You can never take what you love too seriously

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.