Cricket Fever Ratings: 10 Best Cricketers

By Anil, 26 June '03
July 9 2003

With the credibility of individual player ratings by organizations like PwC and Wisden under attack by fans everywhere, Cricket Fever releases its first-ever ranking of the best cricketers in the world based on direct input from cricket fans worldwide.

The objectivity of ratings system such as PwC and Wisden, both based in England, has always been suspect in the eyes of fans who don't happen to be supporters of England or Australia. It seems that these two ratings systems act with lightning speed to reward players from these two countries, but drag their feet when acknowledging achievements by players from some other teams.

Wisden has even displayed a surprising resentment of Sachin Tendulkar's reputation as the best batsman today and perhaps ever seen in the game, going down to pitiful lows in their constant attempts to play down his many wonderful efforts in both forms of the game. An article on Wisden's attempts to spread nonsensical propaganda in India with their so-called "Wisden Asia" magazine will be forthcoming shortly.

Looking at PwC's most recent rankings is worth a good laugh. These misguided folks are under the impression that Inzamam-ul-Haq and Jacques Kallis are currently better Test batsmen than Rahul Dravid. Moreover, Sachin Tendulkar is relegated to fourth position. Vaughan's words when he was elevated to their top rank a few months back were instructive, "When I look at the mirror, I don't see the world's best batsman. That would be Tendulkar."

Little wonder that these ratings are discarded as ridiculous, contrived, and amateurish wishful thinking by anyone with the slightest bit of cricketing sense.

Here then is a ranking of the best cricket players in the world for Combined Test and ODI performance based on the input of discerning cricket fans worldwide.

The accompanying ratings points show the relative strengths of the players. For example, there is a steep drop round about Vaughan's rating, who appears in this list mostly due to Test performances. In bowling, numbers 5, 6, 7 and 8 run neck-and-neck.

Cricket Fever's 10 Best Batsmen in the World

1. Sachin Tendulkar (1270)
2. Brian Lara (1100)
3. Ricky Ponting (900)
4. Rahul Dravid (730)
5. Adam Gilchrist (720)
6. Matt Hayden (590)
7. Herschelle Gibbs (350)
8. Michael Vaughan (320)
9. Shivnarine Chanderpaul (170)
10. Ramnaresh Sarwan (160)

Cricket Fever's 10 Best Bowlers in the World

1. Muthiah Muralitharan (990)
2. Jason Gillespie (920)
3. Glen McGrath (780)
4. Shane Bond (630)
5. Zaheer Khan (450)
6. Harbhajan Singh (440)
7. Brett Lee (420)
8. Shaun Pollock (400)
9. Chaminda Vaas (260)
10. Makhaya Ntini (230)

Cricket Fever's 10 Best Fielders in the World

1. Herschelle Gibbs (500)
2. Yuvraj Singh (480)
3. Mohammad Kaif (480)
4. Ricky Ponting (440)
5. Andrew Symonds (310)
6. Ricardo Powell (150)
7. Michael Bevan (60)
8. Stephen Fleming (60)
9. Damien Martyn (40)
10. Lou Vincent (30)