Top 21 Best Cricket Players of All Time

MS Dhoni movieMS Dhoni movie

Cricket is the most popular game, after Soccer. Cricket is a 16th Century game and in this almost 500 years it has produced some greatest Cricketers. It’s quite easy to pick the top 50 or top 20 but make a list of the top 21 Best Cricket Player of all time.

List of Best Cricket Players

We have compiled the list of 21 top Cricket Players ever to make it a perfect playing XI team. Here are those –

MS Dhoni

Mahendra Singh Dhoni, the man who has modernized Indian Cricket is the best Cricket Player I think. He is not only the quick and the best wicket-keeper in the world but also the best finisher that this game has ever witnessed.




He has unique achievements under his belt as the only Cricket Captain to win all three forms of ICC Trophies. He is also the most successful captain at IPL too and a movie in his name as MS Dhoni Untold Story was released portraying Dhoni’s journey from ticket collector to trophy collector – the world-cup-winning captain of the Indian Cricket Team and also check out his achievements here.

Kapil Dev

Just like Imran Khan, Kapil Dev is the most successful Indian Cricket Captain along with MS Dhoni. Kapil Dev is not only the greatest pace bowler India has produced but also India’s greatest fast-bowling all-rounder. According to Wisden, he is the “Indian Cricketer of the Century“. He also won the Wisden Indian Cricketer of the Century award beating the likes of Sunil Gavaskar and Sachin Tendulkar.

Kapil Dev rings bell at India vs England Test Match | ©Getty Images

Wasim Akram

Wasim Akram is the greatest pace bowler in the history of Cricket. He is known for his reverse swing bowling. He is on the list of second highest wicket-takers in ODI and he was the first player to reach a tally of 500 ODI wickets.

Wasim Akram during his Celebration of 500 ODI Wickets | ©Reuters

Shane Warne

Shane Warne | ©Getty Images

Shane Warne is one of the greatest Leg Spinner that Cricket has ever produced. He accounted for Australia’s world cup victory in 1999 for fine bowling.

Brian Lara

Brian Lara is one Cricketer who never said “NO”. He is the only batsman to score quadruple [400 Not Out] in Test Cricket. In first class cricket he holds the record for score 501 not out.

Lara at an event in India | © AFP

Muthiah Muralitharan

With 800 Test Wickets and 534 ODI wickets, he is known as the magician bowler. He holds mostly-all the bowling records.

Muthiah Muralitharan at 2011 Semi-final match | ©Associated Press

Jacques Kallis

Jacques Kallis is regarded as one of the greatest All-rounders ever. It was hard to get him out.

Jacques Kallis during Sri Lanka Tour | ©Associated Press

Imran Khan

The ICC Hall of Fame, Imran Khan is the most successful Pakistan Cricket Captain. He led his country to 1992 World Cup victory and he is one of the eight world Cricketer to have achieved “All-rounders Triple”.

Imran Khan Delivers his 1992 World Cup Victory Speech | ©PA Photos

Vivian Richards

The revolution in ODI Cricket began with Viv Richards. With a strike-rate of 90.20, he made possible – Your not safe even when you post 250+ score in ODI in latest 1980’s and early 1990’s.

Gary Sobers

Widely recognized as Cricket’s Great All-Rounder ever. Hailing from West Indies team, he entered into Cricket as a bowler but was soon promoted up the batting order. He is known for his inning of 375, which remained as the highest individual score in a test inning which was broken by fellow countryman Brian Lara.

Gary Sobers

Sachin Tendulkar

Almost batting record in Cricket belongs to Sachin Tendulkar. Record-wise he is the second greatest Test batsman of all time, also the second greatest One Day International batsman of all time after Vivian Richards. He is popularly known as Little Master or Master Blaster.

He tops the chart in the following category –

  • Most Ever Test Matches Appearances
  • Most Ever ODI Matches Appearances
  • Most Hundreds in Test Cricket [51 Centuries]
  • Most Hundreds in ODI Cricket [49 Centuries]
  • Most Career ODI Runs [18,426 Runs]
  • Most Career Runs in Test Cricket [15,921]
  • Most Fifties in ODI [96 Fifties]
  • Most Fifties in Test Cricket [119 Fifties]
  • Most Fours in ODI Career [2016]
  • Most Runs in a Calendar Year [1894]
  • Lot more

Sir Don Bradman

Sir Donald Bradman was equal to three batsmen to Australia as said by captain Bill Woodfull. He is acknowledged as “Greatest Test Batsman” of all time that Cricket has ever produced. Playing a career spreading over 20 years and maintaining test batting average of 99.94 is the greatest achievement that any sportsman has ever achieved.

Rahul Dravid

Rahul Dravid is often known as the “The Wall” because he is one such player in the 21st century known to play long test innings.

Other worth mentioning Crickets are –

  • Adam Gilchrist
  • Kumara Sangakkara
  • Ricky Pointing
  • Steve Waugh
  • AB De Villiers
  • Virat Kohli (The master of chasing)
Also Read:

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So, those were the 21 Best Cricket Players of All Time to ever play in the history of Cricket.

This post was last modified on May 29, 2022 9:35 AM

Categories: Sports
Tags: Cricket