CW's 100 Greatest Cricketers Poll

[AndrewB]

Interesting though that people were happy to consider other formats when it came to Grace but not really with LO cricket. Not my view as I think it takes a lot more skill to play modern LO cricket than 19th century FC but an interesting observation.

I certainly ranked a few players higher because of their ODI performances (and regret not doing so more often). And Grace is a one-off, getting picked because he's so far ahead of his peers - no-one was suggesting (e.g.) Freeman or Giffen because of their great feats in 19th century FC cricket.

 

[capt_Luffy]

Guys...... There has again been a tie for the last spot. Again, 3 options:

A) Just omit the 101 position and take the first 9
B) Rank both and make it an awkward 102
C) Extent the poll till 125 with 2 more rounds
D) Just rank one of them by a tie breaker (may seem bad as that wasn't done in the round prior)

Please vote for one of these options and discuss them. I will post the results tomorrow based on these results. If you have any other idea, feel free to suggest them. Again, sorry for the inconvenience.

 

[Patience and Accuracy+Gut]

I would vote for A) and have the top 100 only.

 

[Qlder]

A) take 9 to make top 100

 

[Red_Ink_Squid]

Really we know that Chris Woakes is #1 and only excluded for memes, so A) would give you a top 101 anyway

 

[sayon basak]

Really we know that Chris Woakes is #1 and only excluded for memes, so A) would give you a top 101 anyway

We can agree at top 4.

 

[sayon basak]

Guys...... There has again been a tie for the last spot. Again, 3 options:

A) Just omit the 101 position and take the first 9
B) Rank both and make it an awkward 102
C) Extent the poll till 125 with 2 more rounds
D) Just rank one of them by a tie breaker (may seem bad as that wasn't done in the round prior)

Please vote for one of these options and discuss them. I will post the results tomorrow based on these results. If you have any other idea, feel free to suggest them. Again, sorry for the inconvenience.

125 sounds good tho.

 

[capt_Luffy]

Okay, so just taking the first 9 and making it a Top 100 (as initially planned) seems to be the majority consensus. So we will do that. Not totally sure whether to extend it to 125 or not. I am all down for it and till now @howitzer , @sayon basak and @AndrewB have shown interest. Will be interested in what @Line and Length, @OverratedSanity , @Qlder , @PlayerComparisons , @ma1978 , @Red_Ink_Squid , @Patience and Accuracy+Gut, @BazBall21 , @h_hurricane thinks; alongside anyone else interested to vote going forward.
13 voters this round. Still 39 players got a nod. As previously stated, the 101st position was a tie, so we will leave it like that. For the rest, it has been a close voting and here's the results:

Players	Points	Votes
Jasprit Bumrah	65	8
Alec Bedser	60	10
Graeme Smith	55	8
Matthew Hayden	38	6
Frank Woolley	33	7
Kagiso Rabada	30	5
Lance Gibbs	29	6
Hashim Amla	28	5
Stan McCabe	28	4
Inzamam-ul-Haq	24	5
George Lohmann	24	3
Graham Gooch	22	3
Brian Statham	21	3
Charlie MaCartney	20	4
Jeff Thomson	20	2
Eddie Barlow	18	4
Doug Walters	18	3
Clive Rice	16	3
Sanath Jayasuriya	14	2
Kevin Pietersen	13	4
Vincent van der Bijl	13	2
John Snow	13	2
Derek Underwood	11	3
Bob Willis	11	2
Shoaib Akhtar	10	1
Aravinda De Silva	10	1
Colin Cowdrey	9	2
John Waite	9	1
Zaheer Abbas	8	3
Alaistar Cook	8	3
Eddie Paynter	7	1
Shivnarine Chanderpaul	6	2
David Gower	5	2
Monty Noble	4	1
Tony Greig	4	1
Mahela Jayawardene	3	3
Chris Gayle	2	1
Dean Jones	2	1
Ian Healy	1	1

Here's the Top 100:

Rank	Players
1	Don Bradman
2	Garry Sobers
3	Imran Khan
4	W G Grace
5	Sachin Tendulkar
6	Richard Hadlee
7	Jack Hobbs
8	Malcolm Marshall
9	Viv Richards
10	Glenn McGrath
11	Shane Warne
12	Mutthiah Muralitharan
13	Jacques Kallis
14	Keith Miller
15	Brian Lara
16	Wally Hammond
17	Len Hutton
18	Adam Gilchrist
19	Wasim Akram
20	Sydney Barnes
21	Curtly Ambrose
22	Dale Steyn
23	Sunil Gavaskar
24	Steve Smith
25	Dennis Lillee
26	Bill O'Reilly
27	George Headley
28	Greg Chappell
29	Ian Botham
30	Fred Trueman
31	Herbert Sutcliffe
32	Ricky Ponting
33	Ray Lindwall
34	Allan Border
35	Joel Garner
36	Allan Donald
37	Kumar Sangakkara
38	Graeme Pollock
39	Steve Waugh
40	Shaun Pollock
41	Michael Holding
42	Alan Davidson
43	Kapil Dev
44	Alan Knott
45	Victor Trumper
46	Barry Richards
47	Waqar Younis
48	K S Ranjitsinhji
49	Mike Procter
50	Frank Worrell
51	Virat Kohli
52	Ravichandran Ashwin
53	Rahul Dravid
54	Everton Weekes
55	Wilfred Rhodes
56	Javed Miandad
57	A B de Villiers
58	Aubrey Faulkner
59	Joe Root
60	Ken Barrington
61	Clyde Walcott
62	Courtney Walsh
63	Richie Benaud
64	Dennis Compton
65	Clarrie Grimmett
66	Pat Cummins
67	James Anderson
68	Neil Harvey
69	Peter May
70	Fred Spofforth
71	Jim Laker
72	Gordon Greenidge
73	Kane Williamson
74	Andy Roberts
75	Harold Larwood
76	Les Ames
77	Hedley Verity
78	Younis Khan
79	Ravindra Jadeja
80	Martin Crowe
81	Clive Lloyd
82	Geoff Boycott
83	Rohan Kanhai
84	Dudley Nourse
85	Ben Stokes
86	Clem Hill
87	Andy Flower
88	Virendra Sehwag
89	M S Dhoni
90	Anil Kumble
91	Shakib Al Hasan
92	Jasprit Bumrah
93	Alec Bedser
94	Graeme Smith
95	Matthew Hayden
96	Frank Woolley
97	Kagiso Rabada
98	Lance Gibbs
99	Hashim Amla
100	Stan McCabe

 

[capt_Luffy]

So..... Should we extend it to a Top 125?

 

[OverratedSanity]

100 is fine imo

 

[bagapath]

100 looks good
thanks for running this @capt_Luffy

 

[Patience and Accuracy+Gut]

100 is fine. A pretty good list too. Ofc everyone will have their preferences but in general I would think we did fine.

 

[Line and Length]

I think 100 is fine though I would have been interested to see where Brian Statham would finally be placed. He, along with Lance Gibbs and Alec Bedser (both ranked in the 90s) all held the record for most Test wickets at some stage and are, imo, greatly underrated.

 

[capt_Luffy]

I think 100 is fine though I would have been interested to see where Brian Statham would finally be placed. He, along with Lance Gibbs and Alec Bedser (both ranked in the 90s) all held the record for most Test wickets at some stage and are, imo, greatly underrated.

I feel pacers in general, and all bowlers to an extent, got a little shot end of the stick

 

[ma1978]

A very good exercise and a very good, interesting list, it certainly beats the list of any pundit!

one random observation - Kallis at 12 and Pollock at 40. Aren’t they mirror images of each other?

 

[BazBall21]

A very good exercise and a very good, interesting list, it certainly beats the list of any pundit!

one random observation - Kallis at 12 and Pollock at 40. Aren’t they mirror images of each other?

Kallis better longevity but Pollock's physical materials declining coincided with an extremely batsman friendly era.

 

[ma1978]

Kallis better longevity but Pollock's physical materials declining coincided with an extremely batsman friendly era.

pollock took 400 wickets at a very good average which at least matches Kallis batting efforts

would say the same about their batting / bowling

not saying Kallis overrated but Pollock underrated

 

[capt_Luffy]

Then it's the end folks. Really enjoyed running this poll. Don't think the poll is perfect and there are surely more than handful of players I think are too high or too low; but overall, I think it came out really good with some solid respect for the old era and a respectable representation of FC, and some of LOIs. I really like this poll result more than most expert lists I have seen, if not all of them, despite everyone not always being on the same page.
Thanks to everyone who vote and especially those who persisted till the end. We all disagree on many things cricket related, but this collective thought of ours looks proud worthy.

 

[howitzer]

Then it's the end folks. Really enjoyed running this poll. Don't think the poll is perfect and there are surely more than handful of players I think are too high or too low; but overall, I think it came out really good with some solid respect for the old era and a respectable representation of FC, and some of LOIs. I really like this poll result more than most expert lists I have seen, if not all of them, despite everyone not always being on the same page.
Thanks to everyone who vote and especially those who persisted till the end. We all disagree on many things cricket related, but this collective thought of ours looks proud worthy.

Thanks for running it. I had a lot of fun.

 

[Line and Length]

Thanks for running it. I had a lot of fun.

I second this. Thanks @capt_Luffy