Published: May 07, 2016, 06:58 AM (IST)
Edited: May 07, 2016, 07:34 AM (IST)
Australia legend Shane Warne has pipped Sri Lanka great Muttiah Muralitharan in the ODI GOAT (Greatest of All Time) competition. cricket.com.au, which is the official website of Cricket Australia has started a unique competition, where they have picked the top 64 ODI players of all time and have thrown it open to the fans to decide who the better ODI cricketer according to them is. Warne won by a very narrow margin. He secured 51 per cent votes, with Muralitharan finishing with 49. They pit one player against another and ask the fans to vote. With Warne having beaten Muralitharan, he will up against the winner of the recently retired Sri Lankan veteran Kumar Sangakkara and South Africa’s AB de Villiers. READ: The day Sachin Tendulkar reduced Shane Warne to a punching bag: India vs Australia, 1998
Both Warne and Muralitharan have impressive ODI records. In 194 matches, Warne has 293 scalps at 25.73 and an economy rate of 4.25. Muralitharan has an even better record. He has played 350 matches for Sri Lanka in which he has claimed 534 wickets at 23.08 with a highly impressive economy rate of 3.93 to go with it. READ: Muttiah Muralitharan: Perfection requires time and planning
The likes of Sachin Tendulkar, Sanath Jayasuriya and Viv Richards are still alive in the competition. Recently we saw two Pakistan legends Waqar Younis and Wasim Akram up against each other. Waqar won more votes and will therefore be pitted against the winner of the contest between Imran Khan and Curtly Ambrose.
The mouth-watering clash will be that of Sachin Tendulkar Viv Richards. Richards is considered by many as the greatest ODI player of all time but he will however face stiff competition.
