All Time Greats Top 10 batsmen of all teams?

Think it would be interesting to see what kind of a list we would get.

In no particular order - my list is as below -

Australia:
Don Bradman
Greg Chappell
Ian Chappel
Steve Waugh
Ricky Ponting
Allan Border
Arthur Morris
Neil Harvey
Victor Trumper
Adam Gilchrist

India
Sachin Tendulkar
Sunil Gavaskar
Dilip Vengasarkar
Gundappa Vishwanath
Rahul Dravid
V.V.S. Laxman
Sourav Ganguly
Mohammad Azharuddin
Virendra Sehwag
Kapil Dev

England:
Len Hutton
Graham Gooch
Ian Botham [14 centuries for an all Rounder is impressive]
Alec Stewart [???]
Graham Thorpe
David Gower
Jack Hobbs
Dennis Compton
Herbert Sutcliffe
Wally Hammond
[Kevin Pieterson??? Ted Devter??? Peter May??? Geoff Boycott??? But I already have 10 above]


West Indies:
Viv Richards
Rohan Kanhai
Brian Lara
Clive Loydd
Desmond Haynes
Gordon Greenidge
Richie Richardson
George Headley
Chris Gayle
Gary Sobers

Pakistan:
Zaheer Abbas
Javed Miandad
Inzamam Ul Haq
Saeed Anwar
Mushtaq Mohammad
Mohammad Yousuf [Yousuf Yohanna]
Hanif Mohammad
Salim Malik [?????]

South Africa:
Gary Kirsten
Jacques Kallis
Barry Richards
Mark Boucher
Graeme Smith
Daryll Cullinan
Lance Klusener

Sri Lanka:
S. Jayasurya
Aravinda D'Silva
A. Ranatunga
Mahela Jayavardane
H. Tilakratne
A. Gurusinha
Kumara Sangakkara
Tilakratne Dilshan
Marvan Attapatu

New Zealand:
Chris Cairns
Nathan Astle
Stephen Fleming
Daniel Vettori
Martin Crowe

Note: Can’t add Zimboks as they only had Andy Flower followed by Grant Flower. Bangals too. Neither have not yet completed a cycle of achievement that can be defined or judged.

Please feel free to submit your own lists and why you rate the batsmen you would list. I have also struggled to fill in gaps in SL, SA, Pak and NZ list so feel free to complete it according to your choices. Think it would be cool to see what kind of best mix we get from all time list. I would have added W.G. Grace but he was too long back in history and thought he was above judgement.

Hazare?

Paul Keating wrote:Hazare?

Also Merchant. Pataudi perhaps.

Glaring omission from the Sith Eff list: Same first name as one of the guys who did get a mench, had a brother called Peter and a nephew called Shaun who both bowled a bit.....

There's a fair few all-rounders/keeper batsmen who averaged 30-odd in some of those lists. While their overall contribution might put them down as greats I can't see how they can make all-time top 10 batsmen lists.

Batman wrote:

]
]b]England:[/b]
Len Hutton
Graham Gooch
Ian Botham [14 centuries for an all Rounder is impressive]
Alec Stewart [???]
Graham Thorpe
David Gower
Jack Hobbs
Dennis Compton
Herbert Sutcliffe
Wally Hammond
[Kevin Pieterson??? Ted Devter??? Peter May??? Geoff Boycott??? But I already have 10 above]

Hutton
Compton
Barrington
May
Hammond
Gooch
Hobbs
Gower
Sutcliffe
Cowdrey

West Indies:
Viv Richards
Rohan Kanhai
Brian Lara
Clive Loydd
Desmond Haynes
Gordon Greenidge
Richie Richardson
George Headley
Chris Gayle
Gary Sobers

Each of the 3 Ws would make this list. Gayle has no business being anywhere near it.

Some of the all rounders like Stewart [8,000 runs averaging close to 40 not considering his wicket keeping is quite impressive] and Kapil Dev had made test runs befitting a proper batsman and that stand out on their own where there aren't many options available. I suppose England has more options to replace Botham up there. In some manner even passing up Gilchrist purely for his batting is a bit of a challenge for me.

It's also surprising that despite a sufficiently long history, finding enough names to fill up in teams like Pak, Lanka and NZ is a tad difficult.

Re Pak - Majid Khan should get a mention. As should Younis Khan.

Batman wrote:Think it would be interesting to see what kind of a list we would get.

In no particular order - my list is as below -

England:
Len Hutton
Graham Gooch
Ian Botham [14 centuries for an all Rounder is impressive]
Alec Stewart [???]
Graham Thorpe
David Gower
Jack Hobbs
Dennis Compton
Herbert Sutcliffe
Wally Hammond
[Kevin Pieterson??? Ted Devter??? Peter May??? Geoff Boycott??? But I already have 10 above]

I don't think any Englishman would rate Botham a better batsman than Boycott. Accepting the fact that Cook, Strauss and Pietersen may all eventually warrant selection, but it being difficult to judge current players until their career is complete I will go with a top 12 of:

WG Grace
Jack Hobbs
Herbert Sutcliffe
Wally Hammond
Len Hutton
Denis Compton
Peter May
Kenny Barrington
Geoff Boycott
David Gower
Graham Gooch
Graham Thorpe

Batman wrote:Some of the all rounders like Stewart [8,000 runs averaging close to 40 not considering his wicket keeping is quite impressive] and Kapil Dev had made test runs befitting a proper batsman and that stand out on their own where there aren't many options available. I suppose England has more options to replace Botham up there. In some manner even passing up Gilchrist purely for his batting is a bit of a challenge for me.

It's also surprising that despite a sufficiently long history, finding enough names to fill up in teams like Pak, Lanka and NZ is a tad difficult.

I think you have to look at a mixture of longevity and quality. For me Stewart was good but not great, he has a fine record against the Windies but his slim pickings against the best team of his era, Australia (33 Tests, 1 century, batting average 30.67) mean I would omit him. Thorpe was England's best batsman in the 90s / early 00s and the player who contributed to most important victories.

I think picking Gilchrist purely for his batting is fair enough, he averaged close to 50 and was a player whose impact and pace of scoring was as important as the actual runs he scored anyway.

The likes of Boucher I'm not so sure about, yes he's a legend of SA cricket as an all-round package of keeper and gritty number 7 but looking purely at his stats as a batsman he averages about 30. Klusener as well, maybe if you're talking about one-day cricket but in Tests he was just a bowler who could bat really. Similarly Vettori and to some extent Cairns, picking him is a bit like choosing Flintoff in the England list, although to be fair there's not too many candidates for NZ really!

Good list Gary - not sure that Thorpe belongs in that company though, particularly ahead of the likes of Woolley, Hendren, Ranji, Dexter, Graveney or either Edrich.

Thing with SA is that they have had a relatively short time in tests overall and don't have enough guys to choose for. In the case of NZ, SA and Lanka it gets to the point where after the top 5 is considered the rest you to pick up based on tests and runs scored and not necessarily on terms of average or match winning criteria. Which is why Vettori is there in NZ. There are absolutely no names available to even think up of an XI. Only England, Aus, India and WI look well equipped in that regard.

Here's another shot at Pak:

Pakistan:
Zaheer Abbas
Javed Miandad
Inzamam Ul Haq
Saeed Anwar
Mushtaq Mohammad
Mohammad Yousuf [Yousuf Yohanna]
Hanif Mohammad
Salim Malik
Younis Khan
Majid Khan

Hmm I wonder if we had to pick an all time top 10 from all of these teams what kind of list we would get? Bradman, SRT, Richards & Lara of course get a headstart. That would mean a lot of tough competition for the remaining 6.

Bradman
Richards
SRT
Lara
Sunil Gavaskar [?]
?
??
???
????
?????

Assuming as a qualification that they had to play Tests for that country, Zimbok ten is:

Kevin Arnott
Alistair Campbell
Andy Flower
Grant Flower
Murray Goodwin
Neil Johnson
Davey Houghton
Andy Pycroft
Tatenda Taibu
Guy Whittall

Sounds like a good list for Zimboks Gary.

Thing with SA is that they have had a relatively short time in tests overall and don't have enough guys to choose for. In the case of NZ, SA and Lanka it gets to the point where after the top 5 is considered the rest you to pick up based on tests and runs scored and not necessarily on terms of average or match winning criteria. Which is why Vettori is there in NZ. There are absolutely no names available to even think up of an XI. Only England, Aus, India and WI look well equipped in that regard

Huh? South Africa have been playing tests since the late 1800s - well before India and the West Indies.

Think of names like Pollock, Faulkner, Nourse, Bland, Mitchell, Rowan and Barlow.

New Zealand:
Chris Cairns
Nathan Astle
Stephen Fleming
[strike]Daniel Vettori[strike]
Martin Crowe

plus

Turner
Richardson
Wright
Reid x 2
Jones
Sutcliffe
McMillan
Wright
Coney
Styris

plus a few of rheir current team

Chris Martin, now he's got his 100 career runs?

JGK wrote:Good list Gary - not sure that Thorpe belongs in that company though, particularly ahead of the likes of Woolley, Hendren, Ranji, Dexter, Graveney or either Edrich.

Thanks JGK, I tried to have a fair reflection of players from different eras - Thorpe never had to bat on uncovered wickets, but Woolley and Hendren never faced bowlers as fierce as Walsh and Ambrose with success or scored match-winning centuries against Murali in 35 degree+ conditions.

I think its fair to say none of those players were regarded as being the best of their era. Hobbs and Sutcliffe were comfortably above Woolley and Hendren. Dexter and Graveney weren't as classically talented as Peter May or as successful as Kenny Barrington, and Geoff Boycott was a better batsman than John Edrich.

The one exception is I didn't have a 'Golden age' batsman, so maybe I should add Ranji to the list.

JGK wrote: Huh? South Africa have been playing tests since the late 1800s - well before India and the West Indies.

Think of names like Pollock, Faulkner, Nourse, Bland, Mitchell, Rowan and Barlow.

Thanks for the suggestion. I was lost for a choice as I have no idea of their history that far back and the ban from the game really took a couple of generations off. Good work.

Gary Kirsten
Jacques Kallis
Barry Richards
Mark Boucher
Graeme Smith
Daryll Cullinan
Lance Klusener
Pollock
Faulkner
Bland
Mitchell
Rowan
Barlow

NZ

Bert Sutcliffe
Bevan Congdon
Martin Crowe
GlennTurner
Stephen Fleming
Geoff Howarth

I'm struggling with the rest to be honest - players like John Reid and Mark Burgess both had test careers of 50+ tests, but they both averaged in the low 30s.