Best Players to Ever Play Cricket
If you have ever wondered who the best players in the world are to play cricket, you’ve come to the right place. Here are over 20 of the world’s biggest cricket stars in the history of the sport. Many of you will already be familiar with some of these names, and others you may have never even heard of.
Several of these famous cricketers were at the top of their game decades ago and are either sadly no longer with us or enjoying their retirement, and others are still playing today. Without further ado, let’s dive in and find out the names of some of cricket’s best ever players.
Top 10 Greatest Cricketers of All Time
At many of today’s most trusted cricket-focused websites, there have been numerous polls over the years to find out from everyday people who they think the best cricket players of all time are.
Another way of finding out who the best cricket players of all time are would be to look at their individual records and stats and find out what cricket achievements and accolades they have won for club and country throughout their careers.
Don’t forget that you can also bet on cricket on 10CRIC right now. Ten of the greatest cricket stars ever to play the games are the following players:
- Sir Garfield Sobers (West Indies)
- Sachin Tendulkar (India)
- Sir Donald Bradman (Australia)
- Virat Kohli India)
- Shane Warne (Australia)
- Jack Hobbs (England)
- Imran Khan (Pakistan)
- Sir Ian Botham (England)
- Brian Lara (West Indies)
- Sir Viv Richards (West Indies)
Other players with impressive careers who will never be forgotten are South Africa’s Jaques Kallis, India’s MS Dhoni, and Pakistan’s Wasim Akram. There’s also Muttiah Muralitharan (Sri Lanka), Sir Alastair Cook (England), Chris Gayle (West Indies), and Kumar Sangakkara (Sri Lanka).
Honorable mentions
We also couldn’t go without mentioning England’s James Anderson, Australia’s Glenn McGrath, India’s Kapil Dev, and New Zealand’s Sir Richard Hadlee.
Cricket was also made a far more exciting and popular sport thanks to Australia’s Ricky Pontin, South Africa’s Allan Donald and Dale Steyn, India’s Rahul Dravid, and Sri Lanka’s Mahela Jayawardene.
The list also includes Pakistan’s Shoaib Akhtar, India’s Sunil Gavaskar, and the West Indies’ Sir Curtly Ambrose, among others.
A closer look at the top three stats
Let’s take a quick look at the impressive stats for the three players that made it to the top of the list – the West Indies’ Sir Garfield Sobers, India’s Sachin Tendulkar, and Australia’s Sir Donald Bradman.
Sir Garfield Sobers
He was one of the world’s most iconic stars ever to emerge from cricket. Throughout his illustrious career that spanned from 1952 to 1974, the all-rounder was an accomplished fast and spin bowler widely known for being a crafty batsman.
He recorded 8,032 test runs, had a 57.78 batting average, a 34.03 bowling average, and 235 test wickets.
Sachin Tendulkar
Sachin Tendulkar is widely considered India’s best ever cricketer. He was an extremely capable bowler but will always be remembered as one of the world’s top batsmen. His glittering career began in 1988 and lasted until 2013.
During that time, some of his best stats were 15,921 test runs, a 53.78 batting average, a 54.17 bowling average, and 46 test wickets.
Sir Donald Bradman
Sir Donald Bradman (aka Don Bradman, The Don) is a world-class cricketer and one of Australia’s most iconic sportspeople. Many players and cricket fans still consider him the sport’s greatest-ever batsman.
His career lasted from 1927 until 1949, during which time he had an impressive 99.94 batting average and achieved almost 7,000 test runs (6,996, to be precise).
Are there any other people that are classed as true greats of the sport?
Yes. There are many other players who are often considered true greats of the sport, some of which you may not be so familiar with, others you will. They include Kumar Sangakkara, Kagiso Rabada, Alastair Cook, Shaheen Afridi, Jasprit Bumrah, Stuart Broad, James Anderson, Mitchell Starc, and AB De Villiers.
The list doesn’t stop there. There are many others, including Ben Stokes, Wally Hammond, Peter May, Allan Border, Ollie Robertson, Nathan Lyon, Rohit Sharma, David Warner, Adam Voges, Rishabh Pant, Axar Patel, Usman Khawaja, Ravichandran Ashwin, Andrew Flintoff, and Jason Holder, to name just a few.
Where can I bet on cricket if I live in India?
If you’re looking to place a bet on professional cricket leagues, such as the Indian Premier League, the Pakistan Super League, the Australian Big Bash League, the English Vitality Blast T20 League, the Bangladesh Premier League, or the Twenty20 Cricket League in South Africa, one of the most trusted sites you can turn to if you live in India is the official 10CRIC10.com website.
It’s one of the world’s most trusted online casino betting sites (an online casino that also has sports betting services). It’s controlled by one of the iGaming industry’s most trusted names, and it’s fully licensed to offer real money gambling services to people living in India by the trusted Curacao eGaming licensing authority.
The 10CRIC website accepts numerous perfectly secure Indian online payment options, including credit and debit cards (e.g., Visa and MasterCard), cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH), and DogeCoin (Doge), and several major e-Wallets (Neteller, AstroPay, Jeton, and eZeeWallet).
To deposit here, don’t forget that you must first register an account, and to register a real money account, you must be at least 18 years old.
How can I watch some of these greatest-ever cricket players in action?
If the cricketers mentioned above are still playing and you want to see them in action, you can watch them live in person at certain venues or on today’s major sports streaming sites.
You can also watch plenty of compilation videos for many of these stars’ best bits throughout their careers on video streaming sites, such as YouTube.
The good news is that the videos are free to watch as long as you have internet/Wi-Fi connectivity and either a smartphone, tablet, laptop, or desktop computer.
Some of the world’s biggest sports streaming websites where you can watch cricket and other sports that require a monthly paid subscription are YouTube TV, ESPN Plus, Paramount Plus, SlingTV, DirecTV Stream, Hulu Plus Live TV, and Peacock, to name a few.
Moonda Ale
Cricket Content Writer at Cricfacts.com. A seasoned sports journalist who is working in the industry for more than two decades. He is now on facebook also.