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The CW 50 - CricketWeb's view of the top 50 cricketers of all time

Lillian Thomson

Hall of Fame Member
Just sent my top 25.

I don't think I have too many surprises, looking forward to seeing where the Cricketer I ranked 21st is placed, because I think he might just miss out on most peoples top 25's.
Well he may or may not make the final 50, but you'll be pleased to know that even at this early stage you're not the only person to have voted for him. :)
Derek Pringle is also a candidate for my list, so that would make three votes.
 

Furball

Evil Scotsman
My hypothetical argument is this:

Say you're a kid, about 9 or 10, in the glory days where summers lasted forever and you had nothing more to worry about than if you had enough players for that day's kick about.

It's a glorious Saturday and your dad decides to take you to the cricket (for the purposes of this argument, you're from Worcestershire), where your attention might wane over a day's play, but at some point during the day you get absolutely captivated by the stroke play of one Graeme Hick. To your young eyes, no matter what the bowlers offer, he just seems to be able to hit them and score runs at will, wherever he wants.

This truly fascinates you, so much that you beg your dad to take you again. He can't as he's working, so you go with your older brother, where again Hick plays another majestic innings. You've been bitten by the cricket bug. You watch what you can on the BBC. You ask your dad to take you to play at the local cricket club. You play cricket at school, possibly after school at University, and you still play now and then down at the local cricket club on a Saturday.

In that hypothetical scenario, I'd argue that Graeme Hick has a far greater case to be that person's number 1 than someone like Bradman (or more recently, Lara and Tendulkar), and it's the sort of criteria I'm going to try and base my list on (and it's the logic I'm going to use to defend my top 10. Have done the top 5 in my head, and there's 2 wildcard entries there who qualify on my criteria.)
 
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bagapath

International Captain
See, the way I read the thread title, it's each person's top 25 of all time.

There's 1 or 2 players who will be in my list who will probably not feature in anyone else's list (1 almost certainly will not), but they're hugely important to me, as without them I might not ever have had anything more than a passing interest in the game.
good. then your list is as honest as anyone else's. you should stick to your criteria, IMO
 

Uppercut

Request Your Custom Title Now!
My hypothetical argument is this:

Say you're a kid, about 9 or 10, in the glory days where summers lasted forever and you had nothing more to worry about than if you had enough players for that day's kick about.

It's a glorious Saturday and your dad decides to take you to the cricket (for the purposes of this argument, you're from Worcestershire), where your attention might wane over a day's play, but at some point during the day you get absolutely captivated by the stroke play of one Graeme Hick. To your young eyes, no matter what the bowlers offer, he just seems to be able to hit them and score runs at will, wherever he wants.

This truly fascinates you, so much that you beg your dad to take you again. He can't as he's working, so you go with your older brother, where again Hick plays another majestic innings. You've been bitten by the cricket bug. You watch what you can on the BBC. You ask your dad to take you to play at the local cricket club. You play cricket at school, possibly after school at University, and you still play now and then down at the local cricket club on a Saturday.

In that hypothetical scenario, I'd argue that Graeme Hick has a far greater case to be that person's number 1 than someone like Bradman (or more recently, Lara and Tendulkar), and it's the sort of criteria I'm going to try and base my list on (and it's the logic I'm going to use to defend my top 10. Have done the top 5 in my head, and there's 2 wildcard entries there who qualify on my criteria.)
Greatness is entirely open to interpretation as far as I'm concerned. It's not for anyone else to say that Graeme Hick (for example) isn't an acceptable choice. Just pick whoever you want.
 

The Sean

Cricketer Of The Year
My hypothetical argument is this:

Say you're a kid, about 9 or 10, in the glory days where summers lasted forever and you had nothing more to worry about than if you had enough players for that day's kick about.

It's a glorious Saturday and your dad decides to take you to the cricket (for the purposes of this argument, you're from Worcestershire), where your attention might wane over a day's play, but at some point during the day you get absolutely captivated by the stroke play of one Graeme Hick. To your young eyes, no matter what the bowlers offer, he just seems to be able to hit them and score runs at will, wherever he wants.

This truly fascinates you, so much that you beg your dad to take you again. He can't as he's working, so you go with your older brother, where again Hick plays another majestic innings. You've been bitten by the cricket bug. You watch what you can on the BBC. You ask your dad to take you to play at the local cricket club. You play cricket at school, possibly after school at University, and you still play now and then down at the local cricket club on a Saturday.

In that hypothetical scenario, I'd argue that Graeme Hick has a far greater case to be that person's number 1 than someone like Bradman (or more recently, Lara and Tendulkar), and it's the sort of criteria I'm going to try and base my list on (and it's the logic I'm going to use to defend my top 10. Have done the top 5 in my head, and there's 2 wildcard entries there who qualify on my criteria.)
Ha ha good point very well made - as I said, looking forward to seeing your list when it's finished. :)
 

Jarquis

Cricket Web: All-Time Legend
Entirely your choice how much weighting you want to give to any particular criteria.
Main Criteria = Name (will have to settle for just the single "s")

1. Trescothick
2. North

Will try and get the email sent this evening :) (Using a more respectable criteria of course :p)
 

G.I.Joe

International Coach
I missed an obvious (imo) candidate in my list, Sean. I've mailed you the revised one.

My criteria were Overall record + performances against the best + stature amongst peers + versatility in all formats of the game
 

The Sean

Cricketer Of The Year
Thanks to everyone who has voted already - with plenty more to come by the sounds of it. Not going to go into any detail with regard to the voting trends but two interesting things that have come up so far:

  • Each successive person who has sent a list has nominated at least one (and sometimes many more) player that no previous contributor had
  • Only three players have appeared on every list to date
Keep 'em coming!
 

Jarquis

Cricket Web: All-Time Legend
Could take longer than I was expecting. Getting names down on paper is no issue, keeping it to 25 names and then ordering them is going to be the difficult part :p
Thought I'd have no trouble just rattling off 25 and being happy :laugh:
 

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