Only three Indian greats -- left-arm spin wizard Bishen Singh Bedi, prolific opener Sunil Gavaskar and champion all-rounder Kapil Dev - figure in the International Cricket Council's 55-strong Hall of Fame list, which has 22 Englishmen.
The ICC, while announcing Colin Cowdrey as the 19th cricketer to be formally inducted in its elite list of cricket greats, provided the list of persons chosen for the Hall of Fame, but yet to be formally inducted.
The list contains 22 Englishmen, 11 Australians, 13 West Indians, three each from India, Pakistan and two South Africans and a lone New Zealander.
Apparently, the list does not contain cricketers who have retired post-1995.
"The Hall of Fame, run in association with the Federation of International Cricketers Associations (FICA), recognizes some of the truly great players from cricket's long and illustrious history," the ICC said, while naming former England captain Cowdrey and its first chairman as its 19th formal inductee.
The world governing council for the game, celebrating its centenary year, also said that further cap presentations will be made during the course of the year and a limited number of inductees, in addition to the 55 already chosen, will be named during 2009.
Strangely, none from Sri Lanka has been found good enough to make the list though the island nation has won the World Cup, ICC's showpiece event, in 1996.
Even from among Indian cricketers. the list does not include C K Nayudu, Lala Amarnath, Vijay Merchant, Vijay Hazare, Vinoo Mankad, Polly Umrigar, Subash Gupte, Erapalli Prasanna, Bhagwat Chandrasekhar, Gundappa Viswanath and Dilip Vengsarkar, to name a few.
Among the Englishmen the name of Dr W G Grace, one of the pioneers of the game, has been included but not Ranjitsinhji, the erstwhile Jamsaheb of Nawanagar, who invented the leg glance, scored close to 1000 runs for England and averaged marginally below 45 in 15 Tests.
More than anything Ranji's name has been permanently associated with Indian cricket with the national championship being named after him.
Also missing is his nephew Duleepsinhji, who too played for England in pre-independence days and scored close to 1000 runs in only 12 Tests at a high average of 58-plus.
In his memory, the Cricket Board is conducting the inter-zonal championship, once considered the main selection trials for Tests, since the early 1960s.
