What's sport without heroes? Or memories and nostalgia? In a world where every moment can be a swipe, and is therefore instantly perishable, sport affords us the luxury, and the comfort, of being able to dip into the warmth of the past and feel the glow.
We at ESPNcricinfo are immersed in the hustle of daily cricket. We live every moment of it. But every once in a while, we also make the time to relive what came before, the springboard that the past provided for the present, the players and performances that inspired generations to come.
Twenty-five years is a brief time in history, but 2000 to 2025 feels like an era in cricket. When you look back at this period, it can seem as though the game has been completely reshaped, particularly by the influence of T20. But what defines greatness is timelessness: when you study the finest players who lit up the game in this time, you realise that even as the boundaries of what is possible keep shifting, cricket's essential craft remains tethered to its traditions. Batters still build their innings through placement and judgement, bowlers still rely on extracting responses from the surface or the air. After all, 360 degrees brings you back to where you started.
These observations held true in our exercise to put together a list of the greatest in the last 25 years, beginning with the greatest in men's international cricket, as picked by a panel of eminent former cricketers and commentators.
We first compiled a longlist of 70-plus cricketers, based on the players' statistics and by assessing the weight of their achievements. This was then narrowed down to 30 names after a rigorous process involving vetting by the site's senior editorial staff. The list of 30 was sent out to the jury, each of whom was asked to pick their top 25, which would yield us the greatest batter, the greatest bowler, and greatest all-round cricketer.
This came on the heels of an equally elaborate exercise to pick the greatest cricketers in the women's game this century.
But while international cricket has held prime place for most of the game's history, this century, T20 has nearly overtaken internationals in how keenly they are contested and how they are driving the game into the future. So we ran a similar exercise involving a 15-member jury to vote for the best men's T20 batter and the best men's T20 bowler.
The jury for greatest men's international cricketers
Ajit Agarkar Former India fast bowler; selector
Wasim Akram Former Pakistan fast bowler and captain
Ian Bishop Former West Indies fast bowler; broadcaster
Mark Boucher Former South Africa wicketkeeper-batter and coach
Carlos Brathwaite Former West Indies allrounder
Greg Chappell Former Australia batter and selector; former India coach
Allan Donald Former South Africa fast bowler; bowling coach
Faf du Plessis Former South Africa batter and captain
Aaron Finch Former Australia batter and captain
Andy Flower Former Zimbabwe batter and captain; former England coach
David Gower Former England batter and captain; broadcaster
Stephen Harmison Former England fast bowler
Matthew Hayden Former Australia batter
Shan Masood Pakistan batter and captain
Tom Moody Former Australia allrounder; coach
Angelo Mathews Sri Lanka allrounder and former captain
Eoin Morgan Former England batter and captain; broadcaster
Irfan Pathan Former India allrounder; broadcaster
Cheteshwar Pujara Former India batter
Ravi Shastri Former India allrounder and coach; broadcaster
Tim Southee Former New Zealand fast bowler and captain
Ross Taylor Former New Zealand batter and captain
Jonathan Trott Former England batter; coach
Daniel Vettori Former New Zealand allrounder and captain
Shane Watson Former Australia allrounder
The jury for best men's T20 batter and bowler
R Ashwin Former India bowler
Ian Bishop Former West Indies fast bowler; broadcaster
Shane Bond Former New Zealand fast bowler; coach
Carlos Brathwaite Former West Indies allrounder
Rahul Dravid Former India batter and captain; coach
Faf du Plessis Former South Africa batter and captain
Aaron Finch Former Australia batter and captain
Stephen Fleming, Former New Zealand captain; coach
Andy Flower Former Zimbabwe batter and captain; coach
Matthew Hayden Former Australia batter
Irfan Pathan Former India allrounder; broadcaster
Tom Moody Former Australia allrounder; coach
Ambati Rayudu Former India batter
Dale Steyn Former South Africa bowler
Daniel Vettori Former New Zealand allrounder and captain
The greatest men's international cricketers
25. R Ashwin
24. Stuart Broad
23. Kevin Pietersen