ICC Average career ratings

The ICC Player Rankings are the "official" guide to the relative merits of batsmen, bowlers and all-rounders in Test match and ODI cricket. They take into account bowling quality and pitch conditions. Because the ratings take the quality of the opposition into account, individuals who make merry against weaker opposition do not get their ratings unduly inflated. Conversely, players who perform well against stronger opposition are rewarded. Here's a list which is more complete than the one I posted earlier. It shows the average ratings over the entire career of some notable players

Name - ICC Average Rating

D. Bradman: 855.37
J. Hobbs: 799.00
Brian Lara: 783.55
L. Hutton: 781.28
Garry Sobers: 780.85
RN Harvey: 777.70
H. Sutcliffe: 775.48
K.C. Sangakkara: 762.80
Viv Richards: 762.74
E.D Weekes: 760.50
K Barrington: 747.20
W. Hammond: 745.40
Javed Miandad: 743.12
R. Dravid: 741.79
M. Hussey: 738.47
R.T. Ponting: 736.86
S.M Gavaskar: 736.53
A. Border: 736.00
J.H. Kallis: 734.60
S.R. Tendulkar: 731.86.
K.P. Pietersen: 730.80.
M.J. Clarke: 727.24.
M.L. Hayden: 723.27
G. Chappell: 712.87
G. Headley: 711.77
S. Chanderpaul: 709.19
Jayawardene: 705.22
V. Sehwag: 703.94
Inzamam-ul-Haq: 697.55
A. Kallicharran: 697.03
G.C. Smith: 695.97
R. Kanhai: 688.58
A.N. Cook: 685.58
A.B. de Villiers: 682.40
C.G. Greenidge: 681.91
Mohammad Yousuf: 681.21
H.M. Amla: 670.02
C. Lloyd: 667.29
F. Worrell: 665.39
S. Waugh: 664.57
D. Haynes: 655.39
S. Anwar: 649.11
M. Waugh: 646.71
G. Boycott: 640.95
G. Kirsten: 639.85
A. Flower: 637.92
Hanif Mohammad: 635.42
V.V.S. Laxman: 632.47
Saeed Ahmed: 632.46
A. Stewart: 631.77
M. Atherton: 630.94
C. Walcott: 630.23
M. Slater: 629.92
G. Gooch: 629.70
S. Jayasuriya: 576.27

Click here for more info on how the rankings are calculated: www.relianceiccrankings.com/faq.php

Here's a similar list for test bowlers. The ratings take the quality of the opposition into account; players who perform well against stronger opposition are rewarded. Unlike the Average Batsman Ratings, however, star bowlers who play with other star bowlers find themselves losing scalps to their teammates, thereby skewering things.

Interestingly, McGrath and Muralidaran have 28 matches in which they scored 900+ ICC points, the most for any of the players. Akram and Younis both hit 800 points 16 times. Imran Khan hit 900 points 5 times.


Name - ICC Average Rating

G. A. Lohmann - 828.78 (only 9 matches - but we will use him, like Bradman, as the top yardstick)
G. Mcgrath - 790.86
C. Ambrose - 777.24
S.M. Pollock - 775.27
A.A. Donald - 771.1
M. Muralitharan - 770.1
J. Garner - 768.74
D.W. Steyn - 758.64 (as of 2013. He's 776.21 now if my math is right.)
W.W. Hall - 747.83
M.D. Marshall - 740.9
R.R. Lindwall - 739.97
D.K. Lillee - 737.19
F.S. Trueman - 734.45
R.J. Hadlee - 730.86
S.K. Warne - 726.79
A. Kumble - 714.2
L.R. Gibbs - 710.22
Imran Khan - 710.1
Waqar Younis - 709.3
C.E.H. Croft - 700.37
C.A. Walsh - 697.79
Wasim Akram - 694.32
I.T. Botham - 686.83
A.M.E. Roberts - 684.81
I.R. Bishop - 676.72
M.A. Holding - 673.82
Kapil Dev - 660.6
M. Ntini - 658.36
J.N. Gillespie - 655.85
Harbhajan Singh - 617.94
D. Gough - 614.05
Mohammad Asif - 614
B. Lee - 609.28
Saeed Ajmal - 586.53

Fantastic stuff as always, Trini. Really eye opening and enlightening to see the average ratings which helps to put a new pair of eyes on the data.

Viv had a peak rating of 938, the same as Sobers, Walcott and Sangakkara - tied for sixth all time. Lara's highest rating was 911 - 26th all time.

Interesting to see Athers ahead of Gooch. A few surprise names on the bowling front too, namely Goughie.

The top 30 highest batting ratings of all time can be seen in the graphic below:

Nice to see Shiv Chanderpaul with that 901 


the most current W.I. Batsman , IF ever selected , again !


a mere 10 points separate him from the great Lara ! 
 

I don't know what they used to arrive at these ratings but I can say without a doubt that this list is flawed and shouldn't be taken too seriously. Don't get the India fans mad with their star play not even in the top 10. 

If those stats are accurate they answer the question of whether Lara or Tendulkar was the better batsman once and for all. 

So, without even taking the time to understand the methodology behind the stats, you dismiss them as flawed and shouldn't be taken seriously. Why is that? That is the height of ignorance. You don't understand something, so you simply dismiss it. Why not take the time to read the link that Trini provided that actually explains how the ratings are calculated and educate yourself.

www.relianceiccrankings.com/faq.php

The ICC average rankings are just one way to gauge players.

Tendulkar, in tests, pretty much always averaged between 50 and 57, so it's surprising he isn't ranked higher. It's probably because he rarely dominated a full series, never got 500 runs in a series, and never achieved 900 or more ICC points. Lara in contrast oscillated between huge highs and very low lows. Meanwhile, someone like Viv Richards spent most of his career ranked 1 in the ICC rankings. And Sobers spent a decade averaging in the 60s or 70s.

Tendulkar's test runs in the 1990s came against decent bowling attacks. He often dodged Warne and Mcgrath playing together, but had to face Walsh, Ambrose and Donald and wasn't bothered by any of them, so I doubt the ICC rankings are punishing him based on the quality of opposition faced.

I reckon Tendulkar was a better Test batsman from 1990 to 1999 than Lara. Tendulkar scored centuries on his first tours to every country, and was doing this all as a skinny, fresh faced kid. Tendulkar had his s**t together, mentally and technique-wise. Lara was more of a show-off, liked to do impossible stuff, and eventually had a big meltdown in the mid 90s. His test career nosedised and only started reassembling itself in 99.

Lara probably gets points from having to play the Aussies alot. And unlike Tendulkar, he always faced them with their full strength bowling attacks. What's remarkable is how good his record is against the Aussies, despite being repeatedly cheated out by them. Ian Healy cheated him out in the 92 series (stumped with no ball in his gloves). Then the Aussie tour to West Indies in 95 saw Steve Waugh cheating Lara with a bumped catch. During the 2005 WI vs Australia series, Lara was also wrongfully given out 3 times in 4 innings, prompting the ICC to formally appologise about the quality of umpiring. The Aussies always pulled this crap on him; I reckon he missed out on 3 more easy centuries vs the Aussies if not for cheating.

Also, these ratings dont take into account ODI games, where the "complete package" qualities of Tendulkar become even more evident.

Lara had the better ODI career from 1990 to 1999 - the best ODI bat in the world during this period - but then sucked in ODIs from 2000 onwards due to various reasons (he moved around the order too much, seemed to lose interest, and his top order batted slow as hell).

Tendulkar, in contrast, was okay in ODI's from 1990 to about 1996, but then blossomed and became a consistently excellent ODI batsman from then on to his retirement. Opening also allowed Tendulkar to pile on huge amounts of ODI runs. Statistically he's one of the greatest ODI batsmen. On the flip-side, only 6 of his ODI centuries came outside the UAE/Subcontinent. He averages only 37 playing non-minnows outside those conditions.

Good analysis TD ! : Lara was hard done by players appealing/cheating coupled with poor Umpiring !

A comparison between Lara (light blue) and Tendulkar's (dark blue) ratings can be seen below. They clearly show the peaks and valleys of Lara's career as Trini pointed out.