Was Rohan Kanhai a better batsman than Sir Gary Sobers?

Was Rohan Kanhai a better batsman than Sir Gary Sobers?

Vivek Sharma



Roshan Kanhai is often regarded as one of the best batsman of the 60s standing along the greats like Sir Garry Sobers. With 6227 runs in 79 matches and an average of 47.53, one may safely say that he has a batting record that is no less than a marvel, at the same time people argue that he was a free flowing cricketer and never really valued the stats, had he valued them, he would have been one of the greatest. Kanhai,could have averaged above 60 if he wished to pursue batting records. He would send the best of deliveries scuttling to the boundary but hit with magical and imperious touch of his own. Kanhai 's batting combined the skill of a surgeon with the creativity of a musical composer.

Kanhai may not have posessed the technique of Sunil Gavaskar or Len Hutton, the consistency of Rahul Dravid or Geoff Boycott, the audacity of Viv Richards, the statistical heights of Don Bradman and Sachin Tendulkar or the grace of Zaheer Abbas,but for pure genius he was at the very top. Infact in his time several critiques rated Kanhai even ahead of Gary Sobers as a batsman. Kanhai at his bets, could have even displaced the likes of Lara and Tendulkar for the all-time world 11. Sadly,we hardly saw Kanhai in one day International cricket.With his ability to improvise he could well have been the best one day batsman of all time.

Official cricinfo ratings for batting place Kanhai in the top 40 of all and the top 15 from 1877 to 1969.

Kanhai ought to be be ranked in the Viv Richards, Tendulkar, Hobbs or Hammond class.

His 252 at Victoria in 196-61 was arguably the best bating performance of all time containing all the ingredients of a perfect batting. His century at Perth infact morally even eclipsed Gary Sober's 254 n.o., considering the conditions.

Kanhai mastered the seaming English pitches, the bouncy Australian and West Indian tracks and the turning sub-continent wickets. When compared to Gary Sobers many critiques pointed out that Sobers came at no 6 while Kanhai came in at no 3, when the bowling was at it's greatest ferocity. Where Kanhai went down was with regards to temperament. If he had done justice to his talent he could have broken all the batting records. He played pace bowling better than Greg Chappell, Tendulkar, Lara and Kallis.

Kanhai scored 6,227 runs at 47.53 in 137 innings covering 79 tests scoring 15 test centuries. In first -class cricket he scored 28,639 runs at 49.29 scoring 83 hundreds. From 1958 to 1973 he played in 14 series and scored a century in 11 of them. His highest average for a series was 70.71 while his lowest was 37.10 from 1958-1973.He had the remarkable consistency of scoring 28 fifties in 79 test matches and 137 test innings,scoring over 400 runss 7 times in a series.


Mostly above writing sare Data, lets see what other stalwarts if the game think.

Attorney Albert Baldeo on Rohan Kanhai

"Rohan Kanhai, my boyhood hero, was undoubtedly the most extraordinary batsman the West Indies has ever produced, one who could eviserate any attack in the world when he chose to. Whereas other batsmen could wear down an attack, Kanhai would dissect it with clinical precision. There was beauty in his craft, so much different in the method of annihilation. Poetry, rather than prose, ballet, rather than dance. Artistry, rather than sheer power, although this never compromised the force with which he hit the ball. He glided in riveting strokeplay, batting with the artistry of a virtuoso. He did not have the superlative statistics nor the sheer all-round cricketing genius of Garfield Sobers, the awesome power of Viv Richards, Clyde Walcott, Clive Lloyd or Gordon Greenidge, the classical poise of Sachin Tendulkar or Frank Worrell, or the steadfastness of George Headley or Steve Waugh.

Nor did he have the impregnable technique or patience of Geoff Boycott, Jack Hobbs or Sunil Gavaskar, the insatiable appetite for runs like Don Bradman, the grace of Greg Chappell or Zaheer Abbas or the oriental calm of Majid Khan. Nor did his interaction with the game of cricket spawn changes to the socio-political structures of society and effect reforms of a radical nature as Sir Learie Constantine’s and Sir W.G. Grace’s did. Nor did he assume superstar status like Brian Lara or Sachin Tendulkar. Nor did he achieve batting statistics to propel him to the type of immortality attained by Sir Don Bradman, Gavaskar or Tendulkar. Yet, he possessed a combination of batting prowess and sportsmanship above and beyond the reach of all of these great players to such an unparalleled degree that has never been seen in the game of cricket and perhaps will never be equaled. His arrival to the wicket heralded both hush and expectancy. Bars closed as all looked to the drama that was about to unfold before a Kanhai innings.

Ian Mcdonald
When I was asked by Cricinfo to join the panel choosing an all-time West Indies Cricket XI my first inclination was to decline. I realised, in the case of batsmen alone, that it would be impossible to name all of Gordon Greenidge, Desmond Haynes, Roy Fredericks, George Headley, Frank Worrell, Clyde Walcott, Everton Weekes, Rohan Kanhai, Clive Lloyd, Vivian Richards, Richie Richardson, Alvin Kallicharran, Brian Lara, and Shiv Chanderpaul – each of whom completely deserves to be included in any West Indies All-Time Test team.

Writers Michael Manley and Donna Symonds wrote in their “A History of West Indian Cricket”:: “No more technically correct batsman ever came out of the West Indies than Rohan Kanhai .”

C.L.R.James

According to James, “I take Kanhai as the high peak of West Indian cricketing development. West Indian cricketing had reached such a stage, that a fine cricketer could be adventuresome, and Kanhai was adventuresome…People felt that it was more than a mere description of how he batted; it was something characteristic of us as cricketers. They felt that it was not only a cricketing question, because Kanhai was an East Indian, and East Indians were still somewhat looked down upon by other people in the Caribbean. But I stated that here was a cricketer who was doing things that nobody else was doing, and I was very pleased when he became the captain of the West Indies side.”]

Rajan Bala on Kanhai

For the sheer pleasure that he gave the world as a batsman, Rohan Bholalall Kanhai is my favourite cricketer. Averaging fractionally under 48 in a distinguished Test career that saw him rise to become the captain of West Indies, Rohan had Bradmanesque qualities. This implies that he was ruthless, uncaring of the reputations of bowlers, and daring in his strokeplay. But at the same time he was a crafty batsman who understood the finer points of technique better than most. The great Sunil Gavaskar shares my view that he is the best he has watched and learned from. How many people know more about batting than Sunil?

Ousman Ali said: “His dominance over pace and spin was phenomenal; he possessed the best defence among his contemporaries but was commensurately devastating with shots all around the wicket including his trade-mark and inimitable falling hook shot.”


Writers Michael Manley and Donna Symonds wrote: “ No more technically correct batsman ever came out of the West Indies than Rohan Kanhai….His average at 47.53 ( 6,227 runs in 137 innings in 79 Tests) is surprising in that he always looked the type of batsman who would have ended up with an average in the high 50s. The explanation lies partly in the relationship between the number of half-centuries that he scored by comparison with the centuries. On 43 occasions Kanhai passed his half-century. Of these he went on to a hundred only 15 times.” They also said that as Captain “Kanhai is credited with restoring both discipline and morale to the side…and welding the team into an effective force under his leadership”.


Comparison of Kanhai with Gary Sobers

Cricket Writer Moyes:
Certainly a finer batsman and a greater menace than his left handed colleague.When he arrived he had nothing like the reputation of Sobers,but by the time he left these shores he had firmly established himself in the hears of all those who loved scintillating batsmanship.

Sunil Gavaskar:
“Rohan Kanhai is quite simply the greatest batsman I have ever seen. What does one write about one's hero, one's idol, one for whom there is so much admiration? To say that he is the greatest batsman I have ever seen so far is to put it mildly. A controversial statement perhaps, considering that there have been so many outstanding batsmen, and some great batsmen that I have played with and against. But, having seen them all, there is no doubt in my mind that Rohan Kanhai was quite simply the best of them all. Sir Gary Sobers came quite close to being the best batsman, but he was the greatest cricketer ever, and could do just about anything. But as a batsman, I thought Rohan Kanhai was just a little bit better."

He played silently in the shadow of some of the West Indies greats , yet when a world X1 was
named he took the number 3 slot always .

I would rate him better than Sobers as a bat .

I think Kanhai was slightly better in English conditions. Everywhere else, Sobers would just go much much much much bigger. Sobers only sucked in New Zealand (Kanhai never played NZ).

I can never understand this obsession as to who is better

That's true, players always have different categories, so we can say that a player got best results or more titles, but saying that he is better than other, that's a little harder thing to do.