The Cricket World Cup is finally over after spanning some 46 days and many many games that really did not seem to mean anything. India won what really was a great game of cricket. What lessons have cricket fans learnt from the 2011 World Cup?
After pondering it overnight, I have come up with the following:
1. The best team won in the end.
India may not have had the best bowling or fielding line ups but their powerhouse batting, coupled with an excellent captain and seemingly cohesive team spirit won out the day. They lifted in the field when it counted. Forget the ICC ratings – this is the best team in all forms of the game at the moment.
2. Australia simply picked the wrong bowling lineup.
Fast bowlers on the wickets of the subcontinent were always going to be hit and miss and in the big moments the triumvirate of Lee, Tait and Johnson were simply too wayward and, if it makes sense, fast to win those big moments.
The selectors “jobbed” it and the captain has taken the blame. Australian cricket has embraced a new era in the wake.
3. None of the New Zealand players would make a world’s best eleven (Ross Taylor the possible exclusion) but they are a united team.
They played as a team and, as always seems to happen, they sucked every bit of talent they had out of their team. How good is it to see Jesse Ryder get a run and go well – make one ponder what might have been for M Cosgrove in the Australian line up.
4. Sri Lanka is one quality batsman away from dominating the cricket world.
They have a replacement, of sorts, to Murali in Mendis (their failure to select him in the final may have been decisive) and have a great top four in the batting order. One more batsmen of the quality of Yuvraj Singh or Ross Taylor to support Sangakarra and Jayawardene and they would truly be dynamite.
5. In the form of Dhoni, Sangakarra, Afridi and Vettori the four teams in the finals possessed the four best captains in the tournament.
Afridi has bound together a notoriously fractious team into a united outfit with weapons across the park.
Before this tournament many pundits considered the 50 over game to be dead but some of the games of cricket we have seen over the last month and a half will go down in the annals of limited overs cricket as classics. We have also seen the end of an era inasmuch as the next World Cup will be played without the names Tendulkar, Murali and Ponting in the teams lists.
All that is left then, aside from saluting the victors, is to pick my “Team of the Tournament”.
What follows is the team that I consider to be the best team from all of the players who played in the World Cup. It is not a collection of the 12 best players of the last 12 months nor is it supposed to represent the best one day players in the game.
Simply I have tried to pick the best team solely based on performances in this tournament. In batting order, my team is:
1. Tendulkar: simply the best ever. I am sorry Sir Don but he just is and his batting this tournament has shown age has not wearied him. The biggest wicket in any game played. Nothing more needs to be said.
2. Dilshan: was dominant at the top of the order for the Sri Lankan’s and scored the most runs in the tournament. Cannot look past him to partner the Great One.
3. Sangakarra: plays as a batsman in this line-up given that Dhoni is selected and gets picked at 3 because he is the best number three in the tournament and in the game.
4. Jayawardene: Scratchy tournament really book ended by two hundreds but his hundred in the final was sublime. The innings of the tournament selects him in this team.
5. De Villiers: despite South Africa going out early had a tournament that showed just how good a player he is. 353 runs in five knocks is evidence of that.
6. Singh: have never really been a fan till this tournament but with the bat and the ball was the quality allrounder of the tournament. Lifted in the field in the final and was in everything.
7. Dhoni: Bats low in this line-up and already have Sangakarra but he gets picked because he is the best captain going around. Enough said.
8. Afridi: Most wickets in the tournament, streaky with the bat and a great leader. Gives great balance, on the pitches the tournament was played on, to this line-up.
9. Khan Z: Has there been a better spell in a World Cup final than the first five overs Zaheer bowled last night? Left arm and fast with swing. Too good.
10. Riaz: The find of the tournament. How much does this guy remind one of Akram? Brilliant spell in the semi-final after getting a run in front of Ahktar.
11. Murali: Everyone knew the old stager had one more big tournament in him and on one leg he did not disappoint. Forget all of the crap that has gone in Australia about this bloke – he is a legend.
12. Roach: I know he got 6 for and his hatrick against a minnow but he is quick and bowls straight without a lot of the waywardness of other allegedly express bowlers.
So that is my tournament line-up and some thoughts about the tournament. Comments and alternate selections encouraged and, indeed, welcomed.
Professor Rosseforp
Guest
Sorry, I can't leave the Murali comment without adding my two cents' worth. I like him as a personality, and don't regard him as a cheat, but I believe he has operated outside the laws of the game for much of his career. Fast bowlers are still penalised for no-balling when they overstep -- how about giving them a little latitude? Batsmen are run out or stumped even if they are within 15% of the popping crease -- how about we give them some slack? Wicketkeepers still have to keep their feet behind the stumps when effecting a stumping -- let's loosen that a bit. Fielders who almost catch a ball could be given a catch, I think. The game is poorer for his diabolical bowling action -- which would not be such a problem if the ICC had taken action in support of the game at the beginning of the controversy. I have never seen so many throwers in the game, from virtually all countries, including Australia. There are still steps that the ICC could take to rectify the problem, including totally legalising throwing, or examining the whole issue in the light of the latest research that casts doubts on the whole issue of elbow-bending as throwing.
amigo
Guest
i would say yuvraj is under achieved, but to say he is over rated is kinda silly. Skills pay bills man. he is too skilled to be OVER RATED.
shumpty77
Roar Rookie
Vim - thanks for the comment. Can't say I agree though. I agree that an additional uninjured spinner, in the form of Hauritz, would have been a good addition, but doubt we would have picked two off spinners (noting the inclusion of Hussey D too). Where are the medium pace bowlers in Australia's lineup? Watson aside we were two paced between express and spin. The bowling attack was unbalanced and there was no plan B. Looking at domestic cricket, medium pacers with experience that could have been selected include James Hopes (most underrated player in the country) and Andrew McDonald (I know he was hurt for most of the season but is a good player). Equally the rigid selection policy of express pace at all costs, cost John Hastings a run when his bowling might have offered a good middle ground between express and spin.
shumpty77
Roar Rookie
Thanks Tristan. I thought long and hard about including Watson but where do you put him is the conundrum. He was not in the best 2 openers in the World Cup and if you wanted a medium fast bowling allrounder in the team it is hard, still, to go past Kallis.
Trev
Guest
I had a laugh at Yuraj Sighn being called "quailty", one off the most over rated batsmen I have ever seen.
Spencer
Guest
Shumpty- why did you find it necessary to mention Don Bradman in an article about 50 over cricket? And you immediately preceded it by by saying "I have tried to pick the best team soley based on performances in this tournament".
Spencer
Guest
There is a third option...slow seamers. NZ do well with them. Tait is a joke, and a disgrace to Australian cricket. Throw White into that category. Makes you wonder what the selectors do...SFA apparently.
Vim
Guest
So as usual someone says that the fast attack of Aus was a mistake, but can't suggest an alternative. The reason they chose quick men is because there isn't really alternatives. If we have decent quality and UNINJURED spin bowlers, they would have been there. I suggest that the batsmen played their part in not giving the bowlers enough runs in the must win matches ie- against Pakistan and India.
M1tch
Roar Guru
Honorable mention to Imran Tahir 14 wickets in 5 games for South Africa, I thought Ray Price did a good job in opening overs for Zimbabwe had a very good econ rate
Tristan Rayner
Editor
Nice post shumpty; no room for Australia's best Watson? Not sure who I'd drop out though.