10 Best Spinners of All time

We already have a thread for top 10 fast bowlers of all time. In fact, while selecting the top 10 fast bowlers, the problem was whom to leave out. I was thinking about the top 10 spinners of all time. When we consider not just the players whom, we have seen (at least I have seen), we could get a list of great spinners. But when I started thinking about the bowlers, I have seen, it was very difficult to get 10 great spinner. So I have made two lists. One - the list which contains not only spinners I have seen, but those about whom I have read. Here are the lists:

All time top 10 (not in any order):
Jim Laker
Derek Underwood
Erapalli Prasanna
Bishen Bedi
Subhash Gupte
Abdul Quadir
Shane Warne
Ritchie Benaud
Lance Gibbs
Bill O'Reilly

Top 10 I have seen (There are some bowlers who couldn't be termed as great. But we haven't got many great spinners in the last 20 years or so)
Shane Warne
Anil Kumble
Abdul Qadir
Saqlain Mustaq
Iqbal Qasim
Dilip Doshi
Daniel Vettori
Derek Underwood
Stuart McGill
Venkatapathy Raju

Top 10 that I have seen are :
Shane Warne
Muttiah Muralidharan
Anil Kumble
Stuart MacGill
Saqlain Mushtaq
Mushtaq Ahmed
Daniel Vettori
Graeme Swann
Harbhajan Singh

Couldn't find a tenth one!

Top 10 that I have seen are :

Shane Warne
Muttiah Muralidharan
Anil Kumble
Abdul Qadir
Saqlain Mushtaq
Mushtaq Ahmed
Daniel Vettori
Graeme Swann
Harbhajan Singh
Danish Kaneria

Nice list with one exception Milky. From what I have heard, Venkat was not that great a bowler. Prasanna regarded as the best offspinner they have ever played by many top batsman of that era was always the first choice. Venkat sometimes got the chance few times due to his better fielding and batting abilities compared to Prasanna. On the other hand Chandra would be a better choice. But if we are allowed to select only top 10, even Chandra wouldn't make it to the list as Subash Gupte is the best legspinner, India has ever produced. And according to Gary Sobers, the best leg spinner he has ever played/seen Warne inclusive.

But I haven't seen any of these bowlers in action unfortunately. Not sure even Sledge or Clobbs have seen them in action.


Edited by kirankri - 19 May 2010 at 12:57pm

Originally posted by milkman At the start of career he was doing things with the ball that no one else in history was doing and by the end of his career he simplified his style much more and in actuality it worked.

Let me see,1/140-something or was it 150-something on debut?

The top 10 I have seen

I agree with your list Zuhair, top quality tweakers in that bunch. Your order looks about right too, although I rate MacGill , Mushy and Vettori above Tuffers.

Originally posted by milkman I would say after he took that 7-for against the W.I. is where he really started his career.

That's not what the records say!

Originally posted by MalhotraRaj84 Warne,Murali and Kumble are the top three spinners that I have seen.Rest do not even come close to bother my thought processes a bit.

I think there were a few.....

I have seen Saqlain bowl , but yes I have not seen all his 208 wickets in tests.

Still I would go with Warne,Murali and Kumble as the best spinner that I have seen , who stood the test of time and took such bulk of wickets passing 500 mark.

Warne and Saqlain are the only 2 that truly stand out for me to be honest. I won't put Murali down as a spin bowler, my opinion only.
Mushtaq, Qadir, MacGill were brilliant leggies, but didn't add anything to the game.
Kumble was effective rather than great. In fact, most bowlers pre WWII bowled in his mould, except the pitches were uncovered thus giving them more assistance. So of course I do rate Kumble highly, but not in the same light as Warne.
Vettori, Swann and so forth are excellent finger spinners, but still nothing out of the blue.

Saqlain revolutionised off break bowling and that's what Warne also did for spin bowling in general, particularly leg break bowling.

Murali is a javelin thrower.

Mushy and Qadir both had wonderful googlies, particularly Mushy. He also had a handy flipper and was a really decent option for Pakistan. Both he and Saqqi were treated pretty ordinarily. Pakistan began to favour guys like Shahid and Shoaib Malik to do the spin options and then Danish Kaneria and forgot that they had 2 close to great spinners of different styles , who were still young enough at their disposal. Wasted talent. Raj in another thread claims Saqqi is not good enough because he only got 200 wickets. He was dropped, realistically, because of political agenda, not because of ability. Wasim, Waqar, Mushtaq, Saqlain and Razzaq was one of the best attacks I've ever seen. Don't know how often that combination was used though.

Top 10 all time

1. Murali
2. Barnes
3. O'Riely
4. Grimmet
5. Warne
6. Kumble
7. Qadir
8. Chandrashekar
9. Laker
10. Gibbs

(Unlucky ones, Rhodes, MacGill, Bedi, Harbhajan, Gupte)

The ones I have seen
1. Murali
2. Warne
3. Kumble
4. Qadir
5. Saqlain
6. Mushtaq
7. Harbhajan
8. MacGill
9. Warnaweera
10. Shakib

When Warne took a non performance enhancing diuretic he was suspended for 1 year. Why did Murali face no ban for contravening bowling laws? He's a chucker, simple as that. 

Crapbag, watching 1000 frames per second replay shows us that many a bowlers don't extend their elbows at all and that's fine enough for me.  Not saying Murali chucks but this think with everyone extends their elbow is total nonsense to me.  Once saw a replay of Edwards on extra slow mo, his elbow didn't even straighten to any noticeable degree.  Probably those tests picks up what happens on the inside, that's all I can say.