Expand that hall of fame!

The International Cricket Council should also think about honouring non-players who have contributed immensely to the game

It’s always a pleasure to read about past players being honoured by cricket bodies. It’s a kind of applause from a special viewing gallery, a type of recognition, which lights up a CV.

On 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 (Inter-war era), Ted Dexter and Vinoo Mankad (post-war era), Desmond Haynes and Bob Willis (1971-1995 period), Andy Flower and Kumar Sangakkara (modern cricket era).

The 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 him.

Doubtless, there is sheer merit in his cricketing exploits, which have been discussed over many years. 

And it is for a good, compelling reason that the 1952 game which the Indians played against Len Hutton’s Englishmen at Lord’s came to be known as Mankad’s Test or Mankad versus England. 

Mankad’s greatness stretched beyond that Lord’s Test and what shouldn’t 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 cricket. 

Eknath Solkar and Padmakar Shivalkar can be cited as respective examples.

Mankad 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 which 
was launched 12 years ago in 2009, there ought to have been a greater number than just seven Indians. More on that later. 

It may be worthwhile for the ICC to think about honouring other personalities who have contributed immensely to the game, if they haven’t 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 considered. 

“The 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 year,” says the ICC in the Hall of Fame segment of their website. Here’s something worth discussing ladies and gentlemen. 

Popular umpire Dickie Bird deserves to be honoured and so does Srinivas Venkataraghavan, who served as player before taking up umpiring.

Cricket 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 ‘Niran’ Prabhu, whom the BCCI chose for the CK Nayudu Lifetime Achievement Award in 1998?

Gideon Haigh’s path-breaking literary work is honour-worthy. I would also like to make a case for UK-based David Frith and it doesn’t matter if people agreed or disagreed with his view that intimidation was at the very heart of the West Indies’ domination in the 1970s and 1980s.

Where 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 didn’t 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 1978-79. Cricket buff Mohit Choudhary reminded me that Ken Kelly, the photographer who served long before Eagar, deserves to be recognised and so do curators.

There 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 rainbow.

Back 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 Lord’s (1979, 1982 and 1986), should be up for consideration. And let’s 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 ago.

The 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 $1.6 million, as well as the mace. The runners-up earn $800,000 and the third placed side will be richer by $450,000 while the fourth and fifth placed teams stand to gain $350,000 and $200,000 respectively. There is something for the remaining four teams too—$100,000 each; so lots of money being spent. How apt it would have been had the mace been presented in honour of the ICC’s 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. It’s never too late to do him that honour.

mid-day’s group sports editor Clayton Murzello is a purist with an open stance. He tweets @ClaytonMurzello
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