Both Sachin Tendulkar and Steve Waugh deserve congratulations for being made Bradman honourees. On and off the field they have been exemplary.
They will be awarded the Bradman Honouree award on 29th October at the Sydney Cricket Ground, followed by a gala dinner.
This annual award was inaugurated in 2006 and the first to receive it was Australia’s dashing batsman Norm O’Neill.
Until 2009 it was awarded only to Australian cricketers, but in 2010 Sunil Gavaskar became the first non-Australian to be honoured.
In the nine years since 2006, 16 Test greats have received this prestigious award – 12 from Australia, 3 from India (Gavaskar, Rahul Dravid and now Tendulkar) and 1 from New Zealand (Richard Hadlee).
Here is the complete list:
2006: Norm O’Neill OAM (Australia)
2007: Neil Harvey MBE (Aus), Sam Loxton OBE (Aus)
2008: Bill Brown OAM (Aus), Arthur Morris MBE (Aus)
2009: Alan Davidson AM, MBE, (Aus), Dennis Lillee AM, MBE (Aus)
2010: Sunil Gavaskar (India), Adam Gilchrist AM (Aus)
2011: Sir Richard Hadlee (New Zealand), Bob Simpson AO (Aus)
2012: Rahul Dravid (Ind), Glenn McGrath AM (Aus)
2013: Mark Taylor AO (Aus)
2014: Sachin Tendulkar AM (Ind), Steve Waugh AO (Aus)
All of them deserve this honour but I am surprised, nay shocked, that many legendary cricketers who are still alive have been ignored so far.
Giants of the game like Garry Sobers, Vivian Richards, Michael Holding and Brian Lara from the West Indies; Richie Benaud, Jeff Thomson, Ian and Greg Chappell, Shane Warne, Adam Gilchrist and Ricky Ponting from Australia; Ian Botham from England; Barry Richards, Graeme and Peter Pollock from South Africa; Kapil Dev, Bishan Bedi and EAS Prasanna from India; Imran Khan from Pakistan, and Muttiah Muralitharan from Sri Lanka.
This is restricting myself to only cricketers who are still alive. Otherwise, Frank Worrell, Len Hutton, Denis Compton, Ray Lindwall, Alec Bedser, Fred Trueman and other post-World War II cricketing greats could also be considered.
All 16 honourees listed in the table above are great, no doubt. But how can you have Sam Loxton and Bill Brown over Sobers and Viv Richards? Also, Bob Simpson and Mark Taylor over Richie Benaud, Warne, Muralitharan and Imran?
It would be extremely difficult to make yearly selections, but to ignore Sobers is sacrilegious.
Who chooses the honourees? What are the criteria? In future, for Bradman’s sake, please have Sobers and Benaud for 2015, followed by Vivian Richards, Graeme Pollock, Warne, Botham, Imran, Kapil and Muralitharan in subsequent years.
The ball is in your court, fellow Roarers.
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