DUBAI: Pakistan’s former captain Wasim Akram has claimed the third position in a poll conducted by The Cricket Monthly in which West Indies’ former captain Viv Richards was voted the greatest ODI player.
The contest for second place was a close affair between Sachin 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.
An astonishing 29 of 50 jurors picked Richards as their first choice, giving him a landslide victory over four other ODI legends: Sachin, Akram, Adam Gilchrist and MS Dhoni.
Richards got 179 points. Sachin came a distant second with 68 points; Akram third with 66 points; Gilchrist 29 points and Dhoni 25 points.
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. More than 225,000 chose Akram.
There was no dispute over the greatest, though. Through the late 1970s and ’80s Richards was way ahead of his contemporaries. He thrived in different conditions, against a variety of attacks, and raised the bar in the key matches. In an era before big bats, small boundaries and fielding restrictions, Richards tormented bowlers with his power and audacity.
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