CW's Ranking of All-Rounders (Tests)

[Bitmap]

Imran

 

[Fuller Pilch]

Kallis

 

[OverratedSanity]

Imran Khan

 

[harsh.ag]

Miller

 

[subshakerz]

Imran

 

[Line and Length]

Kallis
He has a runs v wickets average comparison of +22.72 compared with Imran's +14.78 - a difference too hard to ignore..

 

[ataraxia]

Don't mind between Imran and Kallis so my last vote for

Grace

 

[Victor Ian]

Imran is overrated as an allrounder. He is a one rounder with two different disciplines.

 

[Victor Ian]

Im going botham. The second half of his career is only because he was so good the first half, that they wouldn't let him retire on top.

 

[CricAddict]

Kallis

 

[PlayerComparisons]

Kallis
He has a runs v wickets average comparison of +22.72 compared with Imran's +14.78 - a difference too hard to ignore..

Poor way to judge all rounders in my opinion. It favors batting all rounders massively. Imrans batting is basically equal to Kallis’s bowling. It depends on whether you rate Imrans bowling higher or Kallis’s batting higher, but it’s very very close.

 

[PlayerComparisons]

Imran

 

[Coronis]

Kallis

 

[Burgey]

Dodemaide

 

[honestbharani]

Kallis

 

[Line and Length]

Poor way to judge all rounders in my opinion. It favors batting all rounders massively. Imrans batting is basically equal to Kallis’s bowling. It depends on whether you rate Imrans bowling higher or Kallis’s batting higher, but it’s very very close.

Not close at all.
Kallis has only 16 batsmen with a better batting average (min 20 innings) while Imran has about 50 bowlers (min 25 wickets) with better bowling averages. Hence I rate Kallis's batting higher than Imran's bowling.

Cricket is a game that objective judgement can only be made on facts and figures ... not subjective generalisations.

When judging all-rounders I believe we need to consider how often players excel at both disciplines in one year. Kallis and Imran had similar length careers (about 19 years). If we consider a batting average >40 and a bowling average <30 to be a high standard all-round performance over a year, then Kallis achieved that 5 times ('99, '01, '02, '07 & '12) while Imran only 3 times ('82, '83 & '87). I picked the >40 and <30 parameters as Kallis averaged slightly over 30 with the ball and Imran slightly under 40 with the bat. Both excelled in the other discipline so Kallis might be regarded as a batting all-rounder and Imran a bowling all-rounder.

Interestingly, Garfield Sobers (whose career also lasted about 19 years) achieved the over 40 and the under 30 marks in a year on 7 occasions ('54, '61, '62, '63, '66, '68 & '73).

 

[subshakerz]

Im going botham. The second half of his career is only because he was so good the first half, that they wouldn't let him retire on top.

The question if you pick Botham is which cricketer will you get, the brilliant first half or mediocre second half? With the others like Imran and Hadlee, you know you will get an ATG bowler and a good/decent lower order bat, or with Kallis a worldclass bat and steady 5th seamer, as this was their modus operandi for most of their careers.

The reasonable assumption is that you would get a composite unpredictable cricketer who can deliver amazing matchturning performances with bat and bowl but not with any consistency.

 

[ataraxia]

Not close at all.
Kallis has only 16 batsmen with a better batting average (min 20 innings) while Imran has about 50 bowlers (min 25 wickets) with better bowling averages. Hence I rate Kallis's batting higher than Imran's bowling.

Cricket is a game that objective judgement can only be made on facts and figures ... not subjective generalisations.

When judging all-rounders I believe we need to consider how often players excel at both disciplines in one year. Kallis and Imran had similar length careers (about 19 years). If we consider a batting average >40 and a bowling average <30 to be a high standard all-round performance over a year, then Kallis achieved that 5 times ('99, '01, '02, '07 & '12) while Imran only 3 times ('82, '83 & '87). I picked the >40 and <30 parameters as Kallis averaged slightly over 30 with the ball and Imran slightly under 40 with the bat. Both excelled in the other discipline so Kallis might be regarded as a batting all-rounder and Imran a bowling all-rounder.

Interestingly, Garfield Sobers (whose career also lasted about 19 years) achieved the over 40 and the under 30 marks in a year on 7 occasions ('54, '61, '62, '63, '66, '68 & '73).

averages are not the be all and end all

 

[subshakerz]

Not close at all.
Kallis has only 16 batsmen with a better batting average (min 20 innings) while Imran has about 50 bowlers (min 25 wickets) with better bowling averages. Hence I rate Kallis's batting higher than Imran's bowling.

Cricket is a game that objective judgement can only be made on facts and figures ... not subjective generalisations.

When judging all-rounders I believe we need to consider how often players excel at both disciplines in one year. Kallis and Imran had similar length careers (about 19 years). If we consider a batting average >40 and a bowling average <30 to be a high standard all-round performance over a year, then Kallis achieved that 5 times ('99, '01, '02, '07 & '12) while Imran only 3 times ('82, '83 & '87). I picked the >40 and <30 parameters as Kallis averaged slightly over 30 with the ball and Imran slightly under 40 with the bat. Both excelled in the other discipline so Kallis might be regarded as a batting all-rounder and Imran a bowling all-rounder.

Interestingly, Garfield Sobers (whose career also lasted about 19 years) achieved the over 40 and the under 30 marks in a year on 7 occasions ('54, '61, '62, '63, '66, '68 & '73).

Just a pure average count is perhaps the silliest way to judge a cricketer, especially if your minimum or so low.

 

[PlayerComparisons]

Not close at all.

No point reading anything after that tbh.

Anyways Imran finished 6th in our bowling list while Kallis finished like 18th. It’s very very close and tbh Imrans bowling edges out Kallis’s batting for me and for many others here it seems.