Here's an update. Me & John (the machine) Machin have been having an ongoing discussion. The two best basic absolute strength moves are deadlift & squat. He prefers the deadlift as a lift, I prefer the squat - purely personal choice really, both are excellent & you should do some form of both.
I was listening to a podcast of Gray Cooke (of FMS fame - well known in corrective exercise circles) & he believes deadlifts are superior (& he's a much cleverer guy than me). He believes athletes should do a 3 or 4:1 ratio in favour of the deadlift (that is 3-4 times as much deadlifting as squatting) for athletes. His reasoning was the deadlift was bio-mechanically safer than the squat & we learn to deadlift as small children, so it is a more natural move.
I found this argument a little odd when applied to athletes, ok it may be bio-mechanically safer for athletes (I'm not going to argue that point with a guy who knows 100 times more about the subject than me), but a squat has been shown to increase both vertical jump & sprint in athletes & I'm pretty sure a deadlift wouldn't get the same results....think about the lifts, a squat is knee/hip powered movement the two things you need to get a big vertical jump & sprint (ok fully taxing the ankle across it full range may be missing, but 2 of the big 3 you need for higher jumps & faster sprints are covered). In the deadlift you've got hip & back, yes there is some knee (just as there some back in the squat), but the knee usage is much less & the back much more. I'll use the adage of American football, a squat will get you to the ball first, get you flying in the right direction & dodging about at speed, the deadlift will get you tossing the opposition aside as they try to stop you.
Depending on the sport though it may well be the case that a focus of squats would be an advantage rather than a deadlift, I personally think Mr Cook is being a little too over protective of his athletes & being good at squatting might just give them a winning edge over someone who Gray Cook coaches in certain sports. I thought I'd just comment though as it's a point in John's favour in the deadlift/squat discussion.
By the way the conclusions of the differences between deadlifts & squats are my own, I'm not claiming infallibility & may be wrong about some of my conclusions, the fact that the squat improves sprinting & vertical jump has been shown, but as far as I know a head to head squat Vs deadlift hasn't been done, nor the differences in results catalogued, these are purely conjecture & I'd be happy to change them in light of new research as it appears.