606v2 Greatest Middle Order Batsmen Rankings

Afternoon fellas

Your votes on who you believe to be the ten greatest Test middle order batsmen of all time (well, since the war) have been taken into account, and as a result the following official 606v2 cricket rankings have been compiled.

Thanks for voting, the 10 greatest Test opening batsmen vote will be the next one up in the series.

1. Don Bradman
2. Sachin Tendulkar
3. Viv Richards
4. Graeme Pollock
5. Brian Lara
6. Ricky Ponting
7. Garfield Sobers
8. Greg Chappell
9. Ken Barrington
10. Jacques Kallis

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Rahul Dravid was voted into 11th place, for the record.

Quite surprised that Dravid didn't make our top 10, thought he was a shoe in to make it around the 7 or 8 mark.

Looks a solid list, nevertheless.

Fists - thanks for doing this once more.

As you say, a solid list. I suspect some older (even older than me! ) readers might be surprised though that not one of Hammond, Headley and ''the three Ws'' made the list.

Headley and Hammond were joint 12th, if that is of any consolation?

Cheers, Fists. I think that does give further credibility to our list. Good stuff!

Perspective from decades ago:
Pleased to see Pollock so high.
Surprised to see Chappell there at all.
Agree about the omissions described by Guildford and wonder if Kanhai made the top 20.

Kanhai was outside of the top 20 I'm afraid, Kwini. The likes of Steve Waugh, Neil Harvey, Walcott, Sangakkara, Miandad, Border and Inzamam were placed above him.

Fair enough Fists, just wondered. Helluva batsman though, both in Test and County cricket.
Ooh, Surprised Border's not in the top ten; and very surprised how high Miandad is rated, quantity over quality compared to some others perhaps?
Zaheer Abbas for one..

My top ten:

1)Don Bradman
2)Viv Richards
3)Sachin Tendulkar
4)Graham Pollock
5))Brian Lara
6)Ken Barrington
7)Greg Chappell
8)Ricky Ponting
9)Rahul Dravid
10)Steve Waugh

Kwini - as you may well not have seen it before, just to say the first test I ever went to was England v Pakistan at Edgbaston in 1971 when Zaheer Abbas scored 274. Exquisite batting.

Being brought up in the Midlands, I followed Warks in those far off days. Kanhai was a tremendous player.

Kallis only 10th?

Kallis as high as 10th?

Takes all sorts, GG.

OOPSJust realised these are the RESULTS.
Thought I'd voted on this before (and I think I put down a completely different 10). Apologies.

Hoggy - fine effort and honesty!

guildfordbat wrote:Kallis as high as 10th?

Takes all sorts, GG.

guildford,
Also lived and worked in Edgbaston '72 and '73. Lots of County stuff there, plus occasional bus rides to Dudley to see the Headley and Slow Turner show.
Personally thought Zaheer was one of the most graceful batsmen I ever saw.

Kwini - Warks had a great county team in those years.

Hoggy_Bear on these threads still drools about Amiss. Also - Kanhai, Kallicharran, MJK Smith, Murray, Brown, a young Willis and our mutual friend Gibbs.

However, as an impressionable schoolboy, my hero was the hard hitting John Jameson - played every innings like a T20 game more than thirty years before its invention!

Meantime, Worcs would have had Vanburn Holder bowling in those days, I guess - the Windies could sure do with him now.

Yup, the recently departed Neil Abberley also. Jameson would bludgeon the ball, no messing!

Worcester also had Norman Gifford twirling away.

i am suprised that Kallis only just made it onto the list. i think i put him high i cant remeber lol.

Kwini - oh no, I didn't know about Neil Abberley's passing. I see he died in August when I was out of the country on holiday.

Never a star but a stalwart of the Club.

I think the reason Hammond and Headley missed out is this is a post-war list and their best work by far (especially Hammond) was pre-war. Otherwise I'm pretty sure they would have made the list. can't quibble too much about any of the names on there, though I do notice that this seems to be the most modern-biased list yet...

MfC,
Did Compton suffer the same sanction? Think most who saw both would pick him over Ken Barrington. Used to see Dennis at the newsagent!

I think it is a pretty fair list.

This is going against my usual values, and might ruffle a few feathers, but nobody can tell me that the likes of Hammond and Headley belong above the Sachin's, Lara's and Ponting's of this world

Fists of Fury wrote:I think it is a pretty fair list.

This is going against my usual values, and might ruffle a few feathers, but nobody can tell me that the likes of Hammond and Headley belong above the Sachin's, Lara's and Ponting's of this world

Fists - I was very surprised when Hoggy left Holding, my number one, out of his top ten seamers list. As I respect Hoggy's views, I queried the reason. Hoggy replied along the lines of ''Holding was an extremely good bowler but there are a lot to choose from and ten others just edge for it me.'' No great science (Hoggy didn't claim there was) but a totally understandable and reasonable approach.

Similar with me and Ponting.

Too much of the Boycotts about Lara for me although an immense talent.

I even had Sachin at number two spot in my list between Bradman and Graeme Pollock. No one can expect a greater compliment than that, surely?

An extra difficulty with Hammond and Headley is that their pre and post war careers blur the issue.

I think it's a pretty decent overall list. There is always going to be some bias towards the more modern players given the average age of the audience, but good to see Bradman at 1 and Pollock so high up. Somewhat disappointed not to see any of the 3 Ws in there, but hey.

On a side note: Chappell makes the all-time top 10 middle-order players but not the HoF? We are harsh judges....

A very fair top 3, Guildford, and high praise indeed for Sachin.

Of course, such lists are totally objective and are often influenced by individual tastes and preferences. Arguments can always be put forward for the inclusion of one over another. I guess my point was that nothing obviously propels the Hammond's and Harvey's of this world ahead of the Ponting's and Lara's, and as such in my own eyes the superior record and defining moments of the latter see them included without too much consideration of the aforementioned two. I feel that the modern day batsmen I've mentioned there are slightly superior in every aspect, but again someone could quite easily counter that belief.

Mike Selig wrote:I think it's a pretty decent overall list. There is always going to be some bias towards the more modern players given the average age of the audience, but good to see Bradman at 1 and Pollock so high up. Somewhat disappointed not to see any of the 3 Ws in there, but hey.

On a side note: Chappell makes the all-time top 10 middle-order players but not the HoF? We are harsh judges....

We are indeed, Mike.

I guess every facet of the man was taken into account during the HoF voting, whereas these rankings are based purely on the man as a batsman.

Fists - thanks for saving me from having to rise to Mike's bait!