UPDATED 09 DECEMBER, 2013 5:36PM AEST | BY CA STAFF
Australia Test champion Adam Gilchrist will be inducted into the ICC Cricket Hall of Fame later this week.
Former Pakistan captain Waqar Younis will also have the same honour bestowed upon him, the ICC has confirmed.
Gilchrist was one of Australia’s most prolific wicketkeeper-batsmen, having represented his country in 96 Tests in a career that spanned 12 years. He amassed 5,570 Test runs and claimed 416 dismissals behind the stumps, including 379 catches and 37 stumpings. He also captained the Test team on six occasions.
He scored 17 Test centuries and 26 half-centuries, while his best performance with the bat came against South Africa in Johannesburg in 2002 when he scored 204 not out in an innings that saw Gilchrist hit 19 boundaries and eight sixes.
In the 287 ODIs he played, he amassed 9,619 ODI runs, dismissed batsmen 472 times behind the stumps and captained Australia 17 times. He scored 16 centuries and 55 half-centuries and his best innings in the one-day format saw him score 172 against Zimbabwe in Hobart, Tasmania.
Gilchrist was part of the Australia sides that won the ICC Cricket World Cup in 1999, 2003 and 2007, while he was also part of the team that lifted the ICC Champions Trophy in 2006. Gilchrist’s first-class career began in 1992 and when it ended in 2008, he had accumulated 10,334 runs and 811 dismissals as a wicketkeeper.
“I am delighted to be inducted into the ICC Cricket Hall of Fame and to be doing it in front of my home crowd on the first day of the third Test will be a very special occasion for me and my family,” said Gilchrist.
“I’m looking forward to the day and would like to thank all the living Hall of Famers and voting academy who nominated and voted for me to join them.”
Gilchrist will be honoured during the tea interval of the third Ashes Test match between Australia and England at the WACA while Waqar will join the exclusive club during the first Twenty20 International between Pakistan and Sri Lanka at Dubai International Cricket Stadium in Dubai Sports City on December 11.
Waqar claimed 373 wickets from 87 Tests and 416 scalps from 262 One-Day Internationals.
Two further ICC Cricket Hall of Fame inductees will be announced later this month.
ICC Cricket Hall of Fame – initial inductees (55)
Sydney Barnes, Bishan Bedi, Alec Bedser, Richie Benaud, Allan Border, Ian Botham, Geoffrey Boycott, Donald Bradman, Greg Chappell, Ian Chappell, Denis Compton, Colin Cowdrey, Kapil Dev, Sunil Gavaskar, Lance Gibbs, Graham Gooch, David Gower, WG Grace, Tom Graveney, Gordon Greenidge, Richard Hadlee, Walter Hammond, Neil Harvey, George Headley, Jack Hobbs, Michael Holding, Leonard Hutton, Rohan Kanhai, Imran Khan, Alan Knott, Jim Laker, Harold Larwood, Dennis Lillee, Ray Lindwall, Clive Lloyd, Hanif Mohammad, Rodney Marsh, Malcolm Marshall, Peter May, Javed Miandad, Keith Miller, Bill O’Reilly, Graeme Pollock, Wilfred Rhodes, Barry Richards, Vivian Richards, Andy Roberts, Garfield Sobers, Brian Statham, Fred Trueman, Derek Underwood, Clyde Walcott, Everton Weekes, Frank Woolley, Frank Worrell
2009-10 Inductees
Herbert Sutcliffe, Steve Waugh, Wasim Akram, Victor Trumper, Clarrie Grimmett
2010-11 Inductees
Rachael Heyhoe Flint, Ken Barrington, Courtney Walsh, Joel Garner
2011-12 Inductees
Belinda Clark, Frederick Spofforth, Curtly Ambrose, Alan Davidson
2012-13 Inductees
Enid Bakewell, Brian Lara, Glenn McGrath and Shane Warne
2013-14 Inductees
Waqar Younis, Adam Gilchrist and two more to be announced later this year
Gilchrist to enter ICC Hall Of Fame