Murali takes the baton from Akram

A little more than a month into 2009, we witnessed the fall of a major record. Muttiah Muralitharan took his 503rd wicket against India at the Premadasa Stadium to become the highest wicket-taker in one-day internationals, an honour that Wasim Akram seemed to have owned forever. But who held the record before them and for how long? This week we look at the progression of record holders for most wickets and runs in ODIs.

Before Murali, Kapil Dev was the last bowler to simultaneously hold the records for Test and ODI wickets. Unlike Murali, who will remain the record holder in both formats for several years, Kapil's dual reign was brief. He had been the highest wicket-taker in ODIs since 1988, after breaking Joel Garner's nine-month old record of 146 wickets, against West Indies in Sharjah, but went past Richard Hadlee's Test record only in February 1994. By that time Akram was closing in on Kapil's ODI mark of 251 wickets. Akram claimed the mark in August 1994, trapping Sanath Jayasuriya lbw, also at the Premadasa Stadium, and remained on top for more than 14 years. Six years passed after Akram's last ODI, in 2003, before he was overtaken.

England's Geoff Arnold was the first bowler to remain the highest wicket-taker for more than two years - his tally grew from six to 18 wickets between 1972 and 1975, when ODIs were few and far between. Later Dennis Lillee held the record for three years before becoming the first bowler to take 100 ODI wickets, against Zimbabwe in the 1983 World Cup.

Who are the contenders to Murali's title? The closest current players are Chaminda Vaas and Brett Lee, with 400 and 313 wickets respectively, but it's highly unlikely that they will play long enough to overtake Murali. Makhaya Ntini is on 265 but he will have to double his tally to have any chance. Maybe the best bet is Ajantha Mendis, whose career has just begun. He's 23 years old and has become the fastest to reach 50 wickets.

The record for most ODI runs changed hands frequently between Ian Chappell, Dennis Amiss and Keith Fletcher during the first few years of ODI cricket. Amiss eventually broke from the pack in June 1975, going past Fletcher's tally of 599 runs to reclaim the record, and finished his career with 859 runs at an average of nearly 48, in 1977. Chappell and Fletcher were unable to catch up, even though they played until 1980 and 1982 respectively.

Another three-way battle began two years later when Greg Chappell went past Amiss during the World Series Cup in Australia in 1979. West Indies were also involved in the tournament and Viv Richards scored 85 off 77 balls against England at the Gabba in the very next match to go past Chappell's tally of 867. The record changed hands twice more during the series and it ended with Richards leading with 1059 runs - he was the first person to score more than 1000 runs in ODIs.

Gordon Greenidge entered the race briefly and held the record for seven months in 1980 before Richards took it back against Pakistan in Sialkot on December 5. Two days later Chappell was back in front and this time he held the record for three years, until he played his last match in April 1983, finishing with 2331 ODI runs.

Richards soon caught up and broke the record against India in December 1983. It was the start of a seven-year reign for the King and he had raised the bar to 6051 runs by March 1990. Richards played until May 1991, leaving Greenidge behind, but he was overtaken before his last ODI by team-mate Desmond Haynes, who broke the record against Pakistan in Karachi in 1990. Haynes' final tally of 8648 stood for four years after his last ODI, against England in 1994.

In November 1998, Mohammad Azharuddin became the first Indian to become the highest run-scorer in ODIs, and the record has never left the subcontinent since. Azharuddin remained the record holder until the end of his career in June 2000. Five months later Sachin Tendulkar scored his 9379th run in the Champions Trophy final against New Zealand to become the highest run-scorer in ODIs. He currently has 16,440 runs but his appearances in ODIs have become more sporadic.

Most runs in ODIs - progressive record holders

Player	Runs	Opposition	Ground	Match End	Scorecard
JH Edrich	82	v Australia	Melbourne	5 Jan 1971	ODI 1
IM Chappell	113	v England	Manchester	24 Aug 1972	ODI 2
IM Chappell	144	v England	Lord's	26 Aug 1972	ODI 3
DL Amiss	168	v Australia	Birmingham	28 Aug 1972	ODI 4
DL Amiss	302	v New Zealand	Manchester	20 Jul 1973	ODI 7
IM Chappell	316	v New Zealand	Christchurch	31 Mar 1974	ODI 11
DL Amiss	322	v India	Leeds	13 Jul 1974	ODI 12
KWR Fletcher	338	v India	The Oval	16 Jul 1974	ODI 13
KWR Fletcher	400	v New Zealand	Wellington	9 Mar 1975	ODI 18
DL Amiss	509	v India	Lord's	7 Jun 1975	ODI 19
KWR Fletcher	599	v New Zealand	Nottingham	11 Jun 1975	ODI 23
DL Amiss	613	v East Africa	Birmingham	14 Jun 1975	ODI 27
DL Amiss	859	v Australia	The Oval	6 Jun 1977	ODI 44
GS Chappell	867	v West Indies	Sydney	21 Dec 1979	ODI 80
IVA Richards	883	v England	Brisbane	23 Dec 1979	ODI 81
GS Chappell	919	v England	Sydney	26 Dec 1979	ODI 82
GS Chappell	953	v England	Sydney	14 Jan 1980	ODI 83
IVA Richards	971	v England	Adelaide	16 Jan 1980	ODI 84
IVA Richards	1059	v England	Sydney	22 Jan 1980	ODI 87
CG Greenidge	1073	v England	Leeds	29 May 1980	ODI 89
CG Greenidge	1133	v Pakistan	Karachi	21 Nov 1980	ODI 93
GS Chappell	1154	v New Zealand	Sydney	25 Nov 1980	ODI 95
IVA Richards	1211	v Pakistan	Sialkot	5 Dec 1980	ODI 96
GS Chappell	1213	v New Zealand	Melbourne	7 Dec 1980	ODI 98
GS Chappell	2331	v Sri Lanka	Colombo (SSC)	30 Apr 1983	ODI 196
IVA Richards	2457	v India	Jamshedpur	7 Dec 1983	ODI 229
IVA Richards	6501	v England	Georgetown	7 Mar 1990	ODI 617
DL Haynes	6537	v Pakistan	Karachi	9 Nov 1990	ODI 639
DL Haynes	8648	v England	Port of Spain	5 Mar 1994	ODI 890
M Azharuddin	8648	v Sri Lanka	Sharjah	6 Nov 1998	ODI 1366
M Azharuddin	9378	v Pakistan	Dhaka	3 Jun 2000	ODI 1600
SR Tendulkar	9433	v New Zealand	Nairobi (Gym)	15 Oct 2000	ODI 1639
SR Tendulkar	16440	v Sri Lanka	Colombo (RPS)	3 Feb 2009	ODI 2813