The Wisden Bible all time player rankings

[Lillian Thomson]

"Wisden - the cricketer's Bible - judged the levels of a player's performance against the strength of the opposition, career length, and the importance of each contribution."

Batsmen
1 Don Bradman (Australia)
2 Sachin Tendulkar (India)
3 Viv Richards (West Indies)
4 Gary Sobers (West Indies)
5 Allan Border (Australia)
6 Jack Hobbs (England)
7 Ken Barrington (England)
8 Sunil Gavaskar (India)
9 Greg Chappell (Australia)
10 Brian Lara (West Indies)

Bowlers
1 Muttiah Muralidaran (Sri Lanka)
2 Richard Hadlee (New Zealand)
3 Syd Barnes (England)
4 Shane Warne (Australia)
5 Clarrie Grimmett (Australia)
6 Glenn McGrath (Australia)
7 Dennis Lillee (Australia)
8 Malcolm Marshall (West Indies)
9 Imran Khan (Pakistan)
10 Courtney Walsh (West Indies)

[archie mac]

No Bill O'Reilly is a big surprise for mine, or was there a min. No of wickets to be claimed?

[shortpitched713]

When was this published?

[silentstriker]

There are a couple I disagree with in terms of placement, but the gist of it is right on.

[Turbinator]

7 Aussies
5 West Indians
3 English
2 Indians
1 Pakistani
1 Sri Lankan
1 NewZealander
0 South Africans

[Perm]

I disagree with Muralitharan being #1 but I'm probably in the minority.

[silentstriker]

Originally Posted by Perm

I disagree with Muralitharan being #1 but I'm probably in the minority.

If you think he does not chuck, then you have a hard time showing how he can't possibly be a top three bowler of all time. The man takes too many wickets and does it everywhere.

However, I don't think any bowler with doosra bowls legally, or at least I haven't seen it bowled legally, so thats why I would have Warne higher, but if I take the ICC stance and rule all his deliveries legal....there is no way I can keep him from being a top three bowler. You just can't. In every conceivable category, he simply blows most of the opposition away. He has pace all time great stats even though he's a spinner (spinners tend to have higher averages and Strike Rates than pace bowlers....except Murali).

[dass]

how come wasim akram is not there? the only man with 500 one day wickets and 400 tests

[dass]

and Brian lara should be number 5

[adharcric]

Border, Barrington and Walsh ... hell no. Grimmett ... no.

[silentstriker]

Dunno, I think Border is a bit underrated. I would take him over Waugh TBH. Dunno about #5 all time though.

[Krishna_j]

What about Graeme Pollock - even in his late 40's he took the rebel Windies attack incl Sy Clarke and Australia which had Alderman , Rackemann et al apart with ease

His career lasted more than 20 yrs from 1966-1986

[Fusion]

Originally Posted by dass

how come wasim akram is not there? the only man with 500 one day wickets and 400 tests

Wasim was ranked number one in their ODI rankings.

[silentstriker]

Originally Posted by Krishna_j

What about Graeme Pollock - even in his late 40's he took the rebel Windies attack incl Sy Clarke and Australia which had Alderman , Rackemann et al apart with ease

His career lasted more than 20 yrs from 1966-1986

I think, as a batsman on talent, he would be up there. But his lack of real test match experience works against him.

[Fusion]

Here are the ODI rankings:

Top 10 bowlers:
(1) Wasim Akram
(2) Allan Donald
(3) Waqar Younis
(4) Glenn McGrath
(5) Joel Garner
(6) Saqlain Mushtaq
(7) Mutthiah Muralitharan
(8) Shaun Pollock
(9) Shane Warne
(10) Dennis Lillee

Top 10 Batsmen:
(1) Viv Richards,
(2) Sachin Tendulkar
(3) Brian Lara
(4 Dean Jones
(5) Michael Bevan
(6) Sourav Ganguly
(7) Mark Waugh
(8) Zaheer Abbas
(9) Jaques Kallis
(10) Saeed Anwar


The list came out in 2002. Incidently, Wisden ranked the top 100 players in both forms of the games. I can't be bothered to post the entire list though.