Cricket Allrounders !! I adore them ..........

I always wonder that to cross the line between a loss and a defeat how much of a difference an allrounder can make. If you are a great bowler ( taking example of Courtney Walsh.....) but hardly can hold a bat then when the team needs you to score say even 10 runs , they usually flatter. In such a situation what a difference an allrounder can make.
But in test cricket , one always thinks of a genuine allrounder and not just the bits and pieces players as present in the oneday format. When i think of this, 3 names flash my mind more often than not.
Keith Miller, the australian great was on such. He batted at no.5 in the line up who is thought of a balancer of the innings and used to open the bowling with Lindwall. What a huge contribution towards the team. In the same bearth is Sir Gary Sobers who marvelled at no.6 for most of the carrer, though batted from 1-6 and also opened the bowling and came later to bowl chinamen. But he didn't always opened the bowling and was not tha mainstay of the bowling machine. But he is the no.1 in my list , more because of his fielding , especially in the slips. And the third one i admire the most is our very own Vinoo Mankad. A batsmen who had batted from no.1 to 11 in the tests and was a very shrewd left arm bowler. He was a genius so to say and who so much contributed to the team.
These apart , though the 4 greats of the 80's were great allrounders still they were more of bowler - batsmen and i doubt if they could hold the place on one skill barring Kapil Dev , at times.
These days i would admire only Chris Cairns and Jacques Kallis in the same berth and now Anderw Flintoff has also established his claim as a genuine allrounder.

But , this genre of cricketiers is really extraordinary and hard to find. They are always busy during the match and physically their job is very much taxing. Hence i have a real high regard for them...