Cricket is among the world’s most popular sports, and is commonly played in places like England, India, Australia, and South Africa. Being around 200 years old, it’s not hard to imagine that there have been countless brilliant cricket players that have graced the pitch.
Some of these players were so naturally talented at the game that they became legends among cricket fans, with many of their achievements making it to sports museums. These are the world’s very best cricket players of all time.
Michael Bevan
This former left-handed Australian player is generally considered as among the most consistent ODI performers ever. He is currently the international record holder for the highest batting average for ODI and has been involved in the teams that won the World Cup twice.
He is commonly known as the ‘finisher’, due to his ability to get his teams to victory. There are few other batters in existence that can boast the same level as persistence as
Viv Richards
Knighted for his incredible achievements on the pitch, Sir Vivian Richards is a former player for the West Indies, where he played primarily as a right handed batsman. His talent on the field was apparent from the start, and he is often recognised as one of the greatest batters in history.
He has also been recognized as the best ODI batsman of his generation, and during his time playing he was able to earn a total of 20 Man of The Match awards. Along with this, he is among the 5 Wisden Cricketers of the Century, having played 187 ODI games, along with 121 Test matches over the course of his career.
Sachin Tendulkar
Tendulkar is considered by many to be among the world’s most talented batters, and currently holds the record for the highest scored runs in international cricket, and always offers his fans great games to play.
Originally from India, this right-handed player first began playing professionally when he was just 16, and earned the nickname as the God of Cricket as his talent became more and more recognised. In fact, many of his achievements have yet to be bested, such as being the leading run scorer for both ODI and Test formats, with no other player yet having earned over 30000 runs.
Donald Bradman
Another knighted player, Sir Donald Bradman is arguably the greatest cricket player in the history of the sport. One of his greatest feats was achieving a batting average of 99.94 during a test match, a feat that has yet gone totally unmatched. Bradman is such a legend of the game that there is a term known as Bradmanesque, which is used when describing someone as truly excellent at a sport.
He holds a Wisden rating of 1349, and is the top Test batsman that has ever lived, even outranking Tendulkar by a huge 349 points. He also boasts 117 First Class centuries, as well as 29 Tests centuries, and a top Test cricket score of 334.