Mumbai Jan 6: Sachin Tendulkar and Virender Sehwag were declared the best opening pair ever by fans from across the world in an online poll conducted by the International Cricket Council [ICC].

The results of the poll for the all-time ODI ‘dream team’ were declared on the occasion of 40th anniversary of One-Day Internationals. The first ever ODI was played between Australia and England on 5 January 1971 at the Melbourne Cricket Ground. 6,00,000 fans from 97 countries cast their votes on www.icc-cricket.com in a poll held between 22 December 2010 and 2 January 2011 to select the ‘dream team’ and the greatest ODI match of all-time.

The cricketers were selected from a short-list of 48 players in various categories, namely - opening batsman, middle-order batsman, all-rounder, wicket-keeper, fast bowlers and spinners. And the best ODI was chosen from a list of 10 memorable matches.

Former India skipper Kapil Dev, who led India to victory in the 1983 World Cup, found his place in the team as an all-rounder.

Others who made it to the dream team are Australians Ricky Ponting, Adam Gilchrist (wicket-keeper) and Glenn McGrath, Viv Richards and Brian Lara from the West Indies, Muttiah Muralitharan from Sri Lanka, South African pacer Allan Donald and Pakistani all-rounder Wasim Akram. Australia’s Michael Bevan is the 12th man.

Fans voted the historic “438” game between South Africa and Australia at Johannesburg in 2006 as the best ODI to-date.