Who are your 20 greatest test cricketers of all time?

Who are your 20 greatest test cricketers of all time? (btw they are not in order)

these are mine let me know what u think?

1)Viv Richards

2)Sachin Tendulkar

3)Ricky Ponting

4)Don Bradman

5)Wally Hammond

6)Shane Warne

7)Wasim Akram

8)Glenn McGrath

9)Rahul Dravid

10)Graeme Pollock

11)Ian Botham

12)Desmond Haynes

13)Waqar Younis

14)Inzamaam Ul-Haq

15)Anil Kumble

16)VVS Laxman

17)David Gower

18)Alec Stewart

19)Allan Donald

20)Saeed Anwar

Good list, others I'd say are:

Adam Gilchrist - best wicket keeper batsmen of all time
Murali - leading wicket taker, 800 enough said
Courtney Walsh - formidable
Curtley Ambrose - formidable
Daniel Vettori - just because

In (sort of) chronological order:

S.F. Barnes
Jack Hobbs
Don Bradman
Bill O'Reilly
George Headley
Len Hutton
Gary Sobers
Fred Trueman
Richie Benaud
Graham Pollock
Sunil Gavaskar
Viv Richards
Imran Khan
Ian Botham
Malcolm Marshall
Sachin Tendulkar
Steve Waugh
Shane Warne
Adam Gilchrist
Jaques Kallis

i forgot abvout murali, but im happy with the list i have

cricketfan90 wrote:i forgot abvout murali

So did I actually

Makahaya Ntini could have made the list as well...

1) Sachin Tendulkar
2) Shane Warne
3) Don Bradman
4) Gary Sobers
5) Glen McGrath
6) Brian Lara
7) Murali Muralitharan
8) Kapil Dev
9) Viv Richards
10) Wasim Akram
11) Richard Hadlee
12) Rahul Dravid
13) Graeme Pollock
14) Ricky Ponting
15) Malcolm Marshall
16) Jacques Kallis
17) Ian Botham
18) Allan Donald
19) Courtney Walsh
20) Adam Gilchrist

I am surprised that there is no mention of Andy Flower.He kept wickets,captained the side for quite a while and still managed to average over 50 for the Worst Test side in the world.Only wicketkeeper to average over 50 and he batted at 3,arguably the toughest batting position in Test Cricket.
Legend

Who would you put Flower above though? So many players that deserve a place in the top 20.

Flower over Gilly for me in Test Cricket.Gilly was a great but he mostly came in when the score was 400/5.Not trying to denigrate gilly at all.He was one of my favourites and still is.If I were picking an All Time XI I would pick Gilly bcoz he is better suited to No.7 but if you ask me who was the greater Test cricketer I would say Flower.
He played for the worst side whilst gilly played for the Best side in the world.
He played at 3 whilst Gilly batted at 7 with a strong top order ahead of him.Still Flower managed to average over 50.

In order of time and nothing else ...


SF Barnes

Bradman

Larwood

Verity

Hutton

Compton

Laker

Sobers

Barry Richards

Lillee

Milburn

Richard Hadlee

Gooch

Botham

Kapil Dev

Warne

Lara

Gilchrist

Waqar Younis

Marshall

Some of these inclusions and omissions are truly staggering. I know it's all a matter of opinions but .........
Cricket has been played for the best part of 140 years yet the first list includes 18 names from the last 30 years. To be kind it's almost complete garbage. At least 10 shouldn't be anywhere near this list.
Where are Keith Miller, Ray Lindwall, Richie Benaud, Sutcliffe, Fred Trueman, Laker, Statham, Greg Chappell, S Waugh, Sobers, etc.
"Makahaya Ntini could have made the list as well..." Best laugh I've had for ages. Good bowler but probably not in the top 10 best South African test cricketers of all time.
Rant over

Surely as the guy who wrote the list is 17 it makes sense for it to predominately contain people from the last 30 (if not mainly last 15) years?

Eyetoldyouso wrote:Some of these inclusions and omissions are truly staggering. I know it's all a matter of opinions but .........
Cricket has been played for the best part of 140 years yet the first list includes 18 names from the last 30 years. To be kind it's almost complete garbage. At least 10 shouldn't be anywhere near this list.
Where are Keith Miller, Ray Lindwall, Richie Benaud, Sutcliffe, Fred Trueman, Laker, Statham, Greg Chappell, S Waugh, Sobers, etc.
"Makahaya Ntini could have made the list as well..." Best laugh I've had for ages. Good bowler but probably not in the top 10 best South African test cricketers of all time.
Rant over

I'm 16 and have included some of the old players the likes of Sobers and Waugh. What do you make of my list?

1) Sir Geoffrey Boycott
2) Sir Geoffrey Boycott
3) Sir Geoffrey Boycott
4) Sir Geoffrey Boycott
5) Sir Geoffrey Boycott
6) Sir Geoffrey Boycott
7) Sir Geoffrey Boycott
8) Sir Geoffrey Boycott
9) Sir Geoffrey Boycott
10) Sir Geoffrey Boycott
11) Sir Geoffrey Boycott
12) Sir Geoffrey Boycott
13) Sir Geoffrey Boycott
14) Sir Geoffrey Boycott
15) Sir Geoffrey Boycott
16) Sir Geoffrey Boycott
17) Sir Geoffrey Boycott
18) Sir Geoffrey Boycott
19) Sir Geoffrey Boycott
20) Sir Geoffrey Boycott's Mum


Sithee!

An impossible task and one that should be debated at length after several pints so no one remembers the outcome the next day,so you can have the pleasure of doing it all over again the following day!

Gregers wrote:Surely as the guy who wrote the list is 17 it makes sense for it to predominately contain people from the last 30 (if not mainly last 15) years?

Then he shouldn't pose the question "Who are your 20 greatest test cricketers of all time?" His age is irrelevant to the question. All it proves is that his knowledge is limited. I don't want to offend but he undervalues the skills of very many greater cricketers.

Liam-Main

your list is much nearer to my thinking. IMO I wouldn't have Dravid, Kallis, Donald, Akram or Walsh on this list. Perhaps not even Ponting or Dev or Gilchrist.
The question is unbelievably difficult to answer. To go through the history of test cricket and identifying the very best would be a labour of love. However there are some points which need to be taken into consideration.
Nowadays players play far more test cricket than they used to so the nubers of runs scored or wickets taken is not a definitive guide to who are the best batsmen or bowlers. In addition, those batsmen who made runs on uncovered pitches deserve more credit than those made on flat batsmen friendly pitches.
Averages, particularly over a long career, are a more accurate measure of greatness.
Hope this adds to the debate.

i think i also missed out shaun pollock

1) Bradman
2) Sobers
3) Tendulkar
4) Lara
5) Warne
6) Hobbs
7) Marshall
8) Murali
9) I V A Richards
10) Gavaskar
11) Headley
12) Kallis
13) Hammond
14) Hutton
15) Imran
16) Miller
17) Lillee
18) McGrath
19) Hadlee
20) Gilchrist

21) Ambrose
22) Sutcliffe
23) Barnes
25) Akram
26) Botham
27) Ponting
28) Lindwall
29) Weekes
30) Younus

Apologies to: S Waugh, Sehwag, Kapil, Border, O'Reilly, Holding, Barrington, G Chappell, Compton, Dravid, Walcott

Tough tough question. Narrowing a list down to twenty is nearly impossible, but I'll try anyway. So as not to cheat haven't looked at any of the other lists, so may well forget a few...

1) Bradman
2) Warne
3) Murali
4) Sobers
5) Tendulkar
6) McGrath
7) Barnes
8) Barrington
9) Richards (Viv)
10) Kallis
11) Headley
12) Gilchrist
13) Hobbs
14) Marshall
15) Imran Khan
16) Hutton
17) Hammond
18) Holding
19) Hadlee
20) Lindwall

No particular order, and others who deserve a mention:
Ghappell, Border, Waugh, Oldfield, Botham, Trueman, Kapil Dev, Donald, loads of WI quick bowlers (Hall, Garner, Ambrose, etc.), O'Reilly, Gavaskar, Sutcliffe, some SA guys who never really had the chance (Barry Richards, Graeme Pollock, Mike Procter) so we'll never know how good they could have been, Lillee, Lara, the list goes on and on...

oh yeah checking through the other lists, Wasim Akram and Ricky Ponting are two guys I haven't mentioned who should be up there (though they wouldn't make a top twenty), as is Keith Miller

Bradman
Sobers
Tendulkar
Murali
Warne
Barnes
V Richards
Imran
Lara
Marshall
Hobbs
McGrath
Hadlee
Headley
Akram
Miller
Botham
Gilchrist
Ponting
Kallis

hmmm i forgot about kallis

We noticed... and a few odd ones in there too. However, still a good list

who are the odd ones?

David Gower

he is he has over 8000 test runs and was a real quality player!

cricketfan90 wrote:he is he has over 8000 test runs and was a real quality player!

Yet you didn't include players with 10000 runs and a higher average.

Decent player, maybe top 10 England player but not top 20 of all time

Also think Stewart over Gilchrist/Flower is a strange call

cricketfan90 wrote:who are the odd ones?

Yes, I agree with Liam about Gower.

Also Stewart, Donald & Haynes were nowhere near the best amongst their contemporaries and Graeme Pollock (although part of SA's golden era) only played 23 tests. I wouldn't have any of them in an 'All Time' Top 20.

yh but look at pollock's record even after 23 tests that is an incredible record to average over 60

Then you'd have to include George Headley too wouldn't you because he only played 22 tests and averaged over 60?

You don't rate Lara I see? And you also omit the greatest wicket-keeper batsman in the history of the game, lol.

i should have put jack hobbs in there as well then lol

My twenty, in no particular order (and likely to chance on a day-to-day basis) would be:

Sunil Gavaskar, Jack Hobbs, Don Bradman, Graeme Pollock, Sachin Tendulkar, Brian Lara, Garfield Sobers, Imran Khan, Ian Botham, Jacques Kallis, Adam Gilchrist, Shane Warne, Muttiah Muralitharan, Richard Hadlee, Malcolm Marshall, Sydney Barnes, Wasim Akram, Allan Donald, Curtly Ambrose and Glenn McGrath.

Difficult to get the right mix between out and out batsmen, bowlers, all-rounders and wicket-keeper batsmen, but I reckon that twenty right there stands comparison with anyone else's - but then again, I would say that, wouldn't I!?

i think you have a very good list there chris...

Cricketfan90

What abt Junaid Siddique?

Dave Warner, lol

i think one day hashim amla will make a list like this to be honest.

cricketfan90 wrote:i think one day hashim amla will make a list like this to be honest.

Not likely. Very good but no great.

Jason Roy.

You said ''of all time'', cricketfan. I assume that includes the near future

He still has quite a bit to do but I remain convinced of his ability.

Off on hols now for 2 weeks - chat again when back.

Smile wrote:

cricketfan90 wrote:i think one day hashim amla will make a list like this to be honest.

Not likely. Very good but no great.

i think he could, he is a world class batsman in all forms of the game now

Linebreaker wrote:Dave Warner, lol

Marcus Trescothick :P

cricketfan90 wrote:

Smile wrote:

cricketfan90 wrote:i think one day hashim amla will make a list like this to be honest.

Not likely. Very good but no great.

i think he could, he is a world class batsman in all forms of the game now

That puts him in the top 20 Cricketers of all time does it?

i never said that did i!!!!

i said maybe in the future!

along with monty panesar, lol

Nothing wrong with Monty P!

Panesar had a serious future as a test player.

What went wrong?

Andy Flower doesn't like him.

Apart from that his form seriously dipped whilst Swann got better and better. Since moving to the south coast he's back to his best!