5 short cricketers who went on to become all-time greats 

#4 Alvin Kallicharran – 5’4’’

Alvin Kallicharran

Alvin Kalicharan like many left-handers was known for his balance and elegance. Scoring two hundreds in his first two Tests, Kallicharran went onto to establish himself in the legendary West Indies team of the 1970s. In fact, he was one of the shortest players in that team.

Kallicharran scored a staggering 114 centuries (including List A and First-class) in his career including a double hundred in a one-day (List A) game. One of his best and most remembered innings came in the first World Cup in 1975, when he launched a brutal assault on Dennis Lillee where he scored 35 runs of 100 successive balls off Lillee (4,4,4,4,4,1,4,6,0,4).

The bare-headed Kallicharran, little more than 5’ 4’’ finished with an average of 44.43 (4399 runs in 66 Tests). One fact that stands out is he played more than 500 first-class games scoring more than 32,000 runs and almost 400 List A games before he retired in from all forms of cricket in 1990 (He retired from international cricket in 1981).