The International Cricket Council(ICC) inducted ten new cricketers into the ICC Hall of Fame for the year 2021. Legendary Indian cricketer Vinoo Mankad has made it to the ten ICC Hall of Fame inductees for 2021. He was the first Indian to score 1000 test runs and take 100 test wickets. The ten icons inducted as part of this special edition have been voted for by the ICC Hall of Fame Voting Academy, comprising of living Hall of Fame members, a FICA representative, prominent cricket journalists and senior ICC figures.The special intake saw two players from each of the five different era i.e. Early Cricket Era (pre-1918), Inter-War Cricket Era (1918 – 1945), Post-War Cricket Era (1946 – 1970), ODI Era (1971 – 1995) and Modern Cricket Era (1996 – 2016), joining the ranks among the greatest of all time. Here are the 10 cricketing stalwarts who made it to the ICC Hall of Fame this year:-
1. Vinoo Mankad (India): The Indian cricketer played 44 Tests and scored 2,109 runs and took 162 wickets. He was an opening batsman and slow left arm orthodox bowler. He is known as one of India’s greatest all-rounders and finest left-arm spinner ever. He is one of the only three players in the history of test cricket to have batted in all 11 positions. His most memorable innings was when he scored 72 and 184 runs and bowled almost 97 overs in the match against England at Lord's in 1952.
2. Ted Dexter (England): This former english player played 62 Tests, scored 4,502 runs and took 66 wickets. He was known as Lord Ted because of the way he imposed himself on the crease. His most memorable innings was when he scored 70 off 75 balls against the West Indies at the Lord's in 1963 when he almost dismantled the formidable West Indian bowling unit.
3. Desmond Haynes (West Indies): The West Indies cricketer played 116 Tests and scored 7,487 runs. He is one of the very few cricketers to have scored a century on an ODI debut. His highest Test innings was 184 runs against England in 1980. The magnificent player formed one-half of the most prolific opening batting partnership in Test history alongside Gordon Greenidge.
4. Learie Constantine (West Indies): The West Indies Legend, Sir Learie Constantine, played 18 Tests, scored 635 runs and took 58 wickets. He is regarded as one of the first great West Indies all-rounders.
5. Aubrey Faulkner (South Africa): The great South Africa all-rounder, Aubrey Faulkner was the first Hall of Fame inductee this year. He has played 25 tests for the Proteas and scored 1,754 runs and taken 82 wickets. He was known as one of the pioneers of googly. He was the only cricketer to head both the MRF Tyres ICC Batting and Bowling rankings in Test cricket simultaneously.
6. Andy Flower (Zimbabwe): The Zimbabwe cricket legend played 63 Tests and scored 4,794 runs and took 151 catches with nine stumpings. He was a left-handed wicket-keeper batsman. He is the best batsman that Zimbabwe has ever seen. He is also known as the Bradman of Zimbabwe. He was a part of the Zimbabwe group of players, who took their nation's cricket to the next level. He was ranked no.1 batsman in the world at one point. He is the first Zimbabwe player to be inducted in the ICC Hall of Fame.
7. Bob Willis (England): The England cricketer played 90 Tests and took 325 wickets. He is known as one of the best fast bowlers in the world. He spearheaded the English bowling attack during some of their most memorable moments. He had a very unusual runup. He along with Ian Bothom made a lethal combination of fast bowlers. His most memorable innings came in Headingley in 1981 when he took 8 wickets for 43 runs.
8. Stan McCabe (Australia): The Australian cricketer played 39 Tests and scored 2,748 runs and took 36 wickets. He was only 28 when he played the last of his test matches in 1938. He is one of the best players whose career would have been astonishing had it not been interrupted by the Second World War, as per ICC. He played three memorable test innings, which are still talked about 90 years down in glowing terms.
9. Monty Noble (Australia): The Australian legend played 42 Tests and scored 1,997 runs and took 121 wickets. He was known as one of the greatest Australian all-rounders. He was called by Wisden as a batsman of great style and execution almost without any weaknesses. He still holds the record of being the fastest Australian to achieve 1,000 runs and 100 wicket Test double.
10. Kumar Sangakkara (Sri Lanka): The veteran Sri Lankan wicketkeeper-batsman played a total of 134 tests, 404 ODIs and 56 T20Is and scored 28,016 runs across all formats in a career that spanned 15 years. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest wicket keeper-batsmen in the history of cricket. He has been one of the top 3 batsmen in ICC rankings across all 3 formats of the game at various stages during his international career. At retirement, he was the second-highest run-scorer in ODI cricket, next only to Sachin Tendulkar, and the sixth-highest run-scorer in Test cricket.
