The best All Rounder in cricket history

[The Outsider]

Who has it been? Would be nice to put in some stats/articles as well to get the discussion going. In addition to the ones listed in the poll, here are a few others to choose from - Benaud, Mike Procter, Aubrey Faulkner, Learie Constantine, Monty Noble, Flintoff, Cairns, Pollock.

[fineleg]

Calypso! Sir Garfield.

[Clarke]

Every cricket fan should know that Imran Khan > Bradman. Is there anything left to discuss ?

[Jersey #10]

It has to be Shahid Afridi j/k- For me it's a tie between Imran Khan and Jacques Kallis but for the time being I will go with Kallis!

[Hindustani]

Sobers or Kallis

[Bradman99]

Sobers or Kallis

This.

[Online]

A cricketing genius, Garry Sobers excelled at all aspects of the game, and few would argue his claim as the finest allround player in modern cricket. His exceptional Test batting average tells little about the manner in which he made the runs, his elegant yet powerful style marked by all the shots, but memorably his off-side play. As a batsman he was great, as a bowler, merely superb, but would have made the West Indies side as a bowler alone. He was remarkably versatile with the ball, bowling two styles of spin - left-arm orthodox and wrist spin, but was also a fine fast-medium opening bowler. His catching close to the wicket may have been equalled but never surpassed, and he was a brilliant fielder anywhere. He was an enterprising captain - at times maybe too enterprising, as when a generous declaration allowed England to win a decisive match at Port-of-Spain. Born with an extra finger on each hand (removed at birth), Sobers excelled at most athletic activities, playing golf, soccer and bastketball for Barbados, and made his first class debut at the age of 16, appearing in Tests a year later. He was played initially mostly as a bowler, but four years later set the Test record for an individual batsman with a mammoth 365 against Pakistan. His achievments are numerous - including the six consecutive sixes hit off an over from the unfortunate Malcolm Nash, a superb innings of 254 for the Rest of the World against Australia in 1971 that earned the praise of Don Bradman, and much more. Like many West Indians, he plied his trade abroad, playing for Nottinghamshire, and South Australia. He was knighted for his services to cricket in 1975.

[Online]

Sobers or Kallis

Loking at just stats it is hard to pick between Kallis or Sobers but Sobers could bowl spin too - so he extends the definition of all rounder to another dimension.

[Sir john]

sobers

[akshayxyz]

Sobers or Kallis, between them - Sobers.

[akshayxyz]

Kapil had the skills, but he batted too low down the order.

[DomainK]

I think Sobers will win this easily. However, the second best could be a well contested one.

[thongale]

Imran, then Sobers

[Cricket_Guru]

no afridi?

[Sachin=GOD]

no afridi?

we are talking about the BEST allrounder, not the WORST :finger:

[achilles]

Vinoo Mankad.

[maniac]

Kapil Dev.He has turned matches with both his batting and bowling on numerous occasions.Sobers and Kallis are more of batting all rounders with good bowling skills.Richard Hadlee,Imran Khan were superior bowlers but has never turned a lot of games with their batting skills ala Kapil. My choice Kapil Dev.Here is a guy who held the highest score in ODI 175* for a while and was the highest test wicket taker for a while.

[jibranpatel15]

hello, Jaques Kallis is a great great great All Rounder in my choice simply because he has kept himself up everytime in this compitant and fast cricket eveen in T20 he has managed to find himself very important prospect for SA as he opened batting and bowling 4 overs as well. In tests and ODI's he is nearing 11,000 runs and 300 Wickets which is absolutely speechless, even a bowler struggles to reach 300 wickets in career and ends withought reaching there but kallis has managed to do so with a lot ease add to that his Catches he is at NO.3 i think in all time lists of catches. His fitness and level of concentration while batting is omnius. He has lived every dream of a cricketer and i think theres only 1 dream seems to be left which is TO WIN WORLD CUP FOR SOUTH AFRICA. Hopefully he will be able to fulfill that dream this time around and prove to world that he is the best ever all rounder.

[Jersey #10]

hello, Jaques Kallis is a great great great All Rounder in my choice simply because he has kept himself up everytime in this compitant and fast cricket eveen in T20 he has managed to find himself very important prospect for SA as he opened batting and bowling 4 overs as well. In tests and ODI's he is nearing 11,000 runs and 300 Wickets which is absolutely speechless, even a bowler struggles to reach 300 wickets in career and ends withought reaching there but kallis has managed to do so with a lot ease add to that his Catches he is at NO.3 i think in all time lists of catches. His fitness and level of concentration while batting is omnius. He has lived every dream of a cricketer and i think theres only 1 dream seems to be left which is TO WIN WORLD CUP FOR SOUTH AFRICA. Hopefully he will be able to fulfill that dream this time around and prove to world that he is the best ever all rounder.

Come back in 2015 plox!

[dhillon28]

A cricketing genius' date=' Garry Sobers excelled at all aspects of the game, and few would argue his claim as the finest allround player in modern cricket. His exceptional Test batting average tells little about the manner in which he made the runs, his elegant yet powerful style marked by all the shots, but memorably his off-side play. As a batsman he was great, as a bowler, merely superb, but would have made the West Indies side as a bowler alone. He was remarkably versatile with the ball, bowling two styles of spin - left-arm orthodox and wrist spin, but was also a fine fast-medium opening bowler. His catching close to the wicket may have been equalled but never surpassed, and he was a brilliant fielder anywhere. He was an enterprising captain - at times maybe too enterprising, as when a generous declaration allowed England to win a decisive match at Port-of-Spain. Born with an extra finger on each hand (removed at birth), Sobers excelled at most athletic activities, playing golf, soccer and bastketball for Barbados, and made his first class debut at the age of 16, appearing in Tests a year later. He was played initially mostly as a bowler, but four years later set the Test record for an individual batsman with a mammoth 365 against Pakistan. His achievments are numerous - including the six consecutive sixes hit off an over from the unfortunate Malcolm Nash, a superb innings of 254 for the Rest of the World against Australia in 1971 that earned the praise of Don Bradman, and much more. Like many West Indians, he plied his trade abroad, playing for Nottinghamshire, and South Australia. He was knighted for his services to cricket in 1975.[/quote'] cant deny the above facts, i think that sobers was the greatest player of all time full stop but as an allrounder he has a bowling average of 38 rpw which is about 15 runs higher than it should be for a top class allrounder. Imran Khan in last ten years of his career averaged above 50 with the bat and below 20 with the ball- simply unbeatable and on the basis of this golden run he has to go down as the best ALLROUNDER of all time as with those stats you can open the bowling and bat in the top four and be amongst the worlds best at each discipline. the same can be said for garfields bowling.