Top 10 cricketers of the last 40 years

[rtmohanlal]

Well, the title says it all. Criterias used are these.Batting being the toughest discipline gets more weightage of all disciplines.Fair play, controversy free  etc get lots of weightages.All rounders get more weightages.Being great across formats, being brilliant despite in a weak team get more 

weightages.Longevity &  extra specialities get more weightages.

 

My  top 10. And reasons too.

 

1. Viv Richards -   So far aggressive from his contemporaries in both formats,equally  brilliant in both formats,never wearing a helmet and all  these   from one of the most difficult eras for batting  makes him the top choice for me.

2. Kallis - Great in batting (most difficult discipline) , good bowler, equally brilliant in 2 formats, longevity etc etc.

3. Sachin - Great record in both formats, most longevity  in both formats, being the most complete batsman in each and every sense,

                pressure of huge expectations, a useful bowler  etc etc.

4. Gilchrist - a great wicket keeper & a great batsman combined. In short great in 2 disciplines .Being a wicket Keeping all rounder in general 

                  is easier than a  bat-bowl all rounder & hence placed below Kallis. Him  being a part of a great team had its advantages too.

5. Kapil Dev -Sure to raise a few eye brows. Both his bowling & batting stats need to be evaluated based on some vital factors when   

                  compared with fellow allrounders.Longevity,lack of support bowling,work density  are the bowling factors. In batting he was 

                 aggressive than even Viv, was the undisputed best  in WI( the best team  of 80s) in both batting & bowling  among top all 

                 rounders, played several high quality aggressive  back to the wall knocks against high quality bowling units etc etc . Was the 

                 top  one day all rounder of his times,a brilliant captain who achieved some great results with a fairly weaker team,a brilliant all    

                round fielder too. In some of my earlier posts I have detailed a lot as to why I regard him so highly.  

6. Lara - His penchant for big scores is well known.  Being in a relatively weaker team supports more for his case.

 

7. Ambrose - Deadly  fast bowler, equally great in both formats,enough longevity etc etc.

8. Botham - In his peak no body could give such brilliant all round  performances as he could. But this peak was hugely helped by  packer 

                 cricket,presence of 2 great  fellow bowlers too.Conversely his rough was exactly opposite to that of his peak.More over he was 

                 a pale  shadow of his normal self in Windies.Was not in the level of Kapil as a one day player either.  

9. Shane Warne - A brilliant artist of one of the hardest disciplines, leg spin  bowling.And he turned out to be the most successful one 

                 in  every aspects in both formats.One of the key components in making the Aussies the top team of their time.

10. Mcgrath -A great  fast bowler with such longevity in both formats of the game.Like Warne, he was another key member for the 

                 dominance of that Australian team. But was less faster &  less nastier than Ambrose. Presence of Warne helped him a lot too.  

11. Ponting - Such great record in both formats of the game.To add to that his longevity &  great all round fielding too.

 

First I missed Lara .Hence I updated it .So Ponting in the list remains  at 11th.Your thoughts.

Edited August 8, 2017 by rtmohanlal
small updation

[sandeep]

wow, SMG not in top 10.   I think you have a bit of a kangaroo hangover and slight recency bias.  

[rtmohanlal]

12 minutes ago, sandeep said:

wow, SMG not in top 10.   I think you have a bit of a kangaroo hangover and slight recency bias.  

Firstly I  entirely missed out on Lara at first. How can  this be bias? . Gilchrist, Warne & Mcgrath were the stand out performers in that Aussie line up.They made Aussies one of the GOAT teams.

[Rightarmfast]

Give me a bit and I will revert on this. However, no matter how biased we are, Wasim Akram can never be missed from any list. Only if you are excluding him for his cheating ways and tampering ways, I would understand.

[sandeep]

27 minutes ago, rtmohanlal said:

Firstly I  entirely missed out on Lara at first. How can  this be bias? . Gilchrist, Warne & Mcgrath were the stand out performers in that Aussie line up.They made Aussies one of the GOAT teams.

Having Ponting in there and no SMG and Lara makes it a kangaroo hangover.  Now that you've updated your list, its addressed a bit.  

 

4 middle order bats, zero openers.  Poor openers, all the hard work while the glory goes to the middle order.

[rtmohanlal]

55 minutes ago, Rightarmfast said:

Give me a bit and I will revert on this. However, no matter how biased we are, Wasim Akram can never be missed from any list. Only if you are excluding him for his cheating ways and tampering ways, I would understand.

yeah... Akram was hugely talented for a fast bowler.He made fast bowling a great entertainment with his loads of variations.

But strong allegations of tampering against him  take some glows of his records. And surprisingly his record  against top order batsmen paled in comparison to some one like Mcgrath who made a habit of taking top order wickets.

[rtmohanlal]

34 minutes ago, sandeep said:

Having Ponting in there and no SMG and Lara makes it a kangaroo hangover.  Now that you've updated your list, its addressed a bit.  

 

4 middle order bats, zero openers.  Poor openers, all the hard work while the glory goes to the middle order.

tell me one opener who was really great across formats with required longevity.Openers do not require that higher an avg: as that of a middle order batsmen. Yet tell me one who can challenge  any one from my list. The names that come to mind are Haynes,Greenidge,Kirsten,Hayden,Sehwag,Jaysurya,Smith... all have holes in their stats.

[sandeep]

5 minutes ago, rtmohanlal said:

tell me one opener who was really great across formats with required longevity.Openers do not require that higher an avg: as that of a middle order batsmen. Yet tell me one who can challenge  any one from my list. The names that come to mind are Haynes,Greenidge,Kirsten,Hayden,Sehwag,Jaysurya,Smith... all have holes in their stats.

Of course they do - if you compare them to middle order bats - you have to account for the fact that opening batsmen face tougher conditions than the MO.

[Jimmy Cliff]

Hadlee

Lara

Imran

Wasim

Warne

McGrath

Gilchrist

Richards

Tendulkar

Murali

 

Only gonna pick guys who were ATG in both formats.

 

 

[rtmohanlal]

3 minutes ago, sandeep said:

Of course they do - if you compare them to middle order bats - you have to account for the fact that opening batsmen face tougher conditions than the MO.

agreed. but the fact is that there are no openers to challenge the batsmen  from my list.The nearest names are Hayden & Smith. Hayden avg:s  50+ & 40+ respectively in both formats .Smith have  around 48  & 38 respectively.But both have enough other holes in their records if you dig in little a bit deeper into their stats.Not adequate enough to replace any of the names I specified.

Viv,Sachin,Lara & Ponfing   are definitely above Smith & Hayden even by general conception.

[sourab10forever]

Make Kohli the 11th entry

[sandeep]

6 minutes ago, sourab10forever said:

Make Kohli the 11th entry

Kohli wouldn't make the top 15 middle order test batsmen of the last 40 years list, at this point in his career.  Except for lists made by blind worshippers.

[rtmohanlal]

6 minutes ago, sourab10forever said:

Make Kohli the 11th entry

Kohli ? Hope you are not joking .As of now he has lot of flaws in his test record.No longevity, not even 50  avg: , a paltry 13 avg: in ENG.... Kohli has a long way to go.  

[kira]

Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar is the greatest of all time, he's the undisputed no. 1, order the rest however you want

Edited August 8, 2017 by kira

[express bowling]

Picking 10 best players in the last 40 years is an impossible task.  

 

I will just give my pool to choose from and not in any order

 

I have left out current players unless nearing retirement.

 

 

 

Batsmen - Tendulkar, Richards, Lara, Gavaskar, Ponting, Sehwag, Hayden

 

All-rounders -- Kallis, Imran, Hadlee

 

Pacers -- McGrath, Marshall, Garner, Ambrose, Holding, Steyn, Donald, Akram

 

Spinners -- Warne, Murali, Kumble, 

 

Keeper - Gilchrist

[Vilander]

Sunny Ghavaskar was a great batsman, i think that can not be argued. Is this an ODI list perhaps.

[Vilander]

19 minutes ago, express bowling said:

Picking 10 best players in the last 40 years is an impossible task.  

 

I will just give my pool to choose from and not in any order

 

I have left out current players unless nearing retirement.

 

 

 

Batsmen - Tendulkar, Richards, Lara, Gavaskar, Ponting, Sehwag, Hayden

 

All-rounders -- Kallis, Imran, Hadlee

 

Pacers -- McGrath, Marshall, Garner, Ambrose, Holding, Steyn, Donald, Akram

 

Spinners -- Warne, Murali, Kumble, 

 

Keeper - Gilchrist

Sangakara the test batsman.

[Trichromatic]

Ambrose, Lara and Ponting  and no Marshall, no Imran, no SMG. Strange list. 

[Trichromatic]

15 hours ago, sourab10forever said:

Make Kohli the 11th entry

Above Marshall, Imran and SMG. Let Kohli achieve no 1 test ranking in his career first. He is not even among top 3 batsman in world.

[sourab10forever]

4 hours ago, Trichromatic said:

Above Marshall, Imran and SMG. Let Kohli achieve no 1 test ranking in his career first. He is not even among top 3 batsman in world.

He is already the greatest ever batsmen to play this sport. No body even close to him.