Which period of the game had the best batsmen closest to each other?

[Harsh Thakor]

Few sports posess the intensity of debate on evaluation of order of merit of performers as the game of cricket .There are so many factors and eras are so different that one can hardly make an accurate evaluation.There are so many opinions with a different set of criteria that the choice is ultimately subjective. Few sports have a history like the game of cricket.We have the pre-Ist world war era with stars like Sydney Barnes and Victor Trumper.We have the golden era bewtten the wars with super players like Hoobs ,Compton,Bradman,Headley,Hammond etc.Then we have the post war period again which we can divide in different eras like those of the 3'W's',Hutton,Lindwall etc,the era of Sobers,Dexter,Gupte,May and Kanhai,the era of Viv Richards,Chappel brothers,Dennis Lille,Sunil Gavaskar etc and the era of Lara,Tendulkar,Akram,Ponting,Waugh brothers etc. Le alone deciding the best batsman of all time it was often a photo in deciding the best batsmen of any era.Only in Bradman's time was the no.1 choice unanimous ,that too again not necsearily on wet pitches or against bodyline. To me it was in the late 1970's when 5 batsmen came so close to each other for the title of the best batsman of the world as never before in the game.It would have needed a camera to seperate Viv Richards,Greg Chappell,Sunil Gavaskar,Barry Richards and Ian Chappell with Zaheer Abbas,Vishwanath and Clive Lloyd very close behind.The best performances of these players came in the period of the late 1970's with Viv and the Chapell brothers playing at their best in World series cricket.Viv Richards was the ultimate destroyer of bowling who devoured the greatest pace bowling like a tiger relishing his prey and turned the complexion of games like none since Bradman..Gavaskar broke almost all the test batting records and was the ultimate batting architect.Greg Chappell was outstanding statistically and technically a master..Barry Richards was like a Viv Richards and Gavaskar rolled into one combining the skill of a technician with the power of a military bomber.Ian Chappell was the best batsman in a crisis even overshadowing brother Greg.In terms of class one could hardly seperate Viv,Barry,Gavaskar and Greg while Ian would join them because of his prowess in handling a crisis. I can hardly imagine any period in the game when 3 batsmen were ever as close to each other in the same period as during the period of 1975-76-1979-80 .In this period Viv Richards scored 829 run s in 4 tests in England and 1710 runs in a calendar year , averaged 86 in his 1st year in World series cricket and 96.5 in Australia in 1979-80 .Sunil Gavaskar averaged above 85 with 13 centuries from 1977-78 to1979-80 . Greg Chappel scored 702 runs in a home series against West Indies in 1975-76 averaging 117 runs,averaged 69 runs aggregating 621 runs with 3 centuries in 5 supertests in West Indies and overall scored 1416 runs in Packer Cricket. Barry Richard's average of 79 in the Packer series with 2 classic centuries,including a spectacular 207 speaks for itself.Ian Chappell's great batting in a crisis made Gray Sober place him at no 1 amongst batsmen in 1979.Not far behind were Zaheer Abbas's classic batting versus India ,Vishwanath's classic innings at his best in a crisis. and the cameos of Gordon Greenidge and Clive Lloyd. Viv and Sunny were better players in the 1970's and thus in parts in the 1980's Gordon Greenidge and Javed Miandad were the best batsmen in the world.From 1984 for a while Greenidge captured the mantle of the best batsmen in the world from Viv Richards while Miandad did the same in 1988.Greenidge's 1984 batting in England and Javed's batting in successive series in England,West Indies and New Zealand won him the title.In 1986 Dilip Vengsarkar was arguably the best batsman averaging over 86 from 1986-1988,being prolific in England and at home against West Indies.At his best David Gower was in 1985 close to the top.Alan Border was ever consistent like Sunil Gavaskar who ended his career playing 2 of the best innings ever seen in International cricket. No period as the 1980's have seen such a small silver lining separating so many top batsmen from Viv Richards to Gordon Greenidge,Javed Miandad,Alan Border,Dilip Vengsarkar and Sunil Gavaskar.In the mid 1980's there was hardly anything between Viv Richards,Miandad,Gavaskar and Greenidge who were inches within one another.However Gavaskar and Viv Richards were not at their best like in the 1970's and no 4 batsmen reached their absolute peak in the same time as Viv,Gavaskar,Barry and Greg Chappell did in the late 1970's.The best batsmen of the 1980's also peaked in different periods like Border,Miandad and Greenidge. Other periods of similar intensity have been the periods of 1997-2002 and 1999 to 2006 with the likes of Brian Lara,Sachin Tendulkar,Steve Waugh,Mark Waugh,Rahul Dravid and Ricky Ponting.Tendulkar and Lara were not at their best in similar periods .Tendulkar was not at his best when Dravid was at his prime or Ponting was also at his best.Dravid ,Ponting and Lara were very close with later Kallis coming into the fray.Dravid,Ponting and Lara may have been neck to neck but personally I do not rank Dravid or Ponting as the equal's of Lara and Tendulkar. The 1960's had great intensity but ultimately the likes of Gary Sober,s Greame Pollock and Rohan Kanhai drew away with Barrington, a champion statistically.At ther prime Peter May,Ted Dexter or Colin Cowdrey were as good as any great player of their time.With a full career Pollock may have properly competed with Sobers .Kanhai did not statistically match Gary Sobers. Had Bradman not played in the 1930's then that era would had the most fierce competition for the best batsman with Hammond,Hobbs ,Headley,Compton etc in their prime. Please study the charts below compiled by S.Rajesh of cricinfo.In the eras of Ponting,Kallis,Dravid and Lara playing together there was intense competition but Sachin and Lara were not at their best.I think morally Gavaskar,Greg Chappel and Viv Richards were closer if you add Packer stats where cricket was more competitive and feel several batsmen from 1999-2006 had averages inflated if you consider that the bowling attacks were weaker.In his peak Ponting was a notch ahead of other greats in batting. Performance of top batsmen in Tests between 1976 and 1988 (Qual: 4000 runs) Batsman Matches Innings Runs Average 100 50 Viv Richards 92 135 7091 55.39 22 34 Greg Chappell 50 87 4233 54.97 13 18 Javed Miandad 95 146 7033 54.94 19 35 Allan Border 100 175 7670 52.17 23 35 Sunil Gavaskar 108 180 8655 51.51 29 36 Gordon Greenidge 83 139 6025 48.58 14 30 Performance of top batsmen in World Series Cricket Batsman Team Matches Innings Runs 100s 50s Average Barry Richards World XI 5 8 554 2 2 79.14 Greg Chappell Australia 14 26 1415 5 4 56.60 Vivian Richards West Indies and World XI 14 25 1281 4 4 55.69 David Hookes Australia 12 22 769 1 7 38.45 Clive Lloyd West Indies and World XI 13 21 683 1 3 37.94 Gordon Greenidge West Indies and World XI 13 23 754 1 4 35.90 Ian Chappell Australia 14 27 893 1 5 35.72 Best Test batsmen between Jan 1997 and Dec 2002 Batsman Tests Runs Average 100s/ 50s Sachin Tendulkar 59 5705 63.38 21/ 20 Andy Flower 41 3464 56.78 9/ 18 Matthew Hayden 35 3054 56.55 12/ 10 Rahul Dravid 62 5178 55.08 14/ 25 Aravinda de Silva 38 3134 54.98 12/ 9 Inzamam-ul-Haq 49 3740 51.94 12/ 15 Jacques Kallis 63 4447 51.70 11/ 25 Ricky Ponting 57 3916 50.85 14/ 14 Highest Test averages between Jan 1999 and Dec 2006 (Qual: 3000 runs) Batsman Tests Runs Average 100s/ 50s Ricky Ponting 87 8114 65.43 31/ 29 Jacques Kallis 81 7053 62.41 22/ 35 Rahul Dravid 82 7265 59.54 21/ 31 Mohammad Yousuf 66 5954 58.37 22/ 22 Inzamam-ul-Haq 65 5455 56.23 19/ 24 Matthew Hayden 81 7422 55.80 26/ 27 Sachin Tendulkar 71 5837 55.06 18/ 23 Brian Lara 74 7212 54.63 24/ 23 Steve Waugh 58 3818 52.30 15/ 11 Gary Kirsten 53 4197 51.18 14/ 17 Best Test batsmen between Jan 1958 and Dec 1974 (Qual: 3000 runs) Batsman Tests Runs Average 100s/ 50s Garry Sobers 79 7360 62.90 26/ 27 Ken Barrington 80 6754 59.76 20/ 35 Hanif Mohammad 37 3018 51.15 10/ 11 Doug Walters 50 3869 50.90 12/ 23 Rohan Kanhai 74 6021 49.35 15/ 28 Bob Simpson 50 4045 48.73 8/ 23 Ted Dexter 62 4502 47.89 9/ 27 Geoff Boycott 63 4579 47.69 12/ 26