Some statistics, like Bradman's average and the number of centuries Tendulkar has made are known to pretty much every cricket buff. But The List will bring you facts and figures that aren't so obvious, adding fuel to those fiery debates about the most valuable middle-order bat, and the most useless tailender. If there's a particular List that you would like to see, e-mail us with your comments and suggestions.

Viv Richards: scored lots of runs, and got them quickly © Getty Images Enlarge

Who would you prefer in your one-day team? A grafter with an average of 44.18 and a strike-rate of 70.42, or a dasher who scores at 97.82 with an average of 32.21? The List looks at players who have combined both, and have emerged as some of the most effective one-day players.

To rank batsmen, we've multiplied the batsman's average by his strike-rate and divided the result by 100 to arrive at an index.

In spite of one-day cricket increasingly becoming a batsmen's game in the last ten years, Viv Richards still tops the list of best ODI batsmen. But three current players, Michael Hussey, Kevin Pietersen and Mahendra Singh Dhoni have had fairytale starts to their careers and, at the moment, easily push Richards to fourth place on the list.

Hussey averages 95.79 at a strike-rate of 98.05, giving him a whopping batting index of 93.93. Pietersen's equivalent is 68.61 and Dhoni's 58.66. Unfortunately, they do not make our qualification of having played at least 50 innings.

Best ODI batsmen (Qual.: 50 innings) - Average multiplied by runs per ball

Player	Span	Mat	Inns	Runs	HS	Ave	SR	Index
IVA Richards (WI)	1975-1991	187	167	6721	189*	47.00	90.20	42.39
MJ Clarke (Aust)	2003-2006	75	68	2290	105*	46.73	86.84	40.58
Zaheer Abbas (Pak)	1974-1985	62	60	2572	123	47.62	84.80	40.39
MG Bevan (Aust)	1994-2004	232	196	6912	108*	53.58	74.16	39.73
SR Tendulkar (India)	1989-2006	362	353	14146	186*	44.20	85.98	38.01
L Klusener (SAf)	1996-2004	171	137	3576	103*	41.10	89.91	36.95
AC Gilchrist (Aust/ICC)	1996-2006	235	229	7999	172	36.35	96.32	35.02
A Symonds (Aust)	1998-2006	141	112	3491	156	37.94	92.01	34.91
RR Sarwan (WI)	2000-2006	90	85	2896	104*	44.55	77.14	34.37
RT Ponting (Aust/ICC)	1995-2006	247	241	8958	145	42.25	78.72	33.26