Who is the most valuable ODI cricketer in history?

[BlueBee]

Not only stats back him, he had every ****in' skill a bowler dreams of. May not be the best but certainly one of the top 3.

[yoda]

Joel Garner, simply unplayable. Then Viv or Sachin, would be a tossup.

[AmreekanDesi]

In terms of longevity sure' date=' but there are others who were better or just as good over a shorter period. Getting 500 ODI wickets does not equal best ever necesarily.[/quote'] LOL you make it sound as if he was averaging 30 or sth Guy averaged 21-22 and could also whack a few with the bat. But fo rme the best are Gilchrist and Sachin

[Zelig]

[Temujin Khaghan]

this guy not scared of anyone bats bowls and fields aggressively very fit

[Marut]

Doesn't matter where he bowled' date=' and ODI's are played all around the joint. McGrath has better stats, Akram wouldn't even be in my top 3-4 quicks.[/quote'] That means you can't differentiate between FTBs and batsmen who can bat any where? Because what you are saying now applies the same logic to bowlers. Bowling average of 23 odd over 350 matches is extraordinary for a pace bowler from the SC. Other top bowlers from the SC struggled to break sub 25 because home pitches weren't conducive, but Akram managed to beat those odds. McGrath averaged only 26.72 as a bowler away from home; Akram averaged 23.89; It is easy to see who is the better bowler when the home advantage is taken out.

[Temujin Khaghan]

my ODI XI of most useful players, not necessarily based on reputation Gilchrist - cpt and wk Jayasurya Gayle Sehwag Yuvraj Klusener Maxwell Kapil Afridi Malinga Garner

[Marut]

Joel Garner' date=' simply unplayable. Then Viv or Sachin, would be a tossup.[/quote'] His height was too much. In an era with no limit on bouncers, Garner could keep bowling bouncers and yorkers directed from a great height all day long and would be unplayable in ODIs. In test matches you could at least afford to wait for him to tire out or loose rhythm, but no such luck in ODIs. But Garner won't be that effective if he were to play under the current rules.

[KFC_Zinger]

Only a fool will take McGrath over Akram, I have seen McGrath getting tonked in later overs but I don't ever remember wasim getting clobbered heavily..... Also ABDV over Gilly, matches him in keeping and may be a better batsman

[adi B]

wasim akram,kallis,dev in that order

[sensible-indian]

That means you can't differentiate between FTBs and batsmen who can bat any where? Because what you are saying now applies the same logic to bowlers. Bowling average of 23 odd over 350 matches is extraordinary for a pace bowler from the SC. Other top bowlers from the SC struggled to break sub 25 because home pitches weren't conducive, but Akram managed to beat those odds. McGrath averaged only 26.72 as a bowler away from home; Akram averaged 23.89; It is easy to see who is the better bowler when the home advantage is taken out.

Good post. Wasim is the best pacer when it comes to ODIs. Surprised someone is arguing about that. McGrath was great in ODIs too but he was no Wasim.

[HippoSucks]

It comes down to Sachin and Gilchrist for me. Richards (and maybe Warne, McGrath and Kapil) is very close though, but de Villiers and Kohli are out of the picture.

[Gollum]

Richards and Sachin, pick either one

[sweetaskandy]

Gilchrist, Viv, Murali or Sachin. Maybe Ponting.

[Cricketics]

In all seriousness, Tendulkar. Priceless. Made the game more popular, better to watch etc. You can bring all the stats you want and how some players did better than him certain times in certain situations, but you can't deny that he had the biggest impact on the game. Hence, MOST VALUABLE.

[AmreekanDesi]

In all seriousness, Tendulkar. Priceless. Made the game more popular, better to watch etc. You can bring all the stats you want and how some players did better than him certain times in certain situations, but you can't deny that he had the biggest impact on the game. Hence, MOST VALUABLE.

In terms of impact I would argue that Kapil Dev had more impat Before his WC win in 1983 very few ppl in India cared abt Limited overs cricket

[Cricketics]

In terms of impact I would argue that Kapil Dev had more impat Before his WC win in 1983 very few ppl in India cared abt Limited overs cricket

For such people, there is a term called "Pioneer" Tendulkar to me is in different league in terms of having impact on the game.

[Gollum]

In all seriousness, Tendulkar. Priceless. Made the game more popular, better to watch etc. You can bring all the stats you want and how some players did better than him certain times in certain situations, but you can't deny that he had the biggest impact on the game. Hence, MOST VALUABLE.

+1

[jusarrived]

Dhoni overall , even though hes not been his self lately .. Greatest ODI bat ever , WK & arguably one of the best Capt

[Marut]

The most valuable player would be someone who can do two tasks so is equal to having 2 players in the team. The only guys who would fit this bill would be - Gilchrist, Dhoni, Sanga, ABDV, Andy Flower in Wicket Keepers because they were never expected to bat much previous in history. But I think after Flower and even Gilly - good batting is EXPECTED of the wicket keeper. This is why ALL teams who have a match winning batsman keeper in form have fared very well (AUS with Gilly, IND with Dhoni, SA with ABDV and even ZIM when Andy Flower was in form was a tough team to beat. So that leaves all-rounders. The only all-rounders who deserve credit are fast bowlers as they are more prone to be injured and have very short careers (so they cannot pad their averages) - that leaves out Jayasurya. Freddy Flintoff and Jaques Kallis are most valuable players in history if we look at it in their prime. They could bat anywhere in the order and were real quick bowlers and not 120k bowlers and really added an extra player to the team and were in a profession that had a very short shelf-life due to injuries. Rest is all BS - Tendulkar definitely does not deserve to be on this list - no batsman deserves to be as they are less prone to injuries and have a much longer career and get paid more than bowlers while also not giving an extra option to the team (batsman, bowlers etc.)

Flintoff had a poor shelf life. Kallis was never a good ODI batsman or a bowler - just a B grade ODI player for most of his career. You are more likely to lose a ODI match if Kallis gets a good score. Even Kallis big scores did not have great strike rates - 79 for his fifties and 90 for his hundreds. Kallis has to depend on great batsmen in the batting order to lift the team to a good score, and was rarely capable of doing it himself. 7% of Kallis innings were made at over run a ball - pathetic by modern standards of batsmanship.