Who is the greatest?

A look at all-rounders

Muhammad Ali is the greatest. He told us: “I am the greatest”. And who are we mere mortals to argue with that? There are many discussions about the greatest in cricket. One that sometimes rears its (ugly? beautiful?) head is “Who is the greatest all-rounder”? No man in cricket history qualifies simultaneously as a truly great batter and a truly great bowler. Statistically, a couple of great bowlers who were also very fine with the bat have exceptionally similar averages: In Test cricket, Imran Khan had a bowling average of 22.81 and a batting average of 37.69 and Keith Miller was 22.97 and 36.97 respectively. But because cricket is biased towards those who wield the bat over those who propel the ball, the two names that are mentioned most often in this debate are Garry Sobers and Jacques Kallis. These two are undoubtedly great batters while also being fine bowlers. Their Test records are remarkably similar: Sobers averaged 57.78 with the bat (no player with more innings has a higher average) and 34.03 with the ball; Kallis 55.37 with the bat and 32.65 with the ball. Using the measure of batting average divided by bowling average (the all-rounder’s ratio), we need to get to the third decimal point to separate them; Sobers edges it with 1.697 to Kallis’ 1.695. No wonder opinions are divided.