The most celebrated loser

With the loss of the Super Test under his belt, Brian Lara became the cricketer to have played in the most Test losses

18-Oct-2005

Some statistics, like Bradman's average and the number of centuries Gavaskar 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.

Brian Lara: a phenomenal batsman who played majority of his career in a mediocre team © Getty Images

Brian Charles Lara is arguably one of cricket's most celebrated and charismatic players. He held the record for highest Test innings, then lost it, and now has it again. He's probably not the most welcomed person in Durham and he's just 315 runs shy of eclipsing Allan Border's record of 11,174 Test runs. The List has decided to acknowledge another distinction Lara recently achieved, dubious though it may be.

With the loss of the Super Test under his belt, Lara nudged out Alec Stewart to become the cricketer with the highest number of Test defeats, a whopping 55. This unenviable record is likely to stay with Lara for a while because his closest active competition is his team-mate Shivnarine Chanderpaul, with 41 defeats. Given Zimbabwe's appalling run of form, Heath Streak, 11th on The List with 37 losses, would have been your best bet but he's probably played his last international game.

Four Englishmen figure in the top seven courtesy Australia, who handed Stewart 22 of his 54 defeats (20 to Mike Atherton, and 18 to Graham Gooch). Curiously, in the top 20, there are just two bowlers - Courtney Walsh, because of his 18-year career, and Streak because of Zimbabwe's ineptness. Give it further thought and you'll realise that West Indies and England kept changing their bowlers during their 1990s slump, and Zimbabwean bowlers just haven't played enough. Allan Border and Steve Waugh, who played crucial roles in reviving Australia from a terrible run in the mid-1980s , are the only two Australians on The List.

Most Tests lost
Player	Mat	Lost	Runs	Batting Ave	Wkts	Bowling Ave
BC Lara (ICC/WI)	118	55	4695	42.68	0	-
AJ Stewart (Eng)	133	54	2993	29.92	0	-
AR Border (Aust)	156	46	2771	33.38	16	33.06
MA Atherton (Eng)	115	44	2319	26.35	0	-
CA Walsh (WI)	132	43	331	5.80	186	25.09
GA Gooch (Eng)	118	42	2423	28.84	6	46.00
DI Gower (Eng)	117	42	2581	32.26	0	-
S Chanderpaul (WI)	88	41	2686	35.81	3	72.66
CL Hooper (WI)	102	38	1945	26.64	42	62.26
GW Flower (Zimb)	67	37	1373	18.55	14	72.92
HH Streak (Zimb)	65	37	1102	17.77	116	30.74
PA de Silva (SL)	93	36	1740	24.16	10	40.39
SR Waugh (Aust)	168	36	2380	37.77	28	41.35
RD Jacobs (WI)	65	36	1435	23.52	0	-
A Ranatunga (SL)	93	35	2163	31.80	7	48.00
SR Tendulkar (India)	123	35	2558	36.54	18	35.83
SP Fleming (NZ)	96	35	2038	29.11	0	-
SM Gavaskar (India)	125	34	2314	35.06	0	-
DB Vengsarkar (India)	116	34	1654	25.06	0	-
Inzamam-ul-Haq (ICC/Pak)	102	34	1944	29.01	0	-

You would have noticed an evident relationship between players from the same country in The List. Lara, Walsh, Chanderpaul and Carl Hooper played the majority of their careers during a bad time for the West Indies. As did Stewart and Atherton, Gooch and David Gower, and Streak and Grant Flower.

When a team's linchpin fails, the team often tends to struggle. The superhuman Don Bradman averaged a human 43.27 in the matches he lost. Sachin Tendulkar and Inzamam-ul-Haq average 20 runs below their career averages of 57.25 and 50.13 in defeats.

Best batting averages in lost Tests (qualification: minimum 20 innings)
Player	Span	Mat	Inns	Runs	HS	Ave	100
H Sutcliffe (Eng)	1924-1935	11	22	1198	176	54.45	4
V Sehwag (ICC/India)	2001-2005	10	20	1063	201	53.14	3
L Hutton (Eng)	1946-1954	20	39	1700	202*	50.00	3
JB Hobbs (Eng)	1908-1930	22	42	1889	154	46.07	6
DG Bradman (Aust)	1928-1938	12	22	952	131	43.27	2
A Flower (Zimb)	1992-2002	34	68	2713	199*	43.06	7
VS Hazare (India)	1946-1953	11	22	902	145	42.95	2
BC Lara (ICC/WI)	1992-2005	55	110	4695	221	42.68	12
AD Nourse (SAf)	1935-1951	17	34	1331	115	41.59	2
CL Walcott (WI)	1950-1958	13	26	1039	155	41.56	4

Best bowling averages in lost Tests (qualification: minimum 2000 balls)
Player	Span	Mat	Runs	Wkts	BBI	Ave	5
CTB Turner (Aust)	1887-1895	11	1108	61	7/43	18.16	7
SF Barnes (Eng)	1902-1911	9	1086	50	7/60	21.71	5
RM Hogg (Aust)	1978-1984	16	1513	68	6/74	22.25	4
H Trumble (Aust)	1890-1904	11	1098	46	8/65	23.86	4
GD McGrath (Aust)	1994-2004	20	2079	87	7/76	23.89	7
NAT Adcock (SAf)	1955-1962	11	871	36	5/62	24.19	1
Wasim Akram (Pak)	1985-2001	27	2692	109	6/61	24.69	7
CA Walsh (WI)	1984-2001	43	4668	186	6/61	25.09	9
SM Pollock (SAf)	1997-2005	20	2007	79	6/39	25.40	4
Ghulam Ahmed (India)	1949-1959	10	927	36	7/49	25.75	3

For the pundits: We've looked at the highest percentage of Tests lost for players who've played more than 25 Tests. Understandably, the list is dominated by Bangladesh and Zimbabwe.

Trivia

Bert Sutcliffe did not win a single Test in his 42-Test career

Alok Kapali has lost each of his 16 Tests

Not one of Richie Benaud's five-wicket hauls came in a lost Test

All of Wally Hammond's and Geoffrey Boycott's 22 Test centuries came in matches that England did not lose.

Next week, The List will feature players with the best records in Tests won

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

Brian Lara

George Binoy is editorial assistant of Cricinfo