When There Were Kings

[Athlai]

Today I was thinking that the top 3 batsman in 2021 might just be one of the more competitive of all time. So I decided to use the ICC Test Rankings to have a look at this historically. Now while the ICC rankings are by no means a perfect metric, they do give a good snapshot of who was the best at that time and how high they were flying.

For the purpose of this exercise I've chosen 20th April as the date for each year (except 2021 which is set to today).There would no doubt be huge movement if this was set to after the English summer I suspect (Warne who barely makes an appearance here somehow, would no doubt be right up there).

I've attached the complete document but for a fun little stats bite I'll throw in the top 10 batting/bowling and allrounder peaks, as well as the bottom 10.

 

[Athlai]

Batting
Year	No 1	Rating	No 2	Rating	No 3	Rating	Overall
1945​	Don Bradman	952​	George Headley	902​	Wally Hammond	870​	2724​
2007​	Ricky Ponting	936​	Mohammad Yousuf	915​	Kevin Pietersen	870​	2721​
1953​	Neil Harvey	921​	Len Hutton	917​	Everton Weekes	880​	2718​
2019​	Virat Kohli	922​	Kane Williamson	913​	Cheteshwar Pujara	881​	2716​
1956​	Everton Weekes	907​	Neil Harvey	906​	Clyde Walcott	901​	2714​
1946​	Don Bradman	942​	George Headley	902​	Wally Hammond	870​	2714​
2018​	Steve Smith	929​	Virat Kohli	912​	Joe Root	867​	2708​
2015​	Kumar Sangakkara	909​	AB de Villiers	908​	Hashim Amla	891​	2708​
1955​	Clyde Walcott	923​	Everton Weekes	893​	Neil Harvey	891​	2707​
2008​	Mike Hussey	912​	Ricky Ponting	899​	Kumar Sangakkara	893​	2704​

 

[Athlai]

Bowling
Year	No 1	Rating	No 2	Rating	No 3	Rating	Overall
2002​	Muttiah Muralitharan	915​	Glenn McGrath	900​	Shaun Pollock	871​	2686​
1994​	Curtly Ambrose	903​	Waqar Younis	897​	Shane Warne	877​	2677​
2014​	Vernon Philander	909​	Dale Steyn	901​	Ryan Harris	866​	2676​
2000​	Shaun Pollock	904​	Glenn McGrath	893​	Allan Donald	873​	2670​
1986​	Richard Hadlee	903​	Malcolm Marshall	900​	Joel Garner	845​	2648​
2018​	Kagiso Rabada	897​	James Anderson	891​	Vernon Philander	845​	2633​
1999​	Allan Donald	885​	Glenn McGrath	874​	Shaun Pollock	870​	2629​
2013​	Dale Steyn	905​	Vernon Philander	890​	Rangana Herath	831​	2626​
2003​	Glenn McGrath	893​	Muttiah Muralitharan	869​	Shaun Pollock	861​	2623​
2008​	Muttiah Muralitharan	897​	Dale Steyn	892​	Stuart Clark	829​	2618​

 

[Athlai]

AR
Year	No 1	Rating	No 2	Rating	No 3	Rating	Overall
1968​	Garry Sobers	625​	Trevor Goddard	469​	Bobby Simpson	376​	1470​
2003​	Jacques Kallis	594​	Shaun Pollock	474​	Chris Cairns	385​	1453​
1980​	Ian Botham	645​	Kapil Dev	430​	Richard Hadlee	340​	1415​
1964​	Garry Sobers	604​	Trevor Goddard	429​	John Reid	371​	1404​
1967​	Garry Sobers	647​	Trevor Goddard	469​	Rameshchandra Nadkarni	275​	1391​
1983​	Imran Khan	513​	Ian Botham	487​	Kapil Dev	387​	1387​
2002​	Jacques Kallis	501​	Chris Cairns	426​	Shaun Pollock	424​	1351​
1962​	Garry Sobers	556​	Alan Davidson	437​	Trevor Goddard	357​	1350​
2001​	Shaun Pollock	468​	Jacques Kallis	437​	Chris Cairns	434​	1339​
1965​	Garry Sobers	581​	Trevor Goddard	390​	John Reid	343​	1314​

 

[Athlai]

My original hypothesis that today was the best ever wasn't terribly far off, overall it was 13th and who knows if Smith or Kohli can pump up their ratings by April anyway.

 

[Athlai]

Worst Kings

Batting
Year	No 1	Rating	No 2	Rating	No 3	Rating	Overall
1973​	Glenn Turner	759​	Ian Chappell	745​	Garry Sobers	745​	2249​
1993​	Richie Richardson	792​	Graham Gooch	765​	Robin Smith	713​	2270​
1974​	Glenn Turner	845​	Dennis Amiss	729​	Mushtaq Mohammad	728​	2302​
1985​	Allan Border	783​	Viv Richards	767​	Gordon Greenidge	761​	2311​
1991​	Richie Richardson	828​	Graham Gooch	749​	Javed Miandad	739​	2316​
1994​	Brian Lara	788​	Graham Gooch	781​	Sachin Tendulkar	753​	2322​
1978​	Viv Richards	829​	Gordon Greenidge	790​	Sunil Gavaskar	732​	2351​
1990​	Javed Miandad	832​	Richie Richardson	795​	Allan Border	735​	2362​
1987​	Gordon Greenidge	793​	Allan Border	789​	Dilip Vengsarkar	784​	2366​
1971​	Garry Sobers	834​	Doug Walters	821​	John Edrich	714​	2369​

Bowling
Year	No 1	Rating	No 2	Rating	No 3	Rating	Overall
1947​	Jack Cowie	563​	Alec Bedser	555​	Gubby Allen	474​	1592​
1948​	Ray Lindwall	615​	Ernie Toshack	581​	Jack Cowie	563​	1759​
1949​	Ray Lindwall	830​	Bill Johnston	659​	Alec Bedser	640​	2129​
1974​	Max Walker	736​	Bishan Bedi	721​	Bhagwat Chandrasekhar	713​	2170​
1946​	Bill O'Reilly	901​	Bill Bowes	694​	Bill Voce	599​	2194​
1945​	Bill O'Reilly	887​	Bill Bowes	694​	Learie Constantine	622​	2203​
1975​	Derek Underwood	757​	Max Walker	751​	Dennis Lillee	746​	2254​
1973​	Derek Underwood	785​	Bruce Taylor	768​	John Snow	725​	2278​
1972​	Derek Underwood	843​	John Snow	758​	Bruce Taylor	714​	2315​
1978​	Bishan Bedi	789​	Jeff Thomson	769​	Dennis Lillee	768​	2326​

AR
Year	No 1	Rating	No 2	Rating	No 3	Rating	Overall
1947​	Wally Hammond	221​	Keith Miller	216​	Bruce Mitchell	167​	604​
1948​	Bill Edrich	249​	Keith Miller	219​	Lala Amaranth	157​	625​
1946​	Wally Hammond	334​	Bill O'Reilly	176​	Bruce Mitchell	167​	677​
1945​	Wally Hammond	334​	Learie Constantine	195​	Bill O'Reilly	173​	702​
1949​	Keith Miller	277​	Ray Lindwall	250​	Bill Edrich	201​	728​
1994​	Steve Waugh	263​	Wasim Akram	251​	Manoj Prabhakar	241​	755​
1978​	Mushtaq Mohammad	337​	Bev Congdon	226​	Imran Khan	211​	774​
1995​	Brian McMillan	294​	Wasim Akram	251​	Steve Waugh	249​	794​
1993​	Kapil Dev	327​	Wasim Akram	261​	Merv Hughes	217​	805​
1950​	Keith Miller	362​	Ray Lindwall	248​	Bill Edrich	199​	809​

 

[Athlai]

I can't wait for the kiwis to see Cowie and Turner as the #1s during bad times. To be fair to Cowie, his relatively low rating is almost certainly due to a lack of cricket, and the English/Aussie bowlers due to an abundance of Bradman/Headley/Hammond

 

[Athlai]

By decade

Batting	Top 3 Avg	Bowling	Top 3 Avg	AR	Top 3 Avg	Overall
2020s	2656.5​	2020s	2577.5​	2020s	1287​	6521​
2000s	2635.2​	2000s	2585.3​	2000s	1282.9​	6503.4​
1960s	2553​	1960s	2517.5​	1960s	1312.5​	6383​
2010s	2644.3​	2010s	2567.8​	2010s	1147.3​	6359.4​
1980s	2469.2​	1980s	2570.5​	1980s	1250.5​	6290.2​
1950s	2655​	1950s	2495​	1950s	1107.5​	6257.5​
1990s	1994.5​	1990s	1994.5​	1990s	1994.5​	5983.5​
1970s	2417.7​	1970s	2334.6​	1970s	1045.1​	5797.4​
1940s	2653.2​	1940s	1975.4​	1940s	667.2​	5295.8​

 

[Athlai]

Years they appeared in the top 3 (min 5)

Batting

Name	Appearances
Garry Sobers	16​
Brian Lara	10​
Viv Richards	10​
Allan Border	8​
Sachin Tendulkar	8​
George Headley	6​
Javed Miandad	6​
Len Hutton	6​
Rohan Kanhai	6​
Steve Waugh	6​
Everton Weekes	5​
Glenn Turner	5​
Ken Barrington	5​
Neil Harvey	5​
Richie Richardson	5​
Steve Smith	5​

Bowling

Name	Appearances
Ray Lindwall	9​
Curtly Ambrose	8​
Dale Steyn	8​
Glenn McGrath	8​
Muttiah Muralitharan	8​
Richard Hadlee	8​
Derek Underwood	7​
Lance Gibbs	7​
Malcolm Marshall	7​
Shaun Pollock	7​
Alec Bedser	6​
Bill Johnston	5​
Bishan Bedi	5​
Imran Khan	5​
Joel Garner	5​
Wes Hall	5​

Allrounder

Name	Appearances
Jacques Kallis	15​
Garry Sobers	13​
Imran Khan	13​
Trevor Goddard	12​
Kapil Dev	10​
Keith Miller	10​
Shakib Al Hasan	10​
Richard Hadlee	9​
Ian Botham	8​
Ray Lindwall	8​
Shaun Pollock	8​
Chris Cairns	7​
Mushtaq Mohammad	7​
Wasim Akram	7​
Daniel Vettori	5​
Ravichandran Ashwin	5​
Ravindra Jadeja	5​
Vinoo Mankad	5​

 

[honestbharani]

Lara

 

[Burgey]

ok

 

[Athlai]

ok

Basically Allan Border was a spud

 

[Burgey]

Eight years in the top three batsmen in the world. Equal 3rd all time. In a bowler-dominated era, all while captaining a side from oblivion to the edge of greatness.

World's greatest post-war cricketer.

 

[Athlai]

Eight years in the top three batsmen in the world. Equal 3rd all time. In a bowler-dominated era, all while captaining a side from oblivion to the edge of greatness.

World's greatest post-war cricketer.

Has to be Sobers tbf. 16 years as a top 3 batsman, 13 years as a top allrounder. Absolute beast, as I descended the years I thought surely thats the last I'll see of him but the ****er just kept appearing.

I was surprised to see Lance Gibbs be number 1 so long, I've always thought people were reluctant to add him into the WI team but he really was the best in the world for a very long time.

 

[Burgey]

I was surprised to see Lance Gibbs be number 1 so long, I've always thought people were reluctant to add him into the WI team

I think this is purely as a result of their pace attack being so exceptional in the 80s that he was basically a forgotten man.

Also, you mentioning Sobers is now going to bring the Imran autists to the yard, so good luck with that.

 

[Line and Length]

Interesting but this could have been posted in "Meaningless and Stupid Cricket Statistics".

Seriously though, @Athlai - thanks for the good work.

 

[Athlai]

I think this is purely as a result of their pace attack being so exceptional in the 80s that he was basically a forgotten man.

Also, you mentioning Sobers is now going to bring the Imran autists to the yard, so good luck with that.

To be fair Imran Khan with 13 years in the allrounder camp as well is very impressive too. Yet he was never as dominate a bowler across the years as Sobers was with the bat. Though literally no one was.

 

[Burgey]

Athlai, do you have any stats to back up the widely regarded opinion that Murali was a great fielder?

 

[aussie tragic]

Years they appeared in the top 3 (min 5)
Batting

Name	Appearances
Garry Sobers	16​
Brian Lara	10​
Viv Richards	10​
Allan Border	8​
Sachin Tendulkar	8​
George Headley	6​
Javed Miandad	6​
Len Hutton	6​
Rohan Kanhai	6​
Steve Waugh	6​
Everton Weekes	5​
Glenn Turner	5​
Ken Barrington	5​
Neil Harvey	5​
Richie Richardson	5​
Steve Smith	5​

Surprised Bradman wasn't top 3 batsman for at least 5 years?

 

[Athlai]

Athlai, do you have any stats to back up the widely regarded opinion that Murali was a great fielder?

No but Murali was one of the best batsman of all time to hit the ball with his eyes closed.

He was also a pretty good catcher in the outfield under skied balls, but reallyyou'd only say he was great compared to how ****ing lazy bowlers were in that era in the outfield.