Legendary cricketer Sachin Tendulkar and Indian captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni are among top five leading contenders to win the crown of the greatest ODI cricketer of all time.
Greatest ODI Cricketer of all-time
Australia’s former great opener Adam Gilchrist, Pakistan pace bowler, expert and commentator Wasim Akram and popular West Indies great Viv Richards are among the other three nominees, as per a contest conducted by ESPN cricinfo’s magazine ‘Cricket Monthly’
The winner will be determined by a jury of 50 players which includes commentators and cricket writers from around the world. The result will be announced next week.
The focus of jury’s choice of the five greatest will be based two game changing wicketkeeper-batsmen, a magician fast bowler, and two batting greats.
Greatest ODI Cricketer of all-time
Although keeping in view the duration of career of Sachin Tendulkar spanning over 24 years and his unparallel batting stats, he has no equal. It is a well established truth that the greatest batsman in contemporary cricket, Tendulkar has successfully rewritten many records during his glorious cricketing journey.
He has accumulated 18,426 runs in 463 one-dayers at an decent average of 44.83. The one of a kind right-hander has an astonishing 49 hundreds in the ODI format, including a double hundred – the first in this form of the game. Tendulkar has got a superb figure of 96 ODI 50s to his credit.
On the other hand, MS Dhoni is the only current player in the top five. He has emerged as one of the greatest finishers in One-day Internationals. His strength consists of his powerful strokes like peculiar helicopter shot and quick singles/doubles. He has got excellent footwork clubbed with immaculate running between the wickets. Although he has paved way for many Indian victories but he had played a key role in 2011 World Cup
Adam Gilchrist, a very dependable Australian stroke player who had a brilliant career of 12 years, is another candidate. He is also known for his contribution during the finals of World Cup against Sri-Lanka in 2007.
During the 70s and 80s, Vivian Richards was the most popular cricketer of ODI. He had extended a helping hand to his country West Indies in winning the coveted World Cup trophies in 1975 and 1079. He is one of the most regarded cricketers.
Well the last name on the list is, Akram, very often called the ‘Sultan of Swing’, who had a career of more than 20 years and could do anything with the ball. He falls under rarest of rare category, as he was the one who could bowl six different deliveries in an over. He finished with 502 wickets which happen to be highest till date for a fast bowler in ODI. He won the Man of the Match in Pakistan’s title triumph in 1992 final.
Although it depends on the judgment of the jury but given the stats and the popularity, time span, Sachin Tendulkar appears to be an obvious choice.
The panel of jury includes legendary cricketers Ian Chappell, Clive Lloyd, Martin Crowe, 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.