Who is the Best "Cricketer" Ever?

[centurymaker]

Best cricketer has to be Chris Gayle. No one can do what he can and does.

 

[H4G]

Would it be outrageous to say Sachin is a better batsman the Sobers?

Sobers was better in my opinion only because he used to play for team & not for personal milestones.

 

[harsh.ag]

Sobers only bowled with the new ball in 38 innings (compared to 120 when he bowled first change or lower)

True, and Kallis only opened the bowling in 8 innings (out of 267). Sobers was opening during the late 60s mostly. Kallis' record in the innings he opened the bowling was fantastic - 8 Innings , 16 wickets, 23.93 average, 57.5 strike rate, and 1 5-fer. Pretty drastically better than his overall figures, though of course the small sample size is a niggle, and the fact that 11 of those wickets came in 3 tests against the Windies in at 15.54, sr of 37.2. Wish he had opened more often.

 

[Red]

I rate Kallis pretty highly as a bowler. He's quite enjoyable to watch bowling.

 

[Satyanash89]

No one can do what he can and does.

Absolutely no arguing this. In terms of destructive batsmanship in shorter formats, no one in history has even come close to his level.

 

[the big bambino]

Sobers has same strike rate & wickets/match as Sami & Agarkar. Not to mention his career average was around 50 with 1.0 wickets per match (quite Salisburyish) in first 30 odd tests of his career when he bowled spin only after that he did bowl spin but very little.All my opinions are based on what I saw + stats.

Wickets per match :

Sami------->2.4
Agarkar------>2.3
Sobers------->2.5

Strike Rates :
Sami-------->88
Agarkar------>84
Sobers------->92

So what was Sobers really as a bowler? Most realistic & honest description would be a combination of Sami/Agarkar + Salisbury.

Mate I'm not buying your box of mouldy old cherries. The stat your looking for is bowling average.

 

[Gowza]

yeah kallis the bowler is actually quite good aside from his stats.

 

[the big bambino]

Kallis has 1.8 wkts a match. Cant bowl I tells ya! Worse than Sami. True story bro!

(psst - wanna buy a watch)?

 

[harsh.ag]

Kallis has 1.8 wkts a match. Cant bowl I tells ya! Worse than Sami. True story bro!

(psst - wanna buy a watch)?

I think you mean (psst - I have a bridge to sell you....)

 

[the big bambino]

Not anymore. Migara is the proud owner of that.

 

[Ikki]

Sobers wasn't Sami or Vaas. Somewhere in between.

 

[H4G]

Mate I'm not buying your box of mouldy old cherries. The stat your looking for is bowling average.

Averages are not only things in stats, other important variables also have to be considered.But if you want to consider average alone, I've explained in my previous posts on this forum that how Sobers was a pretty ordinary bowler based on his average alone.All these are undeniable facts about Sobers bowling,if you consider Sobers a supreme bowler then back it with some arguments which carry some weight too.

 

[H4G]

Its really interesting how people disregard a players abilities based on stats alone e.g Imran's batting but when it comes to their favorite cricketer e.g Sobers' bowling they come with stuff like "Stats are not everything" or "Stats don't matter".This is purely double standards.

 

[the big bambino]

No one is bagging Imran. The only person trash talking is you about Sobers. Stats are important. There being a definite link btwn them and quality. But yeah they can be misused. Like when someone uses peripheral stats like SR and wkts/match out of context of the player's role, instead of the stat that shows real worth: His average.

 

[Red]

Its really interesting how people disregard a players abilities based on stats alone e.g Imran's batting but when it comes to their favorite cricketer e.g Sobers' bowling they come with stuff like "Stats are not everything" or "Stats don't matter".This is purely double standards.

So if you were picking an ATG team, would you have Imran in the top 6?

 

[H4G]

Sobers wasn't Sami or Vaas. Somewhere in between.

James Franklin + Aamer Sohail then perhaps ?

 

[Red]

Sobers was Sobers....

 

[H4G]

So if you were picking an ATG team, would you have Imran in the top 6?

As a batsman alone?-------->Never
As a bowler-------->First choice
As an allrounder------->First choice

 

[Red]

As a batsman alone?-------->Never
As a bowler-------->First choice
As an allrounder------->First choice

My question was, would you bat him in the top 6?

 

[benchmark00]

Oddest reply.