Cricketers unfairly left out of Cristopher Martin Jenkins 100 greatest cricketers.

[Harsh Thakor]

The Late Cristopher Martin Jenkins no doubt made a great contribution to cricket broadcasting and journalism.His 100 best cricketers was a great effort giving due respect to the great cricketers and giving merit to the greats of every department and era of the game. However some ommissions were arguably unpardonable.In order of merit these were Rohan Kanhai,Ian Chappell,Andy Roberts,Gordon Greenidge Hanif Mohammad or Inzama Ul Haq. Jenkins has correctly included Wasim,Waqar,Miandad who have to make it but excluded Hanif and Inzamam and included Zaheer Abbas.No doubt Zaheer was the best ever Asian batting artist and arguably batting's ultimate stylist but in batting performance Hanif and Inzy both eclipsed Zaheer who never scored a century against the West Indies like Hanif and Inzamam.Hanif was the ultimate technician who could bat for his life while Inzamam was the ultimate match-winner.Martin Jenkins gave more importance to Zaheer's 1st class record .Remember Hanif's 337 at Barbados and Inzy's average of 80 runs in games won. Ian Chappell was arguably the best post war captain and before Ricky Ponting the best Australian batsman one done.When the chips were down he was the best batsman of the 1970,even ahead of brother Greg.He brilliantly tackled graet pace and spin bowling.As a leader he made more impact on his team and generation than any post-war skipper. Andy Roberts was in the classical sense the most versatile West Indian paceman of all time who gave birth to the great quartet.No paceman bowled so much like Deenis Lillee as Andy and Lillee rated him the most complete bowler of his generation as well as Sunil Gavaskar.Both the Chappel brothers found Andy Roberts more daunting than any pace bowler they faced. Rohan Kanhai was more talented than any batsman ever and at his best was in the Bradman class.He was a match-winner and champion in a crisis who averaged 58 runs in games won and 53 runs at one down position.Many experts rated him marginally ahead of Sobers as a batsman.If Jenkins included Gower,Dexter and Cowdrey surely Kanhai should have been counted as he was a better performer than any of those 3. Gordon Greenidge was in his peak in 1984 arguably the best batsman in the world and 2nd to Viv Richards in the 1980's He brilliantly blended attack with defence like few great batsman.He could tear the top of a cricket ball with the ferocity of a tiger but still display the skill of a technician.Above all he was amongst West Indian cricket's greatest match-winners with a better average than Viv Richards in games won.Personally I feel Greenidge was almost as meritorious as Graham Gooch or Geoff Boycott and ahead of David Gower. Fittingly John Woodcock in his 100 best list included Hanif Mohammad,Ian Chappell and Rohan Kanhai that too in deserving positions.The latter 2 were both rated above the likes of Geoff Boycott or Javed Miandad. Another critiqe of CMJ.'s book is his order of merit.Glen Mcgrath is placed at no 12 with Imran at 14 and Wasim Akram at 34.As cricketers both Imran and Wasim would rank ahead of Mcgrath.I also feel Kallis is place far too low down in 52 nd place and should atleast be in the 1st 20.There is a tendency to overrate English batsman with the likes of Gooch,Boycott and Peter May placed ahead of Javed Miandad and Alan Border.Sunil Gavaskar is 9 batsman lower than Len Hutton to whom he was virtually on par.Brian Lara at 24 is too low for the maestro who to me is only a hare's breadth below the great Tendulkar.I also do not see why Viv Richards is rated below Wally Hammond Rahul Dravid is ranked behind Colin Cowdrey or Clive Lloyd behind David Gower.Dravid should stand close to Graeme Pollock.I also feel Sydney Barnes has been overrated as he hardly faced as much competition as Lillee or Marshall.Neil Harvey is also ranked far too low who was almost Greame Pollock's equal. According to CMJ 1.Bradman 2.W.G.Grace 3.Gary Sobers 4.Shane Warne 5.Jack Hobbs 6.Sachin Tendulkar 7.Sydney Barnes 8.Walter Hammond 9.Viv Richards 10.Adam Gilchrist. AUSTRALIA Warwick Armstrong (68) Richie Benaud (41) Allan Border (55) Greg Chappell (38) Jack Gregory (71) Clarrie Grimmett (54) Neil Harvey (87) Ian Healy (91) Dennis Lillee (19) Ray Lindwall (31) Charlie Macartney (100) Stan McCabe (65) Glenn McGrath (12) Keith Miller (16) Bill O’Reilly (23) Bill Ponsford (81) Ricky Ponting (47) F.R. Spofforth (27) Victor Trumper (30) C.T.B. Turner (95) Steve Waugh (63) ENGLAND Les Ames (64) Ken Barrington (46) Alec Bedser (29) Ian Botham (18) Geoffrey Boycott (53) Denis Compton (21) Colin Cowdrey (78) Ted Dexter (75) Andrew Flintoff (82) C.B. Fry (80) Graham Gooch (44) David Gower (70) Len Hutton (17) Gilbert Jessop (84) Alan Knott (69) Jim Laker (33) Harold Larwood (49) George Lohmann (50) Peter May (42) Kevin Pietersen (60) K.S. Ranjitsinhji (35) Wilfred Rhodes (15) Arthur Shrewsbury (61) John Snow (66) Brian Statham (89) Herbert Sutcliffe (43) Maurice Tate (77) Fred Trueman (22) Hedley Verity (59) Frank Woolley (40) INDIA Bishan Bedi (62) Bhagwat Chandrasekhar (94) Kapil Dev (48) Rahul Dravid (74) Sunil Gavaskar (26) Vinoo Mankad (99) Vijay Merchant (96) NEW ZEALAND Martin Donnelly (73) Richard Hadlee (25) PAKISTAN Zaheer Abbas (86) Wasim Akram (34) Imran Khan (14) Javed Miandad (57) Abdul Qadir (88) Waqar Younis (36) SOUTH AFRICA Allan Donald (83) Jacques Kallis (52) Graeme Pollock (37) Shaun Pollock (97) Barry Richards (28) Graeme Smith (93) SRI LANKA Sanath Jayasuriya (67) Mahela Jayawardena (79) Muttiah Muralitharan (13) Kumar Sangakkara (58) WEST INDIES Curtly Ambrose (51) Learie Constantine (56) Lance Gibbs (90) Gordon Greenidge (98) George Headley (20) Michael Holding (85) Brian Lara (24) Clive Lloyd (72) Malcolm Marshall (11) Clyde Walcott (45) Courtney Walsh (92) Everton Weekes (32) Frank Worrell (39) ZIMBABWE Andy Flower (76)

[diga]

Voted for Ian Chappell for both his onfield & off the field infuence on cricket.. If VVS Laxman deserves to be there, so too Kumble

[Lord]

Joel Garner

[I6MTW]

Anil Kumble, VVS Laxman, Sehwag were all left out.

[FischerTal]

so many englishmen..... ah-chooooo. sorry i am allergic to BS

[FischerTal]

grace at #2?

[FischerTal]

how the feck is gilly at #10? :wall:

[maniac]

Back to what I said I hate when no name players make it to great list...Who the F is Warwick Armstrong?

[Chalks]

No Dessie Haynes or Richie Richardson? :protest:

[Jersey #10]

Lol at the top 10...hahahahahaha

[King Tendulkar]

CMJ RIP But this top 100 is shoddily done. Too many crazy ommissions

[Texan]

Tendulkar at # 6 - over-rated WG Grace at # 2 is a joke. Gavaskar at #26 - under-rated Dravid at # 74 - severely under-rated Gilchrist at #10 and Flower at # 76 - extremely baffling. One would have thought that Flower having played for a weaker team and being the mainstay of the batting line-up should be higher than Gilchrist who played for a top team in the midst of a bevy of stars.