Dubai – West Indies cricket legends Sir Vivian Richards and Brian Lara have been named in the greatest One-Day International team of all time.
The two icons were on Wednesday announced in the team by the International Cricket Council. The 11 players were picked to coincide with the 40th anniversary of the first One-Day International and cricket fans from almost 100 countries around the world have cast their votes on the ICC website for what they consider to be the all-time ODI team.
The two former West Indies captains were all-time favourites among fans all over the world. Lara played 299 ODIs and made 10 405 runs – the most by a West Indian. He made 19 centuries including a best of 169. Sir Viv made 187 ODI appearances, including the 1975 and 1979 World Cup finals. The West Indies won both. Sir Viv was Player-of-the-Match in the 1979 final.
Overall he made 6 721 runs at an average of 47.00. His top score was 189 not out against England in 1984 – which remains the highest score of all-time by a West Indian. He also managed took 118 wickets with his off-spin bowling and held 100 catches.
In total, fans from 97 countries cast almost 600,000 votes on www.icc-cricket.com between December 22 and January 2 to make their views known as to who have been the best ODI players of the past 40 years in the key categories of opening batsmen, middle-order batsmen, wicket-keeper, spin bowlers and fast bowlers.
The momentous “438” game between South Africa and Australia in the Wanderers in Johannesburg in 2006 has been voted the best ODI yet.
The All-Time ODI Dream Team is:
Openers: Sachin Tendulkar, Virender Sehwag
Middle-order: Brian Lara, Viv Richards, Ricky Ponting
All-rounder: Kapil Dev
Wicket-keeper: Adam Gilchrist
Spinner: Muttiah Muralitharan
Fast bowlers: Wasim Akram, Glenn McGrath, Allan Donald
12th man: Michael Bevan (the player who received the most number of votes without being enough to make the would-be starting 11.)
