More than 800 men have played in an Ashes Test. England picked most of them in the summer of 1989. But the process of selecting the Guardian\u2019s Ashes Top 100 required something more scientific than that infamous shemozzle.<\/p>\n
Let\u2019s start with the small print. We asked 51 judges to select their top 50 men\u2019s Ashes cricketers, from which we calculated a top 100: 50 points for No 1, 49 for No 2 and so on. The voting rules were simple. Players were assessed solely on their performances in Ashes cricket, though judges could interpret that any way they liked. (Yep, someone did vote for Gary Pratt<\/a>.) The judges had to pick at least 15 players from each country and a minimum of five from each of five different eras: players who made their debut before the first world war; in the interwar years; from the second world war to 1974; from 1975 till 1999; and from 2000 onwards.<\/p>\n When all the votes were counted, and recounted, a blond rogue was smiling knowingly at the top of the pile \u2013 just like he used to at the top of his mark. Shane Warne finished with 2,503 voting points, 121 ahead of Donald Bradman, with Ian Botham \u2013 Australian cricket\u2019s version of the Scottish play \u2013 and Glenn McGrath the other players to pass 2,000. Some gaps were bigger than others: only nine points separated Nos 5 to 7: Dennis Lillee, Steve Waugh and Jack Hobbs. That was smaller than the gap between Nos 85 and 86.<\/p>\n You can see the full breakdown of the votes here<\/a>.<\/p>\n None of our judges picked the final top five as their top five, not even in the wrong order. A couple came close, Edgbaston 2005 closer. One judge had the top five in the correct order \u2013 except Douglas Jardine had made it a top six by forcing his way into the pack at No 3.<\/p>\n Top 10 players in the 100<\/a><\/p>\n Only 14 of our 51 judges picked Warne as their No 1 \u2013 but no one had him outside their top three, so he accumulated voting points like they were the souls of English batters. While 33 judges chose Bradman as their No 1, the relative apathy of some cost him.<\/p>\n No 1 picks in the 100<\/a><\/p>\n Warne and Bradman headline a list that is dominated by Australia \u2013 at least at the top. The overall split is 50:50 (you couldn\u2019t make it up, and if you saw the mountain of voting spreadsheets on our cricket desk, you\u2019d know we haven\u2019t) \u2013 but Australia\u2019s postwar hegemony is reflected where it really counts. They have seven of the top 10 players and 14 of the top 25.<\/p>\n Split of players by country in the 100<\/a><\/p>\n Four of the top nine were in the Australia teams that rampaged all over England in the 1990s, yet overall there was a striking lack of recency bias. The two most recent eras produced the fewest players, with the most coming from those who played their first Ashes Test between 1946 and 1975. The modern era \u2013 the 21st-century Ashes debutants \u2013 provided only four of the top 25: Steve Smith, Stuart Broad, Adam Gilchrist and Andrew Flintoff. While Ashes legends can be born instantly, they also take time to grow. When they do, they last for ever; a poignant reflection of this is that 58 of our 100 are no longer with us.<\/p>\n