There have been a few articles on The Roar recently arguing the relative merits of Gary Sobers and Jacques Kallis as the world’s best ever all rounder.
In his wonderful book, The 100 Greatest Cricketers, by Gerry Armstrong, he suggested the following formula for determining the best all rounder.
“By dividing the all rounder’s batting average by his bowling average, the higher the score the better. The basis of winning cricket matches is to score more runs than your opponents, so if you score your runs at a higher average than you take your wickets, you should be going okay.”
Armstrong used his guide to compare just five all-rounders from the late 60s to early 90s: Ian Botham (1.25), Richard Hadlee (1.75), Imran Khan (1.65), Kapil Dev (1.21) and Mike Procter (1.84).
Applying the same principles to Sobers and Kallis, Sobers scored 1.98 and Kallis 1.75.
However, when I broadened the net, the five highest scores under this system were Warwick Armstrong (2.38), Aubrey Faulkner (2.34), Charlie Macartney (2.19), WG Grace (2.17) and Frank Woolley (2.05).
This didn’t seem quite right!
The problem with Geoff Armstrong’s system is that it favours batting all rounders without appreciating those all rounders whose stronger suit is bowling.
So I came up with another system.
Again using first class cricket as my basis, so as not to discriminate against guys like Procter and Clive Rice, who played little or no Test cricket, I devised the following: I added the total number of runs scored plus the total number of wickets taken (x 10), then divided this by the total number of games played, to arrive at a “productivity quotient.”
The reason why I multiplied all bowlers’ wickets x 10 was so as not to discriminate against all rounders whose bowling was their stronger suit. For example, Richard Hadlee.
The results I believe are a fairly accurate acknowledgement of the status of the great all rounders.
I should add that the criteria is by no means definitive, nor the list complete.
Rank / Name / Productivity Quotient
1. Gary Sobers (WI) 101.16
2. WG Grace (EN) 94.60
3. Trevor Goddard (SA) 92.90
4. Jacques Kallis (SA) 92.71
5. Aubrey Faulkner (SA) 92.00
6. Warwick Armstrong (AU) 91.00
7. Mike Procter (SA) 90.04
8. Keith Miller (AU) 84.75
9. Eddie Barlow (SA) 84.53
10. Richie Benaud (AU) 81.73
11. Frank Woolley (EN) 81.41
12. Imran Khan (PA) 80.21
13. Richard Hadlee (NZ) 78.80
14. Ian Botham (EN) 77.41
15. Dave Nourse (SA) 75.73
16. Clive Rice (SA) 73.92
17. Shaun Pollock (SA) 73.62
18. Tony Greig (EN) 72.05
19. Kapil Dev (IN) 71.66
20. Alan Davidson (AU) 70.07
21. Andy Flintoff (EN) 68.46
22. Wasim Akram (PA) 68.41
There are some interesting observations to be made:
1. Sober IS the best ever all rounder in the history of the game, by most measurements.
2. WG Grace WAS a very good all rounder, as the history books suggest!
3. Kallis is pipped as SA’s best all rounder by Goddard, who wasn’t as good a batsman, but was a much better bowler.
4. Armstrong, Faulkner and Nourse all came from the period 1901-1924. The first two were batting leggies, while Nourse was a batting left arm quick.
5. Is Botham over rated? He is well down the list, but remember this is all first class cricket records. Botham generally ‘saved’ himself for the Tests, when there was a ‘glittering prize’ to be won.
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