David Leggat: An elite list but who is the finest of them all?

As anyone who has dabbled with numbers knows, statistics can be bent any way you fancy.

Here's one. New Zealand's most successful batsman, of those with a minimum 20 test innings, is John F. Reid, who averaged 46.28. But he wouldn't make most amateur judge's finest alltime New Zealand team.

Dan Vettori deserves the highest praise for becoming just the eighth cricketer to accumulate 3000 runs and 300 wickets in tests.

It is testimony to his skill and perseverance through a period in which for most of the time he has been his national team's premier bowler and, gradually, one of its best batsmen. Not to mention captaining New Zealand for the last couple of years.

If you want to break down Vettori's two components, it is easy to argue that his batting might give him more satisfaction. After all, his primary function is as a bowler and once it was clear he was an uncommonly talented spinner, he was always a chance to tick off milestones provided he stayed healthy and his form remained good.

The batting has matured, and improved, with time and perhaps the responsibility which comes with frequently having to bail your team out of another fine mess.

Witness Hamilton last summer, when he was at the crease before lunch against India, the board showing 60 for six and hit 118; or earlier in the season at Chittagong when without his 55 not out and 76 - at No 4 - plus nine wickets New Zealand would have lost to Bangladesh.

New Zealand, alone among test nations, has two players in the group of eight, including pioneer Sir Richard Hadlee. That should be a source of pleasure. After all, when most cricket numbers are crunched, it's rare for a New Zealander to figure prominently.

Vettori is clearly chuffed, labelling it the "proudest achievement of my career".

But are these eight the finest allrounders the game has seen? Of course not.

Indeed the greatest of them all isn't in this list. Sir Garfield Sobers, with 8032 runs at 57.78 and 235 wickets at 34.03 in 93 tests, stands supreme. He also had the hallmark of true sporting geniuses; he made his game look easy.

Nor did Australian Keith Miller, with 2958 runs at 37.97 and 170 wickets at 22.97 in just 55 tests. He was a schoolboy hero, dashing, cavalier.

He flew fighter planes in World War II. Pressure on the sports field? Bah. "Pressure is having a Messerschmitt up your arse," he famously remarked.

South African Jacques Kallis will likely be next into the club. He has 10,277 runs at 54.66 and is 42 wickets short.

And the best of the eight? If it's swash and buckle you're after, Ian Botham is hard to top. But a personal choice gives Imran Khan this vote.

He has the best batting average, is fractionally second to Hadlee in bowling averages and provided an autocratic, yet nurturing hand in captaining Pakistan, which in his time rated among the game's more demanding leadership propositions.