Legendary cricketers Vinoo Mankad of India and Sri Lanka’s Kumar Sangakkara are the two cricket greats from South Asia among ten cricketers freshly inducted into the International Cricket Council (ICC) Hall of Fame to mark the inaugural ICC World Test Championship Final this week between India and New Zealand. 

Mankad, one of India’s greatest all-rounders, made it to the coveted list along with England’s Ted Dexter in the category of players whose greatest contributions to the game were in the post World War 2 years from 1946-1970.

Sangakkara, rated among the finest wicketkeeper-batsman of all times, was included alongside another dashing stumper-willower Andy Flower of Zimbabwe from among the players of the modern cricket era whose greatest contributions to the game were between 1996-2015.

Mankad played 44 Tests, scored 2,109 runs at 31.47, took 162 wickets at 32.32.

Chiefly an opening batsman and slow left-arm orthodox bowler, he is one of only three cricketers to have batted in every position during his Test career.

His most famous feat was against England at Lord's in 1952 when he scored 72 and 184 and bowled 97 overs in the match. He also coached another legendary cricketer and fellow ICC Hall of Fame member from his country, Sunil Gavaskar in Mumbai, India.

Sangakkara turned out in 134 Tests, scored 12,400 runs at 57.40, took 182 catches, effected 20 stumpings, and was grace personified at the crease.

He ended his career as the most prolific run-scorer his country had ever known, with double-hundreds flowing from his bat with consummate ease, the ICC said while announcing the list of the new inductees.

In 2014, Sangakkara struck 319 and 105 in the same Test match against Bangladesh and in 2017 fell just 16 runs short of striking six successive centuries in first-class cricket.

Speaking on Mankad’s induction, fellow ICC Hall of Fame member, Gavaskar said: “Vinoo Mankad’s legacy has been to tell the aspiring Indian cricketer to believe in oneself. He was a great proponent of self-belief.

“He was the one who kept saying to me that you need to keep scoring runs and keep at it. When you get a 100,  let that be the knock on the selector’s door. If it is unheard, then score that double hundred and let that knock be even louder. You can have the best technique, but if you do not have the temperament to support it you will not succeed, you have to keep hanging in there and have that self-belief. That was the greatest lesson I learned from him,” said the cricketing legend.

Sangakkara said it was one of the proudest moments of his life to be included in a list that included the greatest names to have played the game.

The ICC announced the special edition intake of the 10 iconic players into its Hall of Fame to celebrate the prestigious history of Test cricket, and to coincide with the first-ever ICC World Test Championship Final. The 10 legends have all made a significant contribution to the history of Test cricket, and join an illustrious list of ICC Hall of Famers, taking the total number to 103 now.

Other new inductees into the hall of fame are Aubrey Faulkner of South Africa, Monty Noble and Stan McCabe of Australia, Sir Learie Constantine and Desmond Haynes of West Indies and England’s Bob Willis.

(SAM)