The 2000s: a top-class decade

As you'd expect at the turn of a decade, we seem to be inundated by reviews and lists. However, for some strange reason, everyone's been exclusively focusing on international cricket. I've just updated my database to the end of 2009, so this is a quick trivia post to fill that yawning gap in the record-books, by looking back at all top-level cricket played in the 2000s. These analyses aggregate all first-class, list-A-status limited-overs games, and recognised Twenty20 matches. I know, I know. What would you do without me, eh?

We start with the batsmen. The man with most competitive runs in the 2000s may be a suprise to some: Murray Goodwin found himself at the crease more often than anyone else in the decade, and accumulated just five shy of 26,000 runs in the process. He amassed a substantial majority of those runs – 18,480 – in Sussex colours, another 5,033 for Western Australia, and the remainder for Zimbabwe and Warriors. (The record for runs in a decade, by the way, is held by Graham Gooch, who racked up 33,269 in the 1980s.)

Mike Hussey is the only other man to exceed 25,000 top-level runs, and another stalwart overseas pro on the English county scene, Michael Di Venuto, is third on the list. He also has most FC runs, and most boundary 4s (who cleared the fence most often? Shahid Afridi, of course, with 418 6s in all forms of cricket). Ponting has most centuries (pipping Ramprakash by one), Sangakkara has most limited-overs runs, and Brad Hodge tops the T20 list.

Table 1: Most runs in all forms of competitive cricket, 2000–2009

        Name                  I   NOs         R     Ave      SR  100   50     4s   6s  FC_Runs  LO_Runs  T20_Runs
    1.  MW Goodwin          669    69    25,995   43.33   64.79   67  121  3,114  153   16,555    8,174     1,266
    2.  MEK Hussey          595    99    25,659   51.73   60.44   52  146  2,867  188   15,221    9,697       741
    3.  MJ Di Venuto        626    44    24,140   41.48   66.82   55  132  3,274   88   16,681    6,508       951
    4.  KC Sangakkara       593    56    23,106   43.03   68.38   45  129  2,532  134   11,078   10,522     1,506
    5.  SM Katich           546    63    23,078   47.78   61.19   50  139  2,689  159   15,539    6,485     1,054
    6.  RT Ponting          498    58    22,963   52.19   73.36   72  118  2,533  252   12,440   10,063       460
    7.  RS Dravid           545    73    22,919   48.56   56.14   45  143  2,525   98   12,530    9,599       790
    8.  BJ Hodge            524    61    22,560   48.73   68.29   66   89  2,754  205   13,612    6,582     2,366
    9.  MR Ramprakash       452    63    22,093   56.79   61.46   71   94  2,482  260   15,379    5,326     1,388
   10.  JL Langer           516    39    22,083   46.30   67.12   63   97  2,664  173   16,310    4,758     1,015
   11.  ME Trescothick      536    33    22,012   43.76   70.45   58  114  3,016  237   12,236    8,735     1,041
   12.  DPMD Jayawardene    580    59    21,402   41.08   65.69   44  106  2,169  164   11,599    8,805       998
   13.  CH Gayle            527    39    21,155   43.35   72.20   50  112  2,449  321   11,246    9,046       863
   14.  ML Hayden           473    40    21,068   48.66   69.75   53  103  2,469  262   12,254    7,745     1,069
   15.  DS Lehmann          422    61    20,998   58.17   77.50   51  110  2,374  153   12,875    7,742       381
   16.  M van Jaarsveld     550    68    20,848   43.25   63.79   52  117  2,467  149   12,682    6,593     1,573
   17.  SP Fleming          551    38    20,038   39.06   66.14   39  116  2,543  221    9,912    8,969     1,157
   18.  OA Shah             552    61    19,921   40.57   64.62   41  115  2,174  260   11,255    7,242     1,424
   19.  JH Kallis           466    79    19,680   50.85   58.19   44  121  2,007  199   10,230    8,381     1,069
   20.  SG Law              501    47    19,644   43.27   67.29   42  108  2,538  109   13,451    4,996     1,197
   21.  S Chanderpaul       482    89    19,269   49.03   54.99   43  113  1,760  126   11,392    7,554       323
   22.  SR Tendulkar        426    42    19,191   49.98   70.28   51   94  2,414  146    9,015    9,426       750
   23.  AJ Strauss          530    26    19,188   38.07   60.68   42   94  2,479   50   12,557    6,112       519
   24.  GC Smith            464    34    19,088   44.39   70.72   39  106  2,303  116    9,402    7,830     1,856
   25.  V Sehwag            504    23    18,668   38.81   93.01   38   85  2,611  296    8,953    8,462     1,253
   26.  JA Rudolph          473    50    18,645   44.08   60.32   41   99  2,346  106   11,411    6,252       982
   27.  KP Pietersen        448    47    18,566   46.30   79.81   50   88  2,094  316   10,960    6,600     1,006
   28.  BF Smith            559    72    18,370   37.72   60.10   30  110  2,179   84   11,797    5,707       866
   29.  VS Solanki          554    34    18,365   35.32   71.39   32  101  2,487  183    9,701    7,554     1,110
   30.  RWT Key             497    41    18,109   39.71   59.87   43   80  2,226  113   12,725    4,271     1,113

qual. = 50 inns; full list available here

The list of bowlers of the 2000s is dominated by one man: Muttiah Muralitharan. Not only has he taken most wickets in all cricket, he has bowled most balls, recorded most maidens, and collected most five-wicket hauls. He also tops the wickets lists for FC and one-day cricket (Tyrone Henderson has most T20 wickets, 84). Danish Kaneria is the only other bowler to exceed 1,000 scalps in all cricket, but he also has the unenviable distinction of having conceded more runs than anyone else in the 2000s.

Those of us who have witnessed his sedulous toil at Taunton over the second half of the decade will be unsurprised to learn that Charl Willoughby bowled more balls in top-level cricket than any other seam bowler of the 2000s. However, it requires no local knowledge to guess the identity of the bowler with most wides against his name: Steve Harmison is the only man for whom the umpires spread their arms more than 500 times last decade. Similarly, the revelation that Brett Lee bowled 366 more no-balls than anyone else is anything but a shock.

Table 2: Most wickets in all forms of competitive cricket, 2000–2009

        Name                  I    Balls      M       R      W    wd     nb     Ave    Econ      SR   5WI  FC_W  LO_W  T20_W
    1.  M Muralitharan      528   54,100  1,864  25,416  1,296   257    230   19.61    2.82   41.74    82   816   421     59
    2.  Danish Kaneria      460   51,093  1,599  26,840  1,069   115    132   25.11    3.15   47.80    62   811   203     55
    3.  Yasir Arafat        510   35,902    867  23,847    995   275    584   23.97    3.99   36.08    41   615   302     78
    4.  SK Warne            457   46,011  1,321  24,958    982   279    156   25.42    3.25   46.85    44   723   224     35
    5.  Z Khan              488   37,767  1,026  24,344    868   469    644   28.05    3.87   43.51    30   524   303     41
    6.  CM Willoughby       497   40,375  1,570  21,757    863   345     64   25.21    3.23   46.78    34   600   193     70
    7.  AJ Bichel           456   36,381  1,124  22,071    848   368    317   26.03    3.64   42.90    28   556   259     33
    8.  M Ntini             484   38,178  1,173  22,901    843   252    225   27.17    3.60   45.29    28   515   308     20
    9.  Harbhajan Singh     468   42,607  1,065  23,500    826   215     36   28.45    3.31   51.58    36   520   265     41
   10.  Mushtaq Ahmed       350   35,893    951  20,431    806   163     34   25.35    3.42   44.53    54   635   129     42
   11.  B Lee               429   32,241    827  21,206    792   448  1,126   26.78    3.95   40.71    25   409   349     34
   12.  WPUJC Vaas          495   36,389  1,145  19,940    760   174    608   26.24    3.29   47.88    18   431   312     17
   13.  SCG MacGill         349   36,620    991  22,723    752   112    139   30.22    3.72   48.70    36   580   166      6
   14.  SJ Harmison         417   36,096  1,115  20,880    746   551    254   27.99    3.47   48.39    25   557   174     15
   15.  Naved-ul-Hasan      384   28,083    664  18,653    741   300    716   25.17    3.99   37.90    25   459   242     40
  =15.  MJ Hoggard          421   36,767  1,237  20,574    741   215    404   27.77    3.36   49.62    23   573   155     13
   17.  GD McGrath          378   30,119  1,350  14,340    740   134    289   19.38    2.86   40.70    25   429   291     20
   18.  RJ Kirtley          434   30,902    977  19,002    732   400    177   25.96    3.69   42.22    26   402   279     51
   19.  RDB Croft           465   45,754  1,356  24,489    729   125     13   33.59    3.21   62.76    23   512   171     46
   20.  CW Henderson        450   43,024  1,539  21,623    725   127     35   29.82    3.02   59.34    21   467   208     50
   21.  J Lewis             387   32,288  1,214  18,009    713   187    355   25.26    3.35   45.28    27   486   186     41
   22.  AJ Hall             484   30,344    920  17,938    710   351    270   25.26    3.55   42.74    16   379   260     71
   23.  SM Pollock          477   34,497  1,373  16,957    700   172    636   24.22    2.95   49.28     9   320   335     45
   24.  K Ali               399   26,871    709  18,285    689   211    449   26.54    4.08   39.00    23   429   227     33
   25.  A Kumble            340   37,093  1,130  19,836    676    96    328   29.34    3.21   54.87    28   484   155     37
   26.  AR Caddick          345   32,963  1,047  19,637    675   166    634   29.09    3.57   48.83    36   521   139     15
   27.  S Weerakoon         302   28,418  1,087  13,557    673    27      6   20.14    2.86   42.23    37   529   126     18
   28.  JN Gillespie        437   35,974  1,305  18,829    672   273    254   28.02    3.14   53.53    19   445   208     19
   29.  IJ Harvey           425   26,055    806  15,676    669   239    133   23.43    3.61   38.95    17   281   336     52
   30.  HMRKB Herath        344   32,941  1,133  15,833    660    46     71   23.99    2.88   49.91    30   515   121     24
 
qual. = 50 inns bowled; full list available here

Five men amassed 10,000 runs and took 500 wickets in all cricket: Andrew Flintoff, Ian Harvey, Andrew Hall, Afridi, and Robert Croft.

The decade's leading wicket-keepers were Adam Gilchrist (c 819, st 91), Mark Boucher (c 844, st 55) and Chris Read (c 754, st 86). The 2,443 byes let through by Matthew Prior were 300 more than any other keeper conceded. Amongst those without gloves, Martin van Jaarsveld's 439 catches were over 50 more than anyone else managed.

I'm going to try to post an analysis of the decade's English County Championship cricket over the next few days – not least because, while assembling this post, it's dawned on me that we've now had a decade's worth of two-divisional domestic cricket in this country.