Wellington, April 2 NZPA - Sir Richard Hadlee will receive a cap marking his induction into cricket's Hall of Fame during the opening day of the third and final test against India at the Basin Reserve here tomorrow.

The Hall of Fame has been established by the International Cricket Council as part of its Centenary Year celebrations during 2009.

Sir Richard was named as one of the inaugural inductees last November.

Sir Richard, the only New Zealander named, joins such legends as WG Grace, Don Bradman, Sir Garfield Sobers and Sunil Gavaskar among 55 initial inductees.

He will be presented with a cap by ICC president David Morgan and chief executive Haroon Lorgat.

The Hall of Fame is a collaboration between ICC and the Federation of International Cricketers Associations (FICA).

The initial inductees are those named in the FICA Hall of Fame, which ran between 1999 and 2003.

Additional names will be added annually from this year, when new inductees will be announced at the ICC awards ceremony.

Sir Richard's citation highlights his position as one of the finest exponents of fast-medium bowling the game has seen.

His test career began in 1972 and he became the first bowler to take 400 test wickets.

When he retired in 1990, he had a tally of 431, a world record at the time. He had a career strike rate of at least five wickets per test.

His best bowling was against Australia at Brisbane in 1985 when he took 15-123 in the match, and 9-52 in the first innings.

He is also among the few to complete the double of 3000 runs and 300 wickets in tests and was knighted shortly before his final test match.

NZPA AKL cb mgr kn