Dubai: Pakistan’s former captain Wasim Akram has claimed the third position in a poll conducted by ESPNcricinfo-run magazine in which West Indies’ former captain Viv Richards was voted the greatest ODI player.
Viv Richards has been crowned the greatest one-day cricketer ever by a jury of 50.
According ESPNcricinfo-run magazine, an astonishing 29 of 50 jurors picked Richards as their first choice, giving him a landslide victory over four other ODI legends: Sachin Tendulkar, Wasim Akram, Adam Gilchrist and MS Dhoni.
The contest for second place was a close affair between Tendulkar and Akram. Tendulkar, owner of 18,426 runs and 49 centuries, eventually prevailed by a hair’s breadth over Akram, the most exceptional left-arm bowler the game has seen. Rounding off the top five were Gilchrist at No. 4 and Dhoni at No. 5.
In all, 21 cricketers received at least one vote from the jury: six Australians, five Indians, four Pakistanis, two West Indians, two South Africans, a Sri Lankan and an Englishman.
The Cricket Monthly’s 50-member jury, drawn from around the globe and spanning several eras, includes legendary cricketers Ian Chappell, Clive Lloyd, Rahul Dravid, Ricky Ponting and Graeme Smith; veteran commentators Tony Cozier, Mark Nicholas, Mike Haysman and Sanjay Manjrekar; and respected writers Gideon Haigh, Mike Coward, Suresh Menon and Mike Selvey.
ESPNcricinfo’s readers, in a poll run on the site, voted overwhelmingly for Sachin Tendulkar and Wasim Akram. Of the nearly 600,000 users who voted, about 239,000 chose Tendulkar as the greatest ODI player of them all, and more than 225,000 chose Akram.
