ICC Hall of Fame

How close Ron Headley almost came to sporting immortality. The ICC, to mark its centenary, has released a list of 55 great cricketers as the first entrants to the ICC Hall of Fame, which will no doubt soon receive as much international prestige as the National Midget Auto Racing Hall of Fame (not, sadly, for diminutive drivers but for drivers of tiny cars), the Jewish Buffalo Hall of Fame (did you know buffalo had religious faith? Me neither) or, most thrilling of all, the Insurance Hall of Fame.

The ICC list, actually swiped from a Hall of Fame that the Federation of International Cricket Associations ran a decade ago, contains the great and the good from more than a century of cricket. There are 22 Englishmen from Grace to Gooch, 11 Aussies (seems the right proportion to England), 13 West Indians, three Pakistanis and three Indians, two South Africans and Richard Hadlee flying the flag for New Zealand. Further names will be added each autumn at the ICC awards ceremony, with each member of the Hall of Fame (or their relatives if they are deceased) getting a commemorative cap.

You can read the backgrounds of the 55 inductees here and their names are below. No doubt some of the omissions will be surprising (no Warne, yet; no Trumble; no Jardine; no Such) but none was as surprising as one name on the original press release: Ron Headley. The West Indies batsman played only two Tests, both against England in 1973, and made 62 runs in four innings. He didn't bowl. Surely some mistake?

Sure enough the email came through swiftly from Brian Murgatroyd at ICC Towers: "For Ron, read George". George Headley averaged 45 more than his son, from 20 more Tests. Makes sense. But who do you think should or shouldn't be in the list?

The Hall of Fame 55: Sydney Barnes, Bishan Bedi, Alec Bedser, Richie Benaud, Allan Border, Ian Botham, Geoffrey Boycott, Donald Bradman, Greg Chappell, Ian Chappell, Denis Compton, Colin Cowdrey, Kapil Dev, Sunil Gavaskar, Lance Gibbs, Graham Gooch, David Gower, WG Grace, Tom Graveney, Gordon Greenidge, Richard Hadlee, Walter Hammond, Neil Harvey, George Headley, Jack Hobbs, Michael Holding, Leonard Hutton, Rohan Kanhai, Imran Khan, Alan Knott, Jim Laker, Harold Larwood, Dennis Lillee, Ray Lindwall, Clive Lloyd, Hanif Mohammad, Rodney Marsh, Malcolm Marshall, Peter May, Javed Miandad, Keith Miller, Bill O’Reilly, Graeme Pollock, Wilfred Rhodes, Barry Richards, Vivian Richards, Andy Roberts, Garfield Sobers, Brian Statham, Fred Trueman, Derek Underwood, Clyde Walcott, Everton Weekes, Frank Woolley, Frank Worrell

Comments

[Shaun]

Hmmm, I would have to go with Trevor Goddard

[AndieRae]

Oh dear. All the hallmarks of a list selected by committee...

[MP]

Typical ICC execution. Short on objectivity. No mention on who qualifies - Is this for contributions to cricket in general, international cricket, first class cricket, spreading cricket around the world etc. Depending on which criteria one chooses there are numerous cases of oversights or undeserved.

On one criteria, the likes of Barry Richards would not make it. On another likes of Hall, Jardine, Trumper, should have made it. On yet another Ranjitsinhji would be in.

ICC could have built on it further by explaining the future plans as to how they will induct the later day players. How many will be considered each year? How many will they induct each year? When do players become eligible?

Sloppy, eh? Or is it just ICC being ICC?

[aman haque]

Off the top just some notable omissions (prior to 1985)

Alan Davidson, Zaheer Abbas, Glen Turner, Michael Proctor, Abdul Qadir, Clyde Walcott, Bert Sutclife and Joel Garner.

[The Pav]

Personally I think these Hall of Fame things area load of crap.

Who decides what? Where is Trumper?

Even if Trumper were included he'd just laugh at the sheer pomposity of it.

The money could better spent developing the game & helping underpriviliged kids play.

In my opinion it's just an excuse for the fat cats to get together & have an ego stroking nosh fest!!

The Pav