Australia’s 50 greatest ever men’s white ball cricketers: Have your say

David Warner or Ricky Ponting? Mitchell Starc or Dennis Lillee? Glenn Maxwell or Michael Bevan?CODE Sports’ expert panel counts down Australia’s 50 greatest ever men’s limited overs cricketers.

As the Australian men’s team prepares to reclaim the T20 World Cup trophy and add it to the ODI World Cup triumph in India last year, it prompted debate as to whether this was truly the golden era of white-ball cricketers in our country.

From the start of international 50-over cricket in 1971 to the advent of 20-over T20 cricket in 2003, Australia has been a world superpower in both forms of the game collecting six ODI World Cup trophies (1987, 1999, 2003, 2007, 2015, 2023) and one T20 World Cup tournament victory in 2021.

But who has been the greatest player of them all?

To settle the argument News Corp polled four respected cricket writers, each boasting decades of sport experience, and two esteemed sports editors to create Australia’s greatest men’s white ball cricketer top 50 list.

Judges were told to balance their views on performance, on-field success and the impact they had on the short form of the game.

As if to prove the point of the debate, only one player received multiple nominations as the No.1 Aussie white ball player of all time – and he didn’t finish as the overall top dog in the final voting.

As always comparing players across generations is an exercise fraught with danger and it is perhaps telling that there are only five bowlers in the final top 20.

SCROLL DOWN FOR THE FULL LIST AND HAVE YOUR SAY

Who do you think is Australia’s best white ball cricketer?

BEN HORNE’S TOP 10

David Warner was my No.1 pick in our list of Australia’s greatest 50 white-ball cricketers and, in my opinion, a worthy overall winner.

It is very difficult to topple the stars of the golden generation given their era of unparralled success, but Warner’s record across both 50-over and Twenty20 cricket is extraordinary and he is without doubt the best tri-format player Australia has produced.

It is never easy comparing eras, but Warner’s list of accomplishments rival anyone’s.

Warner has won three World Cups – 2015, 2021 and 2023 – and was player of the tournament in that 2021 T20 World Cup triumph.

When it comes to delivering on the biggest stage, there are few better; Warner has made six hundreds in World Cups, more than any other Australian and second only to Indian master Rohit Sharma.

David Warner has an extraordinary record in T20 and One Day cricket. Picture: Getty Images

Only Ricky Ponting (30) has more ODI centuries than Warner’s 22 and that’s from half the number of matches, and with a blistering strike rate of 97.

I also included Mitchell Starc as No.2 on my list and Glenn Maxwell as No.6.

I’ll acknowledge that may show some level of bias to the current generation – the one I have covered during my 13 years as a cricket writer – but when you include their proficiency in T20 cricket I believe it’s justifiable.

Starc is the greatest first-over bowler in white ball history and Maxwell is the player any kid who has picked up a cricket bat in the past 10 years wants to be.

Australia's David Warner hits a six during the One-Day International cricket match between Australia and India at the SCG. Picture: Brett Costello

Adam Gilchrist, Glenn McGrath, Ricky Ponting, Michael Bevan, Shane Warne and the Waugh brothers deserve their recognition as the greatest white ball winners Australia has ever produced, but the achievements of the current generation have slowly snuck up to a comparable level following their from-nowhere World Cup win in India last year.

The beauty of this list is it is so subjective.

We had six different judges vote in five different No.1s, with only Ricky Ponting getting selected twice as top dog, and you can mount a compelling argument for all of them.

ROBERT CRADDOCK’S TOP 10

Richie Benaud said it best.

When you are picking “best ever’’ sides always go for the ones who changed the game because less than 0.1 per cent of cricketers do.

That’s why Adam Gilchrist was my top pick. He changed white-ball cricket through his cavalier deeds and it never changed back.

His derring do at the top of the order meant that – even though it’s 16 years since he last played for his country – the Gilchrist vibe is felt in all corners of the globe whenever a white-ball team is chosen.

Adam Gilchrist changed the game: if your wicket-keeper can’t bat, you feel vulnerable.

If your wicketkeeper can’t bat – and score quickly – you feel vulnerable. He set that trend.

Gilchrist had many great white-ball innings for Australia but perhaps the best was his 149 off 104 balls against Sri Lanka in the 2007 World Cup final in Barbados with Sir Garfield Sobers, one of the game’s greatest players, watching from beyond the boundary.

David Warner was an obvious choice at two for me, again because he changed the game and there may never be another one like him.

Then came three bowlers – Glenn McGrath, Mitchell Starc and Shane Warne – who did exceptionally well to shine and dominate in a game made for batsmen.

I had a soft spot for bowlers who left an imprint on white-ball cricket because it is very hard to do.

Brett Lee came in at 10 in my list because he was one of the first bowlers to treat the 50-over game with the seriousness it deserved.

And Brad Hogg, the quirky left-arm spinner, was No.20 after his two fine World Cups in South Africa and the West Indies.

What a moment it must have been for him when the great Muttiah Muralidharan saw him at an airport during one of the World Cups and said “they can’t pick you”. Hogg’s face lit up. It was almost as if his life’s work had its golden moment.

DANIEL CHERNY’S TOP 10

Had this been a list for Test cricket, it would have been a no-brainer.

But Australia does not have a clear standout male white-ball player over the more than five decades since the first one-day international.

Or perhaps that should be, Australia has too many clear standout white-ball players.

There were probably half-a-dozen players with whom I would have felt comfortable putting in the No.1 slot.

Ultimately, I placed a premium on performances in World Cups and in particular in knockout matches.

Shane Warne didn’t play as much international white-ball cricket as some on the list but he almost single-handedly hauled Australia back into World Cup semi-finals in 1996 and 1999, as well as earning player of the match in the 1999 final cakewalk over Pakistan.

Would you have Shane Warne as your number 1 pick?

Perhaps more than anything, Warne made leg-spin a factor in one-day cricket when it hadn’t really been before.

Consider the success of players such as Rashid Khan, Wanindu Hasaranga and Adam Zampa in T20 cricket. Would that have been possible without Warne?

Even for a man who retired from international cricket in 2007, he still has a lasting legacy in the shortest format, having captained an unfancied Rajasthan Royals to the maiden Indian Premier League title in 2008.

Mitchell Starc and David Warner are on my podium and could conceivably knock off No.1 depending on what they do at the T20 World Cup next month.

I snuck Zampa into the top 10 ahead of bigger names given his central role in Australia’s two most recent World Cup victories.

Golden generation players such as Adam Gilchrist, Ricky Ponting and Glenn McGrath all demanded prominent spots.