11 Best Cricket Players in the World

By: Biplob Kishore Deb

Cricket is among the fastest growing sports in the world. Originated in England and having been popular in Asia, now its feat is in Europe too. Cricket is billion dollar industry due to its ever growing popularity in different countries. I selected some of the most influential cricketers of present age who are presenting the art of cricket to the world. Please give your opinion in the comment section if you think something regarding this article.

Sachin Tendulker

Sachin is one of the greatest batsmen in the history of cricket. He holds many records in both test cricket and one-day cricket. He is the highest run-scorer in one-day cricket and not so far away form being the highest run scorer in test cricket too. Sachin is the highest centurion in both Test and One-day cricket. It is surprising that Tendulker’s first cone-day international century at the 79^th match. This talented player is compared with the all time greatest Batsman Sir Don Bradman who himself praised him and could remembered his own batting watching Sachin. He is the first cricketer to cross 10000 runs in one day cricket. He is also thehighest run scorer in the world cup history. Once he was the captain of Indian cricket team.

Sachin is the father of two children Sara and Arjun. His wife Anjali Mehta is the daughter of Anand Mehta, an industrialist of Gujrat. Sachin is also involved some social activities. For example, 200 children are getting help which is sponsored by Sachin.

Ricky Ponting

This talented Australian batsman and present captain of Australia cricket team was born in Tasmania on 19 December, 1974. Ponting is one of the successful batsmen in the cricket history. After his first appearance in 1995 against Sri Lanka he did not have to look behind. With the time being, he has been the most reliable batsman in the team. He is also very successful in his one-day career. In 2001-02 he was given the captaincy of Australian team which was followed by the test captaincy in 2004. He played three world cups and became the youngest centurion in the world cup history in 1996 world cup. He won two world cups with Australia and in the later one he was the captain of the Australia team in 2003. He has over 8000 test runs and over 9000 one-day runs.

Brian Lara

Lara is considered as one of the best batsmen to many cricket analysts. This West Indian is the first and only player who scored 400 in an innings of a test match. He has also the highest score in the first class cricket (501 runs not out in 1994) in an innings. He is the second batsmen in the cricket history who scored triple century for twice after the cricket legend Sir Don Bradman. He made his 400 not out innings against England in 2004. He is the present captain of West Indies for his second time in captaincy. His test debut was against Pakistan in 1990.

Stephen Fleming

To many cricket intellectuals, Stephen Fleming, captain of the New Zealand cricket team, is the best captain in the world at present. His thought and talent regarding cricket make him world’s one of the famous cricketers. He made New Zealand cricket team one of the strongest teams with his genius. He played his first test match against India in 1994. He is the most successful captain for his country and the second best captaincy performance in the world. New Zealand won 27 tests under his captaincy. He led his team for 76 tests. This left handed batsman has some problem in making his half centuries to the centuries. He has over 6000 tests and over 7000 one-runs in his career. His career best test innings is 274 against Sri Lanka in2003.

Muttiah Muralitharan

Muralitharan is the greatest off spinner in the cricket history who is the second leading test wicket taker in test cricket. Despite his controversy with his unorthodox bowling action, he could be able to prove his correctness and continue taking wicket all over the world. He has highest international wickets combining both ODI and test cricket which is more than 1000 wickets. He is the highest number of 5 and 10 wicket taker in an innings in test cricket. He is the only player who took 10 wickets in an innings for the consecutive four test matches. He is the only player who got 50 wickets against every test playing nations.This greatest bowler was born in 17 April, 1972 at Kandy in Sri Lanka.

Shaun Pollock

Shaun Pollock is one of the great fast medium bowlers in the world cricket. He is the highest wicket taker in both ODI and Test cricket for his country. He is now on the verge of being the tenth cricketer in the world to take 400 wickets in the test cricket. He also has over 300 wickets in the ODI cricket. Pollock also led South Africa in the world cup 2003 in his country. However, he was replaced by Graeme Smith after the poor performance of South Africa in the world cup as they had been thought as the favorite beforehand as the hosted nation. It is also true that as a captain he was successful. He is also a very useful batsman for his team has two centuries in test cricket and in ODI ctrcket he is known as a pinch hitter especially in the slog overs. He has over 3000 runs in test and over 2000 runs in ODI cricket. He has given the South Afrira Player’s Player award and the South Africa ODI Player of the Year award. His greatest achievement is to have been the 12^th best bowler in the list of all time best bowlers by the LG ICC ratings. Shaun Pollock is the nephew of famous South African cricket Graeme Pollock and his father Peter Pollock was also the former South African fast bowler.

Andrew Flintoff

This English all-rounder is considered as one of the best all-rounders of present age. From the very early of his career Flintoff was compared with another legend all-rounder of England Ian Botham. However, after his debut match against South Africa in 1998 he had to face many controversies due to his poor and irregular performance in the international cricket and his overweight as well as unfitness. From 2003, he started proving his real talent in the international level. He continued his performance in the Ashes Series in 2005 and he had a significant role to regain the Ashes trophy form Australia. For his tremendous performance in the Ashes series, he was awarded Compton-Miller Medal and the prestigious Freedom of City award of Preston. He is the highest six heater in test cricket for his country. He became the WIsden Cricketer of the Year in 2004. He was also given the Sir Garfield Sobers trophy for the ICC Player of the year trophy sharing with South African all-rounder Jacques Kallis. Another award BBC Sports Personality of the year for 2005 was also honored to him. Flintoff became the captain of England due to the injury of Michael Vaughn. He also became the Wisden Leading Cricketer of the world in 2006.

Jacques Kallis

Kallis is considered as one of the greatest all-rounders of the world cricket. He is still in the 1^st position in the test all-rounders’ list of ICC rankings. He has over 8000 test runs and he is now just a bit behind form his 8000 ODI runs. He has 24 test and 13 ODI centuries which prove his greatness. Kallis has also taken over 200 wickets in both Test and ODI cricket. His test cricket and ODI average is 55.78 and 43.92 respectively. Kallis has been the only second cricket in the test cricket after Sir Don Bradman to have made centuries in five consecutive test matches. He got the Sir Garfield Sobers trophy for the ICC Player of the Year in 2005 sharing with Flintoff.

Shane Warne

Shane Warne, the Australian legendry leg spinner, is though to be one of the best legs spinners in the history of cricket. He is the leading wicket takers in the test cricket. He first took 650 wickets in test cricket. His flipper and accurate line and length make his bowls difficult to the batsmen. He is also I the verge of his 700 test and 300 ODI wickets. He holds the world record for taking highest 976 wickets in a calendar year. He is just a few runs behind from his 3000 test runs and he sis the highest test run corers without making any century. His test career started against India in 1991 but his debut match was and series was a nightmare for him. His famous wicket known as ‘Ball of the Century’ against Mike Gatting in the Ashes series in 1993 is considered as his best delivary where the ball pitching outside of the leg stamp and bouncing a bit made Gatting played on. He is involved in many controversies including his being positive in drug test during the 2003 world cup which resulted his 1 year ban form international cricket, controversy involving women and bookmakers. In spite of theses incidents he is still creating fear to the opponent batsmen and there is no doubt about his greatness.

Shoaib Akhtar

This Pakistani Speed Star, known as Rawalpindi express, was born in Rawalpindi, Pakistan on 13 August, 1975. He is thought to be the first bowler in the history to exceed the 100 miles. Shoaib Akhtar could bowl in both ODI and Test cricket over 100 miles/hour (160 kmh). He has the ability to turn the match any stage which made him an influential bowler of Pakistan. He is skilled in swing both side and also in reverseswing. Swing is the movement of the ball after pitching with the help of wind. His test bowling average is 25.69 whereas his ODI average is 23.54. He can not be regular in the field because of his injury from the earli8er of his career.

Adam Gilchrist

Adam Gilchrist is considers as the best wicketkeeper-batsman of this time. After Ian Hilly, he has been the first choice of the wicket keeping position in the Australia team. He is a hard hitter in his batting and he holds the record of scoring highest number of sixes in one’s test career with 93 sixes. He has over 5000 runs in test cricket and over 8000 runs in ODI cricket. He won world cup for twice with Australia where he had a significant contribution. His test strike rate is 81.59 in test cricket 96.76 and in ODI. He has over 350 dismissals in test cricket and a few left to get his 400 ODI dismissals. He has been one of the five cricketers awarded for Wisden Cricketers of the Year for 2002. H has got the recognition as ‘World’s Scariest Batsman’ by a pool of international bowler.