Players who were indisputably the best of their time

[Burgey]

GIMH at his peak had a great run.

Yeah he was epic for three and a half weeks in about 2012 or so.

 

[Coronis]

Hobbs in the 1920s?

Hobbs pre WWI was actually well ahead of everyone else, though probably not as celebrated in his time. 2465 @ 57.32. Only people to outscore him since the start of test cricket were Hill and Trumper, both playing 40 more innings than him.

 

[Jono]

Gilly and Steyn in recent times.

 

[Compton]

 

[Adders]

Gtfo.

 

[Zinzan]

Yep, remember there's a special teen idol album for Smith piccies.

Park em here, http://www.cricketweb.net/forum/testing-forum/60500-pictures-steve-smith.html

 

[andruid]

Don Bradman.


Now close this thread

 

[Zinzan]

So there a semi-consensus on Bradman, Sobers, Grace, Gilchrist, Steyn & Lillee this far.

 

[harsh.ag]

For test matches in the period 1993-2000 it's indisputably either Lara or Tendulkar.

ftfy

 

[OverratedSanity]

Not even Lara tbh. Tendulkar was pretty comfortably the best in that period. He was averaging mid-high 60s with everyone else, including Lara and Waugh a good 10-15 runs behind.

 

[S.Kennedy]

I did say: "I suppose." But I do think that the concensus was that Lillee was the undisputed best of that time.

Oh yes, certainly. Just pointing out that Lillee did not have a monopoly - Thomson, Willis and John Snow also.

 

[vcs]

Both formats taken into account, Sachin was the best. India didn't play enough Test cricket in that era TBH. Played too many dodgy Sharjah ODI tri-series instead.

 

[flibbertyjibber]

Ashley Giles was the only King of Spain in the 00's

 

[Zinzan]

Not even Lara tbh. Tendulkar was pretty comfortably the best in that period. He was averaging mid-high 60s with everyone else, including Lara and Waugh a good 10-15 runs behind.

Correct, Tendulkar's record is better in that period 93-2000 Burgey mentioned. Random period he chose because it kind of coincided with Sachin's best 7 year period.

 

[Burgey]

Both formats taken into account, Sachin was the best. India didn't play enough Test cricket in that era TBH. Played too many dodgy Sharjah ODI tri-series instead.

Was why I went for Waugh in that period. I saw Tendulkar's record and it's wonderful but I was shocked how few tests he played in that period in comparison.

 

[Zinzan]

Was why I went for Waugh in that period. I saw Tendulkar's record and it's wonderful but I was shocked how few tests he played in that period in comparison.

Hadn't noticed, decent difference that. You also have to breakdown the games by bowler. Some of Waugh's efforts in the Windies against Ambrose and Walsh on those up-and-down Caribbean decks were out of this world.

 

[Kirkut]

Sachin in 90's was freakishly good when both formats are combined, easily ahead of Lara and Waugh - the other two top bats of that time. If only tests are considered then Lara wins comprehensively.

 

[indiaholic]

Lol no. Tendulkar was averaging about 7 runs more than him and they had played the same number of games. If you prefer Lara, no complaints from me but nobody is comprehensively better than Tendulkar in that period.

 

[OverratedSanity]

People always get that wrong. Lara was much better than Sachin in the early-mid 2000s when BCL had a great run and Tendulkar was in a slump. But in the late 90s, Lara was a terrible slump of his own. Apart from that amazing 1999 series, he did ****all for a good 4-5 years. Here's his stats between 1996 and 2000:

Batting records | Test matches | Cricinfo Statsguru | ESPN Cricinfo

He barely averaged 40. That's really, really ordinary by his standards. Tendulkar was a long way ahead for that time period, really:

http://stats.espncricinfo.com/ci/en...6;spanval1=span;template=results;type=batting

Same number of matches, averaged a full 20 runs more, double the amount of hundreds

 

[Slifer]

SRT was not head and shoulders above Steve Waugh in the 90s. The fact of the matter is, SRT tended to do better and had many more games vs weaker attacks of the time: nz, ZIM, SL. Where as S Waugh was much much better vs the great attacks: RSA, WI, PAK.