Who do you currently regard as the 3 greatest Australian cricket players ever and why

[BDuncan]

Who do you regard as the 3 best or greatest Australian cricket players and why ?

It doesn't matter if anyone mentioned is now retired or even deceased,
but who do you currently regard as the 3 best (or greatest) Australian
cricket players ever and please say why, for each player named (for the
player's playing style, overall career track record, or anything else).

 

[SJS]

I will name three pairs

Batsmen : Trumper and Bradman
Pacers : Lindwall and Lillee
Spinners : Orielly and Grimmett

If really pushed, I would give the edge to the three in bold

 

[Days of Grace]

I am curious as to why you would pick Grimmett over O'Reilly since Grimmett took a heap of wickets against the relatively weak South African batting lineup of the time.

 

[bagapath]

Bradman - no need to explain I guess
Miller - For showing the world how test cricket should be played;
Gilchrist - Ditto

 

[wfdu_ben91]

Sir Donald Bradman and Shane Warne are the 2 best cricketers. It would be a toss up for 3rd position because several players arguably deserve to be there.

 

[Ikki]

It's really tough, but for now I would say:

Bradman - The greatest batsman ever.
Warne - The greatest spinner ever.
Gilchrist - The greatest wicketkeeper-batsman ever.

For me, these 3 should walk into every all-time Australian XI and, even with Murali for competition, in an all-time International XI. The other two have distant 2nds for their position in an all-time International XI.

Miller, McGrath, Lillee, Ponting, Chappell, Hayden and a host of others unlucky to miss out. I think Miller is the closest from the next group, but the rest have quite a fair bit of competition in Australia's own history as well as on the International stage.

 

[Craig]

Bradman - greatest ever batsman.
Millar - one of the world's greatets all-rounder.
Warne - greatest ever spinner.

Much apologies to McGrath, Lillee, (Greg) Chappell.

 

[zaremba]

McGain (best spinner)
Hauritz (best slow bowler)
T. Chappell (best bowler at the death)

 

[SJS]

I am curious as to why you would pick Grimmett over O'Reilly since Grimmett took a heap of wickets against the relatively weak South African batting lineup of the time.

That requires a long reply. I will come back and do it I promise

I must stress, however, its a tough choice and my preference for O'Reilly is personal although I will, as promised try to answer your specific query. I must confess, I am slightly biased in favour of conventional spinners (read those who flight the ball and generally bowl at a "spinner's speed") rather than those who bowl close to the speed of medium pacers like O'Reilly and Kumble.

 

[SJS]

McGain
Hauritz
T. Chappell

Great choice. I have some difficulty in telling which is which - batsman, bowler, all rounder ?

 

[Michaelf7777777]

Bradman
Miller
Trumper

 

[SJS]

I am curious as to why you would pick Grimmett over O'Reilly since Grimmett took a heap of wickets against the relatively weak South African batting lineup of the time.

Hi, this is going to take sometime. Its a very interesting subject. I think I will convert this into my next feature article (due in about ten days on CW front page). It will take me all of the next seven days to do a reasonable job. Please wait for it. I will credit you for provoking me to write

 

[Matt79]

Bradman
Miller
Warne

 

[iamdavid]

Bradman - for reasons which require no explanation.

Warne - even though there have statistically been better bowlers to play for Australia, I think his contribution over a 13 year period combined with his persona and capacity to always lift for the big moments puts him right up there...Not to mention the number of times he came back when everyone had written him off

I could probably go for any of about 10 guys for the third spot, I pick Lillee for his determination and the way he overcame adversity, and the way that like Warne he saved his best for when it mattered most..He left a wonderful legacy for the likes of McGrath, McDermott & Gillespie to follow.

Could concievably have gone for McGrath, Miller, Gilchrist, S.Waugh, Border, G.Chappell, Lindwall, Trumper, O'Rielly or a number of others for that third spot, but Lillee just sounds right.

 

[MrIncredible]

Bradman
Lillee
Miller

 

[stumpski]

Bradman, Miller and Warne for me too ... and Lillee would be next. Why anyone (other than zaremba) would not pick Bradman I can't imagine.

These exercises are always tough on old-timers like Gregory though.

 

[MrIncredible]

BTW y stop at Australlia:

WI: Sobers, Marshall, Richards
Pak: Imran, Wasim, Javed
NZL: Crowe, Hadlee, Turner
Ind: Dev, Tendy, Gavaskar
SL: Murali, Sanga, Da Silva
RSA: Kallis, Pollock G, Richards
Zim: A flower, Streak, G flower?
Eng: Barnes, Hobbs, Trueman

 

[zaremba]

Why anyone (other than zaremba) would not pick Bradman I can't imagine.

Which is one big reason why I found the exercise a bit lacklustre. Perhaps the thread should have been called "who are the second and third best cricketers to play for Australia?"

In fact the only thing worse than an exercise in which everyone picks Bradman is one in which rivera213 surfaces again and explains in stupefying detail why he has left Bradman out of the top 3.

 

[MrIncredible]

Rotfl

 

[bagapath]

BTW y stop at Australlia:

WI: Sobers, Marshall, Richards
Pak: Imran, Wasim, Javed
NZL: Crowe, Hadlee, Turner
Ind: Dev, Tendy, Gavaskar
SL: Murali, Sanga, Da Silva
RSA: Kallis, Pollock G, Richards
Zim: A flower, Streak, G flower?
Eng: Barnes, Hobbs, Trueman

take out barry richards and fred truman and bring in allan donald and walter hammond, please