³ÉÈËÂÛ̳

Armed with that information, and breaking my own golden rule, here goes with my personal top 10:

1

OK, I'm not old enough to have seen Bradman play, but a Test average of 99.94 speaks for itself. People who played against The Don are unshakeable in their belief that he is the finest batsman to strap on a pair of pads, but I wonder what he'd have made of Marshall/Holding/Garner/Croft, Warne or Murali - shame we'll never know.

2 Viv Richards

Yes, Lara has scored more Test runs, but I have never seen a batsman dominate a bowling attack like Sir Viv. He walked to the crease with a lordly demeanour and when in the mood could almost make bowlers get down on their knees and beg for mercy. I'll never forget the summer of 1976 when he rammed Tony Greig's promise to make West Indies 'grovel' back down his throat - but that was only the start of things to come.

3

Ponting has his detractors, who accuse him of arrogance, and when not at his best some technical flaws are evident, such as a tendency to fall away to the off-side when playing the ball to leg. But in the last few years, he has shown himself to be a master against any attack and in any conditions. Unlike Lara and Tendulkar and others, taking on the captaincy has merely inspired him to new heights with the bat.

4

Announcing his retirement, Lara said he wanted to be remembered as a player who "provided entertainment for the fans" - well, he needn't have any worries on that score. Apart from the batting records he broke along the way, perhaps his greatest achievement was maintaining such a high standard at a time when his team was in decline.

5

The demands of Test cricket are such that many highly talented players fall by the wayside. The fact that Tendulkar was thrown in at the deep end at the age of 16 and did not sink marks him out as truly exceptional. Ask Indian cricket fans who the greatest batsman of all time is and you can expect to hear millions speak with one voice.

6

My dad told me that Sir Len was a great batsman and who am I to argue? Younger cricket fans may be aware of his name, but are they also aware that many of his finest innings were played after he injured his left arm so badly in the gym that surgery left it two inches shorter than his right. Captaining England to victory in the 1954-55 Ashes series was perhaps his crowning achievement.

7 Gary Sobers

Sobers scored more than 8,000 Test runs at an average of 57 - but just imagine how much better that record might have been if he'd played as a specialist batsman and hadn't also been a key member of the bowling attack. A mixture of power and elegance, he was only 20 when he made 365 in a Test against Pakistan and later became the first man to hit six sixes in an over in the professional game.

8

If I had to choose a player to bat for my life it would be a toss-up between Border or fellow Aussie Steve Waugh. The gritty left-hander emerged onto the Test scene while Australia's stars of the time were playing for Kerry Packer and later, as captain, he established the ruthless aproach which eventually led to them becoming the game's dominant force.

9

Size in cricket terms clearly isn't important as the diminutive Gavaskar proved himself to be one of the heaviest scoring batsmen of his era. Renowned for his bravery in facing the West Indies pacemen in the Caribbean, he hit 34 Test centuries in all - the one I remember most is a superlative 221 against England at The Oval in 1979.

10

I could have picked any number of marvellous batsmen to complete the list - Jack Hobbs, Walter Hammond, Javed Miandad, Waugh, Geoff Boycott etc etc. But instead, I've chosen a player who only made four Test appearances because of South Africa's sporting exile during the apartheid era. In those four games against Australia, however, Richards scored 508 runs at an average of 72. If you never saw him bat, then you missed a treat.