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New Delhi: The presence of just three Indian cricketers in International Cricket Council's Hall of Fame may have generated a controversy in the country but the game's governing body on Friday made it clear that more Indians would be added to the elite list.
The ICC said that the list would be updated annually and would have an adequate Indian representation.
"This is not the final list. I do believe that a number of magnificent Indian cricketers deserve to be in the Hall of Fame. We will soon develop a mechanism and have plans to add more players to the list on an annual basis," ICC President David Morgan said.
Former captains Bishan Singh Bedi, Sunil Gavaskar and Kapil Dev are the three Indians in the 55-strong list that includes 22 Englishmen, 11 Australians, 13 West Indians, three from Pakistan, two South Africans and a lone New Zealander.
Strangely, not a single Sri Lankan made it to the list. Morgan said when updated, the list would look balanced. "There would be balance among nations, on merit," he added.
The list does not contain cricketers who have retired post-1995.
The eminent Indian cricketers missing from the list include C K Nayudu, Lala Amarnath, Vijay Merchant, Vijay Hazare, Vinoo Mankad, Polly Umrigar, Subash Gupte, Erapalli Prasanna, Bhagwat Chandrasekhar and Gundappa Viswanath.
Among the Englishmen, W G Grace, one of the pioneers of the game, has been included but not Ranjitsinhji, who invented the leg glance and scored close to 1000 runs.
Morgan also took the opportunity to rubbish notions that India has been a bully inside ICC, arm-twisting the governing body because of its financial clout.
"I have never regarded India as a bully at the ICC. I refer to my experiece with India at the ICC under the leadership of Mr Dalmiya, Mr Pawar and now Mr Shashank Manohar. I do not accept that India acts in a bullying fashion," Morgan said.
He also sought to dispel the fear of an Indian takeover of the ICC when Sharad Pawar succeeds him as the ICC President.
"I have another year in office and have every confidence in Sharad Pawar that he would be a good leader when he takes over in a year's time," Morgan added.
