Why Rahul Dravid was inducted into ICC Hall of Fame before Sachin Tendulkar

Former Indian skipper Rahul Dravid was inducted into ICC Hall of Fame on Sunday, July 1. 

Dravid, also called The Wall, is the fifth Indian cricketer to join the list. He joined the club of Kapil Dev, Sunil Gavaskar, Bishan Singh Bedi and Anil Kumble as the members of the Indian ICC Hall of Fame members. Former Australia captain Ricky Ponting was also inducted into ICC Hall of Fame with Dravid.

Master Blaster Sachin Tendulkar congratulated Dravid on the achivement. He tweeted, "Congratulations, Rahul Dravid. The wall is finally in the HALL Much deserved."

Congratulations, Rahul Dravid. The wall is finally in the HALL Much deserved. pic.twitter.com/M9Fqe8UCIS

— Sachin Tendulkar (@sachin_rt) July 3, 2018

However, many fans were wondering that why Sachin himself is not in the ICC Hall of Fame. 

Sachin is argubly the greatest cricketer in the history of the game. However, he is yet to be added to prestigious list. While Kapil Dev, Sunil Gavaskar and Bishan Singh Bedi belong to the previous generation of cricketers, Anil Kumble and now Rahul Dravid played along side Tendulkar.

Actually, the answer is quite straight forward- Sachin Tendulkar is not eligible to be inducted in the ICC Hall of Fame, yet.

A player can be inducted into ICC Hall of Fame only five years after quitting international cricket. As per the rules, the inductee should not have played any international contest for the last five years.

Sachin Tendulkar retired from international cricket in November 2013 and he is yet not eligible to receive the honour.

Of course, there is no doubt that he will be a part of ICC Hall of Fame. Sachin is the most capped-player in both Test and ODI cricket. He has also scored the highest runs and centuries in both formats.