Top ten greatest bowlers and batsmen of all time

[akilana]

Batsmen

1) Sir Donald Bradman
2) Brian Lara
3) Sir Vivian Richards
4) Sachin Tendulkar
5) Sir Gary Sobers
6) Sunil Gavaskar
7) Jack Hobbs
8) Allan Border
9) Greg Chappell
10)Steve Waugh

Bowlers

1) Glenn McGrath
2) Malcom Marshall
3) Curtly Ambrose
4) Imran Khan
5) Richard Hadlee
6) Shane Warne
7) Wasim Akram
8) Muttiah Muralitharan
9) Dennis Lillee
10)Waqar Younis

This's my list too except that I'll have Donald over Waqar.

 

[SJS]

Just off the cuff
Batsmen

1. Grace
2. Trumper
3. Hobbs
4. Hammond
5. Bradman
6. Headley
7. Sobers
8. Richards
9. Lara
10. Tendulkar

Bowlers

1. Spofforth
2. Barnes
3. Grimmett
4. O'Rielly
5. Larwood
6. Lindwall
7. Lillee
8. Marshall
9. Warne
10. Murali

 

[Blaze 18]

This's my list too except that I'll have Donald over Waqar.

Allan Donald was awesome, but I have always rated Waqar Younis a little higher.

 

[bagapath]

Batsmen:

1. Bradman
2. Hobbs
3. Richards
4. Hammond
5. Sobers
6. Lara
7. Tendulkar
8. G.Chappell
9. Trumper
10. Gavaskar

Bowlers:

1. Marshall
2. Barnes
3. McGrath
4. O'Reilly
5. Warne
6. Murali
7. Hadlee
8. Lillee
9. Grimmett
10. Ambrose

All-rounders:

1. Botham
2. Miller
3. Imran
4. Sobers
5. Kallis
6. Kapil
7. Faulkner
8. Gregory
9. Mankad
10. Greig

Wicket keeping allrounders:

1. Gilchrist
2. Sangakkara
3. A.Flower
4. Ames
5. Stewart

 

[Zinzan]

Batsmen:

1. Bradman
2. Hobbs
3. Richards
4. Hammond
5. Sobers
6. Lara
7. Tendulkar
8. G.Chappell
9. Trumper
10. Gavaskar

Bowlers:

1. Marshall
2. Barnes
3. McGrath
4. O'Reilly
5. Warne
6. Murali
7. Hadlee
8. Lillee
9. Grimmett
10. Ambrose

All-rounders:

1. Botham
2. Miller
3. Imran
4. Sobers
5. Kallis
6. Kapil
7. Faulkner
8. Gregory
9. Mankad
10. Greig

Wicket keeping allrounders:

1. Gilchrist
2. Sangakkara
3. A.Flower
4. Ames
5. Stewart

You rate neither Cairns nor Pollock as good an all-rounder as Greig, wow

 

[Bahnz]

Batsman
Bradman, Tendulkar, Richards, Lara, Sutcliffe (H), Sobers, Hobbs, Chappell (G), Pollock (G), Gavaskar

Bowlers
Marshall, Warne, Hadlee, Murali, McGrath, Ambrose, Donald, Lillee, Truman, Wasim

Really had to think long and hard about the batsmen.

 

[bagapath]

You rate neither Cairns nor Pollock as good an all-rounder as Greig, wow

Yeah, mate. Pollock to me was a bowler who could bat a bit. 2 centuries in 100+ tests is not that hot if you ask me. cairns and grieg are much closer. greig the batsman >>> cairns the batsman while cairns the bowler > greig the bowler. I thought long and hard about this and finally went for greig because he was also a terrific fielder.

 

[weldone]

@Weldone - interesting that you don't have Viv in batsmen's list

My top 10 is nothing set in stone, and changes according to my mood. And Viv comes in top 10 more often than not. I find a top 25 exercise more comfortable (and insightful) than a top 10 list. So, here you go:

Batsmen:
1. Donald Bradman
2. Jack Hobbs
3. Leonard Hutton
4. Garry Sobers
5. Sachin Tendulkar
6. Wally Hammond
7. George Headley
8. WG Grace
9. Viv Richards
10. Sunil Gavaskar
11. Graeme Pollock
12. Brian Lara
13. Barry Richards
14. Greg Chappell
15. Herbert Sutcliffe
16. Ken Barrington
17. Clyde Walcott
18. Everton Weekes
19. Allan Border
20. KS Ranjitsinhji
21. Steve Waugh
22. Javed Miandad
23. Geoff Boycott
24. Clem Hill
25. Ricky Ponting

Bowlers:
1. Richard Hadlee
2. Malcolm Marshall
3. Sydney Barnes
4. Muttiah Muralitharan
5. Glenn McGrath
6. Fred Trueman
7. George Lohmann
8. Bill O'Reilly
9. Imran Khan
10. Joel Garner
11. Curtly Ambrose
12. Shane Warne
13. Wasim Akram
14. Dennis Lillee
15. Michael Holding
16. Clarrie Grimmett
17. Waqar Younis
18. Neil Adcock
19. Allan Donald
20. Jim Laker
21. Andy Roberts
22. Ray Lindwall
23. Harold Larwood
24. Hedley Verity
25. Mike Procter

 

[Teja.]

I don't consider myself particularly knowledgeable regarding cricketers pre-Bradman, particularly the bowlers. I know their names and the fact that they have amazing records but know SFA regarding their actual careers and the context of their wickets.

I'd give it a try for the Bradman and later period:-

Batsmen:-

1. Bradman
2. Tendulkar
3. Headley
4. Sobers
5. Hammond

Bowlers:-

1. Murali
2. Waqar
3. Hadlee
4. Marshall
5. Trueman

Overall cricketers:-

1. Bradman
2. Imran
3. Sobers
4. Miller
5. Hadlee
6. Kallis
7. Pollock S
(All the others are a class below)

Everything above is obv. influenced by my personal biases. The bowler and batsman lists(Apart from Bradman and Murali on top) can change based on the day of the week.

 

[honestbharani]

Batsmen:


Bradman
Sobers
Grace
Hobbs
Lara
Sachin
Richards


gets more difficult after that...



Bowlers:


Marshall
Murali
Ambrose
McGrath
Wasim
Warne
Waqar
Holding


Only put those that I have seen at least through videos...

 

[weldone]

Batsmen:


Bradman
Sobers
Grace
Hobbs
Lara
Sachin
Richards


gets more difficult after that...



Bowlers:


Marshall
Murali
Ambrose
McGrath
Wasim
Warne
Waqar
Holding


Only put those that I have seen at least through videos...

Videos of Grace and Hobbs! Where can I get them?

 

[honestbharani]

Videos of Grace and Hobbs! Where can I get them?

lol.. I meant that last comment for the bowlers.. Batsmen I feel can be easier to judge through the words and books and stuff, compared to bowlers..

 

[HeathDavisSpeed]

Batsmen.

1. Jacques Kallis

 

[Tom 1972]

Why wouldn't he be rated highly? I think a lot of people underrate McGrath because he lacks the pace and venom of most other fast bowlers, but his record speaks for itself. He's just so accurate and, more importantly, effective, and in a time where batsmen are much more aggressive. He'd be in my top 10.

McGrath may not kill blokes, but he did jag the ball around a bit so that is his form of venom.

 

[Tom 1972]

My list is based on who I have seen play in person, and pure entertainment value. They are mostly not ATGs in the traditional sense but were memorable - for me. In no particular order.

Batsmen
David Gower (has there ever been a more elegant batsman?)
Greg Chappell/Martin Crowe (as above)
Lara/Laxman (both have played amazing innings in Australia where I thought they could have made 500 not out)
Greg Ritchie (who ate all the pies? there is hope for fat blokes everywhere)
Viv Richards (purely for the arrogance)
Mark Waugh (made it look so easy but actually hit it really hard when the mood took him)


Bowlers
Chris Harris (bowled park cricket half rat power pies - but watching batters get more and more frustrated - pure gold)
Wasim (quick leftie, with swing, seam - the bloke I'd least want to face)
Devon Malcolm (express pace and nobody knew where it was going - including Devon)
Merv Hughes (poor mans Dennis Lillee, but loved the white line fever, plus he's a Victorian)
Warnie (just because)
Hadlee (love - hate relationship with him, probably the best action you will ever see (along with DK))


All-rounders
C.Cairns (hit it s hard as his dad, but had more talent)
Klusener (brute force with the bat)
Botham (Klusener's power, Viv's attitude, Ritchie's waistline, occasionally match-winning bowling)
Gilchrist (stating the obvious)
Afridi (he's a hack, but his cameos are always fun to watch)
Jayasuria (pocket rocket)
Greg Mathews (quite average batting & bowling, but bounced around the field like a madman - even if he was 150/0 yeah yeah)

 

[The Battlers Prince]

Batsmen.

1. Jacques Kallis

ok, how come?

 

[Blaze 18]

I think that was sarcasm.

 

[honestbharani]

lol @ people complaining about Sachin threads but all the Kallis threads and love in CC all of a sudden is no big deal..


But TBF, even during the Sachin love it was not the regular posters who were making it hard.. It was the trolls who sign up during such seasons.. Thankfully they have been lesser of late.

 

[ankitj]

lol @ people complaining about Sachin threads but all the Kallis threads and love in CC all of a sudden is no big deal..


But TBF, even during the Sachin love it was not the regular posters who were making it hard.. It was the trolls who sign up during such seasons.. Thankfully they have been lesser of late.

+1

There is more hero-worship of that chubby leg spinner on this forum than of Tendulkar. Non many of the regular Indian posters here put Tendulkar as next best to Bradman, leave alone putting ahead. So these tendulkar hero-worship accusations are unfounded.

 

[HeathDavisSpeed]

Haha. What a joke. Obviously, the point of my post is lost on everyone. It's not fact, nor is it sarcasm and nor do I particularly like Jacques Kallis, but some of the tripe that people have said about him in recent days, you'd think he's the worst thing to hit cricket ever. I've not seen any Kallis fanboydom, but I have seen some people saying he's considerably less entertaining than Dravid. That makes me laugh so much. You're entitled to your opinions, but my post was merely an attempt to balance the books due to the Kallis-haters underrating him so much. If you haven't picked that up from the multitude of other sodding Jacques Kallis threads then you're a real dullard.

One thing I can agree on, if I see another word written about Jacques Kallis before I kark it, it'll be far far far too soon.

EDIT: I mean, "chubby leg spinner" what ****ing planet are you on?