Sunday, January 23, 2011

Sachin at No. 18 in list of greatest ODI cricketers

NEW DELHI: The latest innovation to measure the impact and performance of cricketers, to be found on www.impactindexcricket.com, has two active Indian players in the top 20 of the ODI Impact Index: Mahendra Singh Dhoni at No. 13 and Sachin Tendulkar at No. 18. The only other active cricketers in that category are South African Jacques Kallis at No. 8, Australia's Shane Watson at 16 and West Indian Chris Gayle at 19. Dhoni and Sachin apart, Kapil Dev is the only Indian in the top 25, ranked at No. 9.

If you're surprised at Sachin's relatively low ranking, remember the new system does not rate cricketers by aggregates, but by how much of an impact the player has had in his team winning matches. Also, when you're talking about the 20 best of all time, there clearly isn't all that much to choose between the one on top and the one at the bottom of that exclusive club.

Everybody in the top 25 of the list has more or less multiple skills, maybe useful even as a part-timer with the ball or a handy batsman. The only one who makes it almost entirely on the strength of a single skill is West Indian Joel Garner, universally acknowledged as one of the most effective ODI bowlers ever and the master of the yorker in the death overs.

The system has been applied to all forms of the game, but with the ODI World Cup just round the corner, its creators have understandably decided to start by revealing their findings for the 50-over version.

Read more: Sachin at No. 18 in list of greatest ODI cricketers - The Times of India http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/sports/cricket/series-tournaments/icc-world-cup-2011/top-stories/Sachin-at-No-18-in-list-of-greatest-ODI-cricketers/articleshow/7350526.cms#ixzz1Bvmj39O5

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