SA Footy

Don Bradman was born on this day in 1908.

I just wish that there was a time machine so I could go back
in time to see the greatest ever cricketer off all time

I wont waste this post with triviality
Would Don have been a better cricketer if he played right now ?
AND
Who is the 2nd best batsman ever after the Don ?

KP comes in at a distant ............................

mal wrote:Who is the 2nd best batsman ever after the Don ?

Brian Charles Lara.

rod_rooster wrote:

mal wrote:Who is the 2nd best batsman ever after the Don ?

Brian Charles Lara.

He'd be the best I've seen, but I was only born in 1981...

mal wrote:Who is the 2nd best batsman ever after the Don ?

Archie Jackson.....

If you read the "GAme is not the Same" by Allan McGuillvray some say Bradman is the 2nd best after Trumper.....

Interestingly if you rank all-time batsmen (who have scored > 5,000 runs) by their average:

Rank Player Ave Runs
1 DG Bradman (Aus) 99.94 6996
2 RT Ponting (Aus) 59.29 9368
3 KF Barrington (Eng) 58.67 6806
4 WR Hammond (Eng) 58.45 7249
5 GS Sobers (WI) 57.78 8032
6 JB Hobbs (Eng) 56.94 5410
7 L Hutton (Eng) 56.67 6971
8 R Dravid (ICC/India) 56.50 9492
9 Mohammad Yousuf (Pak) 56.00 6553
10 JH Kallis (ICC/SA) 55.09 8430
11 SR Tendulkar (India) 54.92 11150
12 KC Sangakkara (SL) 54.37 5492
13 GS Chappell (Aus) 53.86 7110
14 ML Hayden (Aus) 53.00 7739
15 BC Lara (ICC/WI) 52.88 11953
16 Javed Miandad (Pak) 52.57 8832
17 SM Gavaskar (India) 51.12 10122
18 SR Waugh (Aus) 51.06 10927
19 AR Border (Aus) 50.56 11174
20 IVA Richards (WI) 50.23 8540

Also interesting in that list, Hondo, is that Tendulkar is about to pass Border and move into 2nd place on the runs scored list and you would imagine passing Lara in the next 12 months too.

Looking at the list of batsmen, it just shows how the modern game is far more dominated by the bat, with the vast number of players who have competed in the last thirty years. Just the improvement in pitches, especially for moisture exclusion would have to have some impact on this.

brod wrote:Looking at the list of batsmen, it just shows how the modern game is far more dominated by the bat, with the vast number of players who have competed in the last thirty years. Just the improvement in pitches, especially for moisture exclusion would have to have some impact on this.

I disagree, 6 of the top 10 are from the 1960s or before

1/2 of of the next 10 are from the 70s amd 80s but which qualifies as modern but still about 20-30 years ago

70 percent of them have played in the time frame I sated (thirty years)