Player of the Decade - Ponting

[stephen]

As always, Pigeon who was the true hero of the 00s gets shunted down behind the more vocal players. Pigeon was the player of the decade from mine. He was the only player without any similar players even in the same league as him.

 

[thierry henry]

Should be Murali, shouldn't it? I'd have Murali and Kallis fighting it out with Ponting or Gilchrist 3rd.

Tendulkar shouldn't be there at all. Sanga, MoYo, Jayawardene etc all have cases to have more votes than ST for the 00s decade. The fact that Sachin is close to Murali is ridiculous imo.

 

[stephen]

Should be Murali, shouldn't it? I'd have Murali and Kallis fighting it out with Ponting or Gilchrist 3rd.

Tendulkar shouldn't be there at all. Sanga, MoYo, Jayawardene etc all have cases to have more votes than ST for the 00s decade. The fact that Sachin is close to Murali is ridiculous imo.

Glenn McGrath.

 

[thierry henry]

In tests in the 00s, Tendulkar scored 7000 runs at 53, while Sangakkara scored 7,500 at 55 AND kept wicket a lot of the time, yet Sanga doesn't even make the list????

 

[thierry henry]

MoYo scored 6,500 at 58.5

Jayawardena scored 8,000 at 55

 

[Burgey]

As always, Pigeon who was the true hero of the 00s gets shunted down behind the more vocal players. Pigeon was the player of the decade from mine. He was the only player without any similar players even in the same league as him.

Absol-****ing-utely. Bowlers getting shunted aside by batsmen shocker!

 

[Streetwise]

Its not just test cricket but ODI's also.

Ponting was a clear and deserving winner, nobody came close.

 

[Migara]

Gilchrist is in a lot of people's all-time XIs as a keeper-batsman and he only played 5 tests before 2000. Most of Murali's best efforts came after 2000 too of course, but Gilchrist played his entire career in the 2000s and it's not hard to see why people would consider him one of the best players of the decade.

Murali is on the lists of a greater number of people's all-time XI. Mjurali ha donly one competitor in the decade (i.e. Warne). But Gilchrist had many (Sangakkara, Flower, Dhoni, Stewart). Murali was simply the best bowler in ODIs, and in tests in top 2 if not the first. What would you ask for more than that?

 

[stephen]

Its not just test cricket but ODI's also.

Ponting was a clear and deserving winner, nobody came close.

McGrath.

 

[Migara]

Its not just test cricket but ODI's also.

Ponting was a clear and deserving winner, nobody came close.

Just check Murali's ODI record and see whether any one is close to it.

 

[Migara]

McGrath.

Good point.

 

[aussie]

Maybe they should have spit the player of the decade into "batsman of the deacde" & "bowler of the decade".

Point yea is was clearly the best batsman, while Murali & McGrath where equally the best bowlers (cant split them especially in test matches).

 

[Streetwise]

Just check Murali's ODI record and see whether any one is close to it.

Dont have to, just look at Pontings record as a batsman, fielder and captain in both forms of the game. His record as captain in the WC alone is outstanding and probably will never be matched. Murali dosent bring much other than being a bowler.

 

[stephen]

For those who are statistically inclined:

No bowler who took 100 wickets or more in the decade had a better bowling average than McGrath.

McGrath took 297 test match wickets in the decade at 20.53 and struck every 51 balls.

201 of McGrath's 297 wickets were batsmen batting in the top 6.

The next best quick who took over 100 wickets was Shaoib Akhtar, who played half the tests, took less than half the wickets and had an average two runs per wicket higher.

Only Ntini and Lee took more wickets in the decade for a fast bowler. Their averages were 28.6 and 31.27 respectively.

McGrath averaged under 20 in every country except Australia and the West Indies (including India).

He had the 2nd best bowling figures in an innings for the decade (8/24 vs Pakistan).

In ODIs:

234 wickets at 20.28 with an economy rate of 3.78.

He had the best average in the decade.

He had the 3rd best economy rate, behind Pollock and Murali.

He had the 2nd best bowling figures in an ODI for the decade (7/15 vs Namibia).

In World Cups:

He has taken 71 wickets from 39 matches, which is 16 more than the next best (Wasim Akram with 55 from 38).

He has the best average from bowlers who have bowled a minimum of 1000 balls in World Cups at 18.19

He has the best world cup strike rate - 27.5, which is better than the next best of 29.9 by nearly 10%.

He is one of only 4 players to take two 5 wicket hauls in World Cups.

He was in 3 World Cup winning sides.

He retired from ODIs having won the Man of the Tournament award for the 2007 World Cup.


Simply *noone* has done what McGrath has done in tests and ODIs. In the flattest decade in history he has taken 297 test match wickets at just over 20 and 68% of them were batsmen who batted at numbers 1-6. He's been the most successful World Cup bowler by a long shot and has been one of the best ODI bowlers of all time, just on his 00s statistics.

 

[Jayzamann]

Aamer would certainly have held onto that catch if they waited to announce this next week or something. Always has a sense of occasion, does Pootytang.

 

[Howsie]

Dont have to, just look at Pontings record as a batsman, fielder and captain in both forms of the game. His record as captain in the WC alone is outstanding and probably will never be matched. Murali dosent bring much other than being a bowler.

565 wickets at 20.97 at a strike-rate of 50.9 is better then just being a bowler tbh. He was easily the most dominant bowler by a long way during this decade, the same can't be said for Ponting.

 

[Jayzamann]

Interesting tidbit from that article was how Ponting and Kallis have completely different fortunes in India and England.

 

[Prince EWS]

Can't fathom why it wasn't Kallis. Almost as good as Ponting with the bat during the decade and a handy bowler as well. If you offered Ponting the ability to bowl fast-medium at second change regularly at a bowling average in the low to mid 30s for the cost of a couple of points off his batting average, I'm sure he'd take it.

 

[Jono]

For me:

1. McGrath
2. Murali
3. Kallis
4. Ponting.


Much of a muchness though. Ponting just as deserving.

 

[Jono]

Also does this include ODI exploits?

If so, obviously Sachin > Mahela and Yousuf in the decade.