1990-2010: The 5 great test allrounders. How do they stack up?

[patriot]

How would the below 5 all rounders measure up in rankings 1 to 5 , in your opinion ? In no particular order Chris Cairns - A poor man's Kapil Dev. Very intelligent swing bowler with excellent variations on almost always got Kiwis an early breakthrough. Bowling strike rate of 53. 220 odd test wickets. A belligerant hitter who could play the grinding knocks from tim to time. His batting and bowling numbers are better better than Flintoff. I dare say as an overall package he was as good as Flintoff. His bowling was not quiet as menacing as Flintoff, but he invarably got early breakthroughs and had the ability to run through sides which shows in the number of 5W halls he has. He din't have the kind of bowling support like Flintoff therefore he will always be underrated. Kallis - A truely great bat. Not lesser than our own Dravid. 260+ wickets. Still feel he was a batsman who could bowl short spells and get crucial breakthroughs. Probably not a true allrounder in every sense. Pollock - World class seamer. Batting is highly overrated IMO. Hardly ever played meaningful or match changing knocks. Vettori - Finest left arm spinner for donkey's years. Not very penetrative, but very very tight. Avg's 40+ with the bat for few years now. Flintoff - Highly penetrative second change bowler who can run through sides and a destructive bat to boot.

[Serani]

Cant say I saw much of chris cairns so couldnt rate, obviously Kallis is ranked 1, probably Flintoff 2 and Vettori and Pollock, dont really rate pollock as an allrounder. Also I wouldnt say Flintoff is penetrative, and he hardly ever ran through sides, he was probably the best containing bowler in the world and set up wickets for other bowlers, his batting really fell away though, he could have easily had a 35+ test batting average.

[vvvslaxman]

Serani, Flintoff is definitely a better bowler than his stats suggest. I agree one area where he fails was taking wickets through full deliveries. But he is kind of a guy who creates pressure so much at one end and bowlers at other end benefits. Jamie Anderson himself confessed that he owes half his wickets to Flintoff. He was a genuine all rounder.

[Gunner_Mania]

Flintoff's presence in itself made a huge difference to the English team.

[suraj]

Keep in mind the influence of media here; every appeareance of flintoff every 6 months is hailed as a visit from some prophet by the English media whereas there is not much of a Kiwis media influence aywhere in the world Kallis obviously ranks above & beyond in this discussion

[punjabiplaya]

freddie unfortunately was very injury prone due to his height and build,and early injuries in his career,a more professional attitue early on and he would have been up there with kallis who was hed and above the rest! Freddie was englands talisman no doubt but he wasnt consistant and fit enough and didnt have the dedication of a kallis,in fact how often did freddie take 5wkts in an innings?? still a very good player but not great,where in fact kallis is great!

[vvvslaxman]

Keep in mind the influence of media here; every appeareance of flintoff every 6 months is hailed as a visit from some prophet by the English media whereas there is not much of a Kiwis media influence aywhere in the world Kallis obviously ranks above & beyond in this discussion

Nope. check Gauti's interview on Flintoff or Punter's interview. Gauti admits the most hostile spell he ever faced in his career was from Andrew Flintoff at Mohali First time I was worked over by a fast bowler It's happened only once so far. It was by Andrew Flintoff in Mohali last year, on the second day of the Test. It was the quickest and nastiest spell of short-ball bowling I ever faced. http://www.cricinfo.com/magazine/content/story/394608.html

[thevortex]

Serani, Flintoff is definitely a better bowler than his stats suggest. I agree one area where he fails was taking wickets through full deliveries. But he is kind of a guy who creates pressure so much at one end and bowlers at other end benefits. Jamie Anderson himself confessed that he owes half his wickets to Flintoff. He was a genuine all rounder.

You know, I was waiting to see if you would not see things this way. Your first line - that is all that one needs to understand even when one talks about Tendulkar. Stats are not the be all and end all of the game. Back to the subject - my order is: Jacques Kallis Flintoff Cairns Pollock Vettori I know statistics begs for Vettori to be placed higher. But he is, to start with, a bowler. And he is not exactly a wicket taking bowler. All the others are very strong in their strong suits. Plus there would be very few people who would pick Vettori over Pollock in their team - all this is for Test matches, of course.

[Mr. Wicket]

Only two of those are actually 'great, and it's debatable whether Vettori for his overall career can be called an all rounder.