Dhoni leads list of new entrants in ICC Hall of Fame with Hayden, Graeme Smith, Hashim Amla, and Vettori among those.
MS Dhoni leads list of the latest entrants into the coveted ICC Hall of Fame.
Just two days before the World Test Championship final at Lord’s, Matthew Hayden, Daniel Vettori, Hashim Amla, Graeme Smith, Sarah Taylor, and Sana Mir were announced as the newest members of the ICC Hall of Fame. Mir became the first Pakistani woman to be inducted into the Hall of Fame.
Following her debut in 2005, Mir led Pakistan in 72 of her 120 women’s One-Day Internationals and 65 of her 106 women’s Twenty20 Internationals, including two gold medals at the 2010 and 2014 Asian Games. She topped the ODI rankings for bowlers in 2018 and is the most prolific wicket-taker for Pakistan in ODIs, having claimed 151 wickets with her offbreaks.
“From dreaming as a little girl that one day there would even be a women’s team in our country to now standing here, inducted among the very legends I idolised long before I ever held a bat or a ball – this is a moment I couldn’t have dared to imagine,” Mir said. “I am incredibly grateful for this honour and hope to give back to the sport in any way I can.”
Four years after leading India to the first-ever men’s T20 World Cup championship in 2007, former captain Dhoni helped end the country’s men’s ODI World Cup drought. He scored the game-winning runs as India became the first team to win the ODI World Cup on home soil in 2011. He led India to victory in the 2013 Champions Trophy two years later. Having played 350 matches and amassed over 10,000 runs, he concluded his ODI career with an average above 50.
“It is an honour to be named in the ICC Hall of Fame, which recognises the contributions of cricketers across generations and from all over the world,” he said. “To have your name remembered alongside such all-time greats is a wonderful feeling. It is something that I will cherish forever.”
One of the most feared openers for Australia in his era, Hayden’s aggressive batting forced the bowlers to take cover. He contributed to Australia’s victory in the 2003 ODI World Cup and hit three hundreds in their 2007 victory. With 30 Test hundreds and an average above 50, he concluded his career.
Throughout his lengthy career, Amla was a Test cricket titan for South Africa, which rose to the top of the format’s rankings. After hitting an undefeated 311 against England in 2012, he became the first South African to reach a triple century in Test cricket. In all formats, he concluded with more than 55 international hundreds.
Vettori, a former captain of New Zealand and Australia’s assistant coach, is one of just three players to reach 4,000 runs and take 300 wickets in Test cricket. Additionally, he led New Zealand to second place at the 2009 Champions Trophy.