Cricket-Match-Special ... A forum for discussion

Saw this on Cricinfo, and thought we could get some teams from CMS posters:

http://www.espncricinfo.com/story/_/id/26461024/pick-your-all-world-cup-xi

I'll then make a composite side from all of ours to compare against the 'expert' view.

Back of an envelope team to get us started:

Tendulkar
Gilchrist
Ponting
Richards
Sangakarra
Waugh S.
Imran Khan
Wasim Akram
Warne
Murali
McGrath

hard to argue with that XI, other than perhaps DeVilliers for Waugh?

I'd probably open with Bell and Vaughan, too

keep wickets in hand for a 10 over dash at the end

Just WC performances?

contentious point, if you want a leggie as well as an offie..... Tahir has very similar figures to the legendary SKW.... slightly better, perhaps. Might totally eclipse him by the end of this WC. Miles better economy and this in an era where batting scores are going up and up

SRT
Jayasuriya
Viv
Ponting
ABDV
Ganguly
Imran
Hadlee
Warne
Wasim
McGrath

Not an all time ODI side, but a WC side.

Arthur Crabtree wrote:Just WC performances?

That seems the gist AC

Looks like the cricinfo article is looking at WC winners. So I'd have to leave out Hadlee and ABDV. Add MSD and Joel Garner.

Gilchrist
Tendulkar
Ponting
I V Richards
De Villiers
A Symonds
S Waugh
Wasim
Lee
Warne
McGrath.


Quite a lot of Aussies there, but they have won it 5 times.

Based on memory rather than looking at the stats

Tendulkar
M Waugh
Punter
Viv
Sangakkara (wk)
Bevan
Imran
Garner
Malinga
Murali
McGrath

Long tail

So hard to judge, across eras. How heavily do you weight being on a winning side? ABdV has had some amazing innings in world cup games, but when you look at his and South Africa's record in knockout games, he didn't perform when it really mattered. Naturally no Englishmen feature anywhere near this conversation.

I'd say the following are pretty much unarguable, being the best of their discipline at the time, and integral part of at least one (even more than one) winning side:

Tendulkar
Viv
Imran
Akram
McGrath
Murali

For the other five, you're only looking at one bowler, one opener, a couple of middle-order bats and a keeper.

Keeper has to be between ABdV, Gilly and Sanga
Opener is probably between Gilly and Jayasuriya

The other bowler depends if you want a spinner, in which case it's hard to argue with Warne, although as pointed out Tahir has a good world cup record, as does Kumble, although neither of them ever won.
If you want a quick, you can make a bloody good case for Brett Lee - won two world cups, 35 wickets at less than 18 - a better world cup average than Wasim or McGrath. Zaheer Khan also has a strong record and was part of India's 2011 win. Allan Donald, Lasith Malinga and Courtney Walsh also have bloody good records, but probably fall down a little through never having been on a side that made the final, let alone won. Joel Garner is also a good pick, especially for his critical role in the West Indies' 1979 win along with Viv.

Middle order bats is probably the hardest. If you want one who bowls, it's hard to overlook Kallis, probably the most underrated allrounder in history. Kapil and Hadlee have good claims, but they're more bowling allrounders and this side probably doesn't need another bowler. For pure batsmen, Ponting has the weight of runs, centuries and winning record, but beyond that there's a lot of strong contenders - apart from those already mentioned, you could make a case for H Gibbs, Ganguly, Clarke, both Waugh brothers at least.

I guess I'd go:

Gilchrist (wk)
Jayasuriya
Tendulkar
Ponting
Viv
ABdV
Imran (Cap)
Warne
Wasim
Murali
McGrath

Twelfth man: Lee

S Waugh took 27 world cup wickets at a strike rate of 38 conceding at 4.7, Avg 30.

J Kallis took 22 wickets at a strike rate of 60 conceding at 4.3, Avg 43

Whats interesting about the stats is that Kallis actually played more WC games than Waugh. Kallis playing 36 to Waughs 33. I would have though Waugh would have played more games.

Obviously you would take S Waughs bowling from the 1987 WC and his batting from the 1999 WC

bigfluffylemon wrote:

Keeper has to be between ABdV, Gilly and Sanga

No MSD?