Why they rank here
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.
Career profile
Each bar shows how this athlete compares with the strongest in our all-time list for that metric.
Head-to-head
Compare career numbers side by side.