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Though it is increasingly difficult to find out the greatests that have played the game, it is still possible to extract some unchallenged heroes. Cricket enthusiasts all over the world always had more liking to batsmen rather than bowlers. There were/are some batsmen who were/are representatives of their generation too. Let’s look into some of these representatives. |
The first undisputed hero of world cricket was William Gilbert Grace (WG Grace), the outstanding English all-rounder. He played in more than 850 first class matches and scored over 54000 runs scoring 124 hundreds and 251 fifties. He also took more than 2800 wickets. In his 22-match test career, he was able to score only about 1000 runs at a reasonable average of 32. But considering the fact that he played on uncovered pitches and that his contemporary batsmen had only half his batting average, he stands tall. He played first class cricket until he was 60! |
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Jack Hobbs was the next hero the cricket world saw. He is best known for his opening partnerships with Herbert Sutcliffe for England. This graceful Surrey batsman accumulated more than 61000 first-class runs in his career spanning almost three decades. He made more than 5400 test runs at a whopping average of 57. He also scored 199 first-class hundreds, 15 of those in tests. Interestingly, he scored almost a hundred centuries after he was 40! His services to the game were truly recognized when he became the first cricketer to be knighted. |
| From 1928 to 1948, the world witnessed the rise of the greatest ever batting star in cricket, Don Bradman. Known for his consistency and perseverance, this batsman broke almost all the existing records and set up something new, which even today cannot be imagined. The permanent number-three batsman for Australia in test cricket, he finished his career scoring 6996 runs from 52 test matches at an inconceivable average of 99.94. He maintained an average of 95.14 runs per innings in his 234 first-class matches scoring more than 28000 runs. |
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Garry Sobers followed him. He is still considered to be the best total-package cricketer. An explosive batsman and a utility bowler who was equally good in both slow and fast bowling departments, he brought in a lot more variety to the West Indies cricket team. This brilliant cricketer who had played in both Australia and England in addition to the West Indies, was knighted for his services to the game in 1975. |
| Though there had been prolific run getters like Greg Chappell, Graham Gooch, Clive Lloyd, Rohan Kanhai and Allan Border, the next heroes on the horizon were the Indian opening batsman Sunil Gavaskar and the West Indian middle order batsman Viv Richards. Gavaskar was the first to score more than 10000 test runs and 30 test hundreds. Rather than the records he set up, Richards is known for his approach to the game. He was the most entertaining batsman ever produced and the most effective too. Most interestingly, he never wore a helmet when batting! |
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After he left the scene, came another talented Indian batsman named Sachin Tendulkar. The cricket world became more lucky when they got to analyze the efforts of Tendulkar with his contemporary greats like Ricky Ponting, Brian Lara and Jacques Kallis. |
| England’s Fred Trueman was one of the most impressive fast bowlers of the twentieth century. He was the first ever bowler to have taken 300 wickets in test match cricket. But he is more known for his salient bowling average of 21 and strike rate of 49. His new-ball attack with Brian Statham is still considered as one of the torridest bowling attacks England has ever produced. Considered to be one of the best fast bowlers of all time, Australia’s Dennis Lillee was one of the rare crowd pulling bowlers. Malcolm Marshall of the West Indies was a genuinely quick bowler to have played in the 1980s. Known for his fiery bouncers and deceiving legcutters, Marshall grabbed 376 wickets at an average of just 20.94 and strike rate of 46.76 from the 81 test matches he played. |
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English spinner Sidney Barnes was revered by all the batsmen he had bowled to. The greatest ever spin bowler to have played the game, Barnes remains the only player to have been selected to play for England in test matches directly from the minor league. He took 189 wickets from 27 tests at an average of 16.43 and a strike rate of just over 41. He also took 5 wickets in an innings 24 times and 10 wickets in a match 7 times. An equally impressive Australian spinner Clarrie Grimmett mesmerized the cricketing fraternity by taking 21 5-wicket hauls and 7 10-wicket hauls from just 37 tests. |
The champion leg spinner Shane Warne came to the scene in the 1990s and became the most successful bowler in his era, picking up the most number of test scalps with his masterly googlies, flippers, top-spinners and many more varieties. |
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