The Periodic Table of CRICKET

Welcome to The Periodic Table of Cricket. Here you’ll find the essential elements - batsmen and bowlers past and present - that have left a lasting legacy on this great sport.

As with chemical elements, these international personalities have been arranged based on their characteristics in and out of play. Instead of metals and non-metals, here we have patient and determined defensive players, from Jack Hobbs to Hanif Mohammad and Alastair Cook transitioning to fast-paced and attacking players including Shane Warne, Fred Trueman and 'white lightning' Allan Donald with a whole host of others in between.

See how the best international players stack up against each other in this original guide to cricket.

John Stern is a cricket writer and a former editor of The Cricketer. He is editor-at-large of All Out Cricket magazine and also writes for The Sunday Times. This is his fourth book on cricket. He tries to put theory into practice, with limited success, for Wimbledon Corinthians CC in London.