Tendulkar, Sehwag in ICC's dream team
Fans from 97 nations name Sachin, Sehwag and Kapil in ICC's dream team for the ODI format
Dubai: Sachin Tendulkar was on Wednesday named along with his opening partner Virender Sehwag in ICC's all-time greatest ODI team, picked through an online poll by fans from across the world to mark the 40th anniversary of one-day internationals.
1983 World Cup winning captain Kapil Dev has been included in the team as the lone all-rounder, but the retired Sourav Ganguly failed to make the grade.
The first-ever ODI was played between Australia and England on January 5, 1971 at the Melbourne Cricket Ground.
The momentous 438th game between South Africa and Australia in Johannesburg in 2006, when the Proteas chased down 434, has been voted the best ODI yet by fans.
The ICC asked fans from across the world to select a dream team from a shortlist of 48 players, and pick their favourite game from a choice of 10 memorable matches.
India captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni, who was the lone Indian in the list of wicketkeepers, failed to make the cut while legendary spinner Anil Kumble and Harbhajan Singh lost out in the race for spinners to Sri Lanka's Muttiah Muralitharan.
No Indian was nominated in the middle-order batsmen and fast bowling categories.
In total, fans from 97 countries cast almost 600,000 votes on the website -- www.icc-cricket.com - between December 22 and January 2.
Three players from Australia and India, two from the West Indies and one each from South Africa, Sri Lanka and Pakistan made the final dream eleven with another Aussie -- Michael Bevan -- named as 12th man.
Apart from the run-fest in Johannesburg, two India matches (the World Cup final win over West Indies by 43 runs at Lord's, 25 June 1983 and the triumph against Pakistan by five runs at Karachi, 13 March 2004) were there in the list of nominees for the greatest ODI match.
The 40th anniversary of the ODI is being marked as build-up to cricket's flagship event, the ICC Cricket World Cup 2011, which begins in Dhaka, Bangladesh on February 19.
The All-Time ODI Dream Team
Opening batsmen: Sachin Tendulkar and Virender Sehwag (both Ind) Middle order: Brian Lara, Viv Richards (both WI) and Ricky Ponting (Aus)
All-rounder: Kapil Dev (Ind)
Wicketkeeper: Adam Gilchrist (Aus)
Spinner: Muttiah Muralidaran (SL)
Fast bowlers: Wasim Akram (Pak), Glenn McGrath (Aus) and Allan Donald (SA)
12th man: Michael Bevan (Aus) -- he received the most number of votes without getting enough to make the would-be starting 11).
Source: The Indian Express
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