Sana Mir inducted into ICC Hall of Fame

Former captain of the Pakistan women’s cricket team Sana Mir Monday was inducted into the International Cricket Council (ICC) Hall of Fame.

The former off-spinner, who represented Pakistan for around 15 years, became the first woman cricketer from the country to be added to the prestigious list of sports.

Overall, she is the eighth Pakistani cricketer to be inducted into the ICC Hall of Fame, joining the likes of Imran Khan, Wasim Akram, Javed Miandad, Abdul Qadir, Zaheer Abbas, Waqar Younis and Hanif Mohammad.

Mir also became only the 14th female cricketer in the world to be inducted into the elusive list.

“This is quite an emotional moment for me,” said Mir on her induction. It has been a long journey from playing cricket on the streets of Pakistan to getting here.

“There was a time when there were not enough women cricketers in Pakistan and nobody to look up to as a role model. Today, there are so many female cricketers who are examples for everyone.”

“From dreaming as a little girl that one day there would even be a women’s team in our country to now standing here, inducted among the very legends I idolized long before I ever held a bat or a ball – this is a moment I couldn’t have dared to imagine.

“I am incredibly grateful for this honour and hope to give back to the sport in any way I can. I would like to take this opportunity to thank my teammates, coaches and family for all their support over the years.”

Mir, who made her international debut for Pakistan in December 2005 against Sri Lanka at the National Bank Stadium in Karachi, went on to represent the green shirts in 120 ODIs and 106 T20Is.

During her illustrious career, she picked up 240 international wickets across white-ball formats besides scoring 2450 runs with the help of three half-centuries.

She was also the first Pakistani woman cricketer to top the ICC Women’s ODI Players Rankings besides being the first Asian woman cricketer to play 100 T20Is as well as the first Pakistani woman to complete the century of ODIs.

Sana became Pakistan’s captain at 23 and led them for seven years, including winning two Asian Games gold medals in 2010 and 2014. Having enjoyed a 15-year international career, she retired as her country’s leading wicket-taker in ODI cricket and second-highest in T20I cricket. Having started out as a pace bowler, a stress fracture forced her to switch to off-spin.

Sana Mir was also the first woman cricketer to be named the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) Cricketer of the Year.

Hashim Amla, Mahendra Singh Dhoni, Matthew Hayden, Graeme Smith and Daniel Vettori were the five men’s players inducted as the class of 2025 with Sana Mir and Sarah Taylor the women’s players in the list, taking the list of ICC Hall of Fame inductees to 122.

The seven distinguished cricketers were voted by the ICC Hall of Famers, senior executives and members of the media and inducted during ‘A Day with the Legends’ event that was watched in different parts of the world as it was telecast live by several of ICC’s broadcast partner networks.