Viv Richards
Kumar Sangakkara
Stat by stat
Bars are scaled to the leader in this list.
The verdict
Kumar Sangakkara leads 3 of 3 categories. Our all-time ranking places Viv Richards at #6 and Kumar Sangakkara at #11.
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The case for Viv Richards
Vivian Richards was the most intimidating batsman of his generation, a swaggering strokemaker who never wore a helmet even against the fastest bowling. He scored 8,540 Test runs at 50.23 and 6,721 in ODIs, and in 1976 alone he plundered 1,710 Test runs, a calendar-year record that stood for decades. His 56-ball century against England in 1986, still among the fastest in Tests, captured his disdain for bowlers. As the batting heart of the West Indies side that went fifteen years unbeaten in Test series, Richards blended Caribbean flair with ruthless dominance, walking to the crease chewing gum with an air of total authority. He later captained the team without losing a series. More than his numbers, it was the psychological ascendancy he held over every attack that marks him among the greatest and most feared batsmen ever.
The case for Kumar Sangakkara
Kumar Sangakkara was one of the most prolific and elegant batsmen of his era and a fine wicketkeeper for much of his career. The Sri Lankan left-hander scored 12,400 Test runs at 57.40 with 38 centuries, eleven of them over 150, and 14,234 ODI runs, the second-highest ODI tally ever. In the 2015 World Cup he became the only man to score four consecutive ODI hundreds. Sangakkara combined classical technique with a voracious appetite for big scores, and his double and triple hundreds anchored Sri Lanka's batting alongside Mahela Jayawardene, with whom he shared a record 624-run Test partnership in 2006. Articulate and cerebral off the field, he was equally commanding at the crease. Whether keeping wicket or purely batting, his run-scoring consistency across formats places him firmly among the greatest batsmen of the modern game.