At the moment Wasim Akram (14918) is just behind Sachin Tendulkar (18,416) votes.
The winner-determined by a jury of 50 players, commentators and cricket writers from around the world-will be announced in the March issue of the magazine, published next week.
The jury's choice of the five greatest comprise two game changing keeper-batsmen, a magician fast bowler, and two colossal batsmen.
Adam Gilchrist's ODI career spanned only 12 years 1996 to 2008 but he set a benchmark for his breed. He rattled along at 97 runs for 100 balls and confirmed his status as an all-time great with a whirlwind 149 that won Australia the World Cup final in 2007.
If Gilchrist reinvented the role of a wicketkeeper-batsman, MS Dhoni the only current player in the top five has emerged as one of the greatest finishers in ODI cricket.
Mixing cheeky running with power-packed, inventive strokeplay, Dhoni has time and again taken India past the finish line.
And he played a huge role in two big one-day finals with the bat in the 2011 World Cup, and with inspired captaincy in the 2013 Champions Trophy.
Through the late '70s and '80s, one cricketer dominated the limited-overs game like no other, and helped his side to two World Cups along the way.
Viv Richards averaged 47 (at a time when batsmen in the top seven averaged 29) and scored at a strike rate of 90 (in an era when the norm was 66).
If Richards could do anything with a bat, the same could be said of Wasim Akram with the ball. In a career that lasted nearly two decades Akram developed from a young tearaway to a masterful swing bowler who could bowl six different deliveries in an over.
Wasim finished with 502 wickets still comfortably the most for a fast bowler.
The day it mattered the most, in March 1992, he finished as Man of the Match.