Cricket is an exciting and fun sport that has been making noise in the sports world. Like any other sport, cricket has several big names that have marked their achievements in its history. If you’re a fan or if you want to discover these people’s brilliant feats, here’s a list of names you should get to know of.
Donald Bradman
Donald Bradman is popularly known as “The Don,” who played for the Australian team for 20 years from 1928-1948. He’s even considered the world’s master cricketer and the greatest batsman ever due to his excellent batting average 99.94. Bradman was almost unbeatable.
The Australian team was only defeated once in 1932-33, and this is when the controversial Bodyline was devised. It’s a system of bowling devised by the Englishes cricket team that was described as brutal and unfair and was obviously to frustrate Bradman.
However, despite their efforts and the game’s result, Donald could still average 56 in the Ashes tour. He was able to live through the 20th century and died on February 25, 2001. His bowling style used to be leg break and a right-hand bat.
Garfield Sobers
Garfield Sobers has been into four teams: West Indies, Barbados, Nottinghamshire, and South Australia. He’s a cricket genius that many fans call the finest all-rounder in modern cricket.
His stats, particularly his test batting average (despite the stunning record), only tell a little about how he makes his runs and shots with excellent precision.
This only presents how a cricket player can be as unpredictable as they want and beat the odds, which you can apply to current sports events. If you want to give your chances a shot, why not find out more here and study the odds of the upcoming cricket events?
Aside from that, what also makes Sobers one of the greatest is his several bowling styles: left-arm fast medium, left-arm wrist spin, and slow left-arm orthodox.
Viv Richards
Sir Vivian Richards was universally recognized as the “King of Sixes” in the world, who decimated all types of bowling as he played as an “off-spin” bowler. He was a player for a total of five teams: Leeward Islands, Combined Islands, Queensland, Somerset, and Glamorgan.
Aside from that, Richards also played in four cricket World Cups for the West Indies, where he became the captain of the same team from 1985 to 1991. Then, he proceeded to sweep the team to international success as the captain.
In all, he scored 1,710 runs in 1976, at an average of 90, a record for decades until it was surpassed in 2006. Furthermore, he is also considered the best player in ODI innings of all-time with his unbeaten 189 in ODI last 1984. Also, he was knighted, with the title “Sir” added before their name.
Shane Warne
Shane Warne was infamous for making headlines for various mischiefs that involved women and diet pills. Nonetheless, his performance throughout his career was undeniably one that should be remembered.
In the 1993 Ashes series against England, his delivery was dubbed the “ball of the century,” wherein Warne pitched the ball outside the leg stump, but it spun back and sent Gatting’s bails flying.
His success transformed and popularized the almost-forgotten art of leg spin. After several dramas and a visit to the hospital, he returned in 2004 and took the Ashes event to a surprise after completely sweeping 26 batters from Sri Lanka in three tests.
A year after that, he made a new record-breaking 96 victims (24 more than his record in 1993) but still missed getting the Allan Border Medal. Sadly, this legend died of a natural cause just last year, on March 4, 2022.
Sachin Tendulkar
Sachin Tendulkar was the most complete batter of his time and the most prolific run-maker ever. Although he didn’t have a signature stroke, he was good at so many that he could pull them out. Tendulkar could score all around the wicket, off both feet, and even temper his game to suit every situation.
Moreover, to give you an idea, Tendulkar became the first batter to make a score of 50 international hundred. After that, he passed Brian Lara as the leading Test run-scorer in 2008. Then, he continued with more than 13,000 Test runs, 30,000 international runs, and 50 Test hundreds.
In 2012, he became the first player to score 100 international centuries, which might be a mark that would definitely last forever.
Jack Hobbs
If people start to talk about the veterans of cricket, they should never leave out Jack Hobbs. Hobbs is the leading run-scorer and is part of first-class cricket as the century-maker. He was known as “The Master,” as he deserved so also because of his average shade of under 57 in 61 total Test matches.
However, his career was cut short due to World War I. Due to the situation at the time, it was a challenge to watch any of his in-action footage, but several people have claimed that The Master was innovative with a fleet pair of feet.
Final Thoughts
The cricket world consists of several exciting and memorable games with players that make every game more interesting. As one of the popular sports in some countries, it lives up to its name and continues to attract more attention from other people and cities. Knowing the people above will help you better understand how the sport has been established if you’re one of the people interested in cricket.
