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My top 30 FIRST CLASS batsmen of all time

Days of Grace

International Captain
Same formula as my test cricket ratings. Interesting results. I never thought much of Patsy Hendren before now. Quite clearly, he was a very good batsmen for a very long time. 170 FC centuries says a lot. Fry and Woodfull must have been tremendous players.

And I can assure you that I went to see the Doctor and his whole beard is twitching, such is his fury that he only made 17th place.

1 D.G. Bradman 1340
2 J.B. Hobbs 984
3 E.H. Hendren 935
4 G.A. Headley 935
5 V.M. Merchant 932
6 W.R. Hammond 926
7 K.S. Ranjitsinhji 888
8 L. Hutton 870
9 H. Sutcliffe 852
10 C.B. Fry 849
11 G. Boycott 837
12 D.C.S. Compton 825
13 Woodfull 821
14 R.T. Ponting 798
15 Lehmann 797
16 V.S. Hazare 794
17 W.G. Grace 787
18 G.A. Hick 781
19 T.W. Hayward 775
20 F.E. Woolley 774
21 S.R. Tendulkar 765
22 M.G. Bevan 755
23 B.A. Richards 751
24 M.D. Crowe 745
25 G.A. Gooch 736
26 C.L. Walcott 732
27 I.V.A. Richards 730
28 V.T. Trumper 727
29 G.S. Sobers 727
30 R.T. Simpson 724
 

The Sean

Cricketer Of The Year
Same formula as my test cricket ratings. Interesting results. I never thought much of Patsy Hendren before now. Quite clearly, he was a very good batsmen for a very long time. 170 FC centuries says a lot. Fry and Woodfull must have been tremendous players.

And I can assure you that I went to see the Doctor and his whole beard is twitching, such is his fury that he only made 17th place.

1 D.G. Bradman 1340
2 J.B. Hobbs 984
3 E.H. Hendren 935
4 G.A. Headley 935
5 V.M. Merchant 932
6 W.R. Hammond 926
7 K.S. Ranjitsinhji 888
8 L. Hutton 870
9 H. Sutcliffe 852
10 C.B. Fry 849
11 G. Boycott 837
12 D.C.S. Compton 825
13 Woodfull 821
14 R.T. Ponting 798
15 Lehmann 797
16 V.S. Hazare 794
17 W.G. Grace 787
18 G.A. Hick 781
19 T.W. Hayward 775
20 F.E. Woolley 774
21 S.R. Tendulkar 765
22 M.G. Bevan 755
23 B.A. Richards 751
24 M.D. Crowe 745
25 G.A. Gooch 736
26 C.L. Walcott 732
27 I.V.A. Richards 730
28 V.T. Trumper 727
29 G.S. Sobers 727
30 R.T. Simpson 724
Surprised Woodful so high but Ponsford not. Woodful had an amazing FC average, but Ponny's was fractionally even better.
 

Days of Grace

International Captain
Aye, he's still in a huff about it.

But, I told him it's his own stubborn fault for playing into his fifties. Of course, his average suffered.

But, oh lad, he was a collosus at the crease. I can picture it now. In 1871, he averaged 71.00 FFS. And that's over 1000 runs mind you.
 

Athlai

Not Terrible
I'd personally love to see another all rounders list but for ODI. Stats have a funny way of bearing quite close to peoples opinions.
 

archie mac

International Coach
Surprised Woodful so high but Ponsford not. Woodful had an amazing FC average, but Ponny's was fractionally even better.
I thought the same thing, Pony had a better FC ave and a better Test ave:wacko:

Kippax also had a great FC record
 

Days of Grace

International Captain
Aye. I didn't do a rating for Ponsford and Kippax. I have now.

Revised list:

1 D.G. Bradman 1340
2 J.B. Hobbs 984
3 E.H. Hendren 935
4 G.A. Headley 935
5 V.M. Merchant 932
6 W.R. Hammond 926
7 K.S. Ranjitsinhji 888
8 L. Hutton 870
9 H. Sutcliffe 852
10 C.B. Fry 849
11 G. Boycott 837
12 D.C.S. Compton 825
13 W.M. Woodfull 821
14 W.H. Ponsford 803
15 R.T. Ponting 798
16 D.S. Lehmann 797
17 V.S. Hazare 794
18 W.G. Grace 787
19 G.A. Hick 781
20 T.W. Hayward 775
21 F.E. Woolley 774
22 S.R. Tendulkar 765
23 M.G. Bevan 755
24 B.A. Richards 751
25 M.D. Crowe 745
26 G.A. Gooch 736
27 C.L. Walcott 732
28 I.V.A. Richards 730
29 V.T. Trumper 727
30 G.S. Sobers 727
 

JBMAC

State Captain
I am surprised Bevan made that list.While he was fairly consistent and pulled the aussies out of some tight fixes I did not think he would have made that list.
 

Perm

Cricket Web: All-Time Legend
I am surprised Bevan made that list.While he was fairly consistent and pulled the aussies out of some tight fixes I did not think he would have made that list.
It's First Class rankings mate.
 
Same formula as my test cricket ratings. Interesting results. I never thought much of Patsy Hendren before now. Quite clearly, he was a very good batsmen for a very long time. 170 FC centuries says a lot. Fry and Woodfull must have been tremendous players.

And I can assure you that I went to see the Doctor and his whole beard is twitching, such is his fury that he only made 17th place.

1 D.G. Bradman 1340
2 J.B. Hobbs 984
3 E.H. Hendren 935
4 G.A. Headley 935
5 V.M. Merchant 932
6 W.R. Hammond 926
7 K.S. Ranjitsinhji 888
8 L. Hutton 870
9 H. Sutcliffe 852
10 C.B. Fry 849
11 G. Boycott 837
12 D.C.S. Compton 825
13 Woodfull 821
14 R.T. Ponting 798
15 Lehmann 797
16 V.S. Hazare 794
17 W.G. Grace 787
18 G.A. Hick 781
19 T.W. Hayward 775
20 F.E. Woolley 774
21 S.R. Tendulkar 765
22 M.G. Bevan 755
23 B.A. Richards 751
24 M.D. Crowe 745
25 G.A. Gooch 736
26 C.L. Walcott 732
27 I.V.A. Richards 730
28 V.T. Trumper 727
29 G.S. Sobers 727
30 R.T. Simpson 724

Very strange. Zaheer Abbas is not in the list. He made 100 hundreds in first class.
 

Days of Grace

International Captain
tbh, I no longer really stand by these ratings. These are from the old system (mid-2007) and would probably be different now.

Saying that, it would be impossible to do a comprehensive rating for first-class batsmen because of a lack of stats on statsguru (e.g. record vs. each opponent). And it would probably take me months and months. Some batsmen played over 500 games.
 

zaremba

Cricketer Of The Year
To paraphrase Brian Clough, WG Grace may not be the best player of all time, but he's in the top 1.

Pleased however to see 3 Sussex players in the list. Sorry not also to see Martin Speight and Richard Montgomerie in there somewhere.
 

Days of Grace

International Captain
If batting averages could be adjusted based on the bowling RPW of each opponent during each era, I have no doubt that W.G. would be near the top, maybe only behind Bradman and Hobbs.
 

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