Cricket history is full of exceptionally talented and Greatest cricketers and many of them were exceptional. Let’s try to find out the greatest cricketers of all time who have graced the cricket field. It does not reflect their personal greatness. It’s just about how great the Greatest cricketers were. A bigger cricketer does not necessarily mean a bigger human being than a smaller cricketer in the list or vice versa. The list is purely on cricket skills.
1. Gary Sobers:
Arguably the greatest cricketer ever to play cricket, as many connected with the game of cricket have argued, and that was what intuition suggests when you look at his abilities and stats. The ability to play until you score 365 in Test cricket, hit six times over the ropes in one over, finish with a Test average more than many great batsmen in the history of the game, be a class fielder, and after being able to contribute with the bowling.
You’re they left wondering if there was anything in cricket he couldn’t do and that makes him the greatest cricketer of all time and the greatest cricketer of all. He could win a place in any great team with just his bat. As a bowler, he was skilled and versatile.
He is documented to have both pace bowling and slow bowling. With his bowling and fielding, he made many breakthroughs. The thing with all players is that it’s like having the privilege of playing another player on the team. Just look at how many cricketers have scored a triple hundred in Test match cricket. There are only three instances in the history of first-class and international cricket where six sixes have been hit in one game. There have been hardly a dozen cricketers in the history of the game who could be hailed as more all-rounders of class and substance, and Gary is regarded as the best of them all. Keep counting. The list goes on.
2. Don Bradman:
Probably as strong a contender as Gary Sobers to be called the greatest cricketer of all time. Don Bradman’s exceptional Test average of almost 100 runs makes him an outstanding cricketer. If you consider the rarity of this feat of averaging close to 100 runs, Don Bradman should be the greatest cricketer of all time. Where Gary scores above him are likely to be able to contribute significantly in every department of the game. Otherwise, I see no gap between Gary Sobers and Don Bradman as the two greatest cricketers of all time. But then again you wonder if e has to be unique to average 100 runs an innings.
All the great batsmen throughout the history of the game who have played a significant number of Tests have not averaged beyond the 60s, and most of these so-called greats have averaged between the 50s and 60s. So to beat the next best in your category by 40% is unimaginable in any sport. In this sense, Don Bradman can be considered not only the greatest cricketer of all time but also the greatest sportsman of all time. To top it off, he scored nearly 100 runs per inning in those days of hostile pitches and raw equipment. Everyone knows how bats and other cricket equipment have evolved over the years. The difference between the bats of today and the bats of, say, 20 or so years ago is quite noticeable.
What bats Don Bradman had to play with? Some people say that Don played multiple ballparks and that’s why they have that record. But even the worse pitches today among the many pitches on which cricket is played must be better than the pitches on which Don played. If that was the criteria, why didn’t any player of his era even manage to average into the 70s? All those modern greats of the 90s and 00s managed to average in 50 years with all those well-developed bats and other cricket equipment on benign and batsman-friendly pitches. The pitches seen back in the 70s and 80s were much more difficult to hit compared to the pitches being made today. If this is any indication of what pitches Don must have been hitting. He still remains the only player to score 300 runs in a single day of a Test match.
3. Imran Khan:
If Gary Sobers could do everything in the game of cricket, then Imran could do even more as a captain. Imran Khan could have carved out a place in any leading side just as a bowler and is one of the greatest fast bowlers of all time. Moreover, he was as good as any good international batsman. He was also a good fielder. He could win matches with his bowling, contribute significantly as a batsman, and could contribute significantly as a pack leader.
He is regarded as the best among the greatest all-rounders of his time, who himself ranks among the greatest cricketers of all time. There weren’t too many bowlers who were better than him, and among the bowlers who could be a little better than him, there aren’t many known for their batting ability. Wasim Akram was a better bowler than Imran, but Imran was a more reliable batsman than Akram, and Richard Hadlee may have been a better bowler than Imran, but Imran certainly excelled as a batsman and as a captain he excelled in everyone in this all-round