Ranking the Batsmen

[adharcric]

Going with the trend, let's come up with a CW list of the twenty-five greatest batsmen of all-time.

Once again, we will start with a list of 50 and vote for the #1, then the #2, all the way to #25. To start off, I'll present my list of batsmen below. Please suggest changes to the list as I surely won't get it completely right.

Australia
Victor Trumper
Bill Ponsford
Don Bradman
Stan McCabe
Lindsay Hassett
Arthur Morris
Neil Harvey
Bob Simpson
Bill Lawry
Greg Chappell
Allan Border
Steve Waugh
Matthew Hayden
Ricky Ponting
Adam Gilchrist

England
W.G. Grace
Jack Hobbs
Herbert Sutcliffe
Wally Hammond
Len Hutton
Dennis Compton
Peter May
Ken Barrington
Geoff Boycott

India
Vijay Merchant
Vijay Hazare
Sunil Gavaskar
Sachin Tendulkar
Rahul Dravid

New Zealand
Martin Crowe

Pakistan
Hanif Mohammad
Zaheer Abbas
Javed Miandad
Saeed Anwar
Inzamam-ul-Haq

South Africa
Dudley Nourse
Graeme Pollock
Barry Richards
Jacques Kallis

West Indies
George Headley
Everton Weekes
Clyde Walcott
Frank Worrell
Garry Sobers
Rohan Kanhai
Clive Lloyd
Viv Richards
Gordon Greenidge
Brian Lara

Zimbabwe
Andy Flower

 

[Dravid]

There is no doubt Bradman will win

 

[Perm]

That's fairly obvious, but it will be interesting to see how CW rank the top 25.

 

[adharcric]

Just completed the list. Feedback?

 

[FaaipDeOiad]

If Lawry, Morris and Simpson all make Australia's list, I think Langer should too, and possibly even Slater. They're all fairly comparable, IMO.

I wouldn't include Brown or Woodfull for Australia, but I would include Gilchrist. Did average close to or above 60 for a fairly lengthy period after all, and the best strike rate in test history (for a batsman with a decent average, at least) is worthy of a position in this list ahead of the likes of Woodfull. Probably the most destructive test batsman ever, alongside Viv.

I also think Grace should be there for England, if only for his amazing domination of the last pre-test period. Looks good otherwise.

 

[Dravid]

Graham Gooch? I think he should be in there.

 

[Matt79]

No WG Grace? DisGRACEful!

 

[Dravid]

That's fairly obvious, but it will be interesting to see how CW rank the top 25.

IMO, Sachin would be either 2 or 3.

 

[Matt79]

IMO, Sachin would be either 2 or 3.

He still has a fair way to go to pass Hobbs as #2 IMO. But that's what this process will help us sort out I suppose.

 

[Slifer]

With all due respect i think the following batsmen should be added to the WI list:

Rohan Kanhai
Clive LLoyd
Alvin Kallicharan
Conrad Hunte

 

[oz_fan]

I agree that Clive Lloyd and WG Grace should be on the list.

 

[adharcric]

Alright, I'll look at those names. Please also help me out by telling me who SHOULD NOT be on the list. The narrowing down process was very hard.

 

[Perm]

I for one don't think that Vijay Merchant should be in there, he only played 10 tests and even if he did have a phenominal First Class record he didn't really prove himself at test level. The same can be said of Graeme Pollock and Barry Richards, fantastic batsman but for one reason or another didn't get to play enough test cricket. I think 30 test's should be the minimum, and the nominee's should only be considered by their test record because that is the highest level. That's just my opinion.

 

[nightprowler10]

Yousuf?

 

[Matteh]

Think the NZians might feel hard done by tbh.

 

[FaaipDeOiad]

Bill Woodfull shouldn't be on the list. He was a good test batsman but nothing particularly special, especially given that he played in an era where high scores were dominant. Same goes for Bill Brown.

 

[aussie tragic]

Suggest the following 5 additions:

Australia
Adam Gilchrist (5124 @ 48.80)
Doug Walters (5357 @ 48.26)

England
Dexter (4502 @ 47.89)

West Indies
Kanhai (6227 @ 47.53)
Clive Lloyd (7515 @ 46.67)

And the following 4 omissions:

Australia
Victor Trumper (3163 @ 39.04) - low average
Bill Brown (1592 @ 46.82) - not enough runs

India
Vijay Merchant - only 10 tests

South Africa
Barry Richards - only 4 tests

For the 5th omission, I think either Dean Jones (as Langer, Taylor, Martyn and M. Waugh could be considered better and they're not on the list) or Hanif Mohammed as Jones record is better than his.

 

[Perm]

I don't think you can really exclude Vic Trumper, he was arguably the second best batsman Australia ever produced. While his average doesn't really reflect how classy he was it would be hard to take him of the list. As for NZ having more representation who would it be? Glenn Turner? Bert Sutcliffe? To be fair New Zealand hasn't really produced that many world class batsman.

 

[aussie tragic]

I don't think you can really exclude Vic Trumper, he was arguably the second best batsman Australia ever produced. While his average doesn't really reflect how classy he was it would be hard to take him of the list.

So add Gilchrist, Walters, Dexter, Kanhai and Lloyd and remove Merchent, Brown, Richards, Jones and Hanif Mohammad for reasons I mentioned above.

 

[nightprowler10]

Hanif was one of the best of his time.

Also, Yousuf's stats:

Tests: 5737 runs @ 53.12
ODI: 7580 runs @ 41.19