Your All-time Top 5's

[pasag]

Top 5 Opening Batsmen

1. Jack Hobbs
2. WG Grace
3. Len Hutton
4. Sunil Gavaskar
5. Victor Trumper
(Sorry Herbert…)

Top 5 Middle-Order Batsmen

1. Don Bradman
2. Garry Sobers
3. Sachin Tendulkar
4. Vivian Richards
5. Walter Hammond
(Sorry Brian…)

Top 5 All-Rounders

1. Garry Sobers
2. Imran Khan
3. Keith Miller
4. Ian Botham
5. Kapil Dev

Top 5 Most Valuable Wicket-Keepers

1. Adam Gilchrist
2. Alan Knott
3. Jack Blackham
4. Les Ames
5. Ian Healy

Top 5 Pace Bowlers

1. Malcolm Marshall
2. Sydney Barnes
3. Dennis Lillee
4. Glenn McGrath
5. Imran Khan
(About 10 others you could throw a blanket over)

Top 5 Spinners

1. Shane Warne
2. Muttiah Muralitharan
3. Bill O’Reilly
4. Jim Laker
5. Clarrie Grimmett

Top 5 Cricketers of All Time

1. Don Bradman
2. Garry Sobers
3. WG Grace
4. Imran Khan
5. Shane Warne

Superb.

 

[weldone]

Top 5 Opening Batsmen:

1. Jack Hobbs
2. Leonard Hutton
3. Sunil Gavaskar
4. Herbert Sutcliffe
5. Barry Richards

Top 5 Middle Order Batsmen:

1. Donald Bradman
2. Garfield Sobers
3. Wally Hammond
4. Sachin Tendulkar
5. George Headley

Top 5 All-rounders:

1. Garfield Sobers
2. Keith Miller
3. Imran Khan
4. Ian Botham
5. Jacques Kallis/ Clive Rice/ Kapil Dev/ Mike Procter/ Aubrey Faulkner/ WG Grace/ Wilfred Rhodes

Top 5 Pace Bowlers:

1. Richard Hadlee
2. Malcolm Marshall
3. Glenn McGrath
4. Wasim Akram
5. Imran Khan

Top 5 Spin Bowlers:

1. Muttiah Muralitharan
2. Bill O'Reilly
3. Shane Warne
4. Clarrie Grimmett
5. Jim Laker

Note: Couldn't find a place for Sydney Barnes among top 5 pace or spin bowlers because noone knows to which category he belonged. But almost certainly he can get into either.

 

[0RI0N]

Openers

Hobbs
Sutcliffe
Hayden
Gavaskar
Hutton

Middle Order

Hammond
Ponting
Lara
Weekes
Chappell

Wicketkeepers

Gilchrist
Knott
Marsh
Flower
Sangakarra

Allrounders

Kallis
Miller
Imran
Sobers
Botham

Fast bowlers

Ambrose
Hadlee
Marshall
McGrath
Lillee

Spin bowlers

Kumble
Tiger Bill
Grimmett
Murali
Warne

* DG Bradman excluded.
He ranks much higher than these players.

 

[Slifer]

Openers

Hobbs
Hutton
Gavaskar
Sutcliffe
G Boycott

Middle Order

The Don
IVAR
G Chappell
G Sobers
SRT

Wicketkeeper-BAtsmen

Gilchrist
Flower
Sangakarra
Les Ames
A Stewart

Allrounders

Sobers
Imran
Miller
Kallis
Botham

Fast bowlers

Marshall
Mcgrath
Imran
Hadlee
Lillee

Spin bowlers

Murali
Warne
O'reilly
Grimmett
Laker

Cricketers

Don
Sobers
Grace
Barnes
Imran

 

[archie mac]

Top 5 Opening Batsman

1. WG Grace
2. Jack Hobbs
3. Archie MacLaren
4. RE Foster
5. Victor Trumer

Top 5 Middle Order

1. Ranji
2. Clem Hill
3. William Murdoch
4. CB Fry
5. George Gunn

Top 5 Allrounders

1. Aubrey Faulkner
2. Monty Noble
3. George Giffen
4. FS Jackson
5. Frank Foster

Top 5 Wicketkeeper-Batsman

1. Jack Blackham
2. Dick Lilley
3. Jim Kelly
4. Herbie Strudwick
5. Hanson Carter

Top 5 Spin Bowlers

1. Hugh Trumble
2. Wilfred Rhodes
3. Edmund Peate
4. Johhny Briggs
5. Bobby Peel

Top 5 Pace Bowlers

1. SF Barnes
2. George Lohmann
3. Tom Richardson
4. Ernie Jones
5. Tom Lockwood

Top 5 Cricketers
1. WG Grace
2. SF Barnes
3. Victor Trumper
4. Jack Blackham
5. Ranji

I am sure I have missed someone

 

[Jamee999]

I am sure I have missed someone

 

[Richard]

Sean, you really should learn the difference between wicketkeepers and wicketkeeper-batsmen.

Anyway, without putting a particularly massive amount of thought into this... since 1900 only (none of this all-time lark for me), and the longer form of the game only considered (no limited-overs stuff)...

Top 5 Opening Batsman

1. Jack Hobbs
2. Herbert Sutcliffe
3. Vijay Merchant
4. Leonard Hutton
5. Barry Richards

Top 5 Middle-Order Batsman

1. Donald Bradman
2. George Headley
3. Walter Hammond
4. Garfield Sobers
5. Sachin Tendulkar

Top 5 Allrounders

1. Garfield Sobers
2. Keith Miller
3. Imran Khan
4. Jacques Kallis
5. Monty Noble

Top 5 Wicketkeeper-Batsman

1. Adam Gilchrist
2. Les Ames
3. Alec Stewart
4. Jeffrey Dujon
5. Farokh Engineer
NOTE: Andy Flower was in my view beyond doubt the best batsman of those who kept wicket regularly in a Test career. However, he wasn't all that much of a wicketkeeper. Sangakkara also excluded because he's changed between batsman and batsman-wicketkeeper so many times in his career. SO...
Top 4 Wicketkeepers

1. Bob Taylor
2. Don Tallon
3. Alan Knott
4. AFA "Dick" Lilley

Top 5 Wristspin Bowlers

1. Sydney Barnes
2. = Muttiah Muralitharan
2. = Shane Warne
4. Bill O'Reilly
5. Clarrie Grimmett

Top 5 Fingerspin Bowlers

1. Wilfred Rhodes
2. Hedley Verity
3. Jim Laker
4. Derek Underwood
5. Hugh Tayfield

Top 5 Seam Bowlers

1. Malcolm Marshall
2. Richard Hadlee
3. Allan Donald
4. Imran Khan
5. Ray Lindwall

Top 5 Cricketers

1. Garfield Sobers
2. Donald Bradman
3. Jack Hobbs
4. = Richard Hadlee
4. = Muttiah Muralitharan

 

[Lillian Thomson]

Top 5 Opening Batsman

1. Barry Richards
2. Sunil Gavaskar
3. Jack Hobbs
4. Herbert Sutcliffe
5. Len Hutton

Top 5 Middle-Order Batsman

1. Don Bradman
2. Vivian Richards
3. Sachin Tendulkar
4. Brian Lara
5. Wally Hammond

Top 5 Allrounders

1. Garry Sobers
2. Imran Khan
3. Keith Miller
4. Ian Botham
5. Wilfred Rhodes

Top 5 Batsman-Wicketkeeper (WicketKeepers)

1. Adam Gilchrist (Alan Knott)
2. Alan Knott (Bob Taylor)
3. Les Ames (Wally Grout)
4. Jeff Dujon (Don Tallon)
5. Mark Boucher (Wasim Bari)

Top 5 Spin Bowlers

1. Shane Warne
2. Muttiah Muralitharan
3. Bill O'Reilly
4. Hedley Verity
5. Derek Underwood

Top 5 Pace Bowlers

1. Dennis Lillee
2. Fred Trueman
3. Malcolm Marshall
4. Richard Hadlee
5. Michael Holding

Top 5 Cricketers

1. Donald Bradman
2. Garfield Sobers
3. WG Grace
4. Jack Hobbs
5. Vivian Richards

 

[zaremba]

I'm having a quiet chuckle that anyone should place Ian Healy in their Top 5 wicketkeepers of all time.

Top 5 Australian keepers since WW2, maybe. But even then, only just.

 

[zaremba]

Top 5 Middle Order

1. Ranji
2. Clem Hill
3. William Murdoch
4. CB Fry
5. George Gunn

A wonderful set of selections, Archie. I wonder whether half the posters here know who half the players you've chosen are.

Anyhow I'm predictably gratified to see that a certain cricketing backwater on the English South Coast can lay some sort of claim to no fewer than 3 of these players (and, for good measure, a 4th died there).

 

[Burgey]

I'm having a quiet chuckle that anyone should place Ian Healy in their Top 5 wicketkeepers of all time.

Top 5 Australian keepers since WW2, maybe. But even then, only just.

Interesting thought. As a pure keeper Healy would be the best Aussie I've seen but I only go back as far as Marsh.

Good to see Les Ames getting some recognition here as well.

 

[Lillian Thomson]

I'm having a quiet chuckle that anyone should place Ian Healy in their Top 5 wicketkeepers of all time.

Top 5 Australian keepers since WW2, maybe. But even then, only just.

When the thread is finished maybe we can have a poll for the Top 5 chuckles.
The two that got me were Farokh Engineer as a batsman wicketkeeper (more to do with people not in the list) and Saqlain Mushtaq as one of the spinners.

 

[zaremba]

Top 5 Wristspin Bowlers

1. Sydney Barnes

And we're back to the whole "what did SF Barnes bowl" business once again...

Oh sure, we all agree he's the "greatest of all time", but no-one really seems to know if he was a fast bowler, fast/medium, medium, medium/slow, seamer, fingerspinner, swerve-and-drift merchant, or (and I think you may be in the minority on this one Richard) wristspinner.

Given that we in truth have very little idea about such basic facts about his bowling, it feels a bit glib to set him on such an unassailable pedestal.

 

[zaremba]

When the thread is finished maybe we can have a poll for the Top 5 chuckles.

You can count me in.

 

[zaremba]

Interesting thought. As a pure keeper Healy would be the best Aussie I've seen but I only go back as far as Marsh.

Good to see Les Ames getting some recognition here as well.

I'm not particularly well-qualified to comment on the ability of wicketkeepers (I suspect few are, in fact). But I always thought he was over-rated, and given a wonderful opportunity by keeping to Shane Warne in Tests, and Australia was massively strengthened by his belated replacement by Adam Gilchrist.

 

[Richard]

And we're back to the whole "what did SF Barnes bowl" business once again...

Oh sure, we all agree he's the "greatest of all time", but no-one really seems to know if he was a fast bowler, fast/medium, medium, medium/slow, seamer, fingerspinner, swerve-and-drift merchant, or (and I think you may be in the minority on this one Richard) wristspinner.

Given that we in truth have very little idea about such basic facts about his bowling, it feels a bit glib to set him on such an unassailable pedestal.

Perhaps the unassailability is heighened by the fact no-one seems to truly know what he bowled. If we don't know 100 years down the line, it's very unlikely batsmen did at the time.

For all we know, he could indeed have defied classification. Sobers, after all, bowled all styles to passable (at worst) standard. Certainly far from impossible that Barnes did something similar - to a much higher standard.

Wristspin being the most difficult of all styles, and the fact that the "Barnes ball" has always seemed to be like what is these days classified as Leg-Break, I've always thought wristspin would be the category to put him in, if any.

And let's face it, to omit him from any such list would be borderline criminal.

 

[zaremba]

Perhaps the unassailability is heighened by the fact no-one seems to truly know what he bowled. If we don't know 100 years down the line, it's very unlikely batsmen did at the time.

For all we know, he could indeed have defied classification. Sobers, after all, bowled all styles to passable (at worst) standard. Certainly far from impossible that Barnes did something similar - to a much higher standard.

Wristspin being the most difficult of all styles, and the fact that the "Barnes ball" has always seemed to be like what is these days classified as Leg-Break, I've always thought wristspin would be the category to put him in, if any.

But this just proves my point - you seem to be admitting that it's all guesswork.

And let's face it, to omit him from any such list would be borderline criminal.

Very true. But ditto Spofforth, ditto Grace. You may say they played in a different era about which we know little, which is true, but so did Barnes (and MA Noble for that matter).

 

[Richard]

But this just proves my point - you seem to be admitting that it's all guesswork.

There is guesswork involved, to varying degrees, in just everything where summing-up cricketers compared to one another are concerned. Some degree of assumption must always be done. I don't feel there's an unacceptable amount of guesswork involved in classifying Barnes a wristspinner.

Very true. But ditto Spofforth, ditto Grace. You may say they played in a different era about which we know little, which is true, but so did Barnes (and MA Noble for that matter).

Clearly, less is known about the period 1900-1929 than from 1930 onwards - once the newsreels got properly into coverage, starting with Bradman's Ashes, we can have a fair idea of what exactly was going-on, in a way we could not in the Golden Age nor the 1920s.

Nonetheless, the period before the 20th-century dawned is shrouded in more mystery than ever. This, in some ways, is appealing. Yet it is also cloaked by certainties about what was not the same. Grace and Spofforth were masters of their time, and two of the biggest players in the game's evolution. Yet the game in the 19th-century was often unrecogniseable for what it was after the 20th dawned. Pitches and prevailing styles (of batting and bowling) are just two ways. I can just about feel comfortable comparing those of the first three decades of the 20th-century with their successors - though it's true I have misgivings and in some cases prefer not to. The same is not true of 19th- to 20th-century comparisons. I'm only happy leaving the two as separate, and that those who were great in one were great in their own and great cricketers. In leaving the two separate, I am in no way attempting to denigrate the excellence of those whose excellence occurred in the 19th-century.

 

[Bonnie Prince C]

Top 5 Opening Batsman

1. Herbert Sutcliffe
2. Len Hutton
3. Jack Hobbs
4. Sunil Gavaskar
5. Matthew Hayden

(Greenidge very close)

Top 5 Middle-Order Batsman

1. Don Bradman
2. Sachin Tendulkar
3. Viv Richards
4. Graeme Smith
5. Ricky Ponting

Top 5 Allrounders

1. Sir Garfield Sobers
2. Jacques Kallis
3. Imran Khan
4. Ian Botham
5. Keith Miller

Top 5 Wicketkeeper-Batsman

1. Adam Gilchrist
2. Les Ames
3. Kumar Sangakkara
4. Alec Stewart
5. Alan Knott

Top 5 Spin Bowlers

1. Shane Warne
2. Muttiah Muralitharan
3. Anil Kumble
4. Jim Laker
5. Lance Gibbs

Top 5 Pace Bowlers

1. Glen McGrath
2. Curtley Ambrose
3. Malcolm Marshall
4. Wasim Akram
5. Fred Trueman

Top 5 Cricketers

1. Sir Donald Bradman
2. WG Grace
3. Sir Garfield Sobers
4. Shane Warne
5. Sir Vivian Richards

 

[Migara]

Top 5 Wicketkeeper-Batsman

1. Adam Gilchrist
2. Kumar Sangakkara
3. Alan Knott
4. Alec Stewart
5. Ian Healy

I'd take Andy Flower over Stwart any day, any time.