New Notts man among our Alternative Cricket World Cup XI
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The cricket World Cup is finally over, yet the end of discussions about the tournament certainly hasn’t ceased.
Predictably, there are numerous versions of what the team of the tournament should look like. The ICC have the official ruling on the accolade, but that doesn’t stop others from having their say.
No matter whose team you read there is a common theme; it’s littered with Australians and New Zealanders.
Clearly the co-hosts were the two best sides in the competition, and the high quality a number of their players produced was key in their runs to the final.
Still, having as many as eight players from the pair, as the ICC’s team did, overlooks the merits of many others who had strong tournaments.
With that in mind news.ladbrokes presents its Alternative Cricket World Cup XI, selected with only one rule: no Aussies and no Kiwis.
Some of the side picks itself. The top five, for example, each sat comfortably among the highest seven runscorers during the event which, incidentally, is a list only containing two players from the Antipodean nations.
From that quintet, a particular mention goes to outgoing Zimbabwe batsman Brendan Taylor, who has now left the setup to join Nottinghamshire, a 4/1 shot to win this season’s County Championship. He scored the fourth-most amount of runs Down Under despite only playing the group stage, which is some feat.
South African master blaster David Miller is in at number six. He transferred his T20 brute strength into the 50-over game with devastating effect. Only three men outside of Australia and New Zealand hit more sixes than the 25-year-old’s 14, making him the perfect lower-order injection.
In the all-rounder’s role comes Jason Holder, who is selected as much for his often stubborn hitting as the West Indies limped to defeat as he is for his hugely impressive captaincy, despite being only 23-years-old in a fragmented dressing room of egos.
The bowling department is led by Wahab Riaz, who produced the most hostile spell in the tournament when terrorising Shane Watson in the quarter final, and Umesh Yadav, who spearheaded a surprisingly potent Indian attack.
Imran Tahir bamboozled with his wrist spin, while Josh Davey is the Associates’ representative thanks to a joint-sixth tally of 15 wickets from just six games for Scotland.
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