Greatest cricketers since 1980

[Ikki]

Ah, ok. Makes sense

 

[0RI0N]

Greatest bowlers since 1980

Level 1

Malcolm Marshall
Glenn Mcgrath
Shane Warne
Mutthiah Muralitharan
Imran Khan
Richard Hadlee

Level 2

Dennis Lillee
Curtley Ambrose
Joel Garner
Michael Holding
Wasim Akram
Allan Donald
Ian Botham
Waqar Younis
Dale Steyn

Level 3

Shaun Pollock
Courtney Walsh
Anil Kumble
Saqlain Mushtaq
Craig Mcdermott
Kapil Dev
Iqbal Qasim
Bob Willis
Ian Bishop
Bruce Reid

Level 4

Jason Gillespie
Abdul Qadir
Merv Hughes
Chaminda Vaas
Shoab Akhthar
Harbhajan Singh
Makhaya Ntini
Darren Gough
Chris Cairns
Stuart Mcgill

Reckon Ambrose deserves level 1 status.
He was that good.
Find me a batsman who found the Prince of Perth easy to face.
He plain nightmare for batsmen.
Glad Steyn is getting some props.
Oh and Mo Asif at level 4 or 3?

 

[Sir Alex]

Akthar definitely deserves if Bruce Reid can be in level 3.

Steyn fair enough, although considering the Bradmanic lead he has over other pace bowlers atm (ignoring Bangbangers Finn etc) he perhaps deserve Level 1...

 

[Jono]

Ponting on level 2? LOL, seriously.

FFS they're his ****ing rankings. If you don't agree make your own.

 

[Sir Alex]

 

[Avada Kedavra]

good catch Jono

 

[Migara]

Greatest bowlers since 1980

Level 1

Malcolm Marshall
Glenn Mcgrath
Shane Warne
Mutthiah Muralitharan
Imran Khan
Richard Hadlee

Level 2

Dennis Lillee
Curtley Ambrose
Joel Garner
Michael Holding
Wasim Akram
Allan Donald
Ian Botham
Waqar Younis
Dale Steyn

Level 3

Shaun Pollock
Courtney Walsh
Anil Kumble
Saqlain Mushtaq
Craig Mcdermott
Kapil Dev
Iqbal Qasim
Bob Willis
Ian Bishop
Bruce Reid

Level 4

Jason Gillespie
Abdul Qadir
Merv Hughes
Chaminda Vaas
Shoab Akhthar
Harbhajan Singh
Makhaya Ntini
Darren Gough
Chris Cairns
Stuart Mcgill

Ambrose in Level 1, Walsh and Pollock in 2, and Botrham in 3. May be Akthar in Level 3 Cannot make up my mind where Vaas belongs. Not good to be in level 3, but much better than level 4. Iqbal Qasim over Qadir bafflems me.

 

[vcs]

Walsh should certainly be in Level 2. Kumble also is somewhere in between level 2 and 3, for me.

 

[G.I.Joe]

Without getting into the stratification, IMO, bagapath you have bestowed the tag of greatness on far too many players. Richie Richardson, Merv Hughes. Really? Great?

 

[Cevno]

Curtley Ambrose and Akram should be in level 1.

 

[Ikki]

One LOL vs a successive rant about someone's subjective list? Get off my ****.

 

[Zinzan]

based on the thread on sagakkara where some posters seem to be in a hurry to bunch him with greater batsman, i am starting this thread to categorize test cricketers into various levels of greatness. and predict who cricket history would consider all time greats out of those who played between 1980 - 2010.

i will start with the batsmen and divide them into four different levels of greatness if that makes sense at all. I will try to limit each level to 10 at the most. will do the same exercise for bowlers later. I have not ranked the players within each level.

The Greatest Batsmen since 1980

Level 1

Viv Richards
Greg Chappell
Sunil Gavaskar
Sachin Tendulkar
Brian Lara
Ricky Ponting

Level 2

Matthew Hayden
Virender Sehwag
Rahul Dravid
Allan Border
Steve Waugh
Javed Miandad
Inzamam Ul Haq
Jacques Kallis
Adam Gilchrist
Martin Crowe

Level 3

Kumar Sangakara
Mohammad Yousuff
Kevin Pietersen
Mahela Jayawardane
Gordon Greenidge
Graeme Smith
David Gower
Shiv Chanderpal
Andy Flower
Justin Langer

Level 4

David Boon
Michael Clarke
Graham Gooch
VVS Laxman
Mark Waugh
Damien Martyn
Sanath Jayasuriya
Aravinda de silva
Richie Richardson
Michael Hussey

this thread is meant to be as dumb as everything else i have ever written on cricket web. and it is meant to be fun. so u r welcome to join the spirit and throw in stats, circular arguments, individual biases and a bit of humor to make the discussion as alive as possible.

Edit: Dropped Clive Lloyd, Saeed Anwar and Desmond Haynes from the original list and brought in Andy Flower, Graeme Smith and Michael Clarke

So good to see you've obviously considered when they played & against what bowlers since you have M D Crowe in level 2

 

[Avada Kedavra]

Curtley Ambrose and Akram should be in level 1.

Agreed

 

[Anil]

batsmen(no particular order except for the tiers)

tier 1

sachin tendulkar
brian lara
vivian richards
sunil gavaskar
greg chappell

tier 2

allan border
steve waugh
ricky ponting
javed miandad
rahul dravid

tier 3

mathew hayden
virender sehwag
kumar sangakkara
jacques kallis
v.v.s laxman

tier 4

aravinda de silva
andy flower
martin crowe
inzamam ul haq
graham gooch

 

[Athlai]

batsmen(no particular order except for the tiers)

tier 1

sachin tendulkar
brian lara
vivian richards
sunil gavaskar
greg chappell

tier 2

allan border
steve waugh
ricky ponting
javed miandad
rahul dravid

tier 3

mathew hayden
virender sehwag
kumar sangakkara
jacques kallis
v.v.s laxman

tier 4

aravinda de silva
andy flower
martin crowe
inzamam ul haq
kevin pietersen

I quite like this list.

I'd probably have Laxman a tier lower, Pietersen not on it at all. And Crowe perhaps in tier 3.

I also reckon that the difference between tier 1 and tier 2 is probably the shortest gap in any of the stages. I would have Ponting, Border, Miandad and Dravid a rung lower than
the others but I'd say they only just miss out while they are far ahead of tier 3.

 

[Athlai]

Tier 1

GS Chappell
BC Lara
SM Gavaskar (on reputation alone, best before the 80s but allowing him to stay in the top tier)
IVA Richards
SR Tendulkar

Tier 2

AR Border
R Dravid
Javd Miandad
RT Ponting
SR Waugh

Tier 3

MD Crowe
A Flower
AC Gilchrist
ML Hayden
Inzamam-ul-Haq
RB Richardson
KC Sangakkara
V Sehwag

Tier 4

GA Gooch
CG Greenidge
M Azharuddin
S Chanderpaul
DPMD Jayawardene
G Kirsten
VVS Laxman
GC Smith
Mohammad Yousuf

Tier 5

Younis Khan
JL Langer
KP Pietersen
GP Thorpe
ME Trescothick
Fleming may also be close to this tier for players with a whole heap of runs.

 

[bagapath]

Ambrose in Level 1, Walsh and Pollock in 2, and Botrham in 3. May be Akthar in Level 3 Cannot make up my mind where Vaas belongs. Not good to be in level 3, but much better than level 4. Iqbal Qasim over Qadir bafflems me.

With Gillespie, Harbhajan and Akhthar for company Vaas is part of a very respectable bunch of bowlers, I think. Level 4 is fine for him in my books.

Walsh and Pollock didn't bundle out oppositions as often as they should have to deserve a place in Level 2. Their high SR and wkts/test ratio < 4 show that they had their moments but they remained great support bowlers to Ambrose and Donald respectively. Botham in level 2 did concede more runs than them per wicket. But he bowled out oppositions too many times and turned matches around with his bowling alone to deserve a place at level 2.

Iqbal qasim was not as colorful as Qadir I agree. But I do believe he was better than the leggie for he had much better control and wasn't as profligate.

Without getting into the stratification, IMO, bagapath you have bestowed the tag of greatness on far too many players. Richie Richardson, Merv Hughes. Really? Great?

Well, read Level 1 as all time greats. Level 2 as greats. Level 3 as very good. and Level 4 as good.

 

[bagapath]

Let me make the allrounders list also right away. Will do a combined "greatest cricketers" list which can include other aspects such as captaincy and fielding along with the two primary disciplines. And, yes, I am including wk/batsmen in the allrounders list.

Greatest Allrounders since 1980

Level 1

Imran Khan
Ian Botham
Adam Gilchrist
Andy Flower
Kapil Dev

Level 2

Jacques Kallis
Shaun Pollock
Richard Hadlee
MS Dhoni
Kumar Sangakara (would be in level 1 had he not abandoned the gloves after he became a great batsman)
Andrew Flintoff
Chris Cairns
Alec Stewart

Level 3

Daniel Vettori
Ravi Shastri
Brian Mcmillan
Mark Boucher
Ridley Jacobs

 

[kingpin]

Let me make the allrounders list also right away. Will do a combined "greatest cricketers" list which can include other aspects such as captaincy and fielding along with the two primary disciplines. And, yes, I am including wk/batsmen in the allrounders list.

Greatest Allrounders since 1980

Level 1

Imran Khan
Ian Botham
Adam Gilchrist
Andy Flower
Kapil Dev

Level 2

Jacques Kallis
Shaun Pollock
Richard Hadlee
MS Dhoni
Kumar Sangakara (would be in level 1 had he not abandoned the gloves after he became a great batsman)
Andrew Flintoff
Chris Cairns
Alec Stewart

Level 3

Daniel Vettori
Ravi Shastri
Brian Mcmillan
Mark Boucher
Ridley Jacobs

At the end of their career Dhoni and Kallis wud end at level 1.

 

[bagapath]

At the end of their career Dhoni and Kallis wud end at level 1.

only if Dhoni scores in excess of 15 centuries and if kallis takes at least 2/2.5 wickets per match.