Shane Warne’s latest book titled Shane Warne’s Century – My Top 100 Cricketers is out in the market. The following are the ratings he has given to (primarily) the best 100 test cricketers that he has played with.
100 Jamie Siddons
99 Andrew Caddick
98 Graham Thorpe
97 Shahid Afridi
96 Sourav Ganguly
95 Moin Khan
94 Devon Malcolm
93 Arjuna Ranatunga
92 Monty Panesar
91 Graeme Hick
90 Inzamam-ul-Haq
89 Jack Russell
88 Mushtaq Ahmed
87 Gary Kirsten
86 Ian Bishop
85 Chris Gayle
84 Simon Jones
83 Paul Reiffel
82 Craig McMillan
81 Greg Matthews
80 Darren Berry
79 Mark Boucher
78 Stuart Clark
77 V. V. S. Laxman
76 Shane Watson
75 Mahela Jayawardene
74 Shane Bond
73 Mike Gatting
72 John Wright
71 Darren Gough
70 Richie Richardson
69 Alec Stewart
68 Jonty Rhodes
67 Harbhajan Singh
66 Hansie Cronje
65 Carl Hooper
64 Shivnarine Chanderpaul
63 Daniel Vettori
62 Mike Atherton
61 Desmond Haynes
60 Mike Hussey
59 Craig McDermott
58 Andrew Symonds
57 Tim May
56 Damien Martyn
55 Mohammad Azharuddin
54 Michael Vaughan
53 Mohammad Yousuf
52 Brian McMillan
51 Chris Cairns
50 Stephen Harmison
49 Dilip Vengsarkar
48 Dean Jones
47 Robin Smith
46 Justin Langer
45 Ravi Shastri
44 Graeme Smith
43 Kapil Dev
42 Stuart MacGill
41 Sanath Jayasuriya
40 Stephen Fleming
39 Michael Slater
38 Michael Clarke
37 Bruce Reid
36 Allan Donald
35 Virender Sehwag
34 Shoaib Akhtar
33 Kevin Pietersen
32 Darren Lehmann
31 Waqar Younis
30 Andrew Flintoff
29 Saeed Anwar
28 Shaun Pollock
27 Jason Gillespie
26 Steve Waugh
25 Andy Flower
24 Brett Lee
23 Kumar Sangakkara
22 Martin Crowe
21 David Boon
20 Rahul Dravid
19 Aravinda de Silva
18 Merv Hughes
17 Jacques Kallis
16 Adam Gilchrist
15 Matthew Hayden
14 Graham Gooch
13 Anil Kumble
12 Mark Taylor
11 Courtney Walsh
10 Ian Healy
9 Mark Waugh
8 Ricky Ponting
7 Muttiah Muralitharan
6 Wasim Akram
5 Glenn McGrath
4 Allan Border
3 Curtly Ambrose
2 Brian Lara…and the number 1 is…
1 Sachin Tendulkar
Though it is very difficult for anybody to come up with the top 100 (as compared to say a dream team of 11), I guess Shane Warne has short sighted views on certain players and it is majorly driven by prejudictions. The other point is that we can perhaps pick Top 20 batsmen, Top 20 bowlers, Top allrounders and wicket keepers etc but not a mixed lot.
Also, Warne seems to understand only New Zealand and England cricketers well owing to hardfought Ashes series etc. Rest of the people, he picked purely based on what he has experienced while batting or bowling.
The following ranks may be controversial:
Shahid Afridi: Should he figure in the Top 100 test players at all?
Arjuna Ranatunga & Saurav Ganguly: Should not they come a little earlier in the list owing to their astute leadership qualities?
Inzamam Ul Haq: I am surprised that one of the best test batsmen ever is figuring at rank 90!
Alec Stewart and Mahela Jayawardhane should definitely come a lot before Chanderpaul or McDermott. Among bowlers, does Merv Hughes deserve to be at top 20? I thought Waqar Younis and Allan Donald were a lot better than Hughes!
As I said earlier, it is really a hard thing to do, but probably he could still have done a better job?
There should be virendra sehwag.
Rahul Dravid should have in first 5.
I agree, I would rate Rahul Dravid ahead of Mark Waugh and Ponting!
Dravid should be in top ten.
As a South African and considering allan Donald’s pretty poor rating I guess I should be thankful that Shane bond and ian bishop are respectively rated worse (in the seventies and eighties) Brett Lee with a test average of 31.8 is rated better than all these guys by Mr Warne- what a complete joke