Ponting ends 2003 as No.1 - Ratings

[Donny]

No. Change. Batsman. Team. Rating. Ave. Best rating

1 +3 Ricky Ponting AUS 907 56.36 907 vs India, Melbourne 2003

2 -1 Brian Lara WI 897 52.14 908 vs Australia, St John's 1999

3 Matthew Hayden AUS 893 58.55 935 vs England, Brisbane 2002

4 -2 Rahul Dravid IND 881 56.79 881 vs Australia, Melbourne 2003

5 Inzamam-ul-Haq PAK 811 49.85 857 vs New Zealand, Lahore 2002

6 +3 Jacques Kallis SA 790 50.52 849 vs Pakistan, Durban 2002

7 Herschelle Gibbs SA 781 46.48 815 vs Pakistan, Cape Town 2003

8 +3 Mark Richardson NZ 775 49.02 775 vs Pakistan, Wellington 2003

9 +3 Gary Kirsten SA 763 45.47 763 vs West Indies, Durban 2003

10 -3 Mahela Jayawardene SL 754 49.08 840 vs England, B'ham 2002

11 -5 Adam Gilchrist AUS 742 57.44 876 vs S.A. Cape Town 2002

12 +1 Marcus Trescothick ENG 735 42.84 782 vs Bangladesh, 2003

13 +2 Michael Vaughan ENG 726 46.54 877 vs Australia, 2003

14 +8 Yousuf Youhana PAK 719 49.40 762 vs West Indies, 2002

15 -5 Venkata Laxman IND 717 45.58 750 vs Australia, 2003

16 -2 Sachin Tendulkar IND 712 55.33 899 vs Zimbabwe, 2002

17 -1 Steve Waugh AUS 697 50.98 896 vs England, Manchester 1997

18 +1 Kumar Sangakkara SL 692 46.65 816 vs Pakistan, 2002

19 +1 Shivnarine Chanderpaul WI 690 43.89 737 vs India, 2002

20 -3 Taufeeq Umar PAK 686 46.00 707 vs South Africa, 2003

21 -3 Graeme Smith SA 674 57.00 753 vs England, Lord's 2003

22 -2 Stephen Fleming NZ 658 38.48 692 vs Sri Lanka, 2003

23 +1 Mark Butcher ENG 657 34.45 731 vs South Africa, 2003

24 +1 Damien Martyn AUS 642 46.78 806 vs South Africa, 2002

25 +1 Nathan Astle NZ 640 39.04 693 vs England, Christchurch 2002

26 +5 Ramnaresh Sarwan WI 634 38.03 666 vs India, Kingston 2002

[JLC]

Very interesting to see some of the rankings. Trescothick and Kirsten are two i would like to see face Australia with an attack of McGrath, Warne and Gillespie as i think their ranking would drop significantly.

My main test on assessing batsman are whether they can face both McGrath and Warne.

Here are my thoughts on the best batsman from each country.

England - Vaughan (much respect for his effort last summer) and then Thorpe even though he doesnt play much. I dont care what the rankings say but for me Vaughan is top 10 material and the second best opener in the world.

New Zealand - Astle and Fleming. Although havnt seen a hell of a lot of their careers.

Pakistan - Batting line up changes too often but maybe Inzamam when he isnt cheating and can be bothered running between wickets.

Sri Lanka - Dont see enough of them as there has been a changing of the guard. Jayasuriya would be the obvious but the Sth Africans had his measure the series before the World Cup. Another team that has to pass the McGrath examination.

Sth Africa - Kallis and then Gibbs. I will reserve judgement on Smith until he passes the Warne and McGrath examination.

India - Tendulkar and Dravid. Different type of batsman but both love scoring runs. Laxman and Ganguly are also quality. Shewag is good but still a bit loose. A fit McGrath would have punished him this summer.

West Indies - Lara easily but they have some pretty good depth batting wise with the likes of Chanderpaul but he is too injury prone.

and last but not least the Aussies

Hayden and then Ponting. I cannot believe how much Hayden has improved. He has the perfect all round game that has beaten both pace and spin. When he fires the Aussies fire and he is such an imposing figure at the crease when batting. Hayden also endures the new ball every game and leads the way for the team. Ponting has been great but i still rate Hayden ahead of him. Gilchrist is entertaining but more often than not his runs are not a real neccessity as in Hayden and Co have usually plenty of runs on the board.

jlc

[Donny]

Lol, JLC. Tendulkar and Dravid - different types of batsmen.

Yeah, one scores runs.

[Donny]

Bowlers.

1 Muttiah Muralitharan SL 908 22.95 915 vs Pakistan, Lahore 2002

2 Shaun Pollock SA 877 20.84 910 vs England, Johannesburg 1999

3 +1 Shoaib Akhtar PAK 861 23.41 861 vs N.Z. Wellington 2003

4 -1 Glenn McGrath AUS 806 21.72 914 vs England, The Oval 2001

5 Jason Gillespie AUS 748 24.89 778 vs England, Lord's 2001

6 +1 Makhaya Ntini SA 745 28.88 745 vs West Indies, Durban 2003

7 -1 Daryl Tuffey NZ 721 27.33 749 vs Pakistan, Hamilton 2003

8 Anil Kumble IND 686 28.48 872 vs Sri Lanka, Bangalore 1994

9 Harbhajan Singh IND 662 28.47 763 vs Australia, Chennai 2001

10 Jacques Kallis SA 642 29.55 732 vs England, Leeds 2003

11 +3 Stuart MacGill AUS 637 27.39 763 vs W.I. Port-of-Spain 1999

12 +1 Chaminda Vaas SL 629 30.13 723 vs W.I. Colombo 2001

13 -1 Saqlain Mushtaq PAK 623 29.00 764 vs N.Z. Auckland 2001

14 +1 Waqar Younis PAK 606 23.56 909 vs Zim. Rawalpindi 1993

15 -4 Zaheer Khan IND 601 34.72 657 vs Australia, Brisbane 2003

16 +3 Heath Streak ZIM 593 27.96 795 vs Sri Lanka, Colombo 1996

17 Chris Cairns NZ 592 29.11 726 vs West Indies, Wellington 1999

18 Shane Bond NZ 589 24.30 636 vs Sri Lanka, Colombo (PSS) 2003

18 +10 Shabbir Ahmed PAK 589 21.79 589 vs N.Z.Wellington 2003

20 -4 Mervyn Dillon WI 586 32.86 692 vs India, Kolkata 2002

21 Steve Harmison ENG 558 29.63 581 vs Bangladesh, Dhaka 2003

22 -2 Danish Kaneria PAK 545 28.28 615 vs Bang. Chittagong 2002

23 +2 Brett Lee AUS 542 30.56 722 vs West Indies, Perth 2000

[JLC]

Tendulkar has scored over 8,000 of them im pretty sure. Before this tour Dravid was one of the players with a question mark over him away from India. 3 tests later and everyone is aboard his bandwagon

Dravid is a rock solid Boon like number 3 with great patience. Tendulkar is a more free flowing player who can score very quickly when in form.

jlc

[JLC]

The bowling rankings are too funny. Two of the top 3 bowlers have been accused of chucking........lol

Nuff said.

jlc

[Donny]

Waugh hails Pont-'king'

By Doug Conway Fox Sports


STEVE Waugh's phenomenal Test record will be eclipsed by his successor as Australia captain, Ricky Ponting. So says Steve Waugh.


"I think he (Ponting) will be Australia's greatest ever run-scorer and century-maker," Waugh said as he prepared for an emotion-charged finale to his glorious international career in tomorrow's series decider against India at the SCG.

Australian Allan Border remains the world's highest Test run-scorer with 11,174, a target Waugh is destined to fall tantalisingly short of unless he can somehow amass 367 in his farewell Test.

Ponting ranks 39th at present with 5,749 runs from 74 Tests, less than half the number Waugh has played in.

But at the age of 29 the Tasmanian has plenty of time on his side, and a prolonged purple patch has just rocketed him to over 1500 runs in calendar year 2003 at an average exceeding 100.

Waugh is Australia's greatest century maker with 32 - two short of Indian Sunil Gavaskar's world record.

Ponting's taste for big scores already has taken him to 20 hundreds and 17th place on that list.

Waugh also predicted Ponting could captain Australia for the better part of a decade, as Border did in the 1980s and 90s, though he believes half that term should be the norm.

"I feel almost as if five years is the maximum for a captain," said Waugh.

"Mentally it can be wearing. It takes a huge effort to captain for a long time.

"Ricky has got the challenge ahead.

"He could potentially captain the side for the next 10 years, but that's a big ask."

Waugh said his home ground was the perfect place to end an 18-year career which has made him the second-highest Test run scorer ever, the second-greatest century maker and the most successful captain with 41 victories from 56 matches.

No ground in the world had an atmosphere like a full SCG, he said - and the SCG will certainly be full.

Even the fourth day is close to a sell-out in a city with fresh memories of Waugh's last-ball-of-the-day hundred against England at this time last year.

Waugh planned to prepare himself by "mentally getting away from it all, spending time by myself for a little while".

"I'll go for a swim, have a massage, the normal stuff I've been doing for the past 10 years," he said.

"I don't want to change too much."

But he is acutely aware of just how special this match is.

"There will be a lot of emotion out there," he said. "But there will be a lot of goodwill.

"I've got nothing to lose, so it will all be nice and positive."

[couragous cloke]

India's bowling attack cost Lara number 1!

[Donny]

No, my dear friend, Sth. Africa's.