The International Cricket Council (ICC) has inducted ten stalwarts into the Hall of Fame. The announcement came five days before the first-ever World Test Championship (WTC) final.
The list includes Monty Noble, who made his debut for Australia in January 1898, to Kumar Sangakkara, who retired in August 2015. With that, the illustrious list of Hall of Fame has now risen to 103.
The inductees have been classified into five different eras for their immense contribution to Test cricket: Noble and Aubrey Faulkner from the pre-War period; Baron Learie Constantine and Stan McCabe from between the Wars; Vinoo Mankad and Ted Dexter from the post-War era; Bob Willis and Desmond Haynes from ODI era; and Andy Flower and Sangakkara from the modern era.
🌟 Our #ICCHallOfFame 2021 inductees 🌟 pic.twitter.com/hXPLOcBIZv
— ICC (@ICC) June 13, 2021
‘These 10 legends have all made a significant contribution to the history of Test cricket, and join an illustrious list of ICC Hall of Famers, taking the total number to 103 as a result of this intake,’ the ICC said in a statement.
Noble, one of the greatest all-rounders in Australian history, captained Australia in 15 of his 42 Tests. He amassed 1,997 runs at an average of 30.25 and took 121 wickets at 25.
Faulkner, probably the greatest South African all-rounder – which is saying something, for theirs is a nation of all-rounders – played 25 Test matches, scoring 1,754 runs at 40.79. He also claimed 82 wickets at 26.58. He later became a renowned coach.
Constantine had 635 Test runs and 58 wickets, but his greatest legacy lay elsewhere. As a professional in the Lancashire League, he encountered many a battle against racism, and later emerged as an important voice against racial discrimination in England. He became England’s first black Peer.
McCabe, perhaps the second-best Australian batter in the Don Bradman era, scored 2,748 Test runs at 48.21, with six hundreds. Three of his innings – 187 at Sydney in 1932/33, 189 not out at Johannesburg in 1935/36, 232 at Trent Bridge in 1938 – would rank among the greatest innings of all time.
Mankad was India’s greatest all-rounder before Kapil Dev. In his 44 Tests, he had scored 2109 runs at 31.47 and 162 wickets at 32.32. Sunil Gavaskar, who broke Mankad’s Indian record of 231, said: ‘Vinoo Mankad’s legacy has been to tell the aspiring Indian cricketer to believe in oneself. He was a great proponent of self-belief.’ Mankad remains the only cricketer to have scored two double hundreds and taken two eight-wicket hauls.