If there were to be a Cricket Hall of Fame and you were the chief selector who would put in the inagural class?
Maximum of 10 players, must have been retired from international cricket (ODIs and tests) for at least 5 years.
My selection:
Sydney Barnes
Don Bradman
W.G. Grace
George Headley
Jack Hobbs
Len Hutton
Imran Khan
Greame Pollock
Viv Richards
Garfield Sobers
I tried to fit as many 'titans' of the game in as possible and emphosose the history and tradition of the game, hence the emphasis on older generation players. I feel that Bradman, Headley, Sobers and Hobbs are no-brainers anyway whilst anything that tries to look at the whole history of the game has to include Grace. Syd Barnes had such a phenomenal strike rate (189 wickets in 23 tests, I believe) and was clearly the greatest bowler of his generation (perhaps ever, but it could never be proven) so I chose him over other pacemen such as Trueman, Lillie and the Windies attack. (It might seem that I copped out of choosing a Windies paceman, but it just seemed almost unfair to include one of them without adding some of the others. The were a unit that worked together and can never be seperated from one another in my mind.) Hutton was selected because of the whole professionalism boundary and of course his fine record as a batsman. Pollock IMHO was probably the second greatest batsman ever and losing virtually 3/4 of his career is surely one of the sports greatest tragedies; he is the Duncan Edwards of cricket. I feel that my most controversial choices are the two 'modern' players, Richards and Khan. Well, Richards has become such an icon, immortalised by his style and more importantly he is easily the best ODI batsman ever IMHO with an strike rate of over 90 even before they had fielding restrictions and the new attacking mindset etc. Khan I think is the second best allrounder ever second to Sobers of course and was a fine captain of a fine team, and in the interest of fair representation there needs to be a sub-continental player there (otherwise there would be riots in Lahore and Delhi no doubt
).
So that's my list. Feel free to crticise and please post yours.
Maximum of 10 players, must have been retired from international cricket (ODIs and tests) for at least 5 years.
My selection:
Sydney Barnes
Don Bradman
W.G. Grace
George Headley
Jack Hobbs
Len Hutton
Imran Khan
Greame Pollock
Viv Richards
Garfield Sobers
I tried to fit as many 'titans' of the game in as possible and emphosose the history and tradition of the game, hence the emphasis on older generation players. I feel that Bradman, Headley, Sobers and Hobbs are no-brainers anyway whilst anything that tries to look at the whole history of the game has to include Grace. Syd Barnes had such a phenomenal strike rate (189 wickets in 23 tests, I believe) and was clearly the greatest bowler of his generation (perhaps ever, but it could never be proven) so I chose him over other pacemen such as Trueman, Lillie and the Windies attack. (It might seem that I copped out of choosing a Windies paceman, but it just seemed almost unfair to include one of them without adding some of the others. The were a unit that worked together and can never be seperated from one another in my mind.) Hutton was selected because of the whole professionalism boundary and of course his fine record as a batsman. Pollock IMHO was probably the second greatest batsman ever and losing virtually 3/4 of his career is surely one of the sports greatest tragedies; he is the Duncan Edwards of cricket. I feel that my most controversial choices are the two 'modern' players, Richards and Khan. Well, Richards has become such an icon, immortalised by his style and more importantly he is easily the best ODI batsman ever IMHO with an strike rate of over 90 even before they had fielding restrictions and the new attacking mindset etc. Khan I think is the second best allrounder ever second to Sobers of course and was a fine captain of a fine team, and in the interest of fair representation there needs to be a sub-continental player there (otherwise there would be riots in Lahore and Delhi no doubt
).So that's my list. Feel free to crticise and please post yours.
, which remains unaffected by the difference you point out. 
