It is well known that many fine South African players had their international careers cut short by isolation in 1970, causing the statistical record to mislead us when it is used to measure their level of greatness.
As a die-hard stats man, I am between a rock and a hard place in all of this, so I decided to try to correct the injustice by turning to the only level playing field available to me, statistically speaking of course; the First-class Career stats of all the great Test match players. By following Most Career Runs/Wickets in First-Class Cricket instead of the well-worn Most Runs/Wickets in Test cricket path I believe that a credible outcome is achieved.
There are sure to be those who will find this stat an affront to their favourite Test players, but those that do will have completely misunderstood my intentions.
Put simply, they are to show what might have been for the players in one of the greatest teams to ever walk the planet, the 1970s Proteas. The official ratings should, and always will be, based upon Test match stats alone.
We tend to obsess over Test cricket performances, because it is the shop window through which us followers of the game view its wares. We tend to forget that what we see on display is only a part of the entire cricketing stock.
Every player who has risen to prominence has an extensive first-class career in the background. So why not use his career achievements when attempting to compare him to his peers?
There is a truism that goes along the lines of ‘never utter the words it will never be beaten.’ Well, with all the certainty of a Mark Waugh as he said we couldn’t win, before the Aussies were bowled out by Fanie Da V for 111 to lose the second Test in Sydney 1994, I am defying the cricketing gods when I say the following two stats will never be beaten!
1. Don Bradman’s 99.94 International Career Batting Average. How on earth? It’s almost double everyone else’s
2. Don Bradman’s 95.14 First-class Career Batting Average.
To those 70s Proteas, all greats indeed! Barry Richards in the top ten of my CSW (Could’ve, Should’ve, Would’ve) rankings! Some justice at last. Thanks for the memories.
Statistical analysis by its very nature will always produce a winner and a loser, but in this case, take your pick. Any of these superstars deserves the number 1 ranking on his day!.
Rating of batsmen (Post-war)
Based on first-class career stats
1 Don Bradman Aus
2 George Headley WI
3 Ricky Ponting Aus
4 Len Hutton Eng
5 Sachin Tendulkar Ind
6 Yashasvi Jaiswal Ind .
7 Lindsay Hassett Aus
8 Vijay Hazare Ind
9 Barry Richards SA
10 Denis Compton Eng
11 Graham Gooch Eng
12 Rahul Dravid Ind
13 Bobby Simpson Aus
14 Gary Sobers WI
15 Brian Lara WI
16 Graeme Pollock SA
17 Clyde Walcott WI
18 Mathew Hayden Aus
19 Viv Richards WI
20 Everton Weekes WI
Rating of bowlers (Post-war)
Based on first-class career stats
1 Tony Lock Eng
2 Muttiah Muralitharan SL
3 Brian Statham Eng
4 Richard Hadlee NZ
5 Jim Laker Eng
6 Johnny Wardle Eng
7 Fred Trueman Eng
8 Malcolm Marshall WI
9 Neil Adcock SA
10 Joel Garner WI
11 Derek Underwood Eng
12 Courtney Walsh WI
13 Wakar Younis Pak
14 Glenn McGrath Aus
15 Mushtaq Ahmed Pak
16 Kagiso Rabada SA
17 Ollie Robinson Eng
18 Mohammad Abbas Pak
19 Hugh Tayfield SA
20 Alec Bedser Eng
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