Top 10 Spin Bowlers In ODI World Cups

WORLD CUP Rating

This rating only includes stats of Spin bowlers in World Cup cricket. The rating is divided into sections to make it easy to understand how it is calculated. Before each section, its criteria is highlighted in bold. Our ratings are dynamic, and as new matches are played, the rating of earlier bowlers may change if current bowlers set new benchmarks.

Top Teams (TT)

Top Teams play an integral part in our ODI Rating. The Average (Con) and Economy (Eco) sections are divided into overall stats as well as stats against the top teams. Moreover, the best (BBW) and most economic (BBE) performances only include performances against the top teams. Here is how the Top Teams are calculated:-

• Win/Loss Ratio is used to determine top teams.
• The top teams are calculated by decades.
• To be a top team, the team should be among the top teams of the decade overall.
• A team is also included in top teams if it is a World Cup winner in that decade.
• A bowler’s performace is counted in TT if he played against that team in that decade.
• Knock Out and Super Six matches of ICC World Cup and Champions Trophy are also included in TT.
• The Top Teams may be found in the last section of the rating.

The Trend Setter

The Trend Setter (TS) is the player which does the best in a criteria. The rating of all other players are calculated as percentage points of TS. Let’s taken an example to understand it:-

• Let’s assume that Glenn McGrath has taken 500 wkts, which is the highest. This makes him the TS.
• Another player, say Jason Gillespie, has taken 250 wkts.
• If the rating is out of 250, McGrath will get the full points (pts), that is 250.
• The points of Gillespie are calculated as His Wkts/McGrath’s Wkts*250. This comes out to be 125.
• Thus the formula is (Wkts Taken/Wkts Taken By TS)*Max Points.
• All ratings are calculated similarly with Wkts being replaced by the Criteria Stat.
• Obviously, for average the formula is reverased as lower average is better for a bowler.
• For Average, a bowler is eligible to be TS only if he has taken a minimum number of wickets.
• For Economy, a bowler is eligible to be TS only if he has bowled a minimum number of balls.
• If a bowler doesn’t fulfill the criteria of TS but has done better, he gets the max points but his stat is not taken as benchmark.
• Lastly, it is to be noted that it is not necessary for a TS to be part of the rating as he might have topped in a criteria but not done well in others.

The Eras

The first criteria Prolific gives points for wkts taken. We have divided ODI cricket into 3 broad eras. This has been done to make it fair for players from earlier era, when less cricket was played, and also for current players, who are in the middle of their careers. Let’s take an example:-

• Let’s assume Murlidharan has taken 500 wickets, which is the maximum and gives him 250 points.
• Now, say Ravi Shastri in earlier times took 250 wkts, which was the max for his era.
• If there are no eras, he would get 50% of the pts, that is 125.
• Instead of that, we reduced 50 pts (according to %age) from the max to arrive at the figure of 200 pts for Shastri.
• Now, everyone in his era is compared to Shastri and not Murlidharan.
• So a player who has taken 50 Wkts in Shastri’s era will get (50/250)*200 pts or 40pts.
• Eras are calculated by MP, which is the mean of the years a player: First Played (FP) and Last Played (LP).

C Ave

The Comparative Average (C Ave) for bowlers is calculated by taken into account two factors:-

• First is the average of batsmen in the decades the bowler played.
• Second is the average of the opposition batsmen at Home, in Asia or outside Asia; whichever is applicable.
• The average of the opposing team’s batsmen is also calculated by decades.
• Higher C Ave suggest that more runs were scored by the batsmen in the above mentioned factors.
• Thus it was difficult to get Wkts and the bowler will benefit from this.
• Lower C Ave means the opposite.

R Ave

The Relative Average (R Ave) is calculated using the C Ave. Its formula is (Bowler Ave/C Ave)*A Constant Factor. This constant doesn’t affect the rating as it is the same for everone. If your C Ave is comparatively high, your R Ave will be low; which is better for bowlers. Broadly speaking, the following bowlers will benefit from this system:-

• Bowlers who have played more in unfavourable conditions.
• Asian fast bowlers and Non-Asian spin bowlers whereever applicable.
• Bowlers who have played in an era where the batsmen dominated, like the present era
• Bowlers who have played more against top opposition than weaker teams.

C ER And R ER

The Comparative Economy Rate (C ER) and Relative Economy Rate (R ER) for bowlers is calculated using the same method as in C Ave and R Ave with average replaced with ER. Points to note are:-

• Modern day bowlers benefit from R ER.
• This is because scoring rates have increased with time and it has become more difficult to be economic.
• Rest of the factors are the same as in R Ave

BBW

In this criteria, we have taken the top 5 bowling performances by Wkts of a bowler against top teams. Best Bowling By Wickets (BBW) is simply the total wickets taken in the 5 innings divided by 5.

BBE

In this criteria, we have taken the top 5 bowling performances by Economy of a bowler against top teams. Best Bowling By Economy (BBE) is the Relative Economy of the bowler in the 5 Inns. Only 30+ Balls performaces are counted in this criteria.

WC Rating

The WORLD CUP (WC) Rating is the addition of the points of all the above criteria. The rating is out of 1,000.