LONDON
Alastair Cook: England; 31 years, 157 days. Runs: 10,042. Tests: 128. Average: 46.49. Tons: 28
After a wobble in the nervous 9,990s, Cook finally reached five figures with a tuck to leg that rolled gently into a boundary advert reading Asset Management.
That is what he has done for 10 years: manage his assets. Most days he has only three strokes — the cut, the pull, the tuck. And he often struggles in the corridor of uncertainty. But he has an immaculate temperament and immense concentration, and he fully deserves to be the first Englishman on this illustrious list:
Sachin Tendulkar: India; 31 years, 326 days. Runs 15,921. Tests 200. Av 53.78. Tons 51.
Until Cook came along, Tendulkar was easily the youngest man to 10,000 Test runs. He started ridiculously young — 16 — and just kept going, quite unruffled by the adoration of an idolatrous country.
Jacques Kallis: South Africa; 33 years, 133 days. Runs 13,289. Tests 166. Av 55.37. Tons 45.
In conversations about the greatest cricketer of all time, one name is always forgotten: Kallis. Burly, ungainly but a formidable competitor, catcher and cover-driver, he was also the best bowler of this bunch by far, quietly amassing 292 Test wickets with his solid outswing. Will posterity be kinder to him than his public?
Ricky Ponting: Australia; 33 years, 163 days. Runs 13,378 Tests 168 Av 51.85 Tons 41
He started out as a bad lad, or larrikin, and ended up as a grand, occasionally grumpy, old man, still wondering how on earth he had lost the Ashes three times. In between he played a thousand pull shots.
Mahela Jayawardene: Sri Lanka; 34 years, 213 days. Runs 11,814. Tests 149. Av 49.84 Tons 34.
Jayawardene’s career was indelibly linked to that of the only Sri Lankan with more international runs, Kumar Sangakkara. They played 550 internationals together and hold the record for the largest Test partnership in history, 624 (374 of them Jayawardene’s), against South Africa a decade ago Jayawardene’s 2,921 Test runs at Sinhalese Sports Club, Colombo, is also the most by an individual player at one venue.
Kumar Sangakkara: Sri Lanka; 35 years, 60 days. Runs: 12,400. Tests 134. Av 57.4 Tons 38.
Still churning out runs for Surrey, Sanga was the fastest man to 8,000, 9,000, 10,000 (joint), 11,000 and 12,000 in Tests. He is also a skilful wicketkeeper and qualified lawyer.
Rahul Dravid: India; 35 years, 75 days. Runs: 13,288 Tests 164. Av 52.31. Tons 36
If it had not been for Tendulkar, Dravid would be regarded as a living god. As it was, he had to be Tendulkar’s warm-up man and when they played in Mumbai the crowd would cheer when he was out, which might have been galling for a more egotistical type.
Brian Lara: West Indies; 37 years, 102 days. Runs 11,953. Tests 131. Av 52.88. Tons 34
Lara was such a natural genius that one might expect him to be higher up this run list. But then he did have the weight of the fading West Indies on his shoulders.
Allan Border: Australia; 37 years, 159 days. Runs: 11,174 Tests 156. Av 50.56. Tons 27.
He was not pretty, but he took doggedness to its logical conclusion by pioneering the epic Test career. He retired in 1994 having played more Tests, more consecutive Tests and more Tests as captain than any other cricketer. Stern and stoic, he achieved it all while rebuilding the Aussies, averaging 50 — a rarer feat then than now — and taking more Test catches than any player before him. He also made it OK for other Aussies not to retire at 30-ish.
Steve Waugh: Australia; 37 years, 214 days. Runs: 10,927 Tests 168. Av 51.06. Tons 32
The best, if not the most aesthetically pleasing, cricketer in his family. It took the elder Waugh twin three and a half years to score his first Test century but he ended up with 32 of them, to go with 92 wickets (from his early days as an all-rounder) and 57 Tests as captain, 41 of which Australia won.
Sunil Gavaskar: India; 37 years, 240 days. Runs: 10,122 Tests 125. Av 51.22. Tons 34
The first player to reach 10k, in March 1987, Gavaskar was a tiny giant, a small, chunky, indomitable man.
Shivnarine Chanderpaul: West Indies; 37 years, 255 days. Runs 11,867. Tests 164. Av 51.37. Tons 30.
The Guyanese had a technique that seemed to make little sense, but how it worked. Shuffling across from a guard somewhere outside leg, he square-drove and pulled beautifully.
— Guardian News & Media Ltd