My all-time great World Cup XI

That is some side...I recall Gilchrist saying something along the lines of (apologies if I misquote...) "being second to the master Blaster is not too bad..." after he scored the second fastest Test century. The mind boggles...in his era fences had to be cleared for a 'six' and they boundaries were not brought in, pace bowlers could bowl as many bouncers (though what idiot captain would bowl bouncers to Viv in the first place...) and he pointedly refused to wear a helmet. And he used a bat that was ridiculously heavy as lightweight, throwaway bats with massive sweet spots (poor shots go for '6' these days...) had yet been designed. Maybe the only batsman to scare bowlers...?

You've missed the one South African who actually performed consistently at world cups. Herschelle Gibbs scored 1067 runs @56.15 with a strike rate of just over 87.

Hi Kersei, thanks for a great article. Hard to fault your team with regard to the individuals selected and I pretty much agree with your top order. But I think the balance of the side could be tweaked a little. Two allrounders (Steve Waugh & Imran), two spinners (Warne & Murali) and a two pronged pace attack (McGrath and Ambrose) provides greater bowling depth and variation. This team could dominate with pace or spin and would look as follows: 1. Tendulkar 2. Gilchrist 3. Ponting 4. Viv Richards 5. Lara 6. Steve Waugh 7. Imran khan (c) 8. Warne 9. Murali 10. McGrath 11. Curtley Ambrose

tweak the qualifications a litte..750 runs(which is probably two world cups) and you remove possibly half of the bewildering and to me astounding picks...I mean Javed Miandad...strike rate of 68..Jacques kallis...strike rate of 63....

Warne in for Murali. I've got no problem with Murali holding the record, his action etc but under no circumstances would I pick him over Warne to win a match, I don't care what the stats say.

Kevin Pieterson and Stuart Broad must be disappointed not to be named too.

you do love to make the same points again and again

True. Dev and S.Waugh made good captains too. Viv wasn't regarded as highly for his captaincy as say Clive Lloyd was. Viv is an awesome superstar, but somewhat arrogant, demanding and abrasive. Ponting was highly regarded for his leadership and was a "man's man". He'd be smart enough to listen to Viv, but collegiate enough to embrace everyone and harness a strong team spirit. He can also boast leading two WC victories.

I'm frankly staggered that Geoffrey Boycott hasn't made the team let alone the initial squad, surely an obvious oversight.

.....the other problem for Bond and Kluesner is neither of them won a world cup. They may have great stats, but at the end of the day, if players are going to be picked an in all time world cup XI, then you want to pick players that won the cup. From Kersis team, only Kallis and Lara didn't win a world cup.

I think the problem with Bond and Kluesner is they didn't have longevity to have them named in an all time one day squad. However, I would definitely pick both of them for their respective countries in all time XIs.

As my old man used to say - It's a poor job that doesn't have a good boss. With all that talent comes a lot of egos that need controlling & channeling.

there are just too many guys to pick from that for most of us it will just depend on how jingoistic you are feeling when you make the list. there are probably 3 guys everyone has viv richards, ponting and tendulkar. but after that it probably doesnt matter. youd win just as many games with warne and murali in the same team as you would with just one of them, hell you could get rid of them both and play in india and still win everything. which is an important thing that i havnt seen anyone talk about, where are these guys playing? if your in perth then your team would be way different than if you were on the sub continent. if your playing in a smaller indian ground you would just have gilchrist, botham, viv richards and just go for 36 runs off every over. its a fun game to play but does it really matter if you have jayasuria instead of hayden. also are we taking into account who well someone plays with someone else and wether you have too many captain/leaders in the same team?

viv richards has to be the captain. ponting was good and may even have been a better captain but there is no way that you would listen to ponting if viv richards said something contrary.

does a team with viv richards, tendulkar, kallis and ponting really need a captain? its kind of like the west indies teams of the 80s and 90s and the australian teams of the 90s and 00s but just way way better. being a captain is those teams has got to be the easiest job in cricket. west indies just threw the ball well any of their 6 foot plus fast bowlers or the little fellow and ponting just threw the ball to warne or mcgrath and a wickets happened. same thing with this team cept you have murali botham khan and akram. im not even going to touch that batting line up. to make it fair this team should only be allowed to bat down to 5. if another team got 5 wickets that counts as all out.

A bit tough on Andy Bichel, averaging 12.7 with the ball and 117 with the bat at a strike rate of 83. But he only played in one WC, so I can see why he misses out.

Hi Pumping Dougie, Actually M Waugh did bowl in WC matches, and was able to cap a 126 against India with getting Tendulkar out (stumped by Healy). Useful game.

I reckon M.Waugh should get in ahead of both Hayden and Ponting. He opened the batting during 1999 tournament and dominated. His stats are on par with Hayden (for batting average and strike-rate). He can bowl handy offspin (his WC stats suggest he didn't bowl in WC matches) and he would be one of the best fielders in the list provided by the author (along with Richards and Ponting). I agree Kallis should not be picked. Kallis and Imran both had poor strike-rates. Kallis's bowling figures are ok for an allrounder but not great otherwise. On the figures provided, it's reasonable for people to argue Ponting doesn't make the cut. But he's a big-game player, as evidenced by his 140 in a WC final, a brilliant fielder and great leader. And his stats are still bloody good!

On World Cup form, JGK.

Mark Waugh has to be in this team.... certainly deserves a spot ahead Kallis, Lara and his Brother.