ESPN Legends of Cricket Online

It has often been said that you can best judge the quality of a sporting team by the talents of the players left out, and never has this been better illustrated than with ESPN's Legends of Cricket. No one could argue that the top 25 are all fantastic players, but look here at those who ESPN's elite selection panel ranked 26 to 50.

Among them are some of the West Indies greatest fast bowlers, Aussie legends such as Trumper, O'Reilly, Lindwall and Benaud, famous Englishmen including Barnes, Rhodes, Trueman and Laker and modern heroes such as Lara, McGrath, Donald and Javed Miandad. Also here is the only wicketkeeper ranked among the top 50.

Footage of and tributes to these great players only underlines the fact that this entire series is about the very best in the history of cricket, and that the margin between the top 25 and the second 25 is often very slim indeed.