• 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.

3rd Greatest Cricketer - The Poll

After Bradman and Sobers, who is the 3rd Greatest Cricketer ?


  • Total voters
    78

Engle

State Vice-Captain
A poll, so we can see results

After Bradman and Sobers, who would you consider the 3rd Greatest Cricketer of all time ?
 

Spudsy2061

U19 Cricketer
WG Grace is a great player but Sachin's a greater player.
Sachin is amazing, but people who never were even into cricket, who never played cricket, who weren't allowed to play cricket because they weren't upperclass paid their hard earned money just to see Grace bat. Grace helped push the movement in cricket to professionalize it, whether that was advertantly or inadvertantly is beyond the point. Grounds couldn't fit enough people into their, well, grounds to see him bat. Grace is know as the father of cricket. There is no honor that will ever be passed onto, and that is not there for a soft reason. It is Grace, by miles.
 

Sir Alex

Banned
Sachin is amazing, but people who never were even into cricket, who never played cricket, who weren't allowed to play cricket because they weren't upperclass paid their hard earned money just to see Grace bat. Grace helped push the movement in cricket to professionalize it, whether that was advertantly or inadvertantly is beyond the point. Grounds couldn't fit enough people into their, well, grounds to see him bat. Grace is know as the father of cricket. There is no honor that will ever be passed onto, and that is not there for a soft reason. It is Grace, by miles.
Sachin almost by himself turned BCCI from an also ran organisation into the richest cricket board in the world. Perhaps the only cricketer to claim a pan=Indian appeal across all strata of society. And perhaps where he is treated as a god, and one who controls the string of perhaps millions' Gross Daily Happiness Index.

Remember how a factionlised and divided country is India, boasting of a 100,000 cultures, languages, dialects etc. But if there is one unifying factor, that is cricket, and if a face can be assigned to that, it'd be undoubtedly Sachin Tendulkar.

As to the poll, purely on cricketing merits, I'd rank Murali the 2nd best after Don Bradman, and Tendulkar following that. But if you consider more than cricketing merits alone (ie, contribution in changing the face of the game etc), then it'd be Sachin 1st, Grace 2nd and Bradman 3rd.
 
Last edited:

Spudsy2061

U19 Cricketer
Sachin almost by himself turned BCCI from an also ran organisation into the richest cricket board in the world. Perhaps the only cricketer to claim a pan=Indian appeal across all strata of society. And perhaps where he is treated as a god, and one who controls the string of perhaps millions' Gross Daily Happiness Index.

Remember how a factionlised and divided country is India, boasting of a 100,000 cultures, languages, dialects etc. But if there is one unifying factor, that is cricket, and if a face can be assigned to that, it'd be undoubtedly Sachin Tendulkar.

As to the poll, purely on cricketing merits, I'd rank Murali the 2nd best after Don Bradman, and Tendulkar following that. But if you consider more than cricketing merits alone (ie, contribution in changing the face of the game etc), then it'd be Sachin 1st, Grace 2nd and Bradman 3rd.
While you make points I all agree with (besides the last paragraph) I think it is important to ask how much of this is because of the world's ability to watch it on the internet and TV. If Grace lived in an era like we do know with television and radio, would he not contribute in ways Sachin did as well, especially since Grace played before Test Cricket and in Test Cricket's infancy?
 

Himannv

International Coach
I dont think I would have Sobers as second best. Would be something like this for me:

1. Bradman
2. Tendulkar
3. Sobers
4. Murali

Hobbs, Grace, Imran and Viv to follow in no particular order.
 

Spudsy2061

U19 Cricketer
You know who I noticed hasn't gotten a mention yet? Graeme Pollock. He was a hell of a player, but limited in play because of politics. Does he deserve consideration amongst the group in question I ask?
 

bagapath

International Captain
Sachin almost by himself turned BCCI from an also ran organisation into the richest cricket board in the world. Perhaps the only cricketer to claim a pan=Indian appeal across all strata of society. And perhaps where he is treated as a god, and one who controls the string of perhaps millions' Gross Daily Happiness Index.
all wonderful, even staggering, achievements, I agree; but grace's role in the development of cricket - not as an administrator or as a coach or writer, but purely as a sportsman like sachin - is more valuable to the overall sport itself. WG grace is the greatest cricketer after bradman and sobers. he could even be no.1 or 2. no amount of praise is enough for the doc.
 

R_D

International Debutant
I'm biased so voted for Tendulkar...
Plus the fact that he did make cricket very popular in India.....:)
 

Sir Alex

Banned
all wonderful, even staggering, achievements, I agree; but grace's role in the development of cricket - not as an administrator or as a coach or writer, but purely as a sportsman like sachin - is more valuable to the overall sport itself. WG grace is the greatest cricketer after bradman and sobers. he could even be no.1 or 2. no amount of praise is enough for the doc.
Please can you be specific? As to where Grace overshadowed Tendulkar's appeal?
 

vcs

Request Your Custom Title Now!
It was well and popular before him. Refer to Kapil Dev and India's WC win.
I agree. Tendulkar himself credits his passion for taking up the game to that famous win in Lord's.

Having said that, he certainly kept the hope alive for lots of Indian fans of my generation during the dark days of the match-fixing scandal, and however crap the team we were putting out those days, we could always tune in to watch Tendulkar. If I was asked to pick any one event that reignited the country's passion for cricket, it would be the 2001 India-Aus series.
 

Top