Wisden's Greatest ODI Players of each decade

[Fuller Pilch]

Top 6 players of each decade (will ignore the 70s):

80s - Viv, Garner, Kapil, Hadlee, Zaheer Abbas, D Jones

90s - Wasim, Sachin, Bevan, Pollock, Saqlain, Jayasuriya

00s - McGrath, Murali, Ponting, Gilchrist, Hussey, Kallis

10s - Kohli, AB, Dhoni, Starc, plus 2 from Boult, Buttler, and Taylor (can't decide)

 

[honestbharani]

"Why are certain Aussie posters behaving like this ?"

Murali is a cricketer who has divided opinions worldwide but, in Australia, he is widely regarded as a chucker whose action brought about the end of a top umpire's career ... an umpire who was just doing his job according to the Laws of Cricket.

Which is all false, obviously

 

[Migara]

well the list is a bit india-centric and no one has really explained why

May be because Murali is married to an Indian.

 

[Migara]

"Why are certain Aussie posters behaving like this ?"

Murali is a cricketer who has divided opinions worldwide but, in Australia, he is widely regarded as a chucker whose action brought about the end of a top umpire's career ... an umpire who was just doing his job according to the Laws of Cricket.

You mean the guy who called a leg break from him?

 

[Migara]

Australia's success can work against McGrath tho - it is easier to post up good numbers when you're part of an ATG side. Murali didn't have quite the same quality of bowling surrounding him, nor the kind of scoreboard pressure that McGrath would often have. Makes his accomplishments with the ball seem more impressive.

Which is not much true TBH. Sri lankan ODI attack during this time was top class, probably the best in the world. We only did not have the batsmen Aussies had. Vaas, Maharoof, Mendis, Fernando, Kulasekara all have sub 30 averages. During that time Aussie attack would have been best on a track with bit of pace, while Sri Lankan one was the best on a slower wicket. McGrath and Murali are neck to neck in 2000s. Only reason McGrath becomes the best ODI bowler because he has equally impressive pre 2000 record compared to Murali.

 

[Migara]

Top 6 players of each decade (will ignore the 70s):

80s - Viv, Garner, Kapil, Hadlee, Zaheer Abbas, D Jones

90s - Wasim, Sachin, Bevan, Pollock, Saqlain, Jayasuriya

00s - McGrath, Murali, Ponting, Gilchrist, Hussey, Kallis

10s - Kohli, AB, Dhoni, Starc, plus 2 from Boult, Buttler, and Taylor (can't decide)

Jayasuriya rather a 2000s player. 7000+ runs at 36 and SR of 92. And 150+ wickets.

 

[Noumenon]

Admire the religiosity with which some of the aussies insert bevan in best odi batsmen chats. He wasn't in the top 3 of the best batsmen of 90s and barely breaks into top 5. Sachin by a distance. Followed by Anwar and Lara.

 

[Fuller Pilch]

Jayasuriya rather a 2000s player. 7000+ runs at 36 and SR of 92. And 150+ wickets.

Fair point

 

[TheJediBrah]

Australia's success can work against McGrath tho - it is easier to post up good numbers when you're part of an ATG side. Murali didn't have quite the same quality of bowling surrounding him, nor the kind of scoreboard pressure that McGrath would often have. Makes his accomplishments with the ball seem more impressive.

Trash. SL were a very strong ODI side and made nearly every World Cup Final in that time. If you ignore the elephant in the room (chucking) then there's nothing wrong with picking Murali IMO, but McGrath is still objectively better by every metric. Murali's ODI stats are as influenced by how much he played Bangladesh and Zimbabwe as his Tests stats are, which is a lot. Definitely the best spinner of the 90s but not the best bowler.

 

[Burgey]

A lot of that difference is simply because McGrath retired and Murali didn't. I don't think there's anything wrong with going with the guy who has the same stats but actually played the whole decade.

He didn’t have the same stats. He didn’t lead his attack to back-to-back undefeated WCs ffs

 

[Burgey]

this but unironically

Yeah. But you’re a terrible judge of cricket and cricketers.

 

[Burgey]

Jayasuriya rather a 2000s player. 7000+ runs at 36 and SR of 92. And 150+ wickets.

Don’t disagree with this tbh. Great player in that era.

 

[Fuller Pilch]

Trash. SL were a very strong ODI side and made nearly every World Cup Final in that time.

They made the 2007 and 2011 finals (beating us in both semis).

 

[Fuller Pilch]

Admire the religiosity with which some of the aussies insert bevan in best odi batsmen chats. He wasn't in the top 3 of the best batsmen of 90s and barely breaks into top 5. Sachin by a distance. Followed by Anwar and Lara.

Look I'm a Kiwi and couldn't stand Bevan but his batting in the 90s was insane.

 

[Burgey]

Mcgrath deserves a mention but implying it's a massive injustice that murali was better than him is standard CW aussie poster junk.

But he plainly wasn’t better than him.

 

[TheJediBrah]

Look I'm a Kiwi and couldn't stand Bevan but his batting in the 90s was insane.

The lengths to which some on here go to hate on Australians is truly remarkable. Bevan as player of the 90s is a no-brainer, only other challenger is Sachin and it's hard to split them, but I'd go for the guy that won matches out of nowhere for his team rather than the guy that collected personal milestones often at the team's expense.

Nothing wrong with picking Sachin but Bevan would be an equally reasonable choice

 

[Burgey]

Sri lankan ODI attack during this time was top class, probably the best in the world.

???????????

 

[TheJediBrah]

They made the 2007 and 2011 finals (beating us in both semis).

Yes also made 2003 semi (and were looking like winning it early on) and of course 1996. Only WC they botched was 1999. SL were a team that really performed on the big stage.

 

[Fuller Pilch]

Only made 4 WC semis though. We've made it to the semis NINE times and have still never won it.

Now the memories of 2019 are coming back. NOOOOO

 

[Fuller Pilch]

SL botched 2015. Sangakkara was scoring 100s for fun, but they got destroyed by South Africa in the 1/4s.