best cricketer

Glenn Donald McGrath is a former Australian cricket player and a part time Cricket Commentator for Channel Nine's Cricket coverage. He was a fast-medium pace bowler and is considered one of the greatest bowlers in cricketing history, and a leading contributor to Australia's domination of world cricket from the mid-1990s to the early 21st century.

Known throughout his career for maintaining a remarkably accurate line and length, McGrath's consistency enabled him to be one of the most economical and dangerous fast bowlers of his time. McGrath holds the world record for the highest number of Test wickets by a fast bowler and is fourth on the all-time list, with the top three wicket takers Muttiah Muralitharan, Shane Warne, and Anil Kumble all being spin bowlers.

He has also taken the sixth highest number of One Day International wickets, and holds the record for the most wickets in the Cricket World Cup. McGrath announced his retirement from Test cricket on 23 December 2006,with his Test career coming to an end after the fifth Ashes test in Sydney in January 2007, whilst the 2007 World Cup marked the end of his one-day career. McGrath later played for the Indian Premier League team of the Delhi DareDevils, and was one of the tournaments' most economical bowlers during its first season, but he saw no action in the second season, ultimately having his contract bought out.
Full name Glenn Donald McGrath
Born 9 February 1970 (age 44) Dubbo, New South Wales, Australia
Nickname Pigeon, Millard, Kuly, Ooh Ah
Height 1.95 m (6 ft 5 in)
Batting style Right-handed
Bowling style Right arm fast-medium
Role Bowler
National side Australia
Test debut 12 November 1993 v New Zealand
Last Test 2 January 2007 v England
ODI debut 9 December 1993 v South Africa
Last ODI 28 April 2007 v Sri Lanka ODI shirt no. 11

Sanath Teran Jayasuriya is a former Sri Lankan cricketer and a current member of the Parliament of Sri Lanka. Jayasuriya was an all-rounder, who had an international cricket career that spread over two decades. He is the only player to score over 12,000 runs and capture more than 300 wickets in One Day Internationals, and hence regarded as one of the best all rounders in the history of limited-overs cricket.

He was named the Most Valuable Player of 1996 Cricket World Cup and Wisden Cricketers' Almanack broke an age old tradition by naming him one of Five Cricketers

Ricky Thomas Ponting, nicknamed Punter, is an Australian former cricketer who was captain of the Australia national cricket team between 2004 and 2011 in Test cricket and 2002 and 2011 in One Day International cricket. He is a specialist right-handed batsman, slips and close catching fielder, as well as a very occasional bowler. He led Australia to victory at the 2003 and 2007 cricket world cups and was also a member of the 1999 world cup winning team under Steve Waugh.

He represents the Tasmanian Tigers in Australian domestic cricket, the Hobart Hurricanes in the Big Bash League, and played in the Indian Premier League with the Kolkata Knight Riders in 2008. He is widely considered by many to be one of the best batsmen of the modern era, along with Sachin Tendulkar of India and Brian Lara of the West Indies. On 1 December 2006, he reached the highest rating achieved by a Test batsman in the last 50 years.

Ponting made his first-class debut for Tasmania in November 1992, when just 17 years and 337 days old, becoming the youngest Tasmanian to play in a Sheffield Shield match. However, he had to wait until 1995 before making his One Day International (ODI) debut, during a quadrangular tournament in New Zealand in a match against South Africa. His Test debut followed shortly after, when selected for the first Test of the 1995 home series against Sri Lanka in Perth, in which he scored 96. He lost his place in the national team several times in the period before early-1999, due to lack of form and discipline, before becoming One Day International captain in early-2002 and Test captain in early-2004.
Full name Ricky Thomas Ponting
Born 19 December 1974 (age 39) Launceston, Tasmania, Australia
Nickname Punter
Height 1.78 m (5 ft 10 in)
Batting style Right-hand bat
Bowling style Right arm medium
Role Batsman
Relations Greg Campbell (uncle)
National side Australia
Test debut 8 December 1995 v Sri Lanka
Last Test 3 December 2012 v South Africa
ODI debut 15 February 1995 v South Africa
Last ODI 19 February 2012 v India
ODI shirt no. 14

Brian Charles Lara, TC, OCC, AM (born 2 May 1969) is a former West Indian international cricket player. He is widely acknowledged as one of the greatest batsmen of his era and one of the finest ever to have graced the game. He topped the Test batting rankings on several occasions and holds several cricketing records, including the record for the highest individual score in first-class cricket, with 501 not out for Warwickshire against Durham at Edgbaston in 1994, which is the only quintuple hundred in first-class cricket history.

Lara also holds the record for the highest individual score in a Test innings after scoring 400 not out against England at Antigua in 2004. He is the only batsman to have ever scored a hundred, a double century, a triple century, a quadruple century and a quintuple century in first class games over the course of a senior career. Lara also holds the test record of scoring the highest number of runs in a single over in a Test match, when he scored 28 runs off an over by Robin Peterson of South Africa in 2003.
Full name Brian Charles Lara
Born May 2, 1969 (age 45) Santa Cruz, Trinidad and Tobago
Nickname Prince
Height 5 ft 8 in (1.73 m)
Batting style Left-handed
Bowling style Right-arm leg break
Role Batsman
National side West Indies
Test debut 6 December 1990 v Pakistan
Last Test 27 November 2006 v Pakistan
ODI debut 9 November 1990 v Pakistan
Last ODI 21 April 2007 v England
ODI shirt no. 9

Wasim Akram is a former Pakistani cricketer. He was a genuine left arm fast bowler who could bowl with significant pace who represented the Pakistan national cricket team in Test cricket and One Day International (ODI) matches. In October 2013,Wasim Akram was the only Pakistani cricketer to be named in an all-time Test World XI to mark the 150th anniversary of Wisden Cricketers' Almanack.

Akram is regarded as one of the greatest fast bowlers in the history of cricket. He holds the world record for most wickets in List A cricket with 881 and is second only to Sri Lankan off-spin bowler, Muttiah Muralitharan in terms of ODI wickets with 502. He is considered to be one of the founders and perhaps the finest exponent of reverse swing bowling. Akram had a very special talent to move the ball both ways in one delivery which is called double swing of Wasim Akram. No one in cricket history has done it so far.

He was the first bowler to reach the 500-wicket mark in ODI cricket during the 2003 World Cup. In 2002 Wisden released its only list of best players of all time. Wasim was ranked as the best bowler in ODI of all time with a rating of 1223.5, ahead of Allan Donald, Imran Khan, Waqar Younis, Joel Garner, Glen McGrath and Muralitharan.] Wasim has taken 23 4-wicket hauls in ODI in 356 matches he played. On 30 September 2009, Akram was one of five new members inducted into the ICC Cricket Hall of Fame. He is the bowling coach of Kolkata Knight Riders.[11] but took a break from the position for IPL 6 citing a need to spend more time with family.

Full name Wasim Akram
Born 3 June 1966 (age 47) Lahore, Punjab, Pakistan
Nickname WAZ, Sultan of Swing, The Two W's (with Waqar Younis), King of Swing
Batting style Left hand bat
Bowling style Left arm fast
Role All-rounder
National side Pakistan
Test debut ) 25 January 1985 v New Zealand
Last Test 9 January 2002 v Bangladesh
ODI debut 23 November 1984 v New Zealand
Last ODI 1 March 2003 v India
ODI shirt no. 3

Shane Keith Warne is an Australian former international cricketer widely regarded as one of the greatest bowlers in the history of the game. He was named Wisden Cricketers of the Year in 1994 Wisden Cricketers' Almanack. He is the Wisden Leading Cricketer in the World 1997 (Notional Winner). He was named Wisden Leading Cricketer in the World for the year 2004 in 2005 Wisden Cricketers' Almanack.

In 2000, he was selected by a panel of cricket experts as one of the five Wisden Cricketers of the Century, the only specialist bowler selected in the quintet and the only one still playing at the time. He is also a cricket commentator and a professional poker player. He officially retired from all formats in July 2013.

Warne played his first Test match in 1992, and took over 1000 international wickets (in Tests and One-Day Internationals), second to this milestone after Sri Lanka's Muttiah Muralitharan. Warne's 708 Test wickets was the record for the most wickets taken by any bowler in Test cricket, until it was also broken by Muralitharan on 3 December 2007.

A useful lower-order batsman, Warne also scored over 3000 Test runs, and he holds the record for most Test runs without a century. His career was plagued by scandals off the field; these included a ban from cricket for testing positive for a prohibited substance, charges of bringing the game into disrepute by accepting money from bookmakers, and sexual indiscretions.

Full name Shane Keith Warne
Born 13 September 1969 (age 44) Upper Ferntree Gully, Victoria, Australia
Nickname Warnie, King of Spin, Sheik of Tweak
Height 1.83 m (6 ft 0 in)
Batting style Right-handed, Lower order
Bowling style Right-arm leg break
Role Leg spin bowler
National side Australia
Test debut (cap 350) 2 January 1992 v India
Last Test 2 January 2007 v England
ODI debut (cap 110) 24 March 1993 v New Zealand
Last ODI 10 January 2005 World XI v Asia XI
ODI shirt no. 23

Muttiah Muralitharan is a Sri Lankan cricketer who was rated the greatest Test match bowler ever by Wisden Cricketers' Almanack in 2002. He retired from Test cricket in 2010, registering his 800th and final wicket on 22 July 2010 from his final ball in his last Test match.

Muralitharan took the wicket of Gautam Gambhir on 5 February 2009 in Colombo to surpass Wasim Akram's ODI record of 501 wickets. He became the highest wicket-taker in Test cricket when he overtook the previous record-holder Shane Warne on 3 December 2007. Muralitharan had previously held the record when he surpassed Courtney Walsh's 519 wickets in 2004, but he suffered a shoulder injury later that year and was then overtaken by Warne.

Averaging over six wickets per Test, Muralitharan is one of the most successful bowlers in the game. Muralitharan held the number one spot in the International Cricket Council

Jacques Henry Kallis is a South African cricketer. A right-handed batsman and right-arm fast-medium swing bowler, Kallis is regarded as one of the greatest of the game's all-rounders. As of 2013 he was the only cricketer in the history of the game to score more than 11,000 runs and take 250 wickets in both one-day and Test match cricket.

Kallis played 166 Test matches and had a batting average of over 55 runs per innings. From October to December 2007 he scored five centuries in four Test Matches; with his century in the second innings of the third test against India in January 2011, his 40th in all, he moved past Ricky Ponting to become the second-highest scorer of Test centuries, behind only Sachin Tendulkar's 51.

Kallis was named Leading Cricketer in the World in the 2008 Wisden for his performances in 2007 in addition to being the ICC Test Player of the Year and ICC Player of the Year in 2005. He has been described by Kevin Pietersen and Daryll Cullinan as the greatest cricketer to play the game, and along with Walter Hammond and Sir Garry Sobers is one of the few Test all-rounders whose Test batting average is over 50 and exceeds his Test bowling average by 20 or more.

Full name Jacques Henry Kallis
Born 16 October 1975 (age 38) Pinelands, Cape Town, South Africa
Nickname Jakes, Woogie,[1] Kalahari
Height 1.82 m
Batting style Right-handed
Bowling style Right arm fast-medium
Role All rounder
National side South Africa
Test debut (cap 262) 14 December 1995 v England
Last Test 26 December 2013 v India
ODI debut (cap 38) 9 January 1996 v England
Last ODI 8 December 2013 v India
ODI shirt no. 3

Dennis Keith Lillee, is a former Australian cricketer rated as the outstanding fast bowler of his generation. Lillee was known for his fiery temperament, 'never-say-die' attitude and popularity with the fans.

In the early part of his career Lillee was an extremely quick bowler, but a number of stress fractures in his back almost ended his career. Taking on a strict fitness regime, he fought his way back to full fitness, eventually returning to international cricket.

By the time of his retirement from international cricket in 1984 he had become the then world record holder for most Test wickets (355), and had firmly established himself as one of the most recognisable and renowned Australian sportsmen of all time. On 17 December 2009, Lillee was inducted into the ICC Cricket Hall of Fame. He has also contributed to the MRF Pace Foundation in Chennai, India.

Full name Dennis Keith Lillee
Born 18 July 1949 (age 64) Subiaco, Perth, Western Australia
Nickname FOT
Height 5 ft 11.5 in (1.82 m)
Batting style Right-hand batsman
Bowling style Right-arm fast
Role Bowler
National side Australia
Test debut 29 January 1971 v England
Last Test 2 January 1984 v Pakistan
ODI debut 24 August 1972 v England
Last ODI 18 June 1983 v West Indies

Sir Ian Terence Botham, is a former England Test cricketer and Test team captain, and current cricket commentator. He was a genuine all-rounder with 14 centuries and 383 wickets in Test cricket, and remains well-known by his nickname Beefy. While at times a controversial player both on and off the field, Botham also held a number of Test cricket records, and still holds the record for the highest number of wickets taken by an England bowler.

He is generally regarded as being England's greatest ever all-rounder, particularly in Test cricket, although having earned celebrity status, his award of a knighthood was in recognition of his services to charity.

Just like fellow cricketers Denis Compton, Chris Balderstone and Arnold Sidebottom, Botham was also a talented footballer, and made 11 appearances in the Football League. On 8 August 2009, Botham was inducted into the ICC Cricket Hall of Fame.

Full name Sir Ian Terence Botham OBE
Born 24 November 1955 (age 58) Heswall, Cheshire, England
Nickname Beefy, Both, Guy
Height 6 ft 2 in (1.88 m)
Batting style Right-handed
Bowling style Right-arm fast-medium
Role All-rounder
National side England
Test debut 28 July 1977 v Australia
Last Test 18 June 1992 v Pakistan
ODI debut 26 August 1976 v West Indies
Last ODI 24 August 1992 v Pakistan