Don Bradman
Garfield Sobers
Stat by stat
Bars are scaled to the leader in this list.
The verdict
Don Bradman leads 2 of 3 categories. Our all-time ranking places Don Bradman at #1 and Garfield Sobers at #3.
Head-to-head FAQ
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The case for Don Bradman
Donald Bradman's career Test average of 99.94 is the most celebrated number in cricket, and arguably in all of sport. In 52 Tests he scored 6,996 runs with 29 centuries, twelve of them double hundreds, and once made 334 against England at Leeds. He needed only four runs in his final innings, at The Oval in 1948, to average 100, but was bowled for a duck by Eric Hollies, a full stop of almost mythic cruelty. Bradman scored his runs on uncovered pitches, against Bodyline devised specifically to stop him, and averaged nearly double the next-best batsman of any era. He also captained Australia's unbeaten 1948 Invincibles. No batsman since has come close to his standard; the gap between Bradman and the field is the widest in the sport's statistical history, which is why he sits first on almost every credible list.
The case for Garfield Sobers
Garfield Sobers is widely regarded as the greatest all-rounder cricket has produced. He scored 8,032 Test runs at 57.78 with 26 centuries, took 235 wickets bowling three different styles, fast-medium, orthodox spin, and wrist spin, and held more than 100 catches. In 1958, aged 21, he made 365 not out against Pakistan, a Test record that stood for 36 years. In 1968 he struck six sixes in an over for Nottinghamshire, the first man to do so in first-class cricket. Sobers could open the bowling or turn to spin, bat anywhere, and field brilliantly close in or in the deep, making him a complete cricketer in a way few have matched. His blend of elegance and versatility, sustained across two decades for West Indies, places him among the two or three most gifted players ever to hold a bat.