50 best cricketers of all time

[Harsh Thakor]

My top 50 cricketers in order of merit are 1.W.G.Grace/Gary Sobers 3.JackHobbs 4.Sachin Tendulkar 5.Donald Bradman 6.Viv Richards 7.Imran Khan 8.Shane Warne 9.Brian Lara 10.Walter Hammond 11.Adam Gilchrist 12.Jacques Kallis 13.Muthiah Murlitharan 14.Dennis Lillee 15.Malcolm Marshall 16.Sydney Barnes 17.George Headley 18.Richard Hadlee 19.Ian Botham 20.Denis Compton 21.Glen Mcgrath 22.Len Hutton/Sunil Gavaskar 24.Barry Richards 25.Keith Miller 26.Graeme Pollock 27.Greg Chappell 28.Wasim Akram 29.Ray Lindwall 30.Ricky Ponting 31.Fred Trueman 32.Alec Bedser 33 .Kapil Dev 34..Alan Border 35.Curtly Ambrose 36.Victor Trumper 37.Everton Weekes 38.FrankWorrell 39.Waqar Younus 40.Javed Miandad. 41.F.R.Spofforth 42.Andy Roberts 43.Harold Larwood 44.Michael Holding 45.Alan Knott 46.Mike Procter 47.Ken Barrington 48.Joel Garner 49.Dale Steyn 50.Neil Harvey Gary Sobers and W.G.Grace are rated at the top on equal footing for overall domination and impact.No cricketer arguably ever dominated a sport like W.G.Grace being at the top for almost 50 years.Remember he scored a triple hundred and classic centuries on pitches with grass uncut.Gary Sobers was like someone sent by God to play Cricket who was a 3 into one cricketer making an impact on the cricket field as no cricketer ever did.Statistics could hardly fully reflect Sober's true worth. Jack Hobbs is third Hobbs for longevity dominating the game even after the age of 40 .4th is Sachin Tendulkar for dominating every form of the game.Bradman for staistics.Viv Richards,Adam Gilchrist and Imran are chosen for being such great match-winners .Imran Khan's great leadership was taken into consideration .Imran was the best fast bowling all-rounder ever and best match-winner after Sobers.Walter Hammond is selected for his great prowess in the time of Bradman.It is difficult imagining Bradman surpassing Sachin's domination of every form of the game in the modern era or Hobbs staggering longevity and mastery on wet wickets.Brian Lara's phenomenal marathon scores and ability to score the bulk of runs out of a relatively weak batting side make him stand out.At his best he took games away like no batsmen from his era and outscored Sachin Tendulkar,be it in a test match or test series.At his best Viv Richards turned the complexion of a match more than anyone and was arguably the best matchwinning batsmen and player of pace bowling ever..Lillee just edged Marshall on competitivity and agression.Jacques Kallis had staggering all-round figures and was a worthy runner up to Gary Sobers as an all-rounder.Remember he took 5 wicket and scored a century twice in test matches .At his bet he was almost as effective as Sobers in a crisis in batting as well as fast-medium seamer.Had Botham maintained his form of 1977-82 he would well have joined the top5-6.Adam Gilchrist was the best match-winner of his time who at one stage averaged around 60 with the bat.

[vamos_rafa]

Sachin for me

[BlueBee]

:isalute: Sachin leading :hatsoff:

[Gollum]

Bradman for me. Gap between him and 2nd was astronomical.

[Austin 3:!6]

Its better to break it down between greatest batsman and bowler ever. Sachin Tendulkar is the greatest batsman to have played the game. I know Bradman had an insane avg. of 99+ but during those times cricket was not a competitive sport. It used to be played only between Eng & Aust and the quality of bowling was even worse than club level bowlers of today. Most of the bowlers were 45+ and used to trundle military medium which will even make Joginder Sharma shy. :giggle: Except Larwood there was no genuine quicks that Bradman had faced. He never faced likes of Marshall, Garner, Wasim, Waqars etc. Except Jim Laker good spinner was quite alien in those days. There was no googly, no doosra, no variations...simple run and bowl theory. Bradman faced hostile bowling only in bodyline series and his avg jumped down to 55. I have no doubt his avg would have between 45 - 55 if he played in modern times. Bradman only played in Eng and Aust, so he didn't had to adapt to various conditions. Who knows how much he would have struggled in spin friendly Subcontinent like all present Aussie batsman.Great Ricky Ponting avgs only 25 in India. Bradman played only in timeless test matches so never really had to change his game in different formats. He never had millions of hope piled on him like Sachin had most of his career. Only in his last innings there was a massive expectation from him to reach 100 avg and he scored a duck. Sachin on the other hand had scored against all type of bowlers in all condition in all formats. Greatest bowler is bit debatable but Malcom Marshall edges Glenn Mcgrath little bit. Surprised to see OP didn't put Mcgrath as an option in poll and put Wasim Akram there. Wasim was a great bowler no doubt but his major share of wickets were of tailenders. Mcgrath even with medium pace has constantly troubled the greatest of great batsman. The reason I put Marshall as the greatest bowler ever because the way he almost scared the batsman. He was on out and out athlete and a complete freak of a bowler My vote goes to Sachin greatest batsman and Marshal greatest bowler.

[Sir john]

Adam Gilchrist :--D

[Scarves]

tldr I'll make my own list.

[Harsh Thakor]

Its better to break it down between greatest batsman and bowler ever. Sachin Tendulkar is the greatest batsman to have played the game. I know Bradman had an insane avg. of 99+ but during those times cricket was not a competitive sport. It used to be played only between Eng & Aust and the quality of bowling was even worse than club level bowlers of today. Most of the bowlers were 45+ and used to trundle military medium which will even make Joginder Sharma shy. :giggle: Except Larwood there was no genuine quicks that Bradman had faced. He never faced likes of Marshall, Garner, Wasim, Waqars etc. Except Jim Laker good spinner was quite alien in those days. There was no googly, no doosra, no variations...simple run and bowl theory. Bradman faced hostile bowling only in bodyline series and his avg jumped down to 55. I have no doubt his avg would have between 45 - 55 if he played in modern times. Bradman only played in Eng and Aust, so he didn't had to adapt to various conditions. Who knows how much he would have struggled in spin friendly Subcontinent like all present Aussie batsman.Great Ricky Ponting avgs only 25 in India. Bradman played only in timeless test matches so never really had to change his game in different formats. He never had millions of hope piled on him like Sachin had most of his career. Only in his last innings there was a massive expectation from him to reach 100 avg and he scored a duck. Sachin on the other hand had scored against all type of bowlers in all condition in all formats. Greatest bowler is bit debatable but Malcom Marshall edges Glenn Mcgrath little bit. Surprised to see OP didn't put Mcgrath as an option in poll and put Wasim Akram there. Wasim was a great bowler no doubt but his major share of wickets were of tailenders. Mcgrath even with medium pace has constantly troubled the greatest of great batsman. The reason I put Marshall as the greatest bowler ever because the way he almost scared the batsman. He was on out and out athlete and a complete freak of a bowler My vote goes to Sachin greatest batsman and Marshal greatest bowler.

Greatest cricketer is very different from greatest bowler of Greatest batsmem.That is why I have ranked Gary Sobers and W.G.Grace so high up as well as all-rounders like Imran,Kallis,Botham and Hadlee or even Kapil Dev and Keith Miller. Would You not think Dennis Lillee was Marshall's equal as a fast bowler while as a match-winner Viv Richards ahead of Tendulkar or Brian Lara at his best in a crisis? Thank you for reply.

[Pakistan]

Imran Khan Niazi & Sir Garfield Sobers.

[waqas850]

Imran Khan is the best cricketer all the time.

[Raghav_12]

Having W G Grace, so high up is not very graceful thing to do. He played in completely amateurish era and we don't even know if some of his exploits are just legend or actual facts. Though you can make a case for Sobers.

[tweaker]

I have not seen many great players playing.But from whom I have seen,Imran Khan in greatest

[CSK Fan]