from, I'll take Trumper on the grounds of contemporary dominance
South Africa: Graeme Pollock, Jacques Kallis, Shaun Pollock
West Indies: Headley, Sobers, Marshall
India: Gavaskar, Kapil Dev, Tendulkar
New Zealand: Sir Richard Hadlee, Martin Crowe, Chris Cairns
Pakistan: Hanif Mohammad, Imran Khan, Wasim Akram
Sri Lanka: Murali, Sangakarra....& probably Mahela Jayawardene to make it three from the current team.
Zimbabwe: Andy Flower, Dave Houghton, Heath Streak
Bangladesh: Habibul Bashar, Mashrafe Mortaza, Mohammad Rafique

 

[bond21]

Sobers has a mortgage in the all time world XI

 

[Matt79]

Sobers has a mortgage in the all time world XI

Yep, almost universly held to be the second best cricketer of all time.

 

[Richard]

Nah, don't think it's universal at all TBH, there's more than enough who consider him the best.

Myself for one.

 

[Pratters]

South Africa: Graeme Pollock, Jacques Kallis, Shaun Pollock

Donald ahead of Shaun Pollock.

 

[Michaelf7777777]

Australia: Bradman, Miller, O'Reilly

Bangladesh: Habibul Bashar, Animul Islam, Mohommad Rafique

England: Barnes, Hammond, Hobbs

India: Tendulkar, Kapil Dev, Gavaskar

New Zealand: Suttcliffe, R.Hadlee, Cowie

Pakistan: Imran Khan, Wasim Akram, Javed Miandad

South Africa: G.Pollock, B.Richards, Faulkner

Sri Lanka: Muralitharin, Sangakarra, A. de Silva

West Indies: Sobers, Richards, Marshall

Zimbabwe: A.Flower, Streak, Houghton

 

[Ikki]

Bradman, Miller, Warne.

 

[weldone]

South Africa: J. Kallis, S. Pollock, A. Donald
Pakistan: W. Akram, I. Khan, W. Younus
England: W. Hammond, F. Trueman, K. Barrington
Sri Lanka: M. Muralidharan, K. Sangakkara, M. Jayawardene
India: S. Tendulkar, R. Dravid, S. Gavaskar
Australia: D. Bradman, G. Mcgrath, R. Ponting
Zimbabwe: A. Flower, H. Streak, ?
New Zealand: R. Hadlee, M. Crowe, ?

 

[The Sean]

Nah, don't think it's universal at all TBH, there's more than enough who consider him the best.

Myself for one.

A question for you Rich - you've said here you consider Sobers to be the greatest of all cricketers, and you've also argued in the Don v WG thread that you'd place the Doctor as greater than Bradman. So does this mean that if and when the moment came for you to rank the greatest cricketers of all time, Bradman would only come in at no.3?

 

[Richard]

Honestly never really given the matter much thought, but TBH I'd probably have WG Grace over Sobers. Was only thinking Sobers as the best in the post-1900 time.

WG stands above anyone, really.

 

[The Sean]

Fair enough.

 

[eglezdzdiyd]

australia has to be miller, bradman, warne.
It's quite hard to beat that combo of absolute master of master batsman, brilliant bat and opening fast bowler, and master spinner.

 

[The Sean]

Some trends emerging here, so after a quick tally here is how CW’s ranking of the top 3 from each country currently stands:

Australia
1. Don Bradman
2. Shane Warne
3. Keith Miller

England
1. Jack Hobbs
2. Sydney Barnes
3. Walter Hammond

South Africa
1. Graeme Pollock
2. Allan Donald
3. Jacques Kallis

West Indies
1. Garry Sobers
2. Malcolm Marshall
3. Viv Richards

Sobers and Marshall both received maximum votes – I made a judgement call, backed up by comments in the posts themselves, that most if not all CW members would rank Sobers the higher of the two.

New Zealand
1. Richard Hadlee
2. Martin Crowe
3. Glenn Turner / Chris Cairns (tied)

India
1. Sachin Tendulkar
2. Sunil Gavaskar
3. Kapil Dev

Pakistan
1. Imran Khan
2. Wasim Akram
3. Javed Miandad

Sri Lanka
1. Mutthiah Muralitharan
2. Kumar Sangakkara
3. Aravinda De Silva

Zimbabwe
1. Andy Flower / Heath Streak (tied)
3. David Houghton

 

[PhoenixFire]

Flower is head and shoulders above Streak IMO, he's a total gun.