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Four Indians in Team of the Year; Dhoni to lead

West Indies fast bowler Ambrose inducted into ICC Hall of Fame
Last Updated 12 September 2011, 16:28 IST

Besides Dhoni, the other three Indians in the 12-man squad are opener Virender Sehwag, man of the tournament of the World Cup Yuvraj Singh and their leading wicket-taker of the quadrennial event Zaheer Khan.

Sri Lanka, who made it to the final in Mumbai, have the next biggest share with three of their players making the cut, including 12th man Lasith Malinga. Their former skipper Kumar Sangakkara and tournament’s highest run-maker Tillakaratne Dilshan are the other two to be included in the team that was picked by a jury headed by ICC Cricket Committee Chairman Clive Lloyd and included South Africa’s Paul Adams, England’s Mike Gatting, New Zealand’s Danny Morrison and Pakistan’s Zaheer Abbas.

South Africa have two representations in their new ODI skipper AB de Villiers and paceman Dale Steyn while Australia (all-rounder Shane Watson), England (off-spinner Graeme Swann) and Pakistan (paceman Umar Gul) have one player each in the ranks. The team was picked on the basis of performances between August 11, 2010 and August 3, 2011.

“I think Dhoni’s led India well,” said Lloyd speaking about the rationale behind appointing Dhoni as the captain. “I think he is very studious. He won the World Cup and that is no mean feat. He is the first captain to win a World Cup while playing at home. The good thing is you see the players playing for him, they play for their captain. He is that kind of charismatic player. In the final he played well. He didn’t do anything out of the ordinary.
He judged the situation well and planned the innings well. There were constant discussions in the middle. Initially he just placed the ball into the gaps and then did it for the team.”

Davidson in Hall of Fame

Australian all-rounder Alan Davidson and paceman Fred Spofforth, West Indian fast-bowling great Curtly Ambrose and Aussie women player Belinda Clarke were inducted into the ICC Cricket Hall of Fame for the year 2011.

Clarke is only the second woman, after England’s Rachael Heyhoe-Flint, to be inducted while Davidson and Spofforth joined 13 other Australian men on the prestigious list. Clarke played 15 Tests scoring 919 runs at an average of 45.95, along with 118 ODIs amassing 4,844 runs at 47.49 and was captain between 1993 and 2005. Davidson took 186 Test wickets at 20.53 and scored 1,328 Test runs at 24.59 in his 44 appearances between 1953 and 1963 while Spofforth, known to his team-mates as ‘The Demon’, played in 18 Tests from 1877 to 1887 taking 94 wickets at 18.41. A fearsome Windies bowler in the 90s, Ambrose captured 405 victims in 98 Tests at an average of 20.99 besides 225 wickets in 176 one-day internationals.

ODI team of the year: MS Dhoni (capt & wk), Tillakaratne Dilshan, Virender Sehwag, Kumar Sangakkara, AB de Villiers, Shane Watson, Yuvraj Singh, Graeme Swann, Umar Gul, Dale Steyn, Zaheer Khan. Lasith Malinga (12th man).

Hall of Fame inductees: Alan Davidson, Fred Spofforth (both Australia), Curtly Ambrose (West Indies) and Belinda Clark (women cricketer from Australia).

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(Published 12 September 2011, 11:50 IST)

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