It has long been a tradition that players who score a test match century at the home of cricket Lords, along with bowlers who take five wickets in a match have their names immortalised on an honour board in the pavilion.
When South African all rounder Jacques Kallis failed to make a century in the recent test match against England many found it hard to believe that the man many are saying is the creates All-rounder the game has ever seen, possibly with the exception of Sir Garfield Sobers, has not had his name on the Honour Board.
It has however since come to light that four of the top five run scorers in Test Cricket have failed to score the magical three figures at Lords, Sachin Tendulkar, Ricky Ponting, Jacques Kallis and Brian Lara, all failed to score test hundreds at Lords. In fact the first two have failed to make a fifty at the venue!
Despite the increase in test matches played it seems incredible to believe, and is no doubt why Ponting wishes to go on one more tour of England.
Other greats whose names are missing from the list include Sunil Gavaskar, Clive lloyd, Javed Miandad and Neil Harvey.
When it comes to the bowling, the two most prolific wicket-takers of all time Muttiah Muralitharan and Shane Warne, neither took five wickets at Lords. Neither did Dennis Lillee, Courtney Walsh Shaun Pollock or JIm Laker achieve the magical number to give them cricket immortality at the home of cricket.
Maybe the fact that they failed to do so shows why cricket is such a great leveller.
That statistic means nothing. They just haven’t played enough on Lords to really make an impact. Kallis can score runs everywhere in the world. His struggling in England means little cause if he really concentrated England would have had huge troubles.