ICC One-day super series: The rest of the world not at its best!

The ICC super series has ended in a most one-sided fashion imaginable. I had always given the Australian side a good chance of winning the series if it was going to be played at home, but I had hoped for a closer contest. It was not to be.

Before the contest began, I had questioned the choice of captain in Shaun Pollock. If he was not considered good enough to captain his own national side, why did the Selectors think he was good enough to captain the Rest of the World. Was it a case of Sunil Gavaskar repaying back some real or imaginary debt to his father Graeme, who if you recall had played alongside Sunil in the first Super Series in 1971 when Gavaskar was a hot-shot rookie.

On hindsight, it appears that the choice of the selection panel itself was not right. None of the World XI selectors had chosen a national one-day side in the past and were thus unaware of the demands that modern day cricket places on a one-day side and the kind of balance necessary for a side to win. The importance of captaincy is far greater in one-day cricket than in tests. The best way to choose a world XI side would have been to get all coaches of major teams together to choose a side. Had Shaun Pollock not played his place in the side, you could have been taken by a more effective one-day bowler like a Rana Naveedul Hassan. Maybe Shoaib Akhtar would not have been chosen.

Pollock's inadequacies as a captain were very evident in the last one-dayer. With Australia on the ropes with Murali and Vettori weaving circles on the Aussies (at 150/5), Pollock decided to bring on the part-time off-spin of Gayle and Sehwag and then himself. This released the pressure and allowed Hussey and Watson to take the match away. Shahid Afridi was never used as a bowler and never at the top of the batting order to bring in an element of surprise. It was also very evident that the side missed Inzamamul Haq badly - someone who could shoulder the burden of batting long and batting fast. Rahul Dravid does not win many one-dayers for his national side and was never expected to lead the batting for the Rest of the World. Lara at 36 years of age is probably feeling over the hill while Kallis was inexplicably out of form. Full credit to Australia for leveraging the hurt and pain of the Ashes loss into positive energy and putting the issue of the "best team in the world" beyond doubt.