The List: Batsmen closest to Bradman's number

[Trichromatic]

I think I had posted this earlier too, but can't find it.

 

BEST BATTING AVERAGE OVER A SPAN OF 52 TESTS

Player	Start Date	End Date	Mat	Inns	NO	Runs	Ave	100	50
DG Bradman (Aus)	Nov 30, 1928	Aug 18, 1948	52	80	10	6996	99.94	29	13
RT Ponting (Aus)	Mar 8, 2002	Nov 27, 2006	52	92	14	5813	74.52	23	20
GS Sobers (WI)	Aug 22, 1957	Apr 3, 1968	52	88	13	5468	72.90	19	20
JH Kallis (ICC/SA)	Apr 19, 2001	May 1, 2006	52	91	19	5127	71.20	17	25
R Dravid (India)	Nov 18, 2000	Sep 16, 2005	52	86	13	4883	66.89	14	21
KF Barrington (Eng)	Nov 11, 1961	Aug 28, 1967	52	84	12	4783	66.43	16	22
Mohammad Yousuf (Pak)	Nov 15, 2000	Oct 12, 2007	52	87	8	5247	66.41	20	18
SR Tendulkar (India)	Apr 4, 1997	Nov 3, 2002	52	86	8	5177	66.37	20	17
KC Sangakkara (SL)	Aug 11, 2004	Nov 27, 2010	52	89	8	5352	66.07	19	18
WR Hammond (Eng)	Nov 30, 1928	Jan 7, 1937	52	87	12	4827	64.36	16	13
L Hutton (Eng)	Jan 31, 1947	Jun 15, 1954	52	92	13	5072	64.20	14	27
SR Waugh (Aus)	Jun 3, 1993	Oct 5, 1998	52	83	18	4134	63.60	11	23
Javed Miandad (Pak)	Jan 3, 1983	Dec 6, 1989	52	73	5	4240	62.35	14	16
Inzamam-Ul-Haq (ICC/Pak)	Mar 12, 1999	Jan 17, 2006	52	86	9	4796	62.28	18	20
ML Hayden (Aus)	Feb 27, 2001	Mar 13, 2005	52	92	10	5077	61.91	19	17
IVA Richards (WI)	Jan 31, 1976	Jun 18, 1984	52	74	2	4456	61.88	15	20
H Sutcliffe (Eng)	Jun 14, 1924	Aug 22, 1934	52	81	9	4453	61.84	16	22
DPMD Jayawardene (SL)	Mar 24, 2004	Nov 20, 2009	52	88	6	5026	61.29	17	15
BC Lara (ICC/WI)	Apr 6, 2001	Nov 23, 2006	52	93	2	5576	61.27	19	17
JB Hobbs (Eng)	Jun 14, 1909	Jun 17, 1930	52	85	5	4897	61.21	15	24

 

 

Smith is now part of this list as he has scored 5366 runs at avg of 67.92 with 22 hundreds in last 52 matches.

 

Given that he had poor start, he should be able to improve this further in next 10 or so matches.

 

Ricky Ponting averaged 75.05 from Mar 8, 2002 to Dec 1, 2006. 53 matches, 6004 runs and 24 hundreds. That's the highest average any batsman has achieved over a span of 50+ tests. 

 

 

[Gollum]

These Aussies are something else. And not just cricket, with a 2 crore population they have such freaks in many sports. Greatest sporting country considering that population?

[jalebi_bhai]

7 minutes ago, Gollum said:

These Aussies are something else. And not just cricket, with a 2 crore population they have such freaks in many sports. Greatest sporting country considering that population?

I would think so. 

[chewy]

48 minutes ago, Gollum said:

These Aussies are something else. And not just cricket, with a 2 crore population they have such freaks in many sports. Greatest sporting country considering that population?

There is an incredible amount of government investment behind this, not just the big team sports  but into individual Olympic sports

 

[SK_IH]

wow never knew ricky was so consistent during those times, i just remember one golden year of 2006

[SK_IH]

1 hour ago, Gollum said:

These Aussies are something else. And not just cricket, with a 2 crore population they have such freaks in many sports. Greatest sporting country considering that population?

true, they are also fortunate that even when their overall batting standards have gone down the drain,they still have one batsman rivalling the best of his times

[Gollum]

45 minutes ago, chewy said:

There is an incredible amount of government investment behind this, not just the big team sports  but into individual Olympic sports

 

But that is true in many other countries also, eg Nordic countries, Japan, Germany, Switzerland etc. When you look at super athletes per capita no one comes close to the Aussies, no one.

[putrevus]

Ricky ponting is the next closest we have seen one batsman who has been so dominant for a four year period.

[Gollum]

If Aussies ban their stupid AFL and 10 different types of rugby they will have more of their elite athletes in sports like cricket. Ridiculous that they invest so much time and energy on those brain dead tamashas. But probably good for the rest of the world LOL. 

[Gollum]

37 minutes ago, SK_IH said:

true, they are also fortunate that even when their overall batting standards have gone down the drain,they still have one batsman rivalling the best of his times

I wouldn't attribute that to fortune, they are simply a great sporting nation that will churn out legends even during trough time. Aussies of late 80s were a **** team but they still had that great batsman in Border and won a damn WC, probably the worst team ever to win a WC !!!!

[mancalledsting]

1 hour ago, Gollum said:

These Aussies are something else. And not just cricket, with a 2 crore population they have such freaks in many sports. Greatest sporting country considering that population?

nothing to do with freakishness- more to do with comprehensive investment in sports programme. Their money goes on developing talent, ours goes into babus pockets. 

[Gollum]

5 minutes ago, mancalledsting said:

nothing to do with freakishness- more to do with comprehensive investment in sports programme. Their money goes on developing talent, ours goes into babus pockets. 

Norway, Japan, Germany? All comparable to Australia?

 

India doesn't do well in sports because we aren't good enough period. Some of our indoor athletics record are bettered by Eastern European women. Don't even get me started on some of these 3rd world African countries that get such rich hauls in Olympics. 

[zen]

Only thing is that Bradman’s whole career is being compared with purple patches of others ....

[sarcastic]

1 hour ago, Gollum said:

Norway, Japan, Germany? All comparable to Australia?

 

India doesn't do well in sports because we aren't good enough period. Some of our indoor athletics record are bettered by Eastern European women. Don't even get me started on some of these 3rd world African countries that get such rich hauls in Olympics. 

@Gollum

Very good points by you. I would add that the Australian culture has that intrinsically and innate "I have to win at any cost" desire/attitude. This can be attributed to the tremendous struggle the initial generations have to endure to secure food etc. since the first fleet of British convicts arrived in Botany Bay (i.e. now a place in Sydney) in 1788. I read/heard that there was so much struggle among the initial white settlers that they were literally fighting against each other for every limited finished good that they brought. This might have brought in the attitude to fight and win no matter what attitude to these people. Added to this, they are located at an isolated location in the world and identity in the world stage is probably very important for Australian nationals. Sports is one way you can redeem and reinstate your image internationally. 

 

Added to this is the point other posters were making about sufficient funds by government etc. It is not a surprise that Australia is doing that good....

[mancalledsting]

2 hours ago, Gollum said:

Norway, Japan, Germany? All comparable to Australia?

 

India doesn't do well in sports because we aren't good enough period. Some of our indoor athletics record are bettered by Eastern European women. Don't even get me started on some of these 3rd world African countries that get such rich hauls in Olympics. 

No sorry you've got completely the wrong understanding here. There are many case studies that prove that sport performance is based on investment and infrastructure as opposed to genetics. 

 

Columbia before USA 94 were one of the best teams in the world and hence one of the tournaments favourites. This golden age of Colombian football was based on heavy investment from Pablo Escobar. When he died, Colombian football died for a long time. 

 

Observe the performance of home countries who are otherwise minnows throughout their history peaking in home tournaments...e.g. South Korea in 2002 World Cup, France in 1998 World Cup, USA in 1994 World Cup. Why the sudden peak that coincides with a country hosting the tournament? One is home advantage but other is heavy investment from domestic government to support development of their sports team. France  1998 team also won Euro 2000 and nearly World Cup 2006. All a result of investment in development in preparation for hosting tournament.

 

Australia has heavy investment in sport. A lot of neighbourhoods have free to access swimming pools, tennis courts and cricket nets plus the climate is conducive. The government heavily invests in sport. 

 

Watch how in coming years China will have an amazing soccer team. Ask yourself: did the population undergo mass genetic mutation or did something else change? 

 

 

 

[Khota]

These numbers mean nothing. In the end it is the wins that count.

[MechEng]

Ricky Ponting was the cricketer I feared the most, even more than Gilchrist, Mcgrath and Lee. I never feared Lara and Waugh as much as I did fear Ponting, he could shift gears from hooking/pulling the ball like Viv to grinding it out like Dravid and again shift back to aggressive mode. Very few batsmen dominated fast bowlers like he did during his prime.

[Gollum]

@mancalledsting If it isn't about genetics why do Eastern European women have many athletic records better than our men? Or many European/Aus ladies with better swimming timings than our men? Why do North American blacks dominate sprint events and Ethiopians/Kenyans/Somalians(3rd world countries even worse than us) the long distance events? Why do Europeans dominate javelin/hammer throw/discus etc? Why are Icelandic people so strong, I mean they dominate events like crossfit and world's strongest man events.....with a population of around 3 lakhs !!!  Even in India historically Northies have done well in javelin/discus/shot put etc while Mallus have done better in sprint events, probably has something to do with muscle fibre composition. 

 

Not just sports even mental abilities/intelligence has a genetic component. How else can you explain the fact that black people have done hardly anything of note in maths and science. East Asians are so good at Maths, white folk and Jews are so innovative and Jews have dominated chess.

 

I don't refute all of what you said. Investment and infrastructure do have a role in sports performance, but genetics is at least equally as important. Otherwise you will have Germans and Americans outrun those malnourished Ethiopians in 10km and marathon runs....something we never see. Even if India quadruples its GDP overnight and GOI decides to spend a great deal of that in sports infrastructure I can assure you that we won't have a single Indian in an Olympic 100 m final. 

 

You cited the example of football but I don't agree. football has a high skill component, ofc athletic ability is important but you can at least be a mid tier team if you invest in skills. Countries like China and South Korea can hire the best coaches, build state of the art infrastructure and pump in money to become good football teams. Even we were a very good side in the 50s and 60s because we were very skillful (relatively) back then. Tennis is somewhat similar, we had a few very good singles players in the past and a couple of potential major winners in Ramesh Krishnan and Vijay Amritraj. Because of genetic deficiency we can never become the best in these 2 sports but we can be among the near elite if we work towards it and have the facilities. These Aussies on the other hand can reach the very top because they have the genes. Similar to how Asian teams lost the edge in hockey after the switch to astro turf because we simply don't have the endurance and speed like the goras. 

 

Going forward I do hope we follow the East Asian model if we want to achieve something worthwhile in sports. Authorities must select a few sports like shooting, archery, wrestling, boxing, badminton, taekwondo, judo, weightlifting etc and spend all resources on these sports. It is unrealistic to harbor dreams of medals in athletics, swimming, rowing etc, kuch medal wahaan se mil bhi gaya toh cost-benefit ratio bahut bakwaas rahega. This is precisely what South Korea has been doing for the last 30 years. Before that they never won any medals, now they sweep the events in archery, judo, taekwondo etc. We may not equal these East Asian countries in the foreseeable future but that is the way to move forward. 

Edited December 16, 2017 by Gollum

[Vilander]

19 minutes ago, Gollum said:

genetics

First you need good food for the population

Then schooling and educational system that promotes sports

Then free access to good facilities like courts swimming pools gyms etc. There is one of these each in every residential block or township in western nations. Lack of facilities and lack of participation and simple lack of perks is riddiculous in India. There is sports quota in govt jobs but is there sport quota in university entrance is there sport scolarships across all states for higher education can a kid adopt a sport at district level or state level and make a living ? 

And i am not sure if you understand the enormity of what your are suggesting. And I know for some incidentally physically defetient people its convenient to cast everything as a pan national genetic problem because they extrapolate themselves as a norm while conveniently forgeting all the ills in their diet from childhood, lack of turored training in any physical activity at any competitive level and general lack of physical fitness etc its easy way out as the blame is not on them in that case, but thats still not a truth for the whole nation unfortunately. Look at some specimens who dominate their sport if they can why cant others its lack of opportunity incentive and therefore initiative. Every one is created equal there is no emphirical evidence for genetic deficiency amoung Indians a pool of 1 billion people and 20 odd nationalities ranging from -30  to + 40 deg celcius and a super state with 5+?  megafauna biodiversities can not be genetically deficient.indian tigers crocs bisons snakes are biggest in their species for instance there is nothing wrong with natural selection in fauna in India. Although indian arranged marriage means individuals can at times be at time subprime does not mean there is no prime couples who generate good genetic diversity and its 1 billion people lol how can we generalise 

[Gollum]

@Vilander Why are Kenya and Ethiopia better than us in sports? Both are worse than us in GDP per capita and HDI?