While the "experts" at cricinfo may think otherwise, over 10,000 fans voted for Imran Khan as the top allrounder in cricket history. By and large I am not a fan of these all-time lists, as they don't take into account periodic trends and pressures in the game. Even when Imran was at his prime, there was debate about his status as the best all-rounder due to the presence of players such as Richard Hadlee, Kapil Dev and Ian Botham. It was truly the all-rounders era where even players such as Manzoor Elahi and Simon O'Donnell enjoyed brief flashes in the pan as all-rounders with promise. In today's game, bowlers are bowlers and batsmen are batsmen, and the resistance one sees in Jacques Kallis truly working on his bowling, is similar to the resistance one sees in young bowlers in applying themselves to become true batsmen like Imran Khan or Ravi Shastri. Who knows, maybe with players like Irfan Pathan, Shoaib Malik and Andrew Flintoff, we may see the resurgence of true all-rounders.
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