Lance Klusener has moved to the top of the all-rounders list in a method devised to rate all-rounders. This method takes into consideration all of the important factors contributing to the success of an all-rounder, viz the batting and bowling averages and the speed at which the runs are scored and given.

The method calculates two types of ratings:

Rating 1 is the 'Consistency Index' (CI). It is calculated by dividing the player's batting average by his bowling average (that is: batting average / bowling average).

Rating 2 is the 'Speed Index' (SI). It is the batting strike rate of the batsman divided by his bowling economy (that is: batting strike rate / runs conceded per 100 balls).

The final rating is arrived at by multiplying the above two ratings. The following table lists the all-rounders listed by the final rating (called as 'Points').

There are many surprises thrown by this list which has a minimum qualification limit of 1000 runs scored and 50 wickets taken, and is updated to the end of 23 May 1999.

 No  Player        Team Mts Runs  Avg    S/R  Wkts Avg   RpO   CI    SI   Points

  1 L Klusener    SA   56  1419 43.00  92.93  80 26.50  4.90  1.62  1.14  1.85
  2 IVA Richards  WI  187  6721 47.00  92.72 118 35.83  4.48  1.31  1.24  1.62
  3 SM Pollock    SA   73  1007 27.97  82.00 106 23.21  3.84  1.21  1.28  1.54
  4 GS Chappell   Aus  74  2331 40.19  74.64  72 29.13  4.05  1.38  1.11  1.53
  5 Imran Khan    Pak 175  3709 33.41  72.17 182 26.62  3.89  1.26  1.11  1.40
  6 RJ Hadlee     NZ  115  1751 21.62  76.27 158 21.56  3.30  1.00  1.38  1.39
  7 Kapil Dev     Ind 225  3783 23.79  95.08 253 27.45  3.72  0.87  1.53  1.33
  8 WJ Cronje     SA  162  4876 39.32  76.45 101 34.38  4.34  1.14  1.05  1.21
  9 ME Waugh      Aus 184  6371 38.38  76.77  81 32.26  4.74  1.19  0.97  1.15
 10 CL Hooper     WI  182  4612 35.48  75.58 163 34.04  4.38  1.04  1.03  1.08
 11 NJ Astle      NZ   84  2776 34.70  71.53  55 33.24  4.42  1.04  0.96  1.01
 12 SP O'Donnell  Aus  87  1242 25.35  81.18 108 28.72  4.28  0.88  1.14  1.00
 13 AR Border     Aus 273  6524 30.63  71.39  73 28.37  4.64  1.08  0.92  0.99
 14 Wasim Akram   Pak 268  2768 16.00  92.16 378 23.32  3.83  0.69  1.44  0.99
 15 IT Botham     Eng 116  2113 23.22  79.84 145 28.54  3.96  0.81  1.21  0.98

Contributed by Atul Kahate (akahate@yahoo.com)