1. G Smith - he IS the Iron Man, looked permanently angry for the first 5 years of his career
2 R Dravid - just fills me with pride every time I see him bat, especially as he's a Karnataka man (and he lived next to my cousin, top bloke, was a hilarious show off as a young guy, he did love the ladies). Ok he's out of position but sod it.
3. S Tendulkar - perfect, just perfect.
4. Lara - the Prince of Trinidad had more style than Audrey Hepburn, still remember the first time I saw him play the pull shot of one foot, image burned into my mind, spent a whole summer practising it, still in the muscle memory.
5. Ganguly (Cpt) - Loved the way he batted (I tried to model my batting on his, ended up more Chris Gayle), especially versus spin. Stuck it to Steve Waugh like no one else.
6. AB De Villiers - Another nice guy who finished first, gives everything he has to the team and the best fielder I've ever seen, better even than Jonty.
7. (Wk) Alec Stewart (or to my friends and I Camp Ally Stewart because he camped behind the stumps...don't ask, fearless and IMO the last genuinely nice English cricketer, top bloke in person).
8. Chris Cairns - May have been a bastard on the field but a great guy, fulfilled a childhood dream of mine a couple of years back when I got to play tennis ball cricket with him during the interval at a lashings match. It was great there were loads of blokes in suits, corporate goons and admins from Durham trying to make casual 'learned' conversation with the players. Then there was me and my mates; T-shirts shorts and a tiny battered fake reebok bat from India that my dad got me as an 8yr old kid to play tennis ball cricket with (he didn't want me to ruin my Larsen!), playing a bit of yard cricket. Cairns comes over takes the bat out my hands and just joins in for 40 mins, he even skipped his team's warm up because he wanted to keep playing. One of the best experiences of my life. Even better because in the 99 world cup I made my dad sit in the rain with me for hours at a NZ v Zim game hoping that Cairns would come out to bat (he didn't).
9. Waqar Younis - Yorked his way into my imagination as a kid and probably sparked my earliest interest in cricket more than anyone else. Rather amusingly hit my mate in the head with a cricket ball when he was a little kid (he lived close by and walked past them playing street cricket, decided to have a bowl...), then took a photo with him on his knee so he wouldn't tell his dad on him, lol.
10. Venkatesh Prasad - Nicest guy you could ever meet, always had time for people (Kumble on the other hand was actually a bit of a ****) good coach too. He took me round and personally introduced myself and my cousins to the entire Karnataka cricket team and then chatted with us for 40 mins when I was about 10 (after just meeting us). I met him again recently and he's still a legend.
11. my all time favourite - Dewald Pretorius - my old coach...completely ****in insane, no question about it. Once asked me if I was listening to him because he wanted to kill me (we were in the nets, I hadn't said a word and had just taken a wicket!). A classic moment was when he was giving us a pep talk about practising fast bowling and commitment, it ended with, "They laughed at me! They all laughed at me! Even my sister laughed at me!" obviously as 14yr olds we did too...right away..he wasn't pleased. He once chased a kid round and then kicked him up the arse which was pretty hilarious, especially when the kid ran home and brought his elder brother back, who on sight of D was clearly terrified. Once when walking with myself and a friend past a women's game we stood near a fat girl (who was fielding) while waiting till the changeover, he started singing Nelly Furtado's I'm Like a Bird...but replaced 'bird' with 'whale'. During a fielding practice session he was getting angry that we weren't standing our ground while he was winging the ball in at us full pace from 25 yards (he was crazy), so he issued the challenge that we could throw the ball as hard as we liked at him. Obviously most of us realised that this probably wasn't a good idea, but an idiot friend of mine whispered to me "I'm going to prove my manliness to him and earn his respect" and subsequently volunteered. He threw it as hard as he could, D caught it with one hand and started laughing, he then said "Now it's my turn", he winged it in and it bounced of my friends hand. D encouraged him to have another go and the same sequence of events happened. 5 mins later at the end of practice we were walking back to the pavillion and it became pretty apparent that my friend's hand was broken, D burst out laughing...awesome! I've got tons of stories about him, before or since we've never looked forward to practices so much. I once told Javagal Srinath (who was his Durham team mate at the time) that D was coaching us, Srinath replied in shock "What?! They let him coach children?!" Dewald Pretorius, what a legend.
EDIT: [for those of you who don't know who D is he was a genuinely quick bowler who played 4 tests for SA from 2002-2003]