Warne, Bradman named in top five of century

LONDON, April 5 AAP - Surrounded by cricket's knights, Shane Warne has been voted one of the top five players of the 20th century in the most authoritative survey of its kind.

Warne was ranked fourth by the survey of 100 experts - mostly former players and journalists - for the millennium edition of the cricketing bible Wisden.

Predictably, Sir Donald Bradman was No.1 - gaining a place on the five-man lists of all 100 experts.

He was ahead of West Indian great Sir Garfield Sobers, who scored 90 votes.

Prolific pre-Bradman English legend Sir Jack Hobbs was third place with 30, just ahead of Warne on 27, who was rated above the West Indies "master blaster" Sir Issac (Viv) Richards on 25.

Warne said he didn't even know the poll had been commissioned and was stunned to be included as one of five contemporary players in the 49-strong list.

"It's a huge honour to be included while I'm still playing and it's hard for me to wrap my head around it," Warne said in a statement.

"I'm very shocked because I didn't know about it.

"Even if I had known about it I wouldn't have expected to be chosen."

Warne said the honour capped a "huge couple of months" in which he broke Dennis Lillee's record for Test wickets, was named in the Australian team of the century and helped Australia to 10 successive Test wins.

Lillee was just behind Warne, sharing sixth place with former West Indies captain Sir Frank Worrell on 19 votes.

Significantly, Warne was considerably clear of the man previously regarded widely as the greatest leg-spinner of all time, Bill O'Reilly, who was 15th with 10 votes, one ahead of English all-rounder Ian Botham.

A noteworthy summing up of the feeling for Warne came from former London Daily Express cricket writer, 88-year-old Crawford White, who also saw O'Reilly bowl in the 1930s and 1940s.

"O'Reilly didn't rip the ball through like Warne does and I don't think he caught the imagination quite as much as this lad," White said.

Overall 49 players scored votes, 11 of them Australian.

The other Australians were: paceman Ray Lindwall, who was equal 17th with 6 votes, Richie Benaud (=20th, 5), Victor Trumper (=23rd, 4), Clarrie Grimmett (=29th, 2), and three in a large group on one vote each - Allan Border, Ian Chappell, and Stan McCabe.

Voters, including Australian captain Steve Waugh, were asked by Wisden to name five players "whose excellence at cricket has made the greatest contribution to the game".

They were asked to include factors such as leadership, character, personality, and impact on the public.

On Bradman, Waugh said: "Sir Donald really speaks for himself", while former Australian all-rounder Alan Davidson wrote simply: "Only one Don".

The experts panel - who were not asked to rank their five in any order - was compiled by country according to Tests played, with 28 English judges, 20 Australians and so on down to one Zimbabwean.

The Australian judges also included former Test captains Benaud, Bill Lawry, Bob Simpson and Ian Chappell.

Further details are available on the Wisden website at www.wisden.com.

Meanwhile, Wisden's new issue also included its usual top five players of the year to have played in England, with World Cup hero Tom Moody making the list.

The five, chosen by outgoing Wisden editor Matthew Engel, also featured World Cup stars Lance Klusener from South Africa, Chris Cairns of New Zealand, India's Rahul Dravid and Pakistan's Saqlain Mushtaq.

No Englishman was included for only the fifth time since the top five began in 1889. -- AAP