By Oscar Ramjeet

It is unfortunate that the 13-member Cricinfo Panel has omitted West Indies star batsman Brian Lara from the Cricinfo team of the decade, a man who scored the highest test score -- 400 in this decade (2004) in Antigua against England, and hit 28 runs in one over in 2004 in South Africa -- the most runs in one over in a Test match, coupled with several other outstanding performances during the decade and before.

He played 131 Tests and 299 One Day Internationals -- scoring 11,953 in Tests, including 34 centuries, and hitting 10,405 runs in ODIs, including 19 centuries and 63 half centuries. He was regarded as one of the best batsmen of all time and, on the eve of the millennium, he struck 153 against Australia which was regarded by Wisden as one of the best batting performances in Test cricket.

He received a few international awards during this decade, including honourary doctorate and a prestigious award from Australia. He was one of three cricketers who received the BBC award. The other two were Garfield Sobers and Shane Warne, and the world's greatest bowler, Muttiah Muralitharan, said that he was the toughest opponent he bowled against.

Although he has not played international cricket for more than three years since he retired from Test cricket in November 2006 and ODI in April 2007, his performance for the seven years or so in the past decade was outstanding and should not be overlooked. His omission has brought critical comments from cricket fans in the region and abroad. No West Indian is in the squad as well as no New Zealanders and only one Englishman, Andrew Flintoff, made the team. In fact, the Cricinfo team was dominated by Australians, who have almost half of the team. Cricinfo named a Test team of the decade as well as a One Day squad.

Five Australians have made it into each of the teams, and four others, Sachin Tendulkar, Muttiah Muralitharan, and the South African pair, Jack Kallis and Shaun Pollock, have also been included in both squads. There were four unanimous picks in the Test side, Ricky Ponting, Adam Gilchrist, Glenn McGrath and Muttiah Muralitharan, but there was no unanimous selection in the ODI squad. Gilchrist came the closest with 12 votes with Ponting, Tendulkar and McGrath 11 each.

The Cricinfo Test Squad of the decade includes: Matthew Hayden, Virender Sehwag, Ricky Ponting, Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid, Jacques Kallis, Adam Gilchrist (wk), Shaun Pollock Shane Warne, Muttiah Muralitharan, Glenn McGrath, with Andrew Flintoff 12th man

The One Day squad: Sanath Jayasuriya, Sachin Tendulkar, Ricky Ponting, Jacques Kallis, Andrew Symonds, Adam Gilchrist, Andrew Flintoff, Shaun Pollock, Brett Lee, Glenn Mc Grath, Muttiah Muralitharan, and Shane Warne 12th man.

The team which made the controversial selection comprises: Sambit Bal, Editor Cricinfo, Harsha Bhogle, sports presenter and writer, Ian Chappel, former Australia captain, Peter English, Australasia editor Cricinfo, Jayaditya Gupta, executive editor Cricinfo, Gideon Haigh, cricket historian and writer, Sanjay Manjrekar, former India batsman, Andrew Miller, UK editor Cricinfo, Dileep Premachandran, associate editor Cricinfo, S. Rajesh, stats editor Cricinfo, Christian Ryan, writer, Rob Steen writer, and Telford Vice, writer.