Greatest All-Rounders (based on their career peaks)

yeah i saw an interview where he said he auditioned to be a batsman but was told to bowl instead which he impressed with so was put into the team

No doubt Imran was a great player, but what impress me most is by time he developed an even greater devotion for his country (SKHM, Namal College and more to come). He has the potential for even greater achievements provided the Pakistanis can stop acting like idiots!

So he is not just a great player. He also did show sportsmanship of the rare kind and above all he is a great human being! and that's a tremendous achievement. I salute Mr. Imran Khan!

Excellent analysis and a very good read Merc.

Since you mentioned the "peek" of the careers, and ICC rankings are based on the peeks (recent form), here is what I found at ICC website;

Top 100 Batsmen Ranking:
Only Sobers (#6) and Botham (#79) broke into top 100 ranking batsmen.

Code:

ID  	Rat.  	Name  	        Nat.  	Career Best Rating
6  	938  	G.S. Sobers  	WI  	938 v India, 13/01/1967
79  	811  	I.T. Botham  	ENG  	811 v India, 08/07/1982

Imran's highest batting points were 650 - in 1991 after a test vs SL at Sialkot.


Top 100 Bowler Ranking:
All players except Sobers broke in to top 100 best ever bowler's ranking.

Code:

ID  	Rat.  	Name  	        Nat.  	Career Best Rating
 3  	922  	Imran Khan  	PAK  	922 v India, 30/01/1983
 8  	911  	I.T. Botham  	ENG  	911 v India, 15/02/1980
10  	909  	R.J. Hadlee  	NZ  	909 v Australia, 30/11/1985
35  	877  	Kapil Dev  	IND  	877 v Pakistan, 15/01/1980
41  	862  	K.R. Miller  	AUS  	862 v South Africa, 09/01/1953

Career All rounders Ranking for 6 Players:
For all 6 player you listed, here is the the graph from ICC website.

Imran did not ebb away. He peaked and stayed at the peak of his game till his retirement. His planning was immaculate. He is the greatest Pak cricketer ever. His legacy showed itself in the waves and waves of genuine fast bowlers that his country produced after him. Unfortunately his real talent, planning a game and a career, was never learned by anybody else after him. Imran and Miandad always knew where they wanted to take a game of cricket. Their planning is what we miss now. Even Imran could not plan his political career as well as he did his sports career. Early alliances with some of the worst elements in our politics (for whatever reasons) lost him a lot of respect in my eyes. Still the point remains: he is our greatest cricketer and the foremost and most influential architect of cricket in our country. His stats may not be as good as others but he was in a different league in all others respects. His leadership, his personality, his charisma, his no nonsense commitment, they were all from out of this world. Only Viv Richards had the air of majesty that surrounded Imran. He did not lead a team that constantly underperformed like Hadley, he was not hit on the same toe by a young Akram on two consecutive deliveries like Botham did (swearing, cursing and limping all over the place!), he was not plastered all over Calcutta's Eden Garden by a young Salim Malik like Kapil Dev was. He entered games to win, to plan and fight when fighting was needed. His late onslaughts were a treat to watch.

Greatest allrounder

Gary Sobers simply sits on another pedestal from other allrounders and is the greatest match-winning cricketer of all time.No cricketer ever could change the complexion of a game to such agreat extent as Sobers.Kallis statistically edges Sobers but has hardly performed outstandingly with both bat and ball in a sinle match or series or been a consistent match-winner like Sobers.I rate Sobers the greatest cricketer ever,even above Bradman.He could destroy the best of bolwing attacks with the bat to win games from a crisis and was incredibly verstaile asa bowler delivering pace ,spin nad chinaman.He also was a spectacular fielder.Remember Sober's all-round efforts in the 1970 and 1966 English seasons with both bat and ball.His 1970 efforts have never been equalled.

Sober's closest challengers are Imran,Botham and Miller with Kallis just a notch below.In his peak from 1977-1982 Botham was the closest to Sobers.Remember his spectacular efforts in the 1980 Jubilee test in Mumbai and the 1981 Ashes. In a crisis Kallis was the best batsman amongst the great allrounders,who statistically is the champion .

I don't know why "Jacques Kallis" is not considered as one of the greatest. If you look at his Test States only he is at par with "Garry Sobers"

Average Kallis Sobers
Batting 57.43 57.78
Bowling 32.01 34.03

And Sobers only played 1 ODI so there is no comparison.

best allrounders for me
1. Imran Khan'
2. Flintoff / Shahid Afridi

Mercenary I think your analysis is extremely unfair to Ian Botham.In his peak Botham was the best match-winning allrounder of all. Remember his haul of 13 wickets and a century against India in the Jubillee test at Mumbai when all seemed lost and the 1981 Ashes when he won a series for his team from the jaws of defeat with his 149 not out at Leeds and his 5-11 at Edgbaston.Even Sobers has not equalled this performance.Botham captured 5 wks and scored a hundred 5 times -a record and was the fastest to complete the 200 wkt and 3000 run double.Imran Khan hardly peformed oustandingly both with bat and ball in amatch or series .From 1977-1882 Botham was the best since Sobers.His explosive batting and deceptive swing bolwing in addition to his magnificient slip catching made him the Sobers of his day.I agree Imran Khan was more consistent in his career and a greater complement to Sobers in a world being the graeter bowler but as a pure all-rounder Botham may well edge Imran. In 3 analyses of Ananth Narayana Botham marginally edges Imran.What went against Botham was his performces agaisnt West Indies but then don't forget his 8-103 and score of 81 at Lords in 1984 against the WEst Indies.

Imran Khan overshadowed Botham in both series against England in 1977 and 1982 but became a great batsmen late in his career,peaking from 1988-1992.

Jacques Kallis in a crisis may have surpassed Sobers as a batsman but simply lacks the match-winning flair.

Asa pure all-rounder Keith Miller and Ian Botham come closer to Sobers than Kallis or Imran,being able to silmuntaneously shine with bat and ball.What stands in favour of Imran was his great match-winning flair while Kallis has credibility in the fact that statistically he is the greatest of all cricketers.

My personal ratings are
1.Gary Sobers
2.Keith Miller
3.Imran Khan
4.Ian Botham
5.JacquesKallis
6.Kapil Dev
7.Richard Hadlee
8.Shaun Pollock
9.Mike Procter
10.Tony Greig
11.Chris Carns
12.Andrew Flintoff

Statistics simply does not do Sobers justice .Even if Kallis has better figures he could never consistently make such an impact on the course of a match like Sobers.Gary could bowl,fast,medium,spin nad chinaman which no great bowler could do.Only Botham at his best could match Gary as amatch-winner with both ball and bat. At his beset Kallis could never decimate the opposition like Sobers.One must remember that in Gary’s era very few batsmen even averaged above 50 ,infact it was only three.In the modern era atleast 7-8 batsmen average above 50.In Sobers ear the bowling strike rates were far lower than today and in that light Sobers bolwing compared to his peers was considerably aheadof Kallis.Graeme Pollock rates him the best allrounder ever.To Ray Robinson, Sobers was "evolution's ultimate specimen in cricketers". He combined faculties of the game as no other, batting from one to nine in the West Indies order, bowling every variety of left-arm delivery, fielding in every position with uniform excellence and captaining with a knowledge that his predecessor Frank Worrell described as encompassing "everything" - this for two decades, with only the barest attenuation in performance as age encroached.

Keith Miller was in pure averages better than Botham, Richard Hadlee or Kapil Dev and almost equal to Imran Khan .Had he played in the modern era he may have been rated much higher.He was an able partner to Ray Lindwall,and often gave aclassical display of batsmanship.At his best against West Indies. Averaged 22.97 ,capturing 170 wickets with the ball,and scored 2000 runs at 36 runs apiece with the bat.I have scaled Miller’s figures for his era when bolwing strike rates were far lower and fewer test matches were played.

Miller has better bowling and batting averages than Botham and overall was more consisitent as a cricketer.Imran Khan has superior stats but was not Miller’s equal with both ball and bat in atset match or a series.Alan Dadidson,the great Australian left arm fast bowler considers Keith Miller the best of all all-rounders as he felt that the fast bowlers won matches.
In his first full series Miller averaged 76.8 with bat and 20.88 with the ball.In the 195051 Ashes series he topped the batting aveeages and captured 17 wickets.A season later he scored a hundred against the West Indies. In a series and also captured 5 wicket stwice.In West Indies in 195 he scored 439 runs at an average of 73 runs.
I have rated Miller second as any stats ratings cannot do him justice as the era he played for was completely different from Sobers or Imran and on merit his allround performance index is much higher.Miller has avery high rating in allround performance ratings

Keith Miller was in pure averages better than Botham, Richard Hadlee or Kapil Dev and almost equal to Imran Khan .Had he played in the modern era he may have been rated much higher.He was an able partner to Ray Lindwall,and often gave aclassical display of batsmanship.At his best against West Indies. Averaged 22.97 ,capturing 170 wickets with the ball,and scored 2000 runs at 36 runs apiece with the bat.I have scaled Miller’s figures for his era when bolwing strike rates were far lower and fewer test matches were played.

Miller has better bowling and batting averages than Botham and overall was more consisitent as a cricketer.Imran Khan has superior stats but was not Miller’s equal with both ball and bat in atset match or a series.Alan Dadidson,the great Australian left arm fast bowler considers Keith Miller the best of all all-rounders as he felt that the fast bowlers won matches.
In his first full series Miller averaged 76.8 with bat and 20.88 with the ball.In the 195051 Ashes series he topped the batting aveeages and captured 17 wickets.A season later he scored a hundred against the West Indies. In a series and also captured 5 wicket stwice.In West Indies in 195 he scored 439 runs at an average of 73 runs.
I have rated Miller second as any stats ratings cannot do him justice as the era he played for was completely different from Sobers or Imran and on merit his allround performance index is much higher.Miller has avery high rating in allround performance ratings


Imran Khan at his best was the greatest all-rounder of his era,from 1980-88. Staistically third,behind only Sobers and Kallis in term sof difference between batting and bolwing averages. From 1981-1987 overshadowed Kapil Dev,Ian Botham and Richard Hadlee to crown himself the king of all-rounders.Also the greatest leader amongst all all-rounders.

.Significantly in both series he played against England in England in 1982 and 1987 his performances overshadowed Ian Botham with both ball and bat.In 1982 in England in 3 tests he scored 318 runs at an average of 53 and took 21 wickets at an average of 18.53.However as he became a great batsman only late in his career he was mainly a fast bowling all-rounder.Although statistically, behind only Kallis Imran could not equally change the fortunes of a match with the bat as much as he could with the ball. In that respect Ian Botham or Kapil Dev scored over him.However he was overall more consistent than Botham or Kapil.From 1988-1992 he batted like a champion averaging 53 runs..

Ian Botham,In his early days the of all From 1977-82 the best allrounder and greatest imatch-winning allrounder after Sobers. Botham has captured 5 wickets and scored a century in the same match a record 5 times In terms of excellence in all-round performance ratings Botham is second only to Gary Sobers with a rating of 11.07 compared to Sober’s 13.74.The best batsman amongst the 4 great allrounders of his era.Had he maintained the same consisitency as the first half of his career may have joined Sobers.

Jacques Kallis was Statistically, the greatest all-rounder ever .Scored 11,000 runs and captured 270 wickets. In the modern era few batsman have been as consistent in a crisis . A champion batsman in all types of conditions from the moving English pitches, the turning tracks on the sub –continent . He averages over 55 and can deliver the best of his goods in tune with the situation. Formerly A brilliant medium-pace bowler on green seaming tops, with the ability to make the ball deviate through the air. He also has amazing stats in one day games. Unlike Sobers who came in at no 6 Kallis came in at one or two down and even bowled at one –change.


However remember he has played far more test matches than Gary Sobers and also benefited in playing against weaker opposition like Zimbabwe ,Sri Lanka,Bangladesh etc.. Kallis also was not a consistent match-winner like Sobers,Imran or Botham and has not changed the complexion of a match or series equally with the bat and ball. In his early carer excelled with both ball and bat but in the second half was virtually reduced to a great batsman.Infact Kalli’s batting style was more conducive to saving rather than winning test matches..
Where Kalis has credentials is that he has had to combat greater opposition and also had to baer a greater brunt of his taem’s batting.In a crisis he is arguably the best batsman amongst all the great allrounders and also the best post-war batsman.In the early part of his career excelled with bat and ball and had his bolwing made a similar impact in the last half of his carrer would have been morally in the Sober’s league.


Top allrounders between 1980 and 1988 (Qual: 1500 runs, 100 wickets)
Player Tests Runs Average 100s/ 50s Wickets Average 5WI/ 10WM Diff in ave
Imran Khan 48 2028 39.76 4/ 10 236 17.77 18/ 5 21.99
Richard Hadlee 51 1987 31.04 2/ 10 284 19.03 28/ 7 12.01
Ian Botham 72 3989 34.38 10/ 19 255 31.83 15/ 2 2.55
Kapil Dev 72 3103 31.98 5/ 16 242 30.05 14/ 2 1.93
Ravi Shastri 61 2702 34.64 7/ 10 132 38.24 2/ 0 -3.60
In fact, extending this analysis to all Test cricket, only Sobers had a higher difference between batting and bowling averages (among those with at least 3000 runs and 200 wickets, and two wickets per Test). Jacques Kallis is the other allrounder who has more than 3000 runs and 200 wickets - and a huge difference between batting and bowling averages - but for much of his career Kallis has been a batsman who bowls a bit: his 266 wickets have come from 140 Tests, an average of less than two wickets per match.















Ian Botham's record

A career of two distinct halves
Runs Average 100s/ 50s Wickets Average 5WI/ 10WM
First 51 Tests 2833 38.80 11/ 10 231 23.06 19/ 4
Next 37 Tests 1976 31.36 3/ 11 135 33.85 8/ 0
Last 14 Tests 391 20.57 0/ 1 17 57.52 0/ 0
Career (102 Tests) 5200 33.54 14/ 22 383 28.40 27/
During the six years when Botham was at his peak, he was the best of the four allrounders going around during that period. Imran Khan, Kapil Dev and Richard Hadlee were tremendous too - though Hadlee's best was to come later - but none of them matched Botham's consistency with bat and ball. During this period, the difference between Botham's batting and bowling average was 12.59. Imran and Hadlee had better bowling averages, but neither matched Botham as a batsman (though Imran's best as a batsman was to come later).
The four leading allrounders between Jan 1977 and Dec 1982
Player Tests Runs Average 100s/ 50s Wickets Average 5WI/ 10WM Diff in ave
Ian Botham 58 3229 37.11 11/ 13 262 24.52 20/ 4 12.59
Imran Khan 37 1429 29.16 1/ 4 186 21.79 13/ 3 7.37
Kapil Dev 44 1904 32.82 2/ 11 172 29.68 13/ 1 3.14
Richard Hadlee 23 767 21.91 1/ 4 114 23.22 11/ 2 -1.31

Imran Khan
any day... a leader
imran could get in any team as a specialist batsman
imran could get in any team as front line bowler
imran would be my skipper 4 any all time world 11
and above all imran led from front...
wich im sorry 2 say none of the players above have ever done ... may be kapil dev... but others really sucked at it....
people keep saying gary sobers this n that... fair enough... his stats are awesome...
but what sobers achived with bat imran did the same with ball
but what imran achived with ball sobers in my opinion never achived in bowling
although
not being biased il put
sobers & imran @ number 1
and then its just a numbers game!

kapil played with less effective bowlers

All-round records | Test matches | Cricinfo Statsguru | ESPN Cricinfo


here is link

while imran have support of good bowlers from other end


All-round records | Test matches | Cricinfo Statsguru | ESPN Cricinfo

so whats ur point?
make any sense my friend
mcgrath had warne glllespie lee
so does that makes mcgrath bowling figures bad?
or wasim had waqar or waqar had wasim makes any sense?

imran led from the front 50 plus average with bat in test cricket while being the captain

19 with the ball while being the captain

wat else u want? fish n chips?

i mean that time india did't have pace as a strength.

check with whom kapil had played.

pacers who played with kapil

http://stats.espncricinfo.com/ci/en...l1=span;team=6;template=results;type=allround

pacers who played with imran

http://stats.espncricinfo.com/ci/en...l1=span;team=7;template=results;type=allround

imran always get support from other end,but kapil never.

Imran Khan all time best.

Imran Khan...Naam Hi Kafi Hai.
Khan Rules

wasim akram could have been the greatest all rounder