Indian cricketer and former captain Rahul Dravid has broken the world record for the number of catches in Test matches by an outfielder.

When Dravid helped to dismiss the New Zealand batsman, Tim McIntosh, in Wellington, it was his 182nd catch in a Test career going back to 1996.

Dravid's landmark was reached on the fourth day of India's third Test match against New Zealand at Wellington. The previous record holder was Mark Waugh of Australia.

Dravid, 36, is now clearly ahead of Ricky Ponting (148 catches in 131 Tests), Jacques Kallis (147 catches in 131) and Mahela Jayawardene (142 catches in 102) among current players.

"Dravid has spent a lifetime in Sachin Tendulkar's shadow and the big batting records - centuries, number of runs scored - were never going to be his, but he is quite on his own in the slips," according to Sambit Bal, editor of a cricket website.

Last year, Dravid became only the sixth batsman in history to score 10,000 Test runs. He has compiled 26 Test centuries and 56 fifties, earning the nickname "The Wall" for his obdurate style of play.

Dravid, who was appointed the captain of the Indian team in October 2005, resigned from the job in September 2007.

He captained India in 25 Tests - winning eight, losing six and drawing 11 - and 79 one-day internationals.

Virender Sehwag was named the Wisden cricketer of the year and along with his skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni, batting maestro Sachin Tendulkar and two other Indians, the opener was included in this year's Wisden Test XI.

Pace spearhead Zaheer Khan and off-spinner Harbhajan Singh are the two members of the Indian team who were included in the Test XI which will be captained by wicket-keeper batsman Dhoni.

The 146th edition of the Wisden Cricketers' Almanack, which was launched today, reflects on 12 months in which Twenty20 has continued to reshape the game and cricket, in general, has been forced to confront a range of major challenges.

Meanwhile, Claire Taylor, England's leading run-scorer in her team's successful World Cup campaign this year, has become the first woman to be named as one of the five cricketers of the year by the annual Wisden almanac.

The other four honoured are England pacer James Anderson, South African Dale Benkenstein, Mark Boucher and Neil McKenzie.

Proteas skipper Graeme Smth, who was narrowly eclipsed by Virender Sehwag for the leading cricketing award after both openers enjoyed epic years, was included in the Test XI as the second opener of the team.

The 2008 Wisden Test XI: Virender Sehwag, Graeme Smith, Ricky Ponting, Sachin Tendulkar, Kevin Pietersen, Shivnarine Chanderpaul, MS Dhoni (capt & wk), Harbhajan Singh, Mitchell Johnson, Dale Steyn, Zaheer Khan.