My Favourite Cricketer

The wristy little genius was also among the most universally adored of players

On facing one of the all-time great West Indian fast men and living to tell the tale

The greatest of fast bowlers, the nicest of men

Gloucestershire's folk hero embodied the dash and splendour of a more gracious age

The ball may have gone for six, it may have gone to hand - King Kris cared not a bit

Sure he may not have done full justice to his talent, but it is time now to celebrate his achievement, not missed opportunity

His style and charisma were natural and irresistible to a ten-year-old back in the 1960s

His heart-on-sleeve heroics and full-on friendship made this Yorkshire trier easy to love

If you were a schoolboy in Gloucestershire in the 1970s, there was no question who you wanted to be

The long and short of Middlesex's John Murray was elegance in all he did with gloves or bat - and he could have done more for England

A dashing, attacking batsman, he kept New Zealand cricket shining through its dark days

Artless yet artful, no cricketer so teased and confused the senses

He was often New Zealand's bulwark against disaster. He still could be

Reckless but not selfless, "Woody" brought a fevered edge to the game

A killer with the ball in hand, geniality itself off the pitch

Few bat with his sense of abandon and certainty, or his way of reducing cricket to its essentials

All dash and flash, Victor Trumper exemplified the freedoms of a more romantic age

He bats like a divine, and sins like the rest of us. You've just got to love Brian Lara

They bounced him, he hooked them. In the background, a radio played. It was the summer of 1983

A working man without ego or vanity, Harold Larwood, having beaten the Australians, went and joined them