INTERESTING

George

Deep statistical analysis but fair enough as only a few posters here saw Bradman, Hutton, Hobbs, Sutcliffe and Hammond live in action ... 😊😋

and to think that Lara had at least a few more series in the tank when he abruptly retired. Must be something in that Santa Cruz water.

Something wrong with the methods used to arrive at a top ten batsmen if Sir Viv Richards is not included.

I wonder who the 8 top test batsmen for WI were.

@Seechy

WI have 8 in the top 50:

Lara

Sobers

Shiv

Viv

Weekes

Greenidge

Lloyd

Walcott

Interestingly, Shiv is rated higher than Viv, likely because he played in a weaker team. Greenidge and Lloyd rated higher than Walcott possibly because of their impact and clutch MoM performances.

Gayle is the second highest rated opener after Cuthbert.

@Seechy

@Seechy

where is the black Bradman? George Alphanso Headley!!!!

All very interesting an the work involved in putting it together is commendable but it's theoretical overkill ....how can Isaac Vivian Alexander Richards not figure??....wonder how many elite commentators would agree!!🤔

@imusic

Doesn’t surprise me. There was a BBC article a few years ago arguing that very same thing, while examining Lara’s ICC career points ranking(only him, viv and sobers have crossed 900 points. Tendulkar has just below 900 which is lower than both Kohli and David) and the number of innings that he has ranked on all time lists.

@CCW

@dwinston

Stats like those will never capture how The Great Babu and Sir Frank approached their innings, delighted crowds destroyed and or wore down bowlers.

@Brerzerk

 i don't think bradman is the best....certainly of his time but if a west indian had those numbers and had only played against four opponents in two countries, we'd have been laughed at. i personally think viv is the greatest, marginally in front of lara because of his ability to dominate extreme pace bowling. i do not think lara could master aggressive very fast bowling the way viv did although he could dominate it as the series against waqar and wasim at their quickest in 1993 showed. and i don't think viv had the mastery to annihilate the greatest spin bowlers in history the way lara did with murali and warne. but accurate extreme hostile fast bowling is a bigger match winner so i give the edge to viv.

with regards to this dude, I've never trusted his analyses, not only from a fan perspective but from a qualitative perspective. he ranked azhar mahmood's 132 versus sa in 97 over lara's 153 in 1999. his rationale was that the wicket was more difficult, which was absolute BS because every innings in that pakistan sa game was over 200. Yes both the australia and WI scored over 300 in the first innings of the Barbados test, which was expected if you have seen many Barbados test matches like us all. In the 2nd innings however, Australia scored 146, and were lucky to get to that after being 81-7, and even though they had a lead of 161, their run rate was 2.91(their run rate in the first innings was 3.19, wi was 3.13), which was slow even by the standards of tests in those days, indicating they were bogged down and eventually knocked out. Without lara's 153, nobody in the 2nd innings' of that test would have scored over 40. All of us know how kensington oval behaves on day 4 which is why the highest ever total chased successfully on that ground is the 311 conquered in that game. i love the use of numbers and stats, but use all the numbers, not just what suits you. Another fault was that every innings he listed was played when the side was in trouble, so nothing from Viv is there, even though viv's innings demoralized opponents and made it a lot easier for the quicks to do their thing.

Sobers ended his career with a 57.78 average only tailing of after spending the majority time averaging above 60. Having watched Sobers, Lara (was at the oval for the 156) and Richards, Sobers was a cut above them. Fast bowling or spin bowling it seemed like it was just his feelings as to what to do today. Mostly it was just effortless entertainment for the fans.

WI fans just love living in past glories.

@CricSham

Past glories better than no glory. Caribbean writers today are trash, that means we shouldn’t be proud of Walcott, vs Reid, Naipaul, selvon and many many others….please. No team in the history of team sports went unbeaten in a tournament or series for 15 years homes