1. Don Bradman
2. Garry Sobers
3. Imran Khan - as captain, he probably reached heights never achieved by any other allrounder ever. With 2408 runs at 52.34 and 163 wickets at 19.20, it could be argued that he was both Pakistan's best batsman and bowler, all at once.
4. Sydney Barnes - only played against Australia and South Africa but almost everyone who saw him thought he was the best bowler they had ever seen. On a perfect wicket Barnes could swing the new ball in and out very late, could spin from the ground, pitch on the leg stump and miss the off. Barnes was creative, one of the first bowlers really to use the seam of a new ball and combine swing so subtly with spin that few batsmen could distinguish one from the other. At Melbourne, in December 1911, Barnes in five overs dismissed Australia's five best batsmen for a single. At his very best, between 1910 and 1914, he was frequently unplayable, and during this time took an astonishing 122 wickets at 14.08. Also, 24 5-fors is more than many great bowlers manage in a career, despite playing several times as many matches.
5. Jack Hobbs - No one could deny that he was the world's best batsman for years, scoring runs all over the world phenomenally consistently. Don Bradman said he was the most complete player he had ever seen (he saw a few!!), and in terms of percentage of innings over 10, he was the most consistent Test batsman ever.
6. Muttiah Muralitharan - the best spinner ever by a country mile. As I have shown many times before, statistically there is no comparison between Murali and the much hyped Shane Warne, by far the most overrrated cricketer ever.
7.Walter Hammond - A greater batsman than Viv Richards, probably the best slip fielder ever (with Bob Simpson and Mark Waugh), and a very useful bowler. I see no reason for his non-selection in any top 10 other than a bias towards more hyped modern players. On ability alone he's a certainty for me. IMO to compare Hammond to Richards and Tendulkar is an insult to Hammond. I cannot conceive any reasons why modern players like Richards and Tendulkar, who average lower than him anyway, could be considered better given relative pitch conditions. He was also surely a better looking player. I'd not say Viv Richards was a certainty in the top 10, far from it - IMO there have been plenty of better West Indian batsmen.He dominated weak attacks like England and India, while his record against the high quality Pakistan and New Zealand lineups is not worthy of an all-time great. Also he never had to face the mighty West Indian bowlers.
8. Malcolm Marshall - I think Lillee is overrated. In reality, he was an outstanding but far from complete fast bowler, he was less effective against left-handers and not as good as some at running through the tail due to the lack of a good yorker. As a matter of fact Lillee had his off days and McGrath is a far more reliable fast bowler. Please note im not questioning his status as a great bowler, just think he is overrated and not the very best. Lillee's stats are less impressive than McGrath even though he played in a lower scoring era, and McGrath is the rarely thought of as the very best fast bowler. IMO Malcolm Marshall is the best and most complete paceman ever, closely followed by Richard Hadlee who would be my 11th greatest, with Sunil Gavaskar 12th, Graeme Pollock 13th and Brian Lara, Wilfred Rhodes, Bill O'Reilly, Curtley Ambrose, Ken Barrington, WG Grace and Glenn McGrath making up the top 20.
9. George Headley
10. Keith Miller
