• Welcome to the Cricket Web forums, one of the biggest forums in the world dedicated to cricket.

    You are currently viewing our boards as a guest which gives you limited access to view most discussions and access our other features. By joining our free community you will have access to post topics, respond to polls, upload content and access many other special features. Registration is fast, simple and absolutely free so please, join the Cricket Web community today!

    If you have any problems with the registration process or your account login, please contact us.

Greatest cricketers since 1980

Ikki

Hall of Fame Member
Reckon Bagapath has got it about right. Ponting on level 2? LOL, seriously.
 

Riggins

International Captain
On a more serious note I personally don't think Pieterson or Graeme Smith or Chanderpaul are any higher than VVS Laxman or M Clarke.
 
Last edited:

vcs

Request Your Custom Title Now!
Black Warrior, I'm a big fan of Damien Martyn and admittedly biased but I'd rate him above Younis Khan purely because I think he was the best batsman in the world bar none in 2004 - he scored such a wide variety of runs in every possible type of conditions mostly when his team really needed him. Maybe I'm being unfair on Younis but I think he needs to produce a few more "signature" match-winning knocks.. he also has 13/16 hundreds in Asia whereas Martyn's hundreds are more spread out.
 

Migara

Cricketer Of The Year
based on the thread on sagakkara where some posters seem to be in a hurry to bunch him with greater batsman, i am starting this thread to categorize test cricketers into various levels of greatness. and predict who cricket history would consider all time greats out of those who played between 1980 - 2010.

i will start with the batsmen and divide them into four different levels of greatness if that makes sense at all. I will try to limit each level to 10 at the most. will do the same exercise for bowlers later. I have not ranked the players within each level.

The Greatest Batsmen since 1980

Level 1


Viv Richards
Greg Chappell
Sunil Gavaskar
Sachin Tendulkar
Brian Lara
Ricky Ponting

Level 2


Matthew Hayden
Virender Sehwag
Rahul Dravid
Allan Border
Steve Waugh
Javed Miandad
Inzamam Ul Haq
Jacques Kallis
Adam Gilchrist
Martin Crowe

Level 3

Kumar Sangakara
Mohammad Yousuff
Kevin Pietersen
Mahela Jayawardane
Gordon Greenidge
Graeme Smith
David Gower
Shiv Chanderpal
Andy Flower
Justin Langer

Level 4

David Boon
Michael Clarke
Graham Gooch
VVS Laxman
Mark Waugh
Damien Martyn
Sanath Jayasuriya
Aravinda de silva
Richie Richardson
Michael Hussey

this thread is meant to be as dumb as everything else i have ever written on cricket web. and it is meant to be fun. so u r welcome to join the spirit and throw in stats, circular arguments, individual biases and a bit of humor to make the discussion as alive as possible.

Edit: Dropped Clive Lloyd, Saeed Anwar and Desmond Haynes from the original list and brought in Andy Flower, Graeme Smith and Michael Clarke
Sehwag over Sangakkara is a plain joke, and so is Gower over De Silva. If both were pu under same category would have been fair.

Going by bagapath's own theory, Sanga who averages less than 40 in four countries in level3, but Sehwag who does the same (with more dismal averages) is in Level 2. lassic double standards
 
Last edited:
based on the thread on sagakkara where some posters seem to be in a hurry to bunch him with greater batsman, i am starting this thread to categorize test cricketers into various levels of greatness. and predict who cricket history would consider all time greats out of those who played between 1980 - 2010.

i will start with the batsmen and divide them into four different levels of greatness if that makes sense at all. I will try to limit each level to 10 at the most. will do the same exercise for bowlers later. I have not ranked the players within each level.

The Greatest Batsmen since 1980

Level 1


Viv Richards
Greg Chappell
Sunil Gavaskar
Sachin Tendulkar
Brian Lara
Ricky Ponting

Level 2


Matthew Hayden
Virender Sehwag
Rahul Dravid
Allan Border
Steve Waugh
Javed Miandad
Inzamam Ul Haq
Jacques Kallis
Adam Gilchrist
Martin Crowe

Level 3

Kumar Sangakara
Mohammad Yousuff
Kevin Pietersen
Mahela Jayawardane
Gordon Greenidge
Graeme Smith
David Gower
Shiv Chanderpal
Andy Flower
Justin Langer

Level 4

David Boon
Michael Clarke
Graham Gooch
VVS Laxman
Mark Waugh
Damien Martyn
Sanath Jayasuriya
Aravinda de silva
Richie Richardson
Michael Hussey

this thread is meant to be as dumb as everything else i have ever written on cricket web. and it is meant to be fun. so u r welcome to join the spirit and throw in stats, circular arguments, individual biases and a bit of humor to make the discussion as alive as possible.

Edit: Dropped Clive Lloyd, Saeed Anwar and Desmond Haynes from the original list and brought in Andy Flower, Graeme Smith and Michael Clarke
Sanga in tier 2,Hussey in tier 3 are prob the only changes I'd make to your list.And Yosaf>Inzamam so they should be at least in the same tier IMO.
 

GotSpin

Hall of Fame Member
I would like smaller sized levels (5-6 players in each level).

My top 3 levels would be approximately as follows (off the top of my head) -

Level 1 - Tendulkar, Greg Chappell, Gavaskar, Lara, Viv Richards
Level 2 - Border, Miandad, Steve Waugh, Ponting, Dravid, Kallis
Level 3 - Inzamam, Gilchrist, Hayden, Sehwag, Sangakkara

There are clearly two or more levels combined in some of your levels (2 onwards). At least that is what I opine.

To me, Ponting is not 'unarguably' better than the other 5 in my level 2 (especially the first 3). Also I don't buy the idea that Gilchrist (as a batsman) is 'clearly' better than any of the 5 batsmen I've listed him with in level 3...again, my opinion...
There's no way Ponting belongs in level two.
 

GIMH

Norwood's on Fire
Oh **** my bad.

I just read the thread title then looked at the lists.

A lesser man would now delete his post but I'm gonna leave it there for all to see.
 

bagapath

International Captain
Sehwag over Sangakkara is a plain joke, and so is Gower over De Silva. If both were pu under same category would have been fair.

Going by bagapath's own theory, Sanga who averages less than 40 in four countries in level3, but Sehwag who does the same (with more dismal averages) is in Level 2. lassic double standards
you are welcome to laugh at the joke migara. i have no problems. but I know i am consistent in my rankings. all other things being equal, sehwag has scored hundreds in SA and England. and his SR is a scary 80 runs per hundred balls. has two triple hundreds and a 290+ score to his credit. all these make him better than sanga in my books.

gower and de silva is much much closer. could have gone either way. i do have a dream team full of mad men and aravinda is right there at no. 4. (sehwag, greenidge, richards, de silva, pietersen, gilchrist, botham, kapil, flintoff, warne, akhthar). absolutely loved his attitude at the crease. what a champion he was!
 
Last edited:

Migara

Cricketer Of The Year
you are welcome to laugh at the joke migara. i have no problems. but I know i am consistent in my rankings. all other things being equal, sehwag has scored hundreds in SA and England. and his SR is a scary 80 runs per hundred balls. has two triple hundreds and a 290+ score to his credit. all these make him better than sanga in my books.

gower and de silva is much much closer. could have gone either way.
Sehwag's bad has been apallingly bad, compared to Sanga. Who averages 34+ in every country. Sehwag has sub 30 averages in some conditions.

Still, Sehwag over Sanga is a joke, and a player who has not sub 40 averages in four countries cannot be in the same category with Dravid.
 

Top