Dubai: The International Cricket Council (ICC) on Sunday inducted Jacques Kallis, Lisa Sthalekar, and Zaheer Abbas to its list of Hall of Famers.
The announcement was made during a show, streamed live on ICC’s social media channels.
The show, hosted by commentator Alan Wilkins, featured retired greats Sunil Gavaskar, Melanie Jones and Shaun Pollock as the main guests, while Wasim Akram, Graeme Smith and Alyssa Healy joined in to congratulate the new inductees.
Kallis is one of the greatest all-rounders in the history of cricket. He scored 13,289 runs in Tests and 11,579 runs in ODIs, taking 292 and 273 wickets, respectively. Kallis has won 23 Player of the Match awards in Tests, which is more than anyone else.
He is also South Africa’s highest run-getter in Tests and ODIs. Kallis has 45 Tests hundreds with an average of 55.37.
“It’s a great honour to be inducted into the ICC Cricket Hall of Fame. It is something that I never expected when I started playing. I certainly did not play the game for any accolades or anything like that, I only wanted to win the games for whoever I was playing for,” Kallis said.
“But it is nice to be recognised when one has succeeded in the sport, it is nice to be recognised by people for something that you have achieved in the game, something that I am really proud of,” he added.
Kallis is the fourth South African player inducted and Zaheer the sixth from Pakistan. Lisa is the 27th from Australia and the ninth woman player in the list, which includes five from Australia.
In all, 93 players have been inducted so far under the system, which sees retired players become eligible five years after playing their last international match. (UNI)
