5 cricketers of the century and a bit?

[hang on]

not totally decided, but would have the top 5 as:

Bradman
Sobers
Tendulkar
Gilchrist
Richards

with the next 5 comprising, in no particular order:

Imran
Murali
Warne
Kallis
Marshall

 

[vcs]

i would suggest that tendulkar, in terms of test and odi performances, coupled with his influence on the big monetization/corporatisation of indian (and hence international cricket), has to be a shoo in for one of the top 5.

he ticks the boxes of a superlative record (in both forms of the game) and a truly far reaching effect (unparalleled, I would say) on the game - the ushering of the real era of the big moolah cricketing megafauna. i would even hazard that the ipl (no disrespect to the actual originators of the game, be they kiwi or english) would not be bestriding the cricketing stage like a colossus if it handn't been for Misbah and Joginder Sharma.

Corrected.

 

[mrcheek]

Pretty happy with the original five and personally can't see any reason now to make changes to that list. I would, however, advocate that Grace, Imran and Hadlee are all worthy of a spot in the top five but removing any of the other five, for me anyway, is a hopeless task!

Grace misses out because his best cricket was in the 19th century!
If you counted 19th century cricket, then he's in without a doubt, as without him, cricket would never have been anything more than a minority sport.

 

[Somerset]

Grace misses out because his best cricket was in the 19th century!
If you counted 19th century cricket, then he's in without a doubt, as without him, cricket would never have been anything more than a minority sport.

Indeed, my mistake - when the topic stated "best cricketers of the century and a bit", I was assuming that the 'bit' included both the last few decades of the 19th century and first decade of the 21st, i.e. the span in which test cricket was played.

 

[hang on]

not a half bad correction at all, vcs!

 

[Blaze 18]

Tendulkar is VERY close. Maybe if he guides India to World Cup victory, it will push him into the 5 at the expense of Sobers.
Imran I just cant see. Great player (and leader) though he was, he is nowhere near the top 5 of the century.

Surely this is in jest ? Imran Khan is arguably the greatest all-rounder of all time, arguably the greatest fast bowler of all time, and a reasonable lower order batsman to boot. I suppose you could even make an argument for him being one of the best captains ever. Then there is the small matter of leading his team to a World Cup triumph (with a magnificent match-winning knock in the final). In a nutshell he has a very good case for being the second best player ever.

 

[Migara]

Bradman, Sobers, Imran, Marshall, Murali. Some how want to fit in Tendulkar and McGrath, but don't know whom to drop.

 

[vcs]

Surely this is in jest ? Imran Khan is arguably the greatest all-rounder of all time, arguably the greatest fast bowler of all time, and a reasonable lower order batsman to boot. I suppose you could even make an argument for him being one of the best captains ever. Then there is the small matter of leading his team to a World Cup triumph (with a magnificent match-winning knock in the final). In a nutshell he has a very good case for being the second best player ever.

Hmm.. I was watching some highlights of the semi and the final (it's all they show nowadays on Star Sports here ) and I thought Imran and Miandad were slooow, and a bit lucky to get bailed out by Inzy, Akram and Moin Khan in the slog overs. I guess it was one of those things that was just meant to be, a glorious ending to a glorious career.

 

[mrcheek]

Surely this is in jest ? Imran Khan is arguably the greatest all-rounder of all time, arguably the greatest fast bowler of all time, and a reasonable lower order batsman to boot. I suppose you could even make an argument for him being one of the best captains ever. Then there is the small matter of leading his team to a World Cup triumph (with a magnificent match-winning knock in the final). In a nutshell he has a very good case for being the second best player ever.

Greatest all rounder is Sobers. Imran is in a contest for 2nd place with Botham, Hadlee, Kapil Dev and Mike Proctor.
Greatest fast bowler? Theres 20 names safely ahead of Imran, including 2 from Pakistan.
Winning one world cup against an England team that declined throughout the tournament does not make you an all time great captain.

Dont get me wrong, Imran was a fantastic player. but we're talking about the best players of all time here.

 

[Blaze 18]

Greatest all rounder is Sobers. Imran is in a contest for 2nd place with Botham, Hadlee, Kapil Dev and Mike Proctor.
Greatest fast bowler? Theres 20 names safely ahead of Imran, including 2 from Pakistan.
Winning one world cup against an England team that declined throughout the tournament does not make you an all time great captain.

Dont get me wrong, Imran was a fantastic player. but we're talking about the best players of all time here.

The bolded part is not clear-cut at all, which is why I said "arguably". And I never said he was a great captain only because of his World Cup win.

 

[Blaze 18]

Hmm.. I was watching some highlights of the semi and the final (it's all they show nowadays on Star Sports here ) and I thought Imran and Miandad were slooow, and a bit lucky to get bailed out by Inzy, Akram and Moin Khan in the slog overs. I guess it was one of those things that was just meant to be, a glorious ending to a glorious career.

Not sure about that, vcs. I reckon Pakistan would have been shot out for a low score, if Javed and Imran had tried to bat like Afridi. That the likes of Wasim Akram and Moin Khan could bat with gay abandon towards the end was solely down to the platform set by Imran and Javed.

 

[vcs]

Not sure about that, vcs. I reckon Pakistan would have been shot out for a low score, if Javed and Imran had tried to bat like Afridi. That the likes of Wasim Akram and Moin Khan could bat with gay abandon towards the end was solely down to the platform set by Imran and Javed.

Yeah, but they did leave a lot to do in the semifinal. Miandad finished up with a pretty respectable SR in the end though and batted through, to his credit. Just don't think they could have planned to cut it that close.

 

[mrcheek]

Interesting the one name that rarely gets mentioned, and personally Im not sure about him, but if you judge solely on career stats, rather than impact, Jacques Kallis should be in there.

I guess its a lesson never to rely solely on stats, as personally I wouldnt place him in the top 30.

 

[Teja.]

*Will resist rant*

 

[weldone]

Donald Bradman
Garry Sobers
Jack Hobbs
Richard Hadlee
Muttiah Muralitharan

 

[smash84]

Greatest all rounder is Sobers. Imran is in a contest for 2nd place with Botham, Hadlee, Kapil Dev and Mike Proctor.
Greatest fast bowler? Theres 20 names safely ahead of Imran, including 2 from Pakistan.
Winning one world cup against an England team that declined throughout the tournament does not make you an all time great captain.

Dont get me wrong, Imran was a fantastic player. but we're talking about the best players of all time here.

YES. We are talking the best players of all time here. There are not 20 names safely ahead of Imran in fast bowling. Can you please name the fast bowlers safely ahead of Imran as a fast bowler???? And on what basis you call them safely ahead????

He just didn't lead Pakistan to the world cup win (which is arguably the finest world cup campaign of all time given that Pakistan were down and out of the cup). He beat England in England, India in India, and almost beat the WI in WI. Never lost a series as captain to arguably the finest cricket team in the history of the game. Mentored the 2Ws, taught them reverse swing. Made a winning team out of a disparate bunch and led his side for 10 years averaging around 19 with the ball and 52 with the bat.

How does he not have a shot at the top 5 cricketers of all time?

To be fair to Blaze he said arguably the best fast bowler because there is no one definitive answer to that question.

Once again my question to you is please name the 20 fast bowlers safely ahead of him in terms of being better fast bowlers and your criteria to rate them?

*Will resist rant*

Go ahead. Your rants are generally good

 

[Himannv]

Greatest all rounder is Sobers. Imran is in a contest for 2nd place with Botham, Hadlee, Kapil Dev and Mike Proctor.

Miller and Kallis are much better than some of the names mentioned there as far as allrounders are concerned I reckon.

5 cricketers: Bradman, Sobers, Hobbs, Murali, Marshall.

EDIT: Forgot Tendulkar somehow. He would be quite high up as well. Perhaps a top 6 list for me then.

 

[Blaze 18]

I guess its a lesson never to rely solely on stats, as personally I wouldnt place him in the top 30.

Ah, finally something we agree on.

 

[BoyBrumby]

I'd be loath to replace Warne with another batsman, so if one were minded to bring Sachin in it'd realistically be Sir Jack or Sir Viv who'd face removal.

Could see an argument for Murali ahead of Warne, but I think the latter's personality and the rectitude of his action make up for his undoubted personal shortcomings.

 

[Engle]

Greatness transcends numbers

To be on the top 5 list, the candidates, IMO, should have 2 key attributes :

1. They s/b beyond chasing numbers. That is for very good or even excellent players, but not great players

2. They cannot be easily emulated, i.e. they stand out head and shoulders above the rest

Bradman and Sobers get in at 1 and 2 respectively. They couldn't care less about the numbers game.

Imran get's in at 3. There has never, nor likely ever be a fast bowler who could bowl so well, bat so responsibly and, if that were not enough, captain remarkably well.

Richards at 4. Master Blaster, enough said

Warne at 5. Rescued the fine art of LBG bowling and took it to new heights