Cricket is one of the oldest games and has been played officially since the 18th century. Cricket is a game which was introduced by the english and the first  official international test match was played between England and Australia  in the year 1877. Today cricket is a major sport in many countries and attracts players, spectators and media interest as well. Since it's invention a long time ago ,cricket has produced a lot of legendary players and in this article we are going to look at the top 5 greatest cricket players of all time.

Sir Donald Bradman (Australia)

Donald George Bradman, arguably the finest cricketer and the greatest batsmen of all time. Bradman represented australia for 20 years and played 52 test matches achieving an incredible batting average of 99.94 which was yet to be conquered. During his school days Bradman was a great tennis player but at the age of 18 Bradman changed his mind and decided to fully focus on cricket. He made his debut against england at adelaide at the age of 19 and in his 20 years of cricket career Bradman created a lot of records and most of the records are yet to be conquered.The only failure Bradman received was during his final test match. With just 4 runs needed in his final test innings to hold a test average of 100.00, Bradman surprised everyone by getting out for a duck and later apologized to his fans for scoring a duck and he amused everyone by saying that he was unaware that scoring 4 runs will increase his batting average to 100. Bradman was so dominant in his batting and the english players unable to bear his batting skills resorted to bodyline bowling  on the australian tour of 1933. Despite those cunning and illegal actions by the england bowlers, Bradman finished the series with a batting average of 53. He was the first australian to have a museum which was dedicated to his life.

Sachin Tendulkar (India)

Sachin started playing cricket  at the age of 16 and become India's youngest test cricketer and  is considered as the second greatest cricketer next to Bradman. He holds the world record for scoring highest runs in both test and ODI matches. He made his test match debut against pakistan at karachi and ever since he made his debut he has never looked back. Tendulkar's dominance in cricket continued in the period between 1992-1997 and he has piled up runs against all teams in the world and almost all bowlers are scared a lot to bowl to sachin. He has played the most lethal bowlers during his playing days which includes the likes of Akram, Walsh and the list goes on. Sachin has almost employed almost all shots in the cricketing manual . Before his death, Don Bradman said that  he was struck by Sachin's  batting technique and he called his wife  to watch his batting. And while you read this article Sachin would be playing cricket somewhere in the world as he is yet to retire from cricket. The little packet size dynamo popularly known as the little master has a lot of fans worldwide and the craziness for him by his fans is beyond comprehension. In india cricket is a religion and they treat sachin as a god and one of his hardcore fans said that "I will see god when I die, but till then I will see sachin".

Sir Vivian Richards (West Indies)

Vivian richards is a great west indies batsmen ,who has introduced the term aggressive batting in cricket. He has been considered as the most devastating batsmen ever to play the game of cricket. Richards made his international debut at the age of 22 in 1974 . He is a nightmare for the opposition bowlers and a great crowd puller. He was voted as the greatest cricketer since 1970 in a poll defeating the likes of Lara, Warne and so on. Richards is held in great public esteem because of his refusal to accept a blank cheque to play in the rebel west indies squad in south africa during the apartheid era. Vivian Richards has played 121 test matches and scored 8540 runs at an astonishing batting average of 50.23. Richards was also an off spin bowler and took 32 wickets in test matches. Richards scored the fastest ever test century in just 56 balls against england. After getting retired from international cricket Richards continued his cricket journey as a commentator and now he was working as a batting coach for his country.

Imran Khan (Pakistan)

Imran khan is a current politician and a former cricketer for pakistan and is the greatest player to emerge from pakistan till date. He made his test debut against england in the year 1971 and has played for almost 20 years for pakistan and is considered as the best player to captain pakistan and has scored 3807 runs and 362 wickets in test matches and holds the record of getting more wickets (78)  in test wins as captain. During his playing days Imran has developed into one of the world's leading all rounders with his great swing bowling complimenting with his aggressive middle order batting. But his best moment as a captain and as a cricketer came towards the end of his cricketing career  when he led pakistan to victory in the 1992 world cup. After retiring from cricket Imran entered into politics and has done a lot of charity work.

Ricky Thomas Ponting (Australia)

Ricky ponting is the leading run scorer for australia in both test and ODI.  He is considered as the best captain the world has ever seen. Ponting , born in tasmania played cricket at an young age and he hails  from a great cricket playing family. Ponting holds the world record for winning two  fifty over world cups as a captain. Ponting reached international standards at a young age for a batsmen and made his test debut at the age of 20 and made his ODI debut in the year 1995.  Like many other  australian batsmen, Pointing is particularly very strong against the fast bowlers and has a full array of shots. He has been consistently ranked as the top 5 batsmen in both test and odi rankings for substantial periods. Apart from cricket, ponting is an avid football follower and is a member of the australian football league during his early days.