KEY POINTS:
New Zealand cricketing great Sir Richard Hadlee has been named as one of the inaugural inductees of the ICC Cricket Hall of Fame.
The Hall of Fame has been established by the ICC as part of its Centenary Year celebrations in 2009.
Sir Richard, the only New Zealander named, joins such cricketing legends as WG Grace, Don Bradman, Garfield Sobers and Sunil Gavaskar among 55 initial inductees.
Sir Richard said he was delighted to be selected as part of this milestone in celebrating cricket's first 100 years.
"It's an honour to be included in the Hall of Fame alongside so many outstanding cricketers of the past hundred years.
"There's a lot of cricket history in that list of names - and it's a great way to celebrate the ICC's maiden ton.
"I hope there will be a few more New Zealanders on the list in the future too."
The Hall of Fame is a collaboration between ICC and the Federation of International Cricketers Associations (FICA).
The initial inductees are those named in the FICA Hall of Fame, which ran between 1999 and 2003.
Additional names will be added annually from later this year, when new inductees will be announced at the ICC awards ceremony.
Sir Richard's citation highlights his position in cricket as one of the finest exponents of fast-medium bowling the game has seen.
His test career began in 1972 and he became the first bowler to take 400 test wickets. When he retired in 1990, he had a tally of 431, a world record at the time. He had a career strike rate of at least five wickets per test.
His best bowling was against Australia at Brisbane in 1985 when he took 15-123 in the match including 9-52 in the first innings.
He is also among the few to complete the double of 3000 runs and 300 wickets in tests and was knighted shortly before his final test match.
The initial inductess to the ICC Cricket Hall of Fame are:
Sydney Barnes, Bishan Bedi, Alec Bedser, Richie Benaud, Allan Border, Ian Botham, Geoffrey Boycott, Donald Bradman, Greg Chappell, Ian Chappell, Denis Compton, Colin Cowdrey, Kapil Dev, Sunil Gavaskar, Lance Gibbs, Graham Gooch, David Gower, WG Grace, Tom Graveney, Gordon Greenidge, Richard Hadlee, Walter Hammond, Neil Harvey, George Headley, Jack Hobbs, Michael Holding, Leonard Hutton, Rohan Kanhai, Imran Khan, Alan Knott, Jim Laker, Harold Larwood, Dennis Lillee, Ray Lindwall, Clive Lloyd, Hanif Mohammad, Rodney Marsh, Malcolm Marshall, Peter May, Javed Miandad, Keith Miller, Bill O'Reilly, Graeme Pollock, Wilfred Rhodes, Barry Richards, Vivian Richards, Andy Roberts, Garfield Sobers, Brian Statham, Fred Trueman, Derek Underwood, Clyde Walcott, Everton Weekes, Frank Woolley, Frank Worrell.
- NZPA
