CW decides the greatest test spinner ever. 43 names: Countdown/Rankings thread

[Victor Ian]

Awesome stuff MrMister.

 

[mr_mister]

thanks mate. And thanks to everyone else who gave me nice feedback. It was a lot of fun

 

[Victor Ian]

My post was meant to be sarcastic.

OK. Missed that. I was worried that MrMister might have thought I'd dissed him.

 

[OverratedSanity]

Excellent work mr_mister.

 

[mr_mister]

since i love stats so much here's the final breakdown


The overall rankings:

1. Shane Warne (652)
2. Bill O’Reilly (631)
3. Muttiah Muralitharan (612)
4. Clarrie Grimmett (519)
5. Jim Laker (504)
6. Hedley Verity (418)
7. Hugh Tayfield (352)
8. Anil Kumble(298)
9. Derek Underwood (295)
10. Richie Benaud (293)
11. Lance Gibbs (270)
12. Bishen Bedi (234)
13. Rangana Herath (226)
14. Bhagwath Chandrasekhar (197)
15. Subhash Gupte (194)
16. Ravi Ashwin (176)
17. Wilfred Rhodes (144)
18. Saqlain Mushtaq (137)
19. Hugh Trumble (122)
20. Erapalli Prasanna (116)
21. Stuart MacGill (115)
22. Abdul Qadir (98)
23. Johnny Wardle (97)
24. Graeme Swann (90)
25. Colin Blythe (59)
26. Johnny Briggs (54) (
27. Bert Ironmonger (52)
28. Nathan Lyon (48)
29. Bobby Peel (33) and Daniel Vettori (33)
31. Harbhajan Singh (28)
32. Tony Lock (27)
33. Ashley Mallett (26)
34. Sonny Ramadhin (20)
35. Tich Freeman (17)
36. Bert Vogler (15) and Arthur Mailey (15)
38. Aubrey Faulkner (14)
39. Bernard Bosanquet (13)
40. Mushtaq Ahmed (11)
41. Jack Iverson (10)
42. Shakib Al-Hasan (7)
43. Iqbal Qasim (3)


The rankings within spin disciplines:


Leg Break Googly

1 Shane Warne (652)
2 Bill O’Reilly (631)
3 Clarrie Grimmett (519)
4 Anil Kumble(298)
5 Richie Benaud (293)
6 Bhagwat Chandrasekhar (197)
7 Subhash Gupte (194)
8 Stuart MacGill (115)
9 Abdul Qadir (98)
10 Tich Freeman (17)
11 Bert Vogler (15) and Arthur Mailey (15)
13 Aubrey Faulkner (14)
14 Bernard Bosanquet (13)
15 Mushtaq Ahmed (11)
16 Jack Iverson (10)

Right Arm Offbreak

1 Muttiah Muralitharan (612)
2 Jim Laker (504)
3 Hugh Tayfield (352)
4 Lance Gibbs 270)
5 Ravi Ashwin (176)
6 Saqlain Mushtaq (137)
7 Hugh Trumble (122)
8 Erapalli Prasanna (116)
9 Graeme Swann (90)
10 Nathan Lyon (48)
11 Harbhajan Singh (28)
12 Ashley Mallett (26)
13 Sonny Ramadhin (20)

Slow Left Arm Orthodox

1 Hedley Verity (418)
2 Derek Underwood (295)
3 Bishen Bedi (234)
4 Rangana Herath (226)
5 Wilfred Rhodes (144)
6 Johnny Wardle (97)
7 Colin Blythe (59)
8 Johnny Briggs (54)
9 Bert Ironmonger (52)
10 Bobby Peel (33) and Daniel Vettori (33)
12 Tony Lock (27)
13 Shakib Al-Hasan (7)
14 Iqbal Qasim (3)



And lastly, the WPM rankings:



1 Muttiah Muralitharan WPM 6.02
2 Clarrie Grimmett WPM 5.84
3 Tich Freeman WPM 5.50
4 Bill O’Reilly WPM 5.33
5 Ravi Ashwin WPM 5.31
6 Bert Ironmonger WPM 5.29
7 Colin Blythe WPM 5.26
8 Bobby Peel WPM 5.05
9 Shane Warne WPM 4.88
10 Stuart MacGill WPM 4.73
11 Arthur Mailey WPM 4.71
12 Anil Kumble WPM 4.69
13 Rangana Herath WPM 4.67
14 Hugh Tayfield WPM 4.59
15 Hugh Trumble WPM 4.41
16 Bert Vogler WPM 4.27
17 Graeme Swann WPM 4.25
18 Saqlain Mushtaq WPM 4.24
19 Jim Laker WPM 4.20 and Jack Iverson WPM 4.20
21 Bhagwat Chandrasekhar WPM 4.17
22 Subhash Gupte WPM 4.14
23 Harbhajan Singh WPM 4.05
24 Bishen Bedi WPM 3.97
25 Richie Benaud WPM 3.94
26 Nathan Lyon WPM 3.92
27 Lance Gibbs WPM 3.91
28 Erapalli Prasanna WPM 3.86
29 Shakib Al-Hasan WPM 3.70
30 Sonny Ramadhin WPM 3.67
31 Johnny Wardle WPM 3.64
32 Hedley Verity WPM 3.60
33 Johnny Briggs WPM 3.58
34 Bernard Bosanquet WPM 3.57
35 Mushtaq Ahmed WPM 3.56
36 Tony Lock WPM 3.55
37 Abdul Qadir WPM 3.52
38 Ashley Mallett WPM 3.47
39 Derek Underwood WPM 3.45
40 Iqbal Qasim WPM 3.42
41 Aubrey Faulkner WPM 3.28
42 Daniel Vettori WPM 3.20
43 Wilfred Rhodes WPM 2.19

 

[AndrewB]

In Jim Laker's book "Spinning My Way", he picks his top 5 off-spinners (that he'd seen up to 1957):

1. Athol Rowan
2. Tom Goddard
3. Sonny Ramadhin
4. Hugh Tayfield
5. Ghulam Ahmed

 

[trundler]

Would've been cool if Tiger came first. Still a great result though. Loved the write ups.

 

[Burgey]

Terrific work m_m. Quality stuff.

And CW once agin proving itself the most discerning of cricket fora.

 

[Daemon]

Thanks mm! Great work.

 

[Bolo]

Many thanks for putting this together. Superb effort.

 

[The Battlers Prince]

Well done MrM, I enjoyed the write-ups immensely. The Warne one had me reliving some of the old magic in my mind from his heyday. Cracking effort

 

[Migara]

Can you do a one without outliers?

 

[harsh.ag]

Herath too high and Chandra-Gupte too low aside, it's a really good list given the number of votes.

Tayfield gets a lot of leeway in these things, and I'm not sure if he was that good, but nothing against him.

 

[mr_mister]

Can you do a one without outliers?

lol no way, really can't be bothered. I assume you're talking about the 2 lists that didn't feature Murali, 1 that didn't feature O'Reilly and 1 that had Warne 3rd last.

I spose if you removed those lists Warne, Murali and O'Reilly would all be about equal, as Warne beat Murali by ~40 points and O'Reily by ~20

 

[cnerd123]

Good stuff MM, thanks for this

 

[Bolo]

Herath too high and Chandra-Gupte too low aside, it's a really good list given the number of votes.

Tayfield gets a lot of leeway in these things, and I'm not sure if he was that good, but nothing against him.

What makes you question tayfield? His record is a whole lot better than just about everyone below him. I think he's the only finger spinner on the list who managed top draw stats without a massive boost from home conditions.

 

[Engle]

An educational extravaganza

Great effort Mr. Mister

 

[stephen]

Spin bowling is such a fickle art. I wonder how many spinners have never gotten close to their potential because they've had crap captaincy somewhere along the way.

Leg spin in particular requires a lot of practice - more than any other discipline. You need pinpoint accuracy and turn. Often you won't get to bowl on anything other than roads and when you do get a bowl it's often against set batsmen. Captains will often put the medium pace trundlers back on as soon as a wicket is taken as well.

Somehow these second class citizens befriend the captain, work their way up the greasy pole and get to the top level, only to find that they only get picked for the worst tours and have to bowl for hours in 40 degree heat while the quicks have three over spells.

It's no wonder we have far less all time great spinners than we have quicks.

 

[harsh.ag]

What makes you question tayfield? His record is a whole lot better than just about everyone below him. I think he's the only finger spinner on the list who managed top draw stats without a massive boost from home conditions.

Nothing against him. Just 37 tests and never played in Asia or against an Asian side. That's all. High strike rate too but that just means he bowled a lot of overs and gave away very little.

 

[Coronis]

Nothing against him. Just 37 tests and never played in Asia or against an Asian side. That's all. High strike rate too but that just means he bowled a lot of overs and gave away very little.

You can only play who you get matched with.