Player of the Decade

[Green_Machine]

Has to be Gilly..the man who changed the face of Test cricket with his aggressive batting.

[99.94]

Strauss has been pretty consistent. When did he start his career?

04. Pretty ordinary numbers though (only averaged over 45 in 04, 08 and 09) My vote is Kallis or Ponting.

[vvvslaxman]

Gotta be multitasking Kallis.

[The Outsider]

I would go for Gilchrist for the simple reason that he revolutionized one of cricket's roles. Wicketkeeping will never be the same again after him. Mostly that has been good for the game with people like Sangakkara and Dhoni coming to the fore, and sometimes it's bad with players like Kamran Akmal being kept in the side. But one thing is for sure - no team in the future of cricket will go in with a keeper primarily for his keeping abilities, neglecting his batting. They will always be looking for a balance. Yeah, there are numbers and some might have better numbers than Gilchrist in their respective areas like Murali, Kallis, or Ponting. But for me the "player of the decade" is no doubt Gilchrist.

[vvvslaxman]

yes Gilly is a strong contender as well. Can't go wrong with either of them.

[coffee_rules]

:punter: for obvious reasons. Jokes aside, We should rule out cheats out of the poll. Sehwag, Dravid, Tendulkar, and :punter: etc have had slumps and long highs, But Kallis has a Aussie bogeyman in his stats. Despite his slumps, Gilly and Sehwag are the only batsman who have kept the viewer interest in cricket, esp Tests. I would vote for Sehwag over Gilly, but Gilly would be global fav.

[nospam]

Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar

[cowboysfan]

i would go with kallis as well.

[akshayxyz]

I think we should avoid judging based on personal perception, which is very subjective. As for based on pure objective assessment ( quantifiable information cited above), Murli has to be clear winner. It would be unfair to compare Kallis with Murli, but we can always see by what margin he outperformed the second best "all rounder". #1 Murli - for excelling in is primary skill, that too leaving behind second runner up by huge margin. Or # Kallis - for unmatched all round performance. If you disagree - I would say - lets first define the quantifiable parameters based on which you want to judge.

[Ram]

Personally, I am amazed that there is even a debate on this topic. If you ask me, Murali is the ONLY nomination even. 900 international wickets in a single decade is simply unprecedented in the history of the sport. Unfortunately, a spin bowler like Murali cannot play a dashing innings filled with glitzy stroke-play, for his efforts to stay in the public memory. People are generally easily drawn towards batsmen because they can relate to their batting/stroke play more easily. But surely, that shouldnt allow one to discount the metronomical consistency with which Murali picked up wickets in this decade.

[King]

I know I'm going to get a lot of flak for this but Dhoni is my man. He can keep, captain, bat and knows how to win games. While the experienced have been giving up captaincy Dhoni has calmly went on with captaincy with out a fuss. He's my man of the decade.

[Mamu]

For whatever reason king is mighty obsessed with Dhoni. While he is good in what he has done, he hasn't been a maverick. There are only 3 people who have have changed cricket -- from what it used to be 10 years ago. 1) Gilchrist 2) Sehwag 3) Pietersen. I would have voted for Murali and possibly Warne but Murali doesnt bowl and I dont classify Javelin Trowers as cricketers. Warne -- I am not sure -- if you told me over the last 20 years -- he would be in there.

[punjabi_khota]

For whatever reason king is mighty obsessed with Dhoni. While he is good in what he has done, he hasn't been a maverick. There are only 3 people who have have changed cricket -- from what it used to be 10 years ago. 1) Gilchrist 2) Sehwag 3) Pietersen. I would have voted for Murali and possibly Warne but Murali doesnt bowl and I dont classify Javelin Trowers as cricketers. Warne -- I am not sure -- if you told me over the last 20 years -- he would be in there.

What has he changed apart from the switch hit ? :dontknow: Sure, England didn't have an aggressive player like him, but thats about it.

[punjabi_khota]

Personally, I am amazed that there is even a debate on this topic. If you ask me, Murali is the ONLY nomination even. 900 international wickets in a single decade is simply unprecedented in the history of the sport. Unfortunately, a spin bowler like Murali cannot play a dashing innings filled with glitzy stroke-play, for his efforts to stay in the public memory. People are generally easily drawn towards batsmen because they can relate to their batting/stroke play more easily. But surely, that shouldnt allow one to discount the metronomical consistency with which Murali picked up wickets in this decade.

You are being too easy on him. When we judge batsmen, we always talk about performing against the best in their den. Murali has failed in India AND Australia. India, boasting of the best players of spin and OZ the leading team of this decade for most part. Bowling average of 63 against the OZ in OZ and 43 against India in India..for this decade.

[Show_stopper]

Ponting would be my pick..by a quite a margin as well. The best #3 batsman I have seen this decade.

[riya]

For me it is Kallis.Not very flambouyant or flashy,but has been doing his job quietly and systematically.The very definition of underrated.

[PotterManiac]

When I see pull shots like these, Sachin automatically makes it to the top. LIFJexTEv1M&feature=related And if you think thats way back in 2003,there you go... kdBae8juAkg&feature=related Honestly, I would pick all the players in that list because everyone has contributed significantly.

[Ram]

You are being too easy on him. When we judge batsmen, we always talk about performing against the best in their den. Murali has failed in India AND Australia. India, boasting of the best players of spin and OZ the leading team of this decade for most part. Bowling average of 63 against the OZ in OZ and 43 against India in India..for this decade.

If you're intent on picking statistical holes in careers of cricketers, you're bound to find something no matter what. This isnt the award for the most flawless player of the decade, its the award for the outstanding player of the decade. All the other players being discussed in this post like Gilly, Sehwag, Kallis, have, at some point of this decade or the other, experienced significant slumps in their career. Does that automatically eliminate them from the discussion? Of course not. As I have said repeatedly, what Murali has done in this decade has no parallel in the combined 130-odd years of the sport. Thats how great a player he is. And, he has managed such feats in a decade that has been kindest to the batsmen in a long time. What more do you need?

[Mr. Wicket]

Glenn McGrath. Unparalleled excellence throughout 7 years of the decade in test cricket and ODIs, consistency in all conditions and against all opponents, regardless of whether he was bowling to (and dominating) Dravid at Bangalore or knifing through England at Lord's or Pakistan at home. Frightening that if you look at his test record this decade - his 'worst' average is against South Africa. 34 wickets at 26.52. (Overall it's close to 300 wickets and an average of around 21. Phenomenal!) Stunning average, strike rate, barely a period of bad form that lasted more than a couple of games, and then in ODIs much the same. (In the decade 234 wickets at an average of 20.28 and an e/r of 3.78.) Not to mention two superb World Cups (47 wickets in 22 matches in the 2 WCs he played in this decade), and again barely a blip on the radar where he failed.

[gaurav92]

My Top 10 on the list would be Sachin Tendulkar Rahul Dravid Adam Gilchirst Mahela Jayawardena Ricky Ponting :P Jacques Kallis Brian Lara Muralidharan Glenn Mcgrath Mendis :woot: Warne Paul Collingwood These are the top contenders for me.M y pick would be Sachin of course, not just because he has scre runs everywhere around the world, have records in almost every category and heads it, but also because, even now he has the hunger of runs and passion equal to a young kid just started to play cricket.Great person apart from being the greatest cricketer ever produced. :hail::hail::hail::hail::hail::hail::hail::hail: