ICC All-time Greatest Cricketers
ICC (International Cricket Club) has come out with its rankings for the leading Cricket players from around the world.
Many cricket playing countries are not happy with it. India is the first to slam ICC. India is infuriated because Sachin Tendulkar, was listed at No.26 and 16 places behind Matthew Hayden (who recently declared his retirement from International cricket).
The ICC released the list on Wednesday night trumpeting Hayden’s placing in the top 10 the day after he retired from international cricket.
Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) secretary Niranjan Shah describing the rankings system as laughable, further stretching relations between the powerful board and the game’s official ruling body.
However, eyebrows have been raised as the four leading Test run-scorers of all time - Tendulkar, Brian Lara, Steve Waugh and Allan Border - could not even manage the top 20. Zimbabwean Andy Flower is ranked ahead of Waugh on percentages, with the pair listed equal 28th.
“I don’t know if anyone takes this ranking system seriously, it has no bearing on anybody,” Shah said.
“There are so many other companies in India doing these sorts of rankings and the ICC just wants to get some publicity for their own system.
However, the ICC’s list is indicative of players who had sudden surges in form and reached a lofty peak in the ratings, as opposed to those who continually performed over a long period of time. Also, a player’s performance is assessed relative to his team’s output, so batsmen who score many runs while the rest of the side struggles earn far more points than those who generally do well when teammates also score highly - indicating that the pitch was flat and conditions were batsman-friendly.
The ICC Communication Officer James Fitzgerald has clarified that the list does not necessarily reflect the true greatness of the players ranked higher in the ICC list of all-time Test and ODI ICC Player Rankings for batsmen.
Tall peaks are not always better than long plateaus as true greatness must include protracted excellence. And that is how ICC believes, too. Matthew Hayden’s position of 10th and 18th in the all-time Test and ODI ICC Player Rankings for batsmen is an impressive achievement by anyone’s standards. But this does not necessarily mean he is the 10th-best Test batsman or 18th-best ODI batsman in the history of the game.
The rankings give an indication of how players peaked during their careers but do not give a full picture of those players’ level of consistency or longevity in the game.
For example, a batsman or a bowler who averages around 700 ratings points for most of his career apart from a purple patch where he shoots up to 900 points before dropping down again may be ranked higher on the all-time ratings.
But that does not mean he should necessarily be considered to be better than a player who hovered around the 850-point mark for his entire career.
For instance, Waugh’s highest rating was 895 points in 1997, yet he finished his career under 750.
Shah said the ICC rankings already lacked credibility and it wouldn’t matter whether their system was scrapped or not.
Former Australian opener Justin Langer, a close friend of Hayden, said rankings were never discussed by players and he doesn’t see its relevance. “It’s probably good for people’s egos to say they’re No.1 but certainly in my time we never, ever spoke about it in the dressing rooms,” Langer said.
“If you are the No.1 batsman in the world it might give you a bit of kudos but that’s about it.”
India’s chairman of selectors, Dilip Vengsarkar, a former Test captain, said Tendulkar was far superior to the majority of players before him on the list.
“Those players who have been named in the Test list don’t even come near Sachin Tendulkar. I don’t know what kind of calculation is done here to shortlist the names. I am very, very surprised,” Vengsarkar told Times of India.
And former Indian opener Chetan Chauhan added: “Anybody who scores 12,000 runs and is still going strong after playing international cricket for 19 years, not having his name in [the top 20 of an] all-time great list will surprise not only me but everyone in the fraternity. To play Test cricket at the age of 16, he must be and is a genius.”
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