All-rounder
Encyclopedia
An all-rounder is a cricket
er who regularly performs well at both batting and bowling. Although all bowlers must bat and quite a few batsmen do bowl occasionally, most players are skilled in only one of the two disciplines and are considered specialists. Some wicket-keeper
s have the skills of a specialist batsman and have been referred to as all-rounders, but the term wicketkeeper-batsman is more commonly applied to them. Among the greatest all-rounders have been Imran Khan
, George Hirst, Wilfred Rhodes
, Chris Cairns, Shaun Pollock
, Keith Miller
, Garfield Sobers
, Ian Botham
, Jacques Kallis
, Kapil Dev
, Richard Hadlee
, W. G. Grace
, Mushtaq Mohammad
, Lance Klusener
, and Walter Hammond. With the advent of T20 cricket, the role of all rounder has changed prodigiously, with the vast majority of contemporary all-rounders typically fulfilling the role of an aggressive batsmen and a supplementary bowler.
Confusion sometimes arises when a specialist bowler performs well with the bat. For example, the great West Indies pace bowler Malcolm Marshall
sometimes produced a good innings, but not often enough for him to be considered an all-rounder. Instead he would be called a "useful lower order batsman". Equally, a specialist batsmen may be termed a "useful change bowler" and a good example of this type is Allan Border
who once took 11 wickets in a Test
match in 1989 when conditions suited his occasionally used left arm spin.
One of the main constraints to becoming a recognised all-rounder is that batsmen and bowlers "peak" at different ages. Batsmen tend to reach their peak in their late twenties after their technique has matured through experience. Conversely, fast bowlers often peak in their early to mid twenties at the height of their physical prowess. Other bowlers, mostly spinners but also fast bowlers who can "swing" the ball, are most effective in their later careers.
One commonly used statistical rule of thumb is that a player's batting average
(the higher the better) should be greater than his bowling average
(the lower the better). In Test cricket, only three all-rounders have batting averages that are 20 greater than their bowling average over their entire careers: Garfield Sobers
, Jacques Kallis
and Walter Hammond. However, some other players have achieved such a differential over significant parts of their careers, such as Imran Khan, Steve Waugh, Andrew Symonds and Shane Watson. (Michael Slater
had a batting average of 42.8 and a bowling average of 10.0, but cases such as his are usually excluded by specifying a minimum number of matches, runs or wickets; Slater took only one wicket for a total of ten runs in his entire test career.) Doug Walters almost achieved the 20-run average differential with a batting average of 48.26 and a bowling average of 29.08, however he was generally regarded as an occasional bowler who could break partnerships rather than a genuine all-rounder.
In overall first-class cricket
, there are several players with significantly higher batting averages. Statistically, few can challenge Frank Woolley
who had a batting average of 40.77 and a bowling average of 19.87. Woolley took over 2000 wickets in his career, scored more runs than anyone except Jack Hobbs
and is the only non-wicketkeeper to have taken more than 1000 catches.
Fielding prowess is another important consideration when assessing a player's all-round ability. Besides Woolley, other great fielders who are termed all-rounders include W G Grace, Walter Hammond, Paul Collingwood and Gary Sobers. They were all very athletic fields and safe catchers.
Essentially, an all-rounder is better at bowling than batting or vice-versa. Very few are equally good at both and hardly any have been outstanding at both. Thus the terms "bowling all-rounder" and "batting all-rounder" have come into use. For example, in Test cricket, Keith Miller
had a good batting average of 36.97 (but a higher first class average of 48.90) and an outstanding bowling average of 22.97, so he would be termed a bowling all-rounder. Conversely, Gary Sobers had an outstanding batting average of 57.78 and a good bowling average of 34.03, so he would be termed a batting all-rounder. The ideal of the genuine all-rounder is Imran Khan
who had averages of 37 (batting) and 23 (bowling), which is very good as a batsman and outstanding as a bowler.
Sobers has been hailed as the "greatest-ever all-rounder" though, as the figures show, even he was much better at one discipline than the other. He was primarily described as a great batsman and a very good bowler. His distinctive capability was that he was able to bowl medium fast seam as well as wrist spin, having originally entered the West Indies team as a finger spinner. 90 out of 100 judges in the Wisden Cricketers of the Century
award chose Sobers in their five selections.
An all-rounder who missed out on Test Cricket due to the apartheid era of the 1970s and 1980s was the South African Clive Rice
. His first-class batting average was 40.95 and his bowling average was 22.49. Another outstanding South African all-rounder was Mike Procter who played only seven tests for the same reason, taking 41 wickets at an average of 15.02. His batting averages were 25.11 in tests and 36.01 in first-class cricket, and he scored 48 first-class centuries in 401 matches including an equal-record six in consecutive innings.
, playing for All-England
versus Surrey at The Oval
on 21, 22 & 23 July 1859, took all ten wickets in the Surrey first innings and followed this by scoring 108 in the England second innings, having been the not out batsman in the first (20*). He took a further four wickets in Surrey’s second innings. All-England won by 392 runs.
On 15 August 1862, E M Grace
carried his bat through the entire MCC
innings, scoring 192 not out of a total of 344. Then, bowling underarm
, he took all 10 wickets in the Kent first innings for 69 runs. However, this is not an official record as it was a 12-a-side game (though one of the Kent batsmen was injured).
The first player to perform the double
of 1000 runs and 100 wickets in an English season was W G Grace in 1873. He scored 2139 runs at 71.30 and took 106 wickets at 12.94. Grace completed eight doubles to 1886 and it was not until 1882 that another player (C T Studd) accomplished the feat.
In the 1906 English cricket season
, George Herbert Hirst
achieved the unique feat of scoring over 2000 runs and taking over 200 wickets. He scored 2385 runs including six centuries at 45.86 with a highest score of 169. He took 208 wickets at 16.50 with a best analysis of 7/18. In the same season, Hirst achieved another unique feat when he scored a century in both innings and took five wickets in both innings of the same match. Playing for Yorkshire
versus Somerset
at Bath, Hirst scored 111 and 117 not out; and took 6/70 and 5/45.
George Giffen
(1886, 1893 and 1896) and Warwick Armstrong
(1905, 1909 and 1921) achieved the double in an English season three times, the most by members of touring teams.
Alan Davidson
was the first player to take ten wickets and score a hundred runs in a Test match. Playing for Australia against West Indies at Brisbane in 1960-61, he took 5/135 and 6/87, and scored 44 and 80 in what became the first Tied Test
. He was playing throughout with a broken finger.
Nineteen players on a total of 26 occasions have taken five wickets in an innings and scored a century in the same Test match. Ian Botham
achieved this feat five times, and Jacques Kallis, Garfield Sobers and Mushtaq Mohammed twice each.
Cricket
Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of 11 players on an oval-shaped field, at the centre of which is a rectangular 22-yard long pitch. One team bats, trying to score as many runs as possible while the other team bowls and fields, trying to dismiss the batsmen and thus limit the...
er who regularly performs well at both batting and bowling. Although all bowlers must bat and quite a few batsmen do bowl occasionally, most players are skilled in only one of the two disciplines and are considered specialists. Some wicket-keeper
Wicket-keeper
The wicket-keeper in the sport of cricket is the player on the fielding side who stands behind the wicket or stumps being guarded by the batsman currently on strike...
s have the skills of a specialist batsman and have been referred to as all-rounders, but the term wicketkeeper-batsman is more commonly applied to them. Among the greatest all-rounders have been Imran Khan
Imran Khan
Imran Khan Niazi is a Pakistani politician and former Pakistani cricketer, playing international cricket for two decades in the late twentieth century. After retiring, he entered politics...
, George Hirst, Wilfred Rhodes
Wilfred Rhodes
Wilfred Rhodes was an English professional cricketer who played 58 Test matches for England between 1899 and 1930. In Tests, Rhodes took 127 wickets in and scored 2,325 runs, becoming the first Englishman to complete the double of 1,000 runs and 100 wickets in Test matches...
, Chris Cairns, Shaun Pollock
Shaun Pollock
Shaun Maclean Pollock is a retired South African cricketer who is considered a bowling all-rounder. From 2000 to 2003 he was the captain of the South African cricket team, and also played for Africa XI, World XI, Dolphins and Warwickshire. He was also chosen as the Wisden Cricketer of the Year in...
, Keith Miller
Keith Miller
Keith Ross Miller MBE was an Australian Test cricketer and a Royal Australian Air Force pilot during World War II. Miller is widely regarded as Australia's greatest ever all-rounder. Because of his ability, irreverent manner and good looks he was a crowd favourite...
, Garfield Sobers
Garfield Sobers
Sir Garfield St Aubrun Sobers AO, OCC is a former cricketer who captained West Indies. His first name of Garfield is variously abbreviated as Gary or Garry. He is widely regarded as one of cricket's greatest ever all-rounders, having excelled at all the essential skills of batting, bowling and...
, Ian Botham
Ian Botham
Sir Ian Terence Botham OBE is a former England Test cricketer and Test team captain, and current cricket commentator. He was a genuine all-rounder with 14 centuries and 383 wickets in Test cricket, and remains well-known by his nickname "Beefy"...
, Jacques Kallis
Jacques Kallis
Jacques Henry Kallis is a South African cricketer. As an all-rounder he is a formidable right-handed batsman and fast-medium swingbowler. He is one of the greatest all-rounders of all time, being the only cricketer in the history of the game to hold more than 12,000 runs and 250 wickets in both...
, Kapil Dev
Kapil Dev
Kapil Dev Ramlal Nikhanj , better known as Kapil Dev, is a former Indian cricketer. He captained the Indian cricket team which won the 1983 Cricket World Cup...
, Richard Hadlee
Richard Hadlee
Sir Richard John Hadlee, MBE is a former New Zealand cricketer who played provincial cricket for Canterbury, Nottinghamshire and Tasmania. He is the son of Walter Hadlee, and the brother of Dayle and Barry Hadlee. His former wife Karen also played international cricket for New Zealand.Hadlee was...
, W. G. Grace
W. G. Grace
William Gilbert Grace, MRCS, LRCP was an English amateur cricketer who is widely acknowledged as one of the greatest players of all time, having a special significance in terms of his importance to the development of the sport...
, Mushtaq Mohammad
Mushtaq Mohammad
Mushtaq Mohammad is a former Pakistani cricketer who played in 57 Tests and 10 ODIs from 1959 to 1979. A right-handed batsman and a leg-spinner, he is one of the most successful Pakistani all-rounders and went on to captain his country in nineteen Test matches...
, Lance Klusener
Lance Klusener
Lance Klusener is a South African cricketer, more specifically an all-rounder. He is known for his aggressive batting and his fast-medium swing bowling. He is nicknamed "Zulu" because of his fluency in that language. Following his exploits at the 1999 World Cup, he topped the ICC ODI Batting...
, and Walter Hammond. With the advent of T20 cricket, the role of all rounder has changed prodigiously, with the vast majority of contemporary all-rounders typically fulfilling the role of an aggressive batsmen and a supplementary bowler.
Concept
There is no precise qualification for a player to be considered an all-rounder and use of the term tends to be subjective. The generally accepted criterion is that a "genuine all-rounder" is someone whose batting or bowling skills, considered alone, would be good enough to win them a place in the team for which they play. Another definition of a "genuine all-rounder" is a player who can through both batting and bowling (though not necessarily both in the same match), consistently "win matches for the team" (i.e., propel his/her team to victory by an outstanding individual performance). By either definition, a genuine all-rounder is quite rare and extremely valuable to a team as he effectively operates as two players.Confusion sometimes arises when a specialist bowler performs well with the bat. For example, the great West Indies pace bowler Malcolm Marshall
Malcolm Marshall
By 1984 Marshall was seen as one of the finest bowlers in the world, and he demoralised England that summer, especially at Headingley, where he ran through the order in the second innings to finish with 7-53, despite having broken his thumb whilst fielding in the first innings...
sometimes produced a good innings, but not often enough for him to be considered an all-rounder. Instead he would be called a "useful lower order batsman". Equally, a specialist batsmen may be termed a "useful change bowler" and a good example of this type is Allan Border
Allan Border
Allan Robert Border AO is a former Australian cricketer. A batsman, Border was for many years the captain of the Australian team. His playing nickname was "A.B.". He played 156 Test matches in his career, a record until it was passed by fellow Australian Steve Waugh...
who once took 11 wickets in a Test
Test cricket
Test cricket is the longest form of the sport of cricket. Test matches are played between national representative teams with "Test status", as determined by the International Cricket Council , with four innings played between two teams of 11 players over a period of up to a maximum five days...
match in 1989 when conditions suited his occasionally used left arm spin.
One of the main constraints to becoming a recognised all-rounder is that batsmen and bowlers "peak" at different ages. Batsmen tend to reach their peak in their late twenties after their technique has matured through experience. Conversely, fast bowlers often peak in their early to mid twenties at the height of their physical prowess. Other bowlers, mostly spinners but also fast bowlers who can "swing" the ball, are most effective in their later careers.
One commonly used statistical rule of thumb is that a player's batting average
Batting average
Batting average is a statistic in both cricket and baseball that measures the performance of cricket batsmen and baseball hitters. The two statistics are related in that baseball averages are directly descended from the concept of cricket averages.- Cricket :...
(the higher the better) should be greater than his bowling average
Bowling average
Bowling average is a statistic measuring the performance of bowlers in the sport of cricket.A bowler's bowling average is defined as the total number of runs conceded by the bowlers divided by the number of wickets taken by the bowler, so the lower the average the better. It is similar to earned...
(the lower the better). In Test cricket, only three all-rounders have batting averages that are 20 greater than their bowling average over their entire careers: Garfield Sobers
Garfield Sobers
Sir Garfield St Aubrun Sobers AO, OCC is a former cricketer who captained West Indies. His first name of Garfield is variously abbreviated as Gary or Garry. He is widely regarded as one of cricket's greatest ever all-rounders, having excelled at all the essential skills of batting, bowling and...
, Jacques Kallis
Jacques Kallis
Jacques Henry Kallis is a South African cricketer. As an all-rounder he is a formidable right-handed batsman and fast-medium swingbowler. He is one of the greatest all-rounders of all time, being the only cricketer in the history of the game to hold more than 12,000 runs and 250 wickets in both...
and Walter Hammond. However, some other players have achieved such a differential over significant parts of their careers, such as Imran Khan, Steve Waugh, Andrew Symonds and Shane Watson. (Michael Slater
Michael Slater
Michael Jonathon Slater is a former Australian cricketer who played in 74 Tests and 42 ODIs for the Australian cricket team from 1993 to 2001...
had a batting average of 42.8 and a bowling average of 10.0, but cases such as his are usually excluded by specifying a minimum number of matches, runs or wickets; Slater took only one wicket for a total of ten runs in his entire test career.) Doug Walters almost achieved the 20-run average differential with a batting average of 48.26 and a bowling average of 29.08, however he was generally regarded as an occasional bowler who could break partnerships rather than a genuine all-rounder.
In overall first-class cricket
First-class cricket
First-class cricket is a class of cricket that consists of matches of three or more days' scheduled duration, that are between two sides of eleven players and are officially adjudged first-class by virtue of the standard of the competing teams...
, there are several players with significantly higher batting averages. Statistically, few can challenge Frank Woolley
Frank Woolley
Frank Edward Woolley was an English cricketer, one of the finest all-rounders the game has seen. In a career lasting more than thirty years, he scored more first-class runs than anyone but Sir Jack Hobbs, and took over 2,000 wickets at an average of under 20...
who had a batting average of 40.77 and a bowling average of 19.87. Woolley took over 2000 wickets in his career, scored more runs than anyone except Jack Hobbs
Jack Hobbs
Sir John Berry "Jack" Hobbs was an English professional cricketer who played for Surrey from 1905 to 1934 and for England in 61 Test matches from 1908 to 1930....
and is the only non-wicketkeeper to have taken more than 1000 catches.
Fielding prowess is another important consideration when assessing a player's all-round ability. Besides Woolley, other great fielders who are termed all-rounders include W G Grace, Walter Hammond, Paul Collingwood and Gary Sobers. They were all very athletic fields and safe catchers.
Essentially, an all-rounder is better at bowling than batting or vice-versa. Very few are equally good at both and hardly any have been outstanding at both. Thus the terms "bowling all-rounder" and "batting all-rounder" have come into use. For example, in Test cricket, Keith Miller
Keith Miller
Keith Ross Miller MBE was an Australian Test cricketer and a Royal Australian Air Force pilot during World War II. Miller is widely regarded as Australia's greatest ever all-rounder. Because of his ability, irreverent manner and good looks he was a crowd favourite...
had a good batting average of 36.97 (but a higher first class average of 48.90) and an outstanding bowling average of 22.97, so he would be termed a bowling all-rounder. Conversely, Gary Sobers had an outstanding batting average of 57.78 and a good bowling average of 34.03, so he would be termed a batting all-rounder. The ideal of the genuine all-rounder is Imran Khan
Imran Khan
Imran Khan Niazi is a Pakistani politician and former Pakistani cricketer, playing international cricket for two decades in the late twentieth century. After retiring, he entered politics...
who had averages of 37 (batting) and 23 (bowling), which is very good as a batsman and outstanding as a bowler.
Sobers has been hailed as the "greatest-ever all-rounder" though, as the figures show, even he was much better at one discipline than the other. He was primarily described as a great batsman and a very good bowler. His distinctive capability was that he was able to bowl medium fast seam as well as wrist spin, having originally entered the West Indies team as a finger spinner. 90 out of 100 judges in the Wisden Cricketers of the Century
Wisden Cricketers of the Century
The Wisden Cricketers of the Century are five cricketers who were judged to be the most prominent players of the 20th century, as selected by a 100-member panel of cricket experts appointed by Wisden Cricketers' Almanack in 2000...
award chose Sobers in their five selections.
An all-rounder who missed out on Test Cricket due to the apartheid era of the 1970s and 1980s was the South African Clive Rice
Clive Rice
Clive Edward Butler Rice is a former South African international cricketer. An all-rounder, Rice ended his first class cricket career with a batting average of 40.95 and a bowling average of 22.49....
. His first-class batting average was 40.95 and his bowling average was 22.49. Another outstanding South African all-rounder was Mike Procter who played only seven tests for the same reason, taking 41 wickets at an average of 15.02. His batting averages were 25.11 in tests and 36.01 in first-class cricket, and he scored 48 first-class centuries in 401 matches including an equal-record six in consecutive innings.
Notable all-round feats
V E Walker of MiddlesexMiddlesex county cricket teams
Middlesex county cricket teams have been traced back to the 18th century but the county's involvement in cricket goes back much further than that. Given that the first definite mention of cricket anywhere in the world is dated c.1550 in Guildford, it is almost certain that the game had reached...
, playing for All-England
All-England Eleven
In cricket, the term All-England has been used for various non-international teams that have been formed for short-term purposes since the 1739 English cricket season and it indicates that the "Rest of England" is playing against, say, MCC or an individual county team...
versus Surrey at The Oval
The Oval
The Kia Oval, still commonly referred to by its original name of The Oval, is an international cricket ground in Kennington, in the London Borough of Lambeth. In the past it was also sometimes called the Kennington Oval...
on 21, 22 & 23 July 1859, took all ten wickets in the Surrey first innings and followed this by scoring 108 in the England second innings, having been the not out batsman in the first (20*). He took a further four wickets in Surrey’s second innings. All-England won by 392 runs.
On 15 August 1862, E M Grace
E M Grace
Edward Mills Grace was a member of the famous cricketing Grace family and the elder brother of W G Grace and Fred Grace...
carried his bat through the entire MCC
Marylebone Cricket Club
Marylebone Cricket Club is a cricket club in London founded in 1787. Its influence and longevity now witness it as a private members' club dedicated to the development of cricket. It owns, and is based at, Lord's Cricket Ground in St John's Wood, London NW8. MCC was formerly the governing body of...
innings, scoring 192 not out of a total of 344. Then, bowling underarm
Underarm bowling
In cricket, underarm bowling is as old as the sport itself. Until the introduction of the roundarm style in the first half of the 19th century, bowling was performed in the same way as in bowls, the ball being delivered with the hand below the waist...
, he took all 10 wickets in the Kent first innings for 69 runs. However, this is not an official record as it was a 12-a-side game (though one of the Kent batsmen was injured).
The first player to perform the double
Double (cricket)
A cricketer is said to achieve the double if he scores a thousand or more runs and also takes a hundred or more wickets in first-class matches during the course of a single season. The feat is extremely rare outside England because of the smaller number of first-class matches played in most other...
of 1000 runs and 100 wickets in an English season was W G Grace in 1873. He scored 2139 runs at 71.30 and took 106 wickets at 12.94. Grace completed eight doubles to 1886 and it was not until 1882 that another player (C T Studd) accomplished the feat.
In the 1906 English cricket season
1906 English cricket season
The 1906 English cricket season saw the Championship decided on the very last day with Kent just pipping Yorkshire for the title. George Hirst achieved the unique feat of a "double Double", i.e...
, George Herbert Hirst
George Herbert Hirst
George Herbert Hirst was a professional English cricketer who played first-class cricket for Yorkshire County Cricket Club between 1891 and 1921, with a further appearance in 1929. He played in 24 Test matches for England between 1897 and 1909, touring Australia twice...
achieved the unique feat of scoring over 2000 runs and taking over 200 wickets. He scored 2385 runs including six centuries at 45.86 with a highest score of 169. He took 208 wickets at 16.50 with a best analysis of 7/18. In the same season, Hirst achieved another unique feat when he scored a century in both innings and took five wickets in both innings of the same match. Playing for Yorkshire
Yorkshire County Cricket Club
Yorkshire County Cricket Club represents the historic county of Yorkshire as one of the 18 major county clubs which make up the English and Welsh domestic cricket structure....
versus Somerset
Somerset County Cricket Club
Somerset County Cricket Club is one of the 18 major county clubs which make up the English and Welsh domestic cricket structure, representing the historic county of Somerset...
at Bath, Hirst scored 111 and 117 not out; and took 6/70 and 5/45.
George Giffen
George Giffen
George Giffen was a cricketer who played for South Australia and Australia. An all-rounder who batted in the middle order and often opened the bowling with medium-paced off-spin, Giffen captained Australia during the 1894–95 Ashes series and was the first Australian to score 10,000 runs and...
(1886, 1893 and 1896) and Warwick Armstrong
Warwick Armstrong
Warwick Windridge Armstrong was an Australian cricketer who played 50 Test matches between 1902 and 1921. An all-rounder, he captained Australia in ten Test matches between 1920 and 1921 and was undefeated, winning eight Tests and drawing two...
(1905, 1909 and 1921) achieved the double in an English season three times, the most by members of touring teams.
Alan Davidson
Alan Davidson (cricketer)
Alan Keith Davidson, AM, MBE is a former Australian cricketer of the 1950s and 1960s. He was an all rounder: a hard-hitting lower-order left-handed batsman, and an outstanding left-arm fast-medium opening bowler...
was the first player to take ten wickets and score a hundred runs in a Test match. Playing for Australia against West Indies at Brisbane in 1960-61, he took 5/135 and 6/87, and scored 44 and 80 in what became the first Tied Test
Tied Test
Tied Test refers to a rare result in Test cricket. Only two ties have occurred in the 2,000 Tests played since 1877. The first was in 1960 and the second in 1986...
. He was playing throughout with a broken finger.
Nineteen players on a total of 26 occasions have taken five wickets in an innings and scored a century in the same Test match. Ian Botham
Ian Botham
Sir Ian Terence Botham OBE is a former England Test cricketer and Test team captain, and current cricket commentator. He was a genuine all-rounder with 14 centuries and 383 wickets in Test cricket, and remains well-known by his nickname "Beefy"...
achieved this feat five times, and Jacques Kallis, Garfield Sobers and Mushtaq Mohammed twice each.
See also
- Batsman
- Bowler (cricket)
- Double (cricket)Double (cricket)A cricketer is said to achieve the double if he scores a thousand or more runs and also takes a hundred or more wickets in first-class matches during the course of a single season. The feat is extremely rare outside England because of the smaller number of first-class matches played in most other...
- FielderFielding (cricket)Fielding in the sport of cricket is the action of fielders in collecting the ball after it is struck by the batsman, in such a way as to either limit the number of runs that the batsman scores or get the batsman out by catching the ball in flight or running the batsman out.Cricket fielding position...
- Wicket-keeperWicket-keeperThe wicket-keeper in the sport of cricket is the player on the fielding side who stands behind the wicket or stumps being guarded by the batsman currently on strike...
- Cricket terminology