Stats across eras 2: Bradman, Sobers, Tendulkar… top batsmen by decades

In the second part of the statistics across eras series, Arunabha Sengupta looks at the top batsmen across the history of cricket by the decades, and finds that the career average actually does not quite lie.

In the second part of the statistics across eras series, Arunabha Sengupta looks at the top batsmen across the history of cricket by the decades, and finds that the career average actually does not quite lie.

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In the previous episode of this series we dealt with the facts and fables regarding the difficulty of run making across generations. Now, let us turn our attention to some of the best performers across eras.

 

Batting average is the most commonly accepted metric used to evaluate the merit of a batsman in cricket. However, there are sceptics who underplay its importance as an indicator of quality. While some quote ‘lies, damned lies, statistics’, or the corporate cliché ‘analysis paralysis’,  the more knowledgeable argue that certain confirmed greats of the stature of WG Grace and Victor Trumper ended up with remarkably ordinary figures when compared to current standards. Hence, it does not make sense to attach too much importance to respective records.

 

Granted, with the evolution of the game, comparison of raw figures of batsmen separated by a hundred or so years may not make sense. However, what happens if we restrict our assessment and analysis to batsmen with their contemporaries?

 

According to this simple analysis, batting average actually turns out to be an excellent indicator. During their eras, both WG Grace and Trumper, the two players cited most often as counter examples, end up right at the top when measured against their rivals.

 

It is actually quite intuitive that better batsmen will be more consistent and prolific and will hence end up with better figures.  But, let us not leave it to discussions and debates and move straight the figures.

 

In the table that follows, the top three batsmen have been identified for each decade (1877-1890 considered the first decade, and every calendar decade from then on). All the usual suspects are there, the ones most would expect to end up on top. From Grace to Jack Hobbs, Trumper to Don Bradman, Gary Sobers to Viv Richards, Sachin Tendulkar to Jacques Kallis.

 

Considered within an era, average definitely makes a lot of sense.

 

Of particular interest are two very relevant facts.

 

1. In the last part, we saw that the wickets started becoming standardised and run making easier and consistent starting from the 1910s and reached a very stable state by the 1920s. Accordingly, we find Victor Trumper’s average tending to figures very comparable with the modern greats in the 1910s.

 

2. From the 1950s, after Bradman was done playing havoc with reason and ratio, the top averages of every ten years are strikingly similar. Another confirmation of the consistency of run making.

 

Top averages by decades:

 

Decade	Leading Batsman 1		Leading Batsman 2				Leading Batsman 3
1877-1890	Allan Steel (Eng)		WG Grace (Eng)				Billy Murdoch (Aus)
	600	35.29	633			35.16	896	32
1891-1900	KS. Ranjitsinhji (Eng)		Tom Hayward (Eng)				R. Abel (Eng)
	970	53.88	976			44.36	671	41.9
1901 – 1910	Aubrey Faulkner (SA)		Clem Hill (Aus)				Victor Trumper (Aus)
	1108	44.32	2160			40.75	2173	36.2
1911-1920	Jack Hobbs (Eng)		Victor Trumper (Aus)				J.W. Zulch (SA)
	1742	64.51	710			54.61	540	45
1921-1930	Don Bradman (Aus)		CG McCartney (Aus)				Herbert Sutcliffe (Eng)
	1446	96.4	1164			72.75	3396	66.6
1931-1940	Bradman		Len Hutton (Eng)				George Headley (WI)
	3647	98.56	1345			67.25	1421	64.6
1941-1950	Bradman		Frank Worrell (WI)				Neil Harvey (Aus)
	1903	105.7	833			104.1	1118	86
1951-1960	Gary Sobers (WI)		Clyde Walcott (WI)				Len Hutton
	3077	61.54	2984			60.89	2728	55.7
1961-1970	Ken Barrington (Eng)		Greame Pollock (SA)				Gary Sobers (WI)
	5750	62.5	2256		60.97		3699	56.9
1971-1980	Viv Richards (WI)		Javed Miandad (Pak)				SM Gavaskar (Ind)
	3629	60.48	2663		57.89		5974	56.4
1981-1990	Clive Lloyd (WI)		Zaheer Abbas (Pak)				Allan Border (Aus)
	2342	61.63	2343		54.48		6940	53.8
1991-2000	Sachin Tendulkar (Ind)		Steve Waugh (Aus)				Rahul Dravid (Ind)
	5828	60.08	6578		56.22		3322	53.6
2001-2010	JH Kallis (SA)		KC Sangakkara (SL)				Brian Lara (WI)
	9048	61.97	8070		58.9		5883	58.2
2011-2012	Younis Khan (Pak)		Kallis				Ian Bell (Eng)
	958	68.42	702	63.81			1084	63.8

Note:

 

Minimum runs criteria –

 

# 500 runs till 1900, 1911-1920 and 2011-2012

 

#1000 runs from 1901-1910, 1921-1940

 

#800 for 1941-1950

 

#2000 elsewhere.

 

This distinction is required for the varying number of Tests played in the early days and during the decades disrupted due to World Wars.

 

Appendix:

 

Other than the top averages given above, the following table lists the top run-getters of each decade along with the other notable scorers who just missed out featuring among the top 3 averages in the above table.

 

Decade	Top run getter, tally & avge	Other Notables
1877-1890	Arthur Shrewsbury sr (Eng)  993, 31.00	P.S.  McDonnell W Bates
1891-1900	Joe Darling (Aus) 1139, 35.59	FS Jackson
1901 -1910	Victor Trumper (Aus) 2173, 36.20	RA Duff JT Tyldesley
1911-1920	Jack Hobbs (Eng) 1742, 64.50	Warwick Armstrong William Bardsley
1921-1930	Herbert Sutcliffe (Eng)  3396, 66.60	Wally Hammond Patsy Hendren
1931-1940	Wally Hammond (Eng)  4776, 62.80	Bill Ponsford Eddie Paynter
1941-1950	Len Hutton (Eng)  2898, 53.70	Denis Compton Everton Weekes
1951-1960	Peter May (Eng)   4265, 47.40	Neil Harvey Hanif Mohammad
1961-1970	Ken Barrington (Eng) 5750, 62.50	Doug Walters Ted Dexter
1971-1980	SM Gavaskar (Ind)  5974, 56.40	Geoff Boycott Greg Chappell
1981 – 1990	Allan Border (Aus) 6940, 53.80	Javed Miandad Mohd. Azharuddin
1991-2000	Mark Waugh (Aus)  6907, 42.40	Brian Lara Andy Flower
2001-2010	Ricky Ponting (Aus)   9953, 55.60	Mohammad Yousuf Sachin Tendulkar
2011-2012	Michael Clarke (Aus)  1336, 60.70	Early days yet …

 

(Arunabha Sengupta is a cricket historian and Chief Cricket Writer at CricketCountry. He writes about the history and the romance of the game, punctuated often by opinions about modern day cricket, while his post-graduate degree in statistics peeps through in occasional analytical pieces. The author of three novels, he can be followed on Twitter at http://twitter.com/senantix)

 

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