Is Vivian Richards the most effective ODI player?

The List looks at the best batsmen, bowlers and allrounders in the one-day game

01-Mar-2006

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

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

Click here for the full tables.

For the bowlers, we have multplied the bowling average by the runs conceded per ball to arrive at a comparable number. Shane Bond, whose career has been interrupted by injuries as often as there are dashes in Morse code, is the only current bowler in the top ten with Glenn MCgrath coming in at No.11.

Best ODI bowlers (Qual.: 2000 balls) - Average multiplied by runs conceded per ball
Player	Span	Mat	Runs	Wkts	BBI	Ave	Econ	Index
J Garner (WI)	1977-1987	98	2752	146	5/31	18.84	3.09	9.73
AME Roberts (WI)	1975-1983	56	1771	87	5/22	20.35	3.40	11.54
MA Holding (WI)	1976-1987	102	3034	142	5/26	21.36	3.32	11.84
RJ Hadlee (NZ)	1973-1990	115	3407	158	5/25	21.56	3.30	11.88
DK Lillee (Aust)	1972-1983	63	2145	103	5/34	20.82	3.58	12.43
SE Bond (NZ)	2002-2006	43	1546	83	6/19	18.62	4.23	13.16
RGD Willis (Eng)	1973-1984	64	1968	80	4/11	24.60	3.28	13.46
CEL Ambrose (WI)	1988-2000	176	5429	225	5/17	24.12	3.48	14.00
Sarfraz Nawaz (Pak)	1973-1984	45	1463	63	4/27	23.22	3.63	14.08
TM Alderman (Aust)	1981-1991	65	2056	88	5/17	23.36	3.65	14.24

Click here for the full tables.

To arrive at the leading allrounders in one-dayers, we calculated the differences between batting and bowling index and ranked the differences in descending order.

It's perhaps a surprise that Richards emerges atop the allrounders list ahead of Imran Khan, Ian Botham and Andrew Flintoff. A look at his stats reveal that his bowling record was more than competent and when coupled with his batting, Richards was an extremely effective allrounder - a superior version of Sachin Tendulkar to draw a modern-day parallel.

Best ODI allrounders - difference between the batting formula and the bowling formula
Player	Span	Mat	Ave	SR	Bat	Ave	Econ	Bowl	Diff
IVA Richards (WI)	1975-1991	187	47.00	90.20	42.39	35.83	4.49	26.84	15.55
L Klusener (SAf)	1996-2004	171	41.10	89.91	36.95	29.95	4.70	23.48	13.47
A Flintoff (Eng/ICC)	1999-2005	98	35.14	89.75	31.54	25.87	4.39	18.96	12.58
GS Chappell (Aust)	1971-1983	74	40.18	75.70	30.42	29.12	4.04	19.65	10.77
Imran Khan (Pak)	1974-1992	175	33.41	72.64	24.27	26.61	3.89	17.27	6.99
N Kapil Dev (India)	1978-1994	225	23.79	95.07	22.62	27.45	3.71	17.01	5.60
JH Kallis (Afr/ICC/SAf)	1996-2006	229	44.18	70.42	31.12	32.07	4.79	25.64	5.47
SM Pollock (Afr/ICC/SAf)	1996-2006	256	24.04	84.15	20.23	24.21	3.76	15.19	5.03
CH Gayle (ICC/WI)	1999-2006	126	38.11	79.21	30.19	32.06	4.78	25.56	4.63
A Symonds (Aust)	1998-2006	141	37.94	92.01	34.91	37.02	4.91	30.33	4.58

Click here for the full tables.

For those of you who didn't guess, the grafter and the cavalier mentioned at the beginning were Jacques Kallis and Virender Sehwag.

If there's a particular List that you would like to see, e-mail us with your comments and suggestions.

Viv Richards

George Binoy is editorial assistant of Cricinfo