Which was the fairest selection of 100 bets cricketers?Were the English writers biased towards Englishman?

[Harsh Thakor]

I have been studying the books of John Woodcock and Cristopher Martin Jenkins on their 100 best cricketers of all time.No doubt,they produced outstanding works and truly great selections.However I felt they both had an accute bias towards English cricketers in selection and ranking.I complement Woodcock a little more with his fair selection of Kanhai,Hanif Mohammad etc.Readers should count the no of non-English cricketers who arguably deserved a place in that top 100 bracket.I think the Australain writer Geoff Armstrong is sounder in his ratings or fairer. John Woodcock's 100 list In the early summer of 1997, The Times published a series of articles naming the 100 Greatest Cricketers of all time. It ran over a period of five weeks, listing the players in ascending order, and reached a climax on the Saturday of the Old Trafford Test, when the paper named W. G. Grace rather than Sir Donald Bradman as the greatest of all. Many Australians present expressed surprise and annoyance, and Shane Warne (No. 13) and Steve Waugh (95) promptly destroyed England on the field. The list was compiled by John Woodcock, the paper's cricket correspondent for 34 years, the former editor of Wisden and the man believed to have seen more Test cricket than anyone else in history. None the less, even Woodcock did not see Grace play, still less Alfred Mynn of Kent (died 1861, No. 4 on the list) or Billy Beldham and John Small of Hambledon (Nos. 39 and 61). No one, least of all Woodcock, pretended the list was definitive: "Inevitably invidious and essentially provocative," he said. It was, however, a very well-informed basis for many splendid arguments. 1. W. G. Grace 2. D. G. Bradman 3. G. S. Sobers 4. A. Mynn 5. J. B. Hobbs 6. S. F. Barnes 7. W. R. Hammond 8. I. V. A. Richards 9. I. T. Botham 10. D. C. S. Compton 11. L. Hutton 12. F. E. Woolley 13. S. K. Warne 14. V. T. Trumper 15. B. A. Richards 16. Imran Khan 17. K. R. Miller 18. R. Benaud 19. D. K. Lillee 20. A. V. Bedser 21. G. A. Headley 22. R. R. Lindwall 23. S. M. Gavaskar 24. E. R. Dexter 25. S. R. Tendulkar 26. W. J. O'Reilly 27. E. D. Weekes 28. B. C. Lara 29. R. J. Hadlee 30. R. G. Pollock 31. A. Shrewsbury 32. F. R. Spofforth 33. P. B. H. May 34. W. Rhodes 35. K. S. Ranjitsinhji 36. F. M. M. Worrell 37. A. R. Border 38. C. L. Walcott 39. W. Beldham 40. G. A. Lohmann 41. G. H. Hirst 42. H. Sutcliffe 43. M. J. Procter 44. G. S. Chappell 45. F. S. Trueman 46. H. J. Tayfield 47. T. Richardson 48. M. C. Cowdrey 49. Kapil Dev 50. B. S. Bedi 51. R. N. Harvey 52. R. B. Kanhai 53. G. A. Gooch 54. C. B. Fry 55. A. P. E. Knott 56. A. K. Davidson 57. K. F. Barrington 58. Javed Miandad 59. I. M. Chappell 60. Wasim Akram 61. J. Small 62. G. Boycott 63. A. G. Steel 64. T. G. Evans 65. M. A. Holding 66. L. N. Constantine 67. C. H. Lloyd 68. C. V. Grimmett 69. M. D. Marshall 70. J. C. Laker 71. Waqar Younis 72. D. I. Gower 73. C. T. B. Turner 74. A. C. MacLaren 75. G. L. Jessop 76. A. Shaw 77. J. B. Statham 78. V. A. P. van der Bijl 79. C. G. MacArtney 80. R. B. Simpson 81. C. E. L. Ambrose 82. Fazal Mahmood 83. W. H. Ponsford 84. Hanif Mohammad 85. F. S. Jackson 86. R. G. D. Willis 87. W. W. Armstrong 88. D. L. Underwood 89. S. Ramadhin 90. L. R. Gibbs 91. W. W. Hall 92. V. Mankad 93. H. Larwood 94. J. M. Gregory 95. S. R. Waugh 96. H. W. Taylor 97. A. A. Donald 98. S. J. McCabe 99. P. A. De Silva 100. J. R. Reid Just observe how John Woodcock has favoured Englishman in his ranking.Ian Botham is placed at no 10 ahead of Imran Khan at 16.Sydney Barnes is placed ahead of Dennis Lille and many places above Malcolm Marshall.Len Hutton is placed 12 places above Sunil Gavaskar.Colin Cowdrey is rated 4 places above Rohan Kanhai while Ted Dexter is rated 29 places ahead of Kanhai and Peter May 19 places.Denis Compton is ranked 9 places above Sir George Headley.Finally he places W.G.Grace at no 1 ,ahead of Gray Sobers and Don Bradman and Alfred Mynn above Viv Richards.I understand he wrote this great book in 1997 when Tendulkar or Lara were not even half-way through their ilustrious carers but still there is a clear bias towards Englishman.In his day Rohan Kanhai was morally bracketed with Gary Sobers as a batsman who had greater flair than May ,Cowdrey or Dexter. Cristopher Martin Jenkins 100 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) His top 10 are 1.Don Bradman 2.W.G.Grace 3.Gary Sobers 4.Jack Hobbs 5.Sachin Tendulkar 6.Walter Hammond 7.Sydney Barnes 8Walter Hammond 9.Viv Richards 10.Adam Gilchrist To start with Walter Hammond is placed above Viv Richards and W.G.Grace above Gary Sobers.Imagine placing Graham Gooch and Peter May above Ricky Ponting who was in the Brian Lara class as a batsman. David Gower ,Peter May or Colin Cowdrey were rated above Rahul Dravid who was a greater batting performer than all three of them in all conditions.Geoff Boycott is rated a few places ahead of Alan Border and Javed Miandad who both outclassed Boycott as a batsmen.Denis Compton is ranked a few places above Sunil Gavaskar.Ian Botham is placed a place above Dennis Lillee.He has eliminated the likes of Rohan Kanhai but placed David Gower or Kevin Pieterson which is unfair.Mohammad Azharrudin could have matched Pieterson or even Gundapaa Vishwanath.Fairly Imran Khan is ranked above Ian Botham .unlike Woodcock's ranking. Overall infact I feel John Woodcock's selection is fairer than Cristopher Martin Jenkins's Jenkins as he atleast includes Rohan Kanhai,Ian Chappell,Wes Hall ,Glen Turner and Hanif Mohammad who Jenkins excludes.Infact when the chips were down Ian Chapell was the best batsmen of the 1970's.I disagree with Woodcock placing Alan Border above Greg Chappell or Barry Richards above Sunil Gavaskar but applaud his fair placings of Javed Miandad,Ken Barrington or Aravinda de'Silva.Amazingly Woodcock ranks Michael Holding above Malcolm Marshall amongst fast bowlers.I complement Woodcock's ranking of Ray Lindwall above Fred Trueman and Javed Miandad ,Rohan Kanhai above Ken Barrington and Alan Border ahead of Geoff Boycott.I feel Andy Roberts could have been selected instead of John Snow in both lists. Overall I feel Geoff Armstrong's best 100 selection are fairer than those of John Woodcock and Cristopher Martin Jenkins.In his book he selected 9 best teams ,adding Doug Walters as his 100th. He ranks Imran Khan in 5th place above Jack Hobbs,Sachin Tendulkar and Sydney Barnes or even Viv Richards.Tendulkar is chosen for the 1st xi instead of Viv Richards.Justice is done to Rohan Kanhai who is selected in a team instead of Colin Cowdrey,Peter May or Ted Dexter or even David Gower.Jeff Thomson,Andy Roberts and Inzamam Ul Haq also make the top 100.Dennis Lillee is rated above Ian Botham Wasim Akram is rated above Glen Mcgrath,Kapil Dev above Keith Miller,Brian Lara above Denis Compton,Sunil Gavaskar ahead of Barry Richards,Greg Chappell ahead of Ricky Ponting or Alan Border and Javed Miandad ahead of Ken Barrington.He rates Andy Robers on par with Michael Holding and Everton Weekes on par with Frank Worrell.Perhaps wrongly Graeme Pollock is rated above Viv Richards,Malcolm Marshall ahead of Sachin Tendulkar.I feel Wasim Akram,Viv Richards and Dennis Lille deserved to be in the 1st xi.Arguably Neil Harvey should have been placed higher. He has chosen Rohan Kanhai,Andy Roberts,Joel Garner Inzamam Ul Haq,Jeff Thomson and Vijay Hazare who both Woodcock and Jenkins excluded from their selection of top 100 cricketers.Maybe he unfairly left out Steve Waugh and Gordon Greenidge.Maybe he has placed Imran Khan about 3 paces above the actual place he deserves .I would personally place Jack Hobbs above Imran Khan and Tendulkar or Viv Richards on par. The first XI- WG Grace, Jack Hobbs, Don Bradman, Sachin Tendulkar, Graeme Pollock, Garry Sobers, Adam Gilchrist, Imran Khan, Malcolm Marshall, Shane Warne and Sydney Barnes. The second XI- Len Hutton, Victor Trumper, Viv Richards, Wally Hammond, Brian Lara, Ian Botham, Alan Knott, Richard Hadlee, Dennis Lillee, Fred Spofforth, and Muttiah Muralitharan. The third XI- Sunil Gavaskar, Herbert Sutcliffe, George Headley, Greg Chappell, Frank Worrell, Kapil Dev, Wasim Akram, Jack Blackham, George Lohmann, Bill O'Reilly and Glenn McGrath. The fourth XI- Archie MacLaren, Clyde Walcott, Everton Weekes, Allan Border, Steve Waugh, Keith Miller, Wilfred Rhodes, Alan Davidson, Jim Laker, Godfrey Evans and Curtly Ambrose. The fifth XI- Barry Richards, Arthur Shrewsbury, Ricky Ponting, KS Ranjitsinhji, Denis Compton, Frank Woolley, Richie Benaud, Syed Kirmani, Ray Lindwall, Fred Trueman and Alec Bedser. The sixth XI- Virender Sehwag, Geoff Boycott, Rahul Dravid, Charlie Macartney, Javed Miandad, Mike Procter, Les Ames, Harold Larwood, Joel Garner, Bishan Bedi and Bhagwat Chandrasekhar. The seventh XI- Bob Simpson, Matthew Hayden, Rohan Kanhai, Neil Harvey, Ken Barrington, Monty Noble, Johnny Briggs, Wasim Bari, Andy Roberts, Michael Holding and Charlie Turner. The eighth XI- Graham Gooch, Billy Murdoch, Clem Hill, Peter May, Dudley Nourse, Jacques Kallis, Ian Healy, Hugh Trumble, Fazal Mahmood, John Snow and Waqar Younis. The ninth XI- Stan McCabe, Herbie Taylor, Vijay Hazare, Clive Lloyd, Inzamam-ul-Haq, Andy Flower, Andrew Flintoff, Bill Lockwood, Jeff Thomson, Tom Richardson and Arthur Mailey.

[BlueBee]

Voted for both yes and no :ohyeah:

[Austin 3:!6]

OP :hatsoff:

[Sachin=GOD]

Another essay competition in your school :cantstop:

[Sachin=GOD]

Another essay competition in your school :cantstop:

[Sachin=GOD]

Another essay competition in your school :cantstop:

[moniker]

Mirror mirror on the wall, who is the fairest of them all?