LONDON, APRIL 5: Australian leg-spinner Shane Warne is the only present day player named in Wisden's list of the top five cricketers of the 20th century. The respected cricket almanac commissioned a poll of 100 cricketers and journalists and announced the results on Wednesday, with Aussie master batsman Don Bradman edging West Indian all-rounder Gary Sobers by 10 votes for the top position.Bradman, who once scored 974 runs in a five-Test series, hit 29 centuries and had a Test average of 99.94 - still easily a world record - when he retired in 1948. In first class cricket, the Australian run-gatherer amassed 28,067 at an average of 95.14, his top score being 452 not out for New South Wales.The left-handed Sobers hit 8,032 runs, took 235 wickets and 109 catches in tests and owned the world record innings score of 365 for 36 years until it was beaten by countryman Brian Lara in 1994.Jack Hobbs, a stalwart of the 1920s who scored 61,237 first class runs in a 29-year career, placed third and is the only Englishman in the top five. Warne, who recently overtook Dennis Lillee's Australian record of 355 Test wickets, placed fourth ahead of West Indian batting star Viv Richards, who still holds the record of the most Test runs in a year, 1,710 at an average of 90.00 per innings.``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.''Master batsman and world record holder as highest Test century maker Sunil Gavaskar is ranked 12th. Gavaskar nudged ahead of contemporary cricketer Sachin Tendulkar, the only batsman capable of threatening his record of 34 Test centuries, by taking the sole 12th position with 12 votes.Tendulkar, who has scored 22 tons so far, was tied with two others Harold Larwood of England and Ray Lindwall of of Australia for the 17th position with six votes.Kapil Dev, who held world record for being the highest Test wicket-taker for seven years with his 434 victims till West Indian Courtney Walsh overtook him last week, tied for the 20th spot with two more bagging five votes.Freak leg spinner Bhagwat Chandrasekhar, joint 33rd with 17 others, polling one vote, is the other Indian among the four who made the grade in the top 50 cricketers.KS Ranjitsinhji, in whose memory India's National championship is held, is also in the list as joint 33rd, but as an England player.Wisden editor Matthew Engel, who is stepping down this year after seven years in the job because he says he's frustrated at having to continually write about England's failures, also named his five best players of 1999 and there isn't a single Englishman among them. The five are: New Zealand's Chris Cairns, who starred in New Zealand's Test series win over England; India's Rahul Dravid; South Africa's Lance Klusener and Australia's Tom Moody for standout performances at the World Cup; and Pakistan spin bowler Saqlain Mushtaq. Engel, who is to be replaced by predecessor Graeme Wright, claimed the choice was so tough not one of the 100 judges correctly voted for the eventual top five. ``Not one of our hundred voted for all the final five, yet I don't believe any one will argue that we have got it terribly wrong,'' he revealed.Wisden's top cricketers listThe list of cricketers who werenominated by a panel of 100 players and journalists for the Wisden top players of the 20th century (number of votes in parentheses):1, Don Bradman, Australia, (100)2, Gary Sobers, West Indies, (90)3, Jack Hobbs, England, (30)4, Shane Warne, Aus, (27)5, Viv Richards, WI, (25)Tied 6, Dennis Lillee, Aus, Frank Worrell, WI, (19)8, Wally Hammond, Eng, (18)9, Dennis Compton, Eng, (14)Tied 10, Richard Hadlee, New Zealand, Imran Khan,Pakistan, (13)12, Sunil Gavaskar, India, (12)Tied 13, Sydney Barnes, Eng, Len Hutton, Eng, (11)15, Bill O'Reilly, Aus, (10).16, Ian Botham, Eng, (9)Tied 17, Harold Larwood (Eng), Ray Lindwall, Aus, SachinTendulkar, Ind, (6)Tied 20, Richie Benaud, Aus, George Headley, WI, KapilDev, Ind, (5)Tied 23, Graeme Pollock, South Africa, Wilfred Rhodes,Eng, Victor Trumper, Aus, (4)Tied 26, Godfrey Evans, Eng, Malcolm Marshall, WI, WasimAkram, Pak, (3)Tied 29, Alec Bedser, Eng, Clarrie Grimmett, Aus, FredTrueman, Eng, Frank Woolley, Eng (2)Tied 33, Curtly Ambrose, WI, Colin Bland, SA, AllanBorder, Aus, B.J.T. Bosanquet, Eng, B.S. Chandrasekhar, Ind, Ian Chappell, Aus, Learie Constantine, WI, Allan Donald, SA, A.P. "Tich" Freeman, Eng, Lance Gibbs, WI, Michael Holding, WI, Clive Lloyd, WI, Stan McCabe, Aus, Bruce Mitchell, SA, K.S. Ranjitsinhji, Eng, Maurice Tate, Eng, Pelham Warner, Eng (1).
