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Burnup vs Atherton

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GOAT verdictgoatrank.world
AthertonWinner
81.1

Atherton wins: Peak, Longevity

Burnup
81.0

Burnup wins: Honours, Statistics

Candidates
Locked to Cricket

Shareable URL · /compare/cuthbert-burnup-vs-michael-atherton

Time range

Showing full careers. Pick a window to recalculate the selected period.

Category radar

Verdict

Weighted GOAT score
🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 Michael Atherton
81.1

Atherton leads in 3 of 5 weighted categories. England's long-serving captain who scored 7,728 Test runs at the top of the order.

1. Michael Atherton
81.1
2. Cuthbert Burnup
81.0

Category breakdown

Season form · Centuries per year

Career timeline · Centuries per year

Cumulative output season by season — the shape of each career against the other.

GOAT pace tracker

Career stage · GOAT pace

Through year 5 · Centuries per year
1. 🇬🇧 Cuthbert Burnup5 years played · career day 1,825285 runs
Setting the pace at this stage
2. 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 Michael Atherton5 years played · career day 1,825274 runs
-3.9% vs Burnup at the same stage
Ghost race · career day30100365100018253650
🇬🇧 Burnup004596285621
🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 Atherton003580274610

Careers are aligned at debut, so a rookie's first 5 years are measured against the same window in a legend's career — Yamal against Messi at the same age-stage, a tour rookie against Tiger Woods in 1996.

MetricBurnupRetiredAthertonRetired
First-class runs13,614
First-class centuries30
County championships won1
Seasons played13
Highest score200185
Test runs7,728
Tests played115
Test centuries16
Tests as captain54
Dominance w25%7676
Peak w20%8890
Longevity w20%8082
Honours w20%7674
Statistics w15%8886

Fan vote — data vs the people

GOAT Rank · the data
Atherton81.1
Burnup81.0
The people
Burnup
Atherton

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Make your case for Burnup vs Atherton. The scoring is published in full — if you can point at the pillar or the weight you disagree with, we read it. Read the methodology paper.

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