Expand that hall of fame!

Itrsquos always a pleasure to read about past players being honoured by cricket bodies Itrsquos a kind of applause from a special viewing gallery a type of recognition which lights up a CVOn Sunday the International Cricket Council ICC announced new entries to their Hall of Fame Aubrey Faulkner and Monty Noble Early cricket era Sir Learie Constantine and Stan McCabe Interwar era Ted Dexter and Vinoo Mankad postwar era Desmond Haynes and Bob Willis 19711995 period Andy Flower and Kumar Sangakkara modern cricket eraThe decision to induct Vinoo Mankad in the ICC Hall of Fame was a welcome one though my first reaction to the news was to wonder why it took them so long to honour himDoubtless there is sheer merit in his cricketing exploits which have been discussed over many yearsAnd it is for a good compelling reason that the 1952 game which the Indians played against Len Huttonrsquos Englishmen at Lordrsquos came to be known as Mankadrsquos Test or Mankad versus EnglandMankadrsquos greatness stretched beyond that Lordrsquos Test and what shouldnrsquot be forgotten is his contribution to mentoring and coaching several players who went on to either play for India or parade their skills in domestic cricketEknath Solkar and Padmakar Shivalkar can be cited as respective examplesMankad became the seventh Indian cricketer to be inducted in the ICC Hall of Fame after Bishan Singh Bedi Sunil Gavaskar Kapil Dev Sachin Tendulkar Anil Kumble and Rahul Dravid For an initiative whichwas launched 12 years ago in 2009 there ought to have been a greater number than just seven Indians More on that laterIt may be worthwhile for the ICC to think about honouring other personalities who have contributed immensely to the game if they havenrsquot done so as yet For example umpires and even those who belong to the media No game can begin without the umpires remember and to reward the very best by making them part of the Hall of Fame could be consideredldquoThe living members of the ICC Cricket Hall of Fame are also involved in the selection process to the new intake of legends into the Hall of Fame each yearrdquo says the ICC in the Hall of Fame segment of their website Herersquos something worth discussing ladies and gentlemenPopular umpire Dickie Bird deserves to be honoured and so does Srinivas Venkataraghavan who served as player before taking up umpiringCricket writers and broadcasters enrich the game photographers too Ditto statisticians and scorers How about an honour for the late Englishmen John Arlott and Neville Cardus Australian Ray Robinson and our very own KN lsquoNiranrsquo Prabhu whom the BCCI chose for the CK Nayudu Lifetime Achievement Award in 1998Gideon Haighrsquos pathbreaking literary work is honourworthy I would also like to make a case for UKbased David Frith and it doesnrsquot matter if people agreed or disagreed with his view that intimidation was at the very heart of the West Indiesrsquo domination in the 1970s and 1980sWhere statisticians and scorers are concerned there cannot be a bigger contributor in that sphere than the late Bill Frindall Patrick Eagar became synonymous with cricket photography and the 325 Test matches he covered include some which didnrsquot feature England For example when India and Pakistan resumed cricketing ties after 17 years Eagar boarded a flight to Pakistan to capture the action just like he did when Australia toured the West Indies in 197879 Cricket buff Mohit Choudhary reminded me that Ken Kelly the photographer who served long before Eagar deserves to be recognised and so do curatorsThere could be a view that the Hall of Fame should be restricted to players but there are other elements that form the colours of the cricket rainbowBack to my point about having more Indians in the Hall of Fame Gundappa Viswanath is not among the group as yet and hopefully he will be part of it in forthcoming years Dilip Vengsarkar the only overseas batsman to score three consecutive hundreds at Lordrsquos 1979 1982 and 1986 should be up for consideration And letrsquos not forget that great spinner Bhagwat Chandrasekhar whose 6 for 38 propelled India to their first ever Test win on English soil at The Oval 50 years agoThe inaugural ICC World Test Championship final to be contested between India and New Zealand is close at hand The winning team take home a purse of 16 million as well as the mace The runnersup earn 800000 and the third placed side will be richer by 450000 while the fourth and fifth placed teams stand to gain 350000 and 200000 respectively There is something for the remaining four teams toomdash100000 each so lots of money being spent How apt it would have been had the mace been presented in honour of the ICCrsquos former president Jagmohan Dalmiya He lifted the organisation from a massive financial crisis in the late 1990s and he always wanted to have a World Test Championship Itrsquos never too late to do him that honourmiddayrsquos group sports editor Clayton Murzello is a purist with an open stance He tweets ClaytonMurzelloSend your feedback to mailbagmiddaycomThe views expressed in this column are the individualrsquos and donrsquot represent those of the paper