Monday, November 15, 2004
The 25 Greatest Cricket Allrounders
Right, here it is. The '25 Greatest Allrounders of All-time'.
I took the players batting average and subtracted their bowling average from it. The greater the gap the 'greater' they are.
To qualify: 50 wickets, 1000 runs
1. Garfield Sobers 23.75 (WI)
2. Jacques Kallis 23.07 (SA)
3. Wally Hammond 20.65 (Eng)
4. Imran Khan 14.88 (Pak)
5. Aubrey Faulkner 14.21 (SA)
6. Keith Miller 14 (Aust)
7. Steve Waugh 13.62 (Aust)
8. Ted Dexter 12.96 (Eng)
9. Sanath Jayasuriya 11.19 (SL)
10. Shaun Pollock 11.17 (SA)
11. Billy Bates 10.91 (Eng)
12. Frank Worrell 10.76 (WI)
13. Asif Iqbal 10.52 (Pak)
14. Mushtaq Mohammad 9.95 (Pak)
15. Trevor Goddard 8.24 (SA)
16. Tony Greig 8.23 (Eng)
17. Jack Gregory 5.81 (Aust)
18. Brian McMillan 5.54 (SA)
19. Monty Noble 5.25 (Aust)
20. Ian Botham 5.14 (Eng)
21. Warwick Armstrong 5.09 (Aust)
22. Charles Kelleway 5.06 (Aust)
23. Richard Hadlee 4.87 (NZ)
24. Bob Simpson 4.55 (Aust)
25. Chris Cairns 4.13 (NZ)
Australia 7
South Africa 5
England 5
Pakistan 3
New Zealand 2
West Indies 2
Sri Lanka 1
India 0 (though if Tendulkar takes 15 more wickets he will qualify)
Zimbabwe 0
Bangladesh surprisingly 0 also.
I admit it's not a perfect way to measure as some players have had advantages such as being able to play weaker nations more regularly such as Sri Lanka in the 80s and early 90s and more recently Zimbabwe and Bangladesh. But I think it's pretty fair.
In the case of some players their bowling average wasn't incredibly low (ie high 30s or even higher) but their batting average was so enormous that they were/are of great value to the team. Good examples being Steve Waugh and Sanath Jayasuriya. In other cases the batting average wasn't that high but the bowling average was very low, Richard Hadlee being a good example of that.
Anyway, it's a pretty quality looking list all the same. They'd roll most teams in a few days if you picked a couple of teams from the list.
PS. In case you are wondering, it's thorough as hell and nobody has missed out that should be there. I went through each country's wicket takers of more than 50 at cricinfo and checked their batting average. Took a couple of hours of clicking their name, scanning their averages and then hitting the return button but it's bang on the money.
I took the players batting average and subtracted their bowling average from it. The greater the gap the 'greater' they are.
To qualify: 50 wickets, 1000 runs
1. Garfield Sobers 23.75 (WI)
2. Jacques Kallis 23.07 (SA)
3. Wally Hammond 20.65 (Eng)
4. Imran Khan 14.88 (Pak)
5. Aubrey Faulkner 14.21 (SA)
6. Keith Miller 14 (Aust)
7. Steve Waugh 13.62 (Aust)
8. Ted Dexter 12.96 (Eng)
9. Sanath Jayasuriya 11.19 (SL)
10. Shaun Pollock 11.17 (SA)
11. Billy Bates 10.91 (Eng)
12. Frank Worrell 10.76 (WI)
13. Asif Iqbal 10.52 (Pak)
14. Mushtaq Mohammad 9.95 (Pak)
15. Trevor Goddard 8.24 (SA)
16. Tony Greig 8.23 (Eng)
17. Jack Gregory 5.81 (Aust)
18. Brian McMillan 5.54 (SA)
19. Monty Noble 5.25 (Aust)
20. Ian Botham 5.14 (Eng)
21. Warwick Armstrong 5.09 (Aust)
22. Charles Kelleway 5.06 (Aust)
23. Richard Hadlee 4.87 (NZ)
24. Bob Simpson 4.55 (Aust)
25. Chris Cairns 4.13 (NZ)
Australia 7
South Africa 5
England 5
Pakistan 3
New Zealand 2
West Indies 2
Sri Lanka 1
India 0 (though if Tendulkar takes 15 more wickets he will qualify)
Zimbabwe 0
Bangladesh surprisingly 0 also.
I admit it's not a perfect way to measure as some players have had advantages such as being able to play weaker nations more regularly such as Sri Lanka in the 80s and early 90s and more recently Zimbabwe and Bangladesh. But I think it's pretty fair.
In the case of some players their bowling average wasn't incredibly low (ie high 30s or even higher) but their batting average was so enormous that they were/are of great value to the team. Good examples being Steve Waugh and Sanath Jayasuriya. In other cases the batting average wasn't that high but the bowling average was very low, Richard Hadlee being a good example of that.
Anyway, it's a pretty quality looking list all the same. They'd roll most teams in a few days if you picked a couple of teams from the list.
PS. In case you are wondering, it's thorough as hell and nobody has missed out that should be there. I went through each country's wicket takers of more than 50 at cricinfo and checked their batting average. Took a couple of hours of clicking their name, scanning their averages and then hitting the return button but it's bang on the money.
Comments:
nah, that would have doubled the whole process and I'm really not that organised.
It's much faster to click their name and simply use a calculator than move the data from one source to another.
It's much faster to click their name and simply use a calculator than move the data from one source to another.
Dude, don mean to be offensive but this is a faulty way to calculate.
Example say a batsman has an average of 25 and a bowling average of 25 too.. which by International standards is an allrounder.. He will have a net score of Zero!!!.. No wonder Kapil Dev, Richard Hadlee are not here!!!!
Example say a batsman has an average of 25 and a bowling average of 25 too.. which by International standards is an allrounder.. He will have a net score of Zero!!!.. No wonder Kapil Dev, Richard Hadlee are not here!!!!
Hey H1b, a bat average of 25 is not an allrounder, it's a number 8. I think its a good system, also shows (correctly) that Freddie Flintoff is a bowler who bats a little, not really a worldclass allrounder.
# posted by 
: 5 August 2009 at 19:21
: 5 August 2009 at 19:21
If Kapil Dev cannot be considered as one of the best all rounders in the world (only person scored over 4000 test runs and taken over 400 wickets in Tests), then the fellow who has prepared the list of all rounders is surely don't know what is cricket !!
agreed, imran and sobers were quite gud in their era, bt their records are not even close to that of kapil dev's, infact no one does, kapil probbly wasn't the greatest all rounder bt sure is 2nd aftr gary sobers, the guy who prepared this list rilly quite dumb vn it comes 2 cricket i guess.....
I think someone loves Kapil Dev a bit too much, know what I mean
# posted by : 27 June 2011 at 01:52
: 27 June 2011 at 01:52
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