Who is the best one day cricketer?

It should come as no surprise that New Zealand's two most prominent outliers when it comes to bowling over the years are Sir Richard Hadlee and the future Sir Daniel Vettori.

Click on "Economy" on the interactive graphic and select NZ from the menu. You'll immediately notice that Daniel Vettori's 303 wickets stands tall above everybody else (Kyle Mills is the next closest with 240).

You should also notice that Vettori's economy rate of 4.1 ranks him with his country's very best.

Who are the greats of one-day cricket? You get to decide when you use the Herald’s stunning interactive graphic that maps the achievements of every cricketer to have played at least 20 ODIs. Use the graphic to refine your search by country, name or even birthplace. You can even use it to compare rivalries, such as New Zealand v Australia and India v Pakistan. It should come as no surprise that New Zealand's two most prominent outliers when it comes to bowling over the years are Sir Richard Hadlee and the future Sir Daniel Vettori.

You should also notice that Vettori's economy rate of 4.1 ranks him with his country's very best.

But not the best. Hadlee (3.3) stands alone there and with one-day cricket having become a slugfest, it seems unlikely his pre-eminence in that regard will ever be challenged. Of the four bowlers who better Vettori's economy rate, three are from what we could call the Hadlee Era - Hadlee himself, Ewen Chatfield (3.57) and Lance Cairns (4.06).

Of a later era, only Gavin Larsen (3.76) can muscle his way into the 80s cabal.

At the other end of the scale, the wicket-taking Mitchell McClenaghan has an unsightly economy rate of 5.89, with another left-arm seamer, Shayne O'Connor, some way back at 5.63.

On a world scale, Muttiah Muralitharan and Wasim Akram stand out as the only bowlers with 500+ wickets and an economy rate less than 4 runs per over.

For parsimony, you can't go past West Indian great Joel Garner, who conceded a tight-fisted 3.09rpo over his 98 ODIs.

#####Crowe vs Twose? Closer than you think

Roger Twose was a better one-day batsman than Martin Crowe, according to an analysis of the achievements of every cricketer to have played at least 20 ODIs.

On the eve of New Zealand's World Cup quarter-final match against the West Indies, the Herald has produced a special interactive that allows readers the chance to measure their favourite ODI players against all those who have gone before.

The interactive measures the strike rates and averages of every batsman, and the economy rates and averages of every bowler, and is a detailed illustration of how cricket has changed, particularly since the advent of T20 cricket.

Twose was a fine, innovative one-day batsman, but he was no Martin Crowe, right? Well, wrong actually. Twose's average of 38.81 puts him slightly further along the axis than Crowe's 38.55; his strike rate of 75.4 puts him slightly higher up that axis than Crowe's 72.63.

If there was an axis for style points, Crowe would be at the extreme end, Twose somewhat further back, but if you're looking at cold, hard facts, Twose was a better player.

The interactive is fiendishly simple and loaded with information. On the batting graphic, we have the player's average on the horizontal axis, and strike rate on the vertical. On the bowling chart, the average is horizontal, the amount of balls bowled on the vertical, while there is a separate section for economy rates.

The dots are colour-coded by country, or you can click on the menu bar on the right to isolate a single country. In the search bar, you can isolate players by birthplace.

We have put two qualifiers in place. For batting, you must have played at least 20 ODIs; for bowling you must have delivered at least 1200 balls (200 overs).

If you isolate, for example, New Zealand's batting statistics from the overall group, you should immediately notice two "outliers" on the vertical axis. Hover over the dots and you will see they belong to current Black Caps Luke Ronchi and Corey Anderson. Both are striking at more than 120 runs per 100 balls and have maintained averages in excess of 35.

That places them in esteemed company on a global scale, with only West Indian Andre Russell able to match their strike rates, while still falling well short of their averages.

So are they among the greatest ever? Well no, obviously. With just 70 ODIs between them, the sample size is too small to place them on the shelf with the likes of Sachin Tendulkar, Ricky Ponting and Hashim Amla, but if by some miracle they are still playing some years from now and their stats have not waned, then yes, they will be in the conversation.

But, roughly speaking, if you divide the graphic into four equal quadrants, the winner has to come from the top right category. This where you find your Tendulkars, Virat Kohlis, Pontings and Brian Laras. It is also where you find AB de Villiers and Hashim Amla, perhaps the best top-order duo at this World Cup.

So who is New Zealand's greatest ODI batsman? It's a question worth pondering after some of the remarkable pyrotechnics of the past month.

We've had Brendon McCullum dispatching Mitchell Johnson over his head for six, Kane Williamson winning the same match by being in one moment, the only man among the 40-odd thousand at Eden Park with ice water running through his veins. That very same day, Martin Crowe, the imperious Martin Crowe who bestrode Eden Park like a giant 23 years earlier, received a cap as a symbol of his induction into cricket's Hall of Fame.

If you use the same top-right quadrant as a must for consideration, then you're looking at somebody who averages at least 28 and strikes at more than 70 runs per 100 balls. This, unfortunately, would rule Glenn Turner out. The pioneer of New Zealand one-day batting, Turner was skilled enough to adapt his game from dour test opener to clever, prolific short-form player, but his strike rate of 68 would not come close to cutting it in today's world.

Let the arguments begin...