Stats: Highest run-scorers in ODI cricket for each year starting from 1971 to 2015

The first ODI cricket match was played between Australia and England on 5th January 1971. To date, 3712 ODIs have been played and many records have been created and broken in those matches. ODI cricket has been witness to some highly patient yet heroic knocks from batsmen from time and again, which have helped their team secure a hard-fought stalemate throughout the particular year. They may seem like inglorious stands, but the mental qualities displayed during such knocks, not to mention the degree of mastering the defensive technique, put these batsmen into the highest order of great cricketers.

There are many well-known players who have made more than 10,000 runs in ODIs in their careers that most of us have heard of. Many of us know about Sachin Tendulkar’s career runs or Kumar Sangakkara’s total sum; every die-hard cricket fan knows about Ricky Ponting and AB de Villiers’ career runs. But do you know the highest run scorers of each year in ODI cricket starting from 1971 to 2015?  Even if you are a cricket fanatic, some of the record holders will certainly surprise you. While some legends like Sachin Tendulkar, Brian Lara are on this list, there are some you would least suspect of holding the record.

Here we have presented a table which shows Highest run-scorers in ODI cricket for each year starting from 1971 to 2015:

Here is another table which includes team-wise distribution of top ODI run-scorers in respective calendar years: