Where Allan Donald Ranks Among South Africa's Greatest Fast Bowlers

Today marks the 14-year anniversary since Allan Donald became the first-ever South African to take 300 wickets in a Test match.  That might seem like a random statistic, but it offered time for some introspection. Where does Donald rank among South Africa’s greatestever?

Well, we’re glad you asked. While the question is often subjective, we’ve come up with a formula to eke out some data and award points for certain feats.

The formula worked as follows:

• For every 100 Test wickets, 25 points, rounded to the nearest quarter of 100 for an additional 6.25 points
• Every 50 wickets in ODIs, 20 points, rounded to the nearest quarter of 100 for an additional five points
• Five wicket hauls in Tests earn a player 15 points
• Ten wicket hauls are worth 20 points
• Five wicket hauls in ODIs are worth 15 points
• There was also a bonus point factor for maidens bowled.  Five extra points for every 100 maidens (total divided by 100 x 5)

Only the top six wicket-takers in both ODIs and Tests were considered in order to derive a top five. Fortunately, most of South Africa’s top Test bowlers are also South Africa’s top ODI bowlers, so there’s not much difference in terms of crossing over.

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The player at the top of the list won’t be a surprise to anybody. It's obviously Dale Steyn, despite scoring low in the ODI scores and the maidens, Steyn's immense record in Tests, especially when it comes to five and ten wicket hauls, more than makes up for his low scores elsewhere.

Here's a look at the full table:

Name	Test Wickets	ODI Wickets	5 wicket hauls Tests	5 wicket hauls ODIS	10 wkts Tests	Maiden bonus	Total
Dale Steyn	100	60	360	45	100	28.7	693.7
Shaun Pollock	106.25	160	240	75	20	61.1	662.35
Makhaya Ntini	100	105	270	60	80	37.95	652.95
Allan Donald	100	120	300	30	60	33.05	643.05
Jacques Kallis	75	105	75	30	0	42.4	327.4
Morne Morkel	50	45	90	30	0	20.65	235.65

Based on these formulas, Donald is ranked fourth on South Africa's "all-time" great list. But, as this article has already mentioned, greatness is often subjective, and it's worth taking a closer look at some of the key figures.

Steyn's place at the top of the order does not need any explanation or introspection. He simply is the best fast bowler South Africa has ever had. Things become far more interesting when assessing the numbers of Shaun Pollock, Makhaya Ntini and Donald.

Donald only outscored his fellow pacers in one area, most five-wicket hauls in Tests, and that's where "greatest of all time" becomes quite subjective.

Greatness is defined by many different things and with different formats to contend with in cricket, it becomes even more tricky to find a foolproof formula. For the purposes of this exercise, wickets and performances in Test matches are given greater weight than one-day cricket since Test cricket is the ultimate format.

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If performances in one-day cricket are completely eliminated, Steyn's efforts look even more remarkable. Also, considering Steyn is playing in an era where pitches tend to favour batsmen and the fact that he's played fewer Tests than South Africa's leading wicket-takers, Pollock and Ntini, Steyn is simply out of this world.

But, here is where it gets interesting. When one-day games are removed, Donald moves to second in the “greatest-ever” stakes.

Name	Total Wickets Test	5 wicket hauls Tests	10 wkts Tests	Total
Dale Steyn	100	360	100	560
Allan Donald	100	300	60	460
Makhaya Ntini	100	270	80	450
Shaun Pollock	106.25	240	20	366.25
Jacques Kallis	75	75	0	150
Morne Morkel	50	90	0	140

Here, Donald outscored Ntini on just one area, and that was five-wicket hauls—he finished with 20 while Nitni had 18. Ntini finished his career with four 10-wicket hauls, while Donald had three. Based on those stats, the two were much closer than you might have expected at first.

Pollock, however, despite being South Africa's leading wicket-taker in Tests and having bowled more maidens than any of the other bowlers in Tests, falls into the shadows somewhat. 

The answer to the question of where Donald ranks in the "all-time" great stakes, then, is far more complicated to answer. If greatness is defined by ability to cross over between formats, then being around fourth is probably a fair assessment. However, if you consider Tests to be the ultimate and are of the opinion that nothing else matters, Donald is second only to Steyn.