Random Cricket Player Generator

So you drew a cricketer

You wanted a cricketer and the tool up top gives you one, or several if you raise the number, from a list I put together by hand. This is a gathering of great and famous players from across the eras and the cricketing nations, weighted, I will admit, towards the modern game and the powerhouses of India and the Caribbean, so a pull might be a current star or a legend from the black-and-white days.

A list of cricket's greats is really an invitation to argue about them, so let me start with the number the whole argument keeps coming back to.

The one number every cricket fan knows

In most sports, the greatest player is a matter of taste. In cricket, the batting argument runs into a wall, and the wall is a number: 99.94. That was the career Test batting average of Australia's Sir Donald Bradman, and to understand why it stops every debate, you need to know that a Test average above 50 marks a genuinely great batsman, and above 60 is the territory of the true immortals. Bradman averaged very nearly 100, across two decades, and he did it needing just four more runs in his very final innings to finish on a round hundred, only to be dismissed for nought. No one before or since has come remotely close. It is often called the most untouchable statistic in all of sport, and it is why Bradman is, by common consent, the greatest batsman who ever lived. Every conversation about cricketing greatness begins in his shadow.

Tendulkar, and the modern greats

If Bradman is the peak, Sachin Tendulkar is the mountain range. Over a twenty-four-year career the Indian maestro scored more Test runs and more Test centuries than anyone in history, a hundred international hundreds in all, and became something close to a god to a cricket-mad nation. His records were built not on a single towering peak but on impossible longevity, and they have stood for over a decade.

The modern era was defined by four batsmen so good they earned a collective nickname, the Fab Four: India's Virat Kohli, England's Joe Root, Australia's Steve Smith and New Zealand's Kane Williamson. Between them they dominated Test cricket for fifteen years. Kohli became the finest white-ball batsman of his generation, passing Tendulkar's record for one-day centuries, before stepping away from the longer game. Root, meanwhile, has climbed to second on the all-time Test run list and is the first player in a generation with a real chance of catching Tendulkar himself. Draw one of these names from the tool and you have pulled a modern master. Draw Lara or Ponting or Viv Richards and you have pulled one of the finest of any age.

All-rounders, keepers, and the art of bowling

Cricket is not only about batsmen, and a list of its greats has to honour the rest of the game. There are the all-rounders, the rare players who win matches with both bat and ball, and the sport's history is studded with them, from Imran Khan of Pakistan, who captained his country to a World Cup, to India's Kapil Dev and England's Ian Botham. There are the great wicketkeepers, none more beloved than India's MS Dhoni, one of the coolest finishers and captains the game has seen. And above all there is the art of bowling: the terrifying West Indian fast-bowling quartets of the 1980s, with the likes of Malcolm Marshall and Michael Holding, who simply bullied the world's best batsmen, and the magicians of spin who could turn a ball at impossible angles. Pull a bowler or an all-rounder from this tool and you have drawn a reminder that cricket is won at both ends of the pitch.

What a random cricketer is good for

• Building a dream XI. Pull eleven and see what all-time team you can assemble, across the eras and the nations.
• Starting the GOAT debate. Draw two greats and argue who was better. This list is built for exactly that kind of row.
• Fantasy cricket inspiration. A prompt for picking sides or building a squad.
• Quiz and trivia prep. A random legend, especially an older one, is a strong question for anyone who knows their cricket history.
• A nudge to go learn. Draw a name you do not know and go read about them. There are all-time greats here you may never have seen bat or bowl.

Cricket player questions

Who is the greatest cricketer of all time?

For batting, the answer is almost unanimous: Sir Donald Bradman, whose Test average of 99.94 is regarded as the most untouchable record in sport. For sheer volume, Sachin Tendulkar holds the major run and century records, and the modern game was ruled by the Fab Four of Kohli, Root, Smith and Williamson.

Why is 99.94 such a famous number?

It is Sir Donald Bradman's career Test batting average. Since an average above 60 already marks an all-time great, averaging nearly 100 across two decades is so far beyond anyone else that it is often called the most remarkable statistic in all of sport.

What is an all-rounder?

A player skilled at both batting and bowling, capable of winning a match with either. Cricket has produced many famous ones, such as Imran Khan, Kapil Dev and Ian Botham, and they are among the most valuable players a team can have.

Can I pull several players, or narrow the pick?

Both. Raise the number for a few at once, with none repeating in a single pull, and use the text boxes to narrow things, such as a starts-with letter or a keyword the name has to contain.

References

1. ESPNcricinfo, records and statistics. espncricinfo.com
2. Encyclopaedia Britannica, Donald Bradman. britannica.com