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The Wisden Bible all time player rankings

Lillian Thomson

Hall of Fame Member
"Wisden - the cricketer's Bible - judged the levels of a player's performance against the strength of the opposition, career length, and the importance of each contribution."

Batsmen
1 Don Bradman (Australia)
2 Sachin Tendulkar (India)
3 Viv Richards (West Indies)
4 Gary Sobers (West Indies)
5 Allan Border (Australia)
6 Jack Hobbs (England)
7 Ken Barrington (England)
8 Sunil Gavaskar (India)
9 Greg Chappell (Australia)
10 Brian Lara (West Indies)

Bowlers
1 Muttiah Muralidaran (Sri Lanka)
2 Richard Hadlee (New Zealand)
3 Syd Barnes (England)
4 Shane Warne (Australia)
5 Clarrie Grimmett (Australia)
6 Glenn McGrath (Australia)
7 Dennis Lillee (Australia)
8 Malcolm Marshall (West Indies)
9 Imran Khan (Pakistan)
10 Courtney Walsh (West Indies)
 

Turbinator

Cricketer Of The Year
7 Aussies
5 West Indians
3 English
2 Indians
1 Pakistani
1 Sri Lankan
1 NewZealander
0 South Africans
 

Perm

Cricket Web: All-Time Legend
I disagree with Muralitharan being #1 but I'm probably in the minority.
 

silentstriker

The Wheel is Forever
Perm said:
I disagree with Muralitharan being #1 but I'm probably in the minority.
If you think he does not chuck, then you have a hard time showing how he can't possibly be a top three bowler of all time. The man takes too many wickets and does it everywhere.

However, I don't think any bowler with doosra bowls legally, or at least I haven't seen it bowled legally, so thats why I would have Warne higher, but if I take the ICC stance and rule all his deliveries legal....there is no way I can keep him from being a top three bowler. You just can't. In every conceivable category, he simply blows most of the opposition away. He has pace all time great stats even though he's a spinner (spinners tend to have higher averages and Strike Rates than pace bowlers....except Murali).
 

Krishna_j

U19 12th Man
What about Graeme Pollock - even in his late 40's he took the rebel Windies attack incl Sy Clarke and Australia which had Alderman , Rackemann et al apart with ease

His career lasted more than 20 yrs from 1966-1986
 

silentstriker

The Wheel is Forever
Krishna_j said:
What about Graeme Pollock - even in his late 40's he took the rebel Windies attack incl Sy Clarke and Australia which had Alderman , Rackemann et al apart with ease

His career lasted more than 20 yrs from 1966-1986
I think, as a batsman on talent, he would be up there. But his lack of real test match experience works against him.
 

Fusion

Global Moderator
Here are the ODI rankings:

Top 10 bowlers:
(1) Wasim Akram
(2) Allan Donald
(3) Waqar Younis
(4) Glenn McGrath
(5) Joel Garner
(6) Saqlain Mushtaq
(7) Mutthiah Muralitharan
(8) Shaun Pollock
(9) Shane Warne
(10) Dennis Lillee

Top 10 Batsmen:
(1) Viv Richards,
(2) Sachin Tendulkar
(3) Brian Lara
(4 Dean Jones
(5) Michael Bevan
(6) Sourav Ganguly
(7) Mark Waugh
(8) Zaheer Abbas
(9) Jaques Kallis
(10) Saeed Anwar


The list came out in 2002. Incidently, Wisden ranked the top 100 players in both forms of the games. I can't be bothered to post the entire list though.
 

silentstriker

The Wheel is Forever
The list is very close to what mine would be IMO. Obviously not exact, but its close. I would probably have Bevan higher in the ODI (as #3), maybe move Garner up a couple spots in the ODI...but thats a pretty good list IMO. For tests, I would move Border out and move Lara up a little bit, and move McGrath up a lot.

I think Sir Viv clearly has to get #1 in ODI, and the Don is obviously a no brainer for Test. I am proud of Tendy being ranked #2 in both forms though :).
 
Last edited:

Perm

Cricket Web: All-Time Legend
I would rank Joel Garner a bit higher in the ODI bowlers list, his Economy Rate is superb. Disappointed to not see Glenn Turner on the bastman list but there is some superb players there. I still think Muralitharan's statistics are skewed incredibly by his wickets against Zimbabwe and Bangladesh. Not sure why they ranked Clarie Grimmett so highly either, he was a good bowler but not that great.
 

bagapath

International Captain
I have the top 100 of wisden rankings saved up in my comp somewhere. its pretty interesting - with kapil dev ranked above holding and boycott above hammond. let me find it for you guys. here is IBRS all time test batting rankings. it is purely based on stats. i have the copyright info at the bottom. thanks to them anyway.

1 DG Bradman  (Aus)
2 BC Lara  (WI)
3 SR Tendulkar  (Ind)
4 WR Hammond  (Eng)
5 RS Dravid  (Ind)
6 L Hutton  (Eng)
7 RT Ponting  (Aus)
8 GS Sobers  (WI)
9 KF Barrington  (Eng)
10 JB Hobbs  (Eng)
11 SM Gavaskar  (Ind)
12 Inzamam-ul-Haq  (Pak)
13 IVA Richards  (WI)
14 AR Border  (Aus)
15 SR Waugh  (Aus)
16 GS Chappell  (Aus)
17 ML Hayden  (Aus)
18 H Sutcliffe  (Eng)
19 JH Kallis  (SA)
20 ED Weekes  (WI)
21 Javed Miandad  (Pak)
22 DCS Compton  (Eng)
23 RN Harvey  (Aus)
24 G Boycott  (Eng)
25 Mohammad Yousuf  (Pak)
26 CL Walcott  (WI)
27 GA Gooch  (Eng)
28 JL Langer  (Aus)
29 G Kirsten  (SA)
30 KD Walters  (Aus)
31 CH Lloyd  (WI)
32 MC Cowdrey  (Eng)
33 MA Taylor  (Aus)
34 RB Kanhai  (WI)
35 GA Headley  (WI)
36 CG Greenidge  (WI)
37 RB Simpson  (Aus)
38 A Flower  (Zim)
39 ME Waugh  (Aus)
40 DI Gower  (Eng)
41 RG Pollock  (SA)
42 DPMD Jayawardene  (SL)
43 M Azharuddin  (Ind)
44 AC Gilchrist  (Aus)
45 DC Boon  (Aus)
46 PA de Silva  (SL)
47 WM Lawry  (Aus)
48 PBH May  (Eng)
49 FM Worrell  (WI)
50 GP Thorpe  (Eng)
51 ER Dexter  (Eng)
52 V Sehwag  (Ind)
53 AD Nourse  (SA)
54 S Chanderpaul  (WI)
55 HH Gibbs  (SA)
56 Saeed Anwar  (Pak)
57 MD Crowe  (NZ)
58 ME Trescothick  (Eng)
59 DL Haynes  (WI)
60 GC Smith  (SA)
61 ST Jayasuriya  (SL)
62 DR Martyn  (Aus)
63 RB Richardson  (WI)
64 MA Atherton  (Eng)
65 Saleem Malik  (Pak)
66 B Mitchell  (SA)
67 DJ Cullinan  (SA)
68 AJ Stewart  (Eng)
69 JH Edrich  (Eng)
70 IM Chappell  (Aus)
71 MS Atapattu  (SL)
72 AR Morris  (Aus)
73 KC Sangakkara  (SL)
74 Younis Khan  (Pak)
75 MJ Slater  (Aus)
76 EH Hendren  (Eng)
77 AI Kallicharran  (WI)
78 TW Graveney  (Eng)
79 GR Viswanath  (Ind)
80 SP Fleming  (NZ)
81 IR Redpath  (Aus)
82 DM Jones  (Aus)
83 E Paynter  (Eng)
84 RA Smith  (Eng)
85 Zaheer Abbas  (Pak)
86 MP Vaughan  (Eng)
87 N Hussain  (Eng)
88 DB Vengsarkar  (Ind)
89 VVS Laxman  (Ind)
90 DL Amiss  (Eng)
91 C Hill  (Aus)
92 Hanif Mohammed  (Pak)
93 RC Fredericks  (WI)
94 AL Hassett  (Aus)
95 SC Ganguly  (Ind)
96 RR Sarwan  (WI)
97 HP Tillekeratne  (SL)
98 CH Gayle  (WI)
99 NJ Astle  (NZ)
100 CL Hooper  (WI)

Copyright © 2003-2006 CricketArchive
 

Fusion

Global Moderator
silentstriker said:
Um Inzamam ahead of Gavaskar? Dravid over Sobers? 12 batsmen before Richards?
He mentioned the list was based on stats only. I don't know how the stats were used, but if you looked at stats alone, the great Viv Richards would not be in the top 10 batsmen list. But we all know that stats don't tell all of the story! :)
 

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