Okay time for second and first place..
The 50 best ODI Cricketers so far..
50 Chris Harris
49 Chris Gayle
48 Jonty Rhodes
47 Neil Fairbrother
46 AB de Villiers
45 Michael Holding
44 Shane Watson
43 Allan Border
42 Chris Cairns
41 Martin Crowe
40 Malcolm Marshall
39 Nathan Bracken
38 Gordon Greenidge
37 Greg Chappell
36 Mark Waugh
35 Saeed Anwar
34 Desmond Haynes
33 Shane Bond
32 Inzamam-Ul-Haq
31 Aravinda de Silva
30 Brett Lee
29 Sourav Ganguly
28 Michael Hussey
27 Allan Donald
26 Javed Miandad
25 Andrew Symonds
24 MS Dhoni
23 Curtly Ambrose
22 Zaheer Abbas
21 Saqlain Mushtaq
20 Richard Hadlee
19 Lance Klusener
18 Dean Jones
17 Imran Khan
16 Waqar Younis
15 Jacques Kallis
14 Shane Warne
13 Kapil Dev
12 Brian Lara
11 Sanath Jayasuriya
10 Ricky Ponting
9 Shaun Pollock
8 Muttiah Muralitharan
7 Joel Garner
6 Michael Bevan
5 Glenn McGrath
4 Adam Gilchrist
3 Wasim Akram
2 ........................
1 ........................
2 SACHIN TENDULKAR
Sachin Tendulkar | India Cricket | Cricket Players and Officials | ESPN Cricinfo
Total Points 647
Total Nominations 29/30
Highest Rating 1
Tendulkar holds just about every batting record worth owning in the game, including those for most runs and hundreds in ODI’s.
His batting is based on the purest principles: perfect balance, economy of movement, precision in stroke-making, and that intangible quality given only to geniuses: anticipation. If he doesn't have a signature stroke - the upright, back-foot punch comes close - it is because he is equally proficient at each of the full range of orthodox shots (and plenty of improvised ones as well) and can pull them out at will.
There are no apparent weaknesses in Tendulkar's game. He can score all around the wicket, off both front foot and back, can tune his technique to suit every condition, temper his game to suit every situation, and has made runs in all parts of the world in all conditions.
Tendulkar retains a divine enthusiasm for the game, and he seems to be untouched by age: at 36 years and 306 days he broke a 40-year-old barrier by scoring the first double-century in one-day cricket.
Tendulkar's considerable achievements seem greater still when looked at in the light of the burden of expectations he has had to bear from his adoring but somewhat unreasonable followers, who have been prone to regard anything less than a hundred in each innings as a failure. The aura may have dimmed, if only slightly, as the years on the international circuit have taken their toll on the body, but Tendulkar remains, by a distance, the most worshipped cricketer in the world.
1 VIV RICHARDS
Sir Viv Richards | West Indies Cricket | Cricket Players and Officials | ESPN Cricinfo
Total Points 699
Total Nominations 30/30
Highest Rating 1
You knew when he was coming. The outgoing batsman would already have disappeared into the pavilion, and the expectation of what was to follow filled the air. Viv kept you waiting... time to ponder. Then he appeared, sauntering, swaggering, arms windmilling slowly. He would take guard, and then, head tilted back slightly and cudding his gum, he would walk a few paces down the pitch to tap it while looking the bowler in the eye. It was calculated menace and magnificent theatre from arguably the most devastating batsman of all time.
How to bowl to him? Get him to the other end, perhaps. Hold your nerve, do not take what might follow as personal. Occasionally he was vulnerable early on if his desire to dominate overwhelmed him. But he had no weakness until his eyesight infinitesimally but inevitably started to let him down and those eye shots became harder.
His strengths were on the front foot. So far forward could he get that he was able to plant that left foot outside the line of off stump, at once eliminating lbw and creating his own leg stump line from where he would flick bowlers relentlessly through midwicket. Or he might send a similar ball skimming through extra cover. Straighten the ball down the line of the stumps and the bowler stood a chance, but he rarely missed and they ran a terrible risk.
In 1975 Richards helped the West Indies win the inaugural Cricket World Cup, The West Indies were again able to win the following World Cup in 1979, thanks to a Richards century in the final at Lord's.
He was the first Cricketer to score a century and take 5 wickets in the same match and his 189* was rated by Wisden as the best ODI innings of all time.
Richards finished his career with an average of 47 and a phenomenal strike rate for his time of 90. He also took 100 catches and over 100 wickets, making Sir Vivian Richards a most worthy winner in CW's 50 Best ODI Cricketers of all time.
