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Aussie duo enter ICC Hall of Fame

The late Arthur Morris and the great Karen Rolton among illustrious group of four inducted

Australian legends Arthur Morris and Karen Rolton are among four players set to be inducted into the ICC Cricket Hall of Fame later this year.

Morris, part of the 1948 'Invincibles', and Rolton, a dual World Cup winner, will join the prestigious group alongside 19th century England great George Lohmann and Sri Lanka's Muthiah Muralidaran, the greatest Test wicket-taker of them all.

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The four iconic cricketers were voted by the ICC Cricket Hall of Famers as well as members of the media.

They will be presented with commemorative caps honouring their contribution to the game to mark their induction, with family members to represent Lohmann and Morris at the presentations.

"The ICC Cricket Hall of Fame recognises some of the truly great players from cricket's long and illustrious history, and this year's inductees thoroughly deserve to be in this highly prestigious group," said ICC Chief Executive David Richardson.

"Muralidaran has been one of the greats of the modern era. His guile and consistency over the years helped Sri Lanka develop as a very competitive side in both Tests and ODI cricket.

"We have in the list some very famous names of different eras.

"Lohmann and Morris were outstanding performers during their times and are part of cricket folklore, while Rolton's performances have been recent and came during an era when women's cricket became very competitive."

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Morris, a stylish left-hander of the 1940s and '50s who scored 12 centuries and 12 fifties in 46 Tests between 1946 and 1955, will be the 22nd Australia cricketer in the ICC Cricket Hall of Fame.

The '48 Invincible, who passed away in August last year, was the man at the other end when Don Bradman was out for a duck in his final Test innings at The Oval in 1948 and went on to score 196 in that match.

He was named in Australia’s Test team of the 20th century and captained his country twice, in 1951 and 1954.

Morris scored a total of 12,614 runs in 162 first-class matches, including 3,533 runs in Tests.

Rolton, a dynamic allrounder in both Tests and ODIs who is best remembered for her match-winning century in the ICC Women’s World Cup 2005 final, will be only the sixth woman and the third Australian to get onto the coveted list.

In a 15-year international career from 1995-2009, Rolton played 14 Tests and 141 One-Day Internationals, scoring 1,002 and 4,814 runs respectively.

She also hit two Test and eight ODI centuries. Rolton also featured in 15 T20Is, scoring 405 runs at an average of just under 51.

The left-hander was a member of the Australia women’s sides which won the ICC Women’s World Cups in 1997 and 2005.

Image Id: ~/media/B8B54DF50BB04E7F9E547284996CE51C Image Caption: Karen Rolton was a dual World Cup winner with Australia // Getty

Muralidaran, whose last international fixture was the final of the ICC Cricket World Cup 2011 in Mumbai, finished his career with 800 wickets in Tests, 534 wicket in One-Day Internationals and 13 wickets in 12 T20Is. He took 10 wickets in a match 22 times and five wickets in an innings 67 times – numbers unprecedented in the history of the game.

A prodigious turner of the ball and with brilliantly disguised variations, Muralidaran also played a big part in Sri Lanka’s ODI successes from 1993 to 2011 and was a member of the squads that won the ICC Cricket World Cup 1996 and shared the ICC Champions Trophy in 2002 with India.

Lohmann, an exponent of swing bowling in the late 19th century and rated by his contemporaries as the most difficult opponent, will be the 27th Englishman in the ICC Cricket Hall of Fame list.

He raced to 100 Test wickets in 16 matches – still the fastest of anyone in Test history – but tuberculosis shortened his career and he died at the age of 36 in 1901.

In an 18-Test career from 1886 to 1896, Lohmann took 112 wickets, including 9-28 against South Africa at the Old Wanderers, and also scored 213 runs.

He was 21 when he first played and took one wicket in his first two Tests in 1886, but at The Oval he famously took 7-36 and 5-68 as England won by an innings against Australia.