Cricket: Selectors of greats bypass NZ stars

By D.J. Cameron

New Zealand cricketers have drawn the very short straw as attempts are made to set up an international hall of fame in London.

Sir Richard Hadlee is the only New Zealander among the top 50 cricketers - and outstanding candidates such as Glenn Turner and Martin Crowe may have to wait until some later induction.

The hall of fame idea has been started by a body named the Federation of International Cricketers Association. The 50 were chosen by a panel, which evidently includes nine present-day test captains as well as prominent players from different countries.

Those elected must have finished playing. Five new players will be added each year.

There are 19 from England, 12 from the West Indies, 10 from Australia, three each from India and Pakistan, two from South Africa and one from New Zealand.

Australians may quibble about the omission of Mark Taylor, Doug Walters, Ian Chappell or Bob Simpson, the latter having a wide impact on the game.

New Zealand could make a strong case for the inclusion of Turner and Crowe. The South Africans Graeme Pollock and Barry Richards have been included, perhaps as sentimental choices as, for political reasons, their test careers were very short.

Richards played only four tests in one series (average 72.57) and Pollock 23 (60.79), whereas Turner had to battle through 41 tests for his seven hundreds and average of 44.64. Crowe played 77 tests for 5444 runs, 17 hundreds and an average of 45.36.

Then there was the matter of Turner joining the select club of those who scored 100 hundreds, reaching 1000 runs in May, and three times scoring 2000 runs in a county season.

Jack Hobbs is there, but no Herbert Sutcliffe. Alan Knott, but no Les Ames. The FICA will probably get it right, eventually.

The list is:

England: Sydney Barnes, Alec Bedser, Ian Botham, Geoff Boycott, Denis Compton, Sir Colin Cowdrey, David Gower, W.G. Grace, Tom Graveney, Walter Hammond, Sir Jack Hobbs, Sir Len Hutton, Alan Knott, Jim Laker, Harold Larwood, Peter May, Brian Statham, Fred Trueman, Derek Underwood.

Australia: Sir Don Bradman, Richie Benaud, Allan Border, Greg Chappell, Neil Harvey, Dennis Lillee, Ray Lindwall, Rod Marsh, Keith Miller, Bill O'Reilly.

West Indies: Sir Garfield Sobers, Sir Clyde Walcott, Sir Everton Weekes, Sir Frank Worrell, Viv Richards, Lance Gibbs, Rohan Kanhai, George Headley, Michael Holding, Malcolm Marshall, Clive Lloyd, Gordon Greenidge.

India: Sunil Gavaskar, Bishen Singh Bedi, Kapil Dev.

Pakistan: Hanif Mohammed, Imran Khan, Javed Miandad.

South Africa: Graeme Pollock, Barry Richards.

New Zealand: Sir Richard Hadlee.