Former Sri Lanka captain Kumar Sangakkara, India legend Vinoo Mankad, West Indies veteran Desmond Haynes and Zimbabwe’s star Andy Flower were among the 10 cricket heroes inducted into the Hall of Fame by the International Cricket Council (ICC) on Sunday.
These 10 icons of the fascinating game have all made a noteworthy contribution to the history of Test cricket and played a vital role in popularising the sport worldwide.
The ICC picked these players from the five different eras, adding two cricketers each from these times.
From the early cricket era (pre-1918), ICC inducted South Africa’s Aubrey Faulkner and Australia’s Monty Noble into the Hall of Fame. Faulkner played 25 Tests and scored 1,754 runs. He also took 82 wickets. Similarly, Noble made 1,997 runs and picked up 121 wickets in 42 matches.
When it comes to the inter-war era (1918-1945), Sir Learie Constantine from West Indies and Stan McCabe from Australia were chosen. Constantine appeared in 18 Tests, scoring 635 runs and taking 58 wickets. Likewise, McCabe scored 2,748 runs and bagged 36 wickets in 39 Tests.
In the post-war era (1946-1970), one of England’s greatest Ted Dexter, was included in the list. The other player who was picked from this era was legendary Indian player Vinoo Mankad.
Mankad played 44 Tests and made 2,109 runs at an average of 31.47. He was an opening and a slow left-arm bowler. Mankad also took 162 wickets and was considered as one of India’s greatest-ever all-rounders. On the other hand, Dexter scored 4,502 runs and picked up 66 wickets in 62 matches.
From the ODI era (1971-1995), Desmond Haynes of the West Indies and Bob Willis of England were inducted into the ICC Hall of Fame. Haynes was a prolific opener who scored 7,487 runs at an average of 42.29 in 116 Tests. Similarly, Willis was a legendary English cricketer who took as many as 325 wickets at 25.20 from 90 matches.
The remaining two players who were inducted into the ICC Hall of Fame belongs to the Modern cricket era (1996-2015), in which Zimbabwean Flower was named alongside Sri Lanka great Sangakkara.
Flower played 63 Tests, 213 ODIs, scoring 4794 and 6786 runs. He averaged 51.5 in the red-ball cricket and 35.3 in the 50-over format. The left-handed batter smashed 16 hundreds and 82 half-centuries in international cricket.
In the same way, Sangakkara also dominated the international arena with his stylish shots and supreme consistency. He played 134 Tests, 404 ODIs, and 56 T20Is, amassing 12,400, 14,234 and 1382 runs. Sanga averaged 57.4 in Test cricket, 42 in ODIs and 31.4 in the shortest format. The veteran Sri Lankan had smashed as many as 11 double centuries in the longest format – only second after the great Sir Donald Bradman (12).
