England’s cricketer and former captain Alastair Cook has unveiled his all-time great World XI cricket team featuring some of the greatest and iconic players.
All the cricketers chosen are those who have played with or against Cook with one exception. Therefore, Cook has picked former England legend Graham Gooch as the captain of the team.
Gooch is a former England and Essex legend and was widely regarded as one of the greatest cricketers of his generation and is also the most highest run scorer in professional cricket. He will be opening with Australia’s powerful and agressive batsman Matthew Hayden.
In the middle order, whichever order they want to bat, Cook has placed some of the most iconic cricketers including West Indies’ Brain Lara and former Australian captain Ricky Ponting.
Lara is acknowledged as one of the greatest batsmen of all time and has the only quintuple hundred in first-class cricket history. Ponting was the Australian captain during its golden era and won two consecutive World Cups in 2003 and 2007.
South African cricketers AB de Villiers and Jacques Kallis are also included. Sri Lanka’s wicketkeeper batsman Kumar Sangakarra is among the team, who Cooks says can swap responsibilities with de Villiers to keep them motivated. “I’d pay a lot of money to see that middle order bat,” said Cook.
The bowling line includes two of the greatest spinners of all time. Sri Lanka’s off-spinner Muttiah Muralitharan and Australian leg-spinner Shane Warne, two of the highest wicket takers have been included.
The pace will be spearheaded by fellow player James Anderson, who became the first and only England cricketer to pass 500 wickets. He will be followed by Australia’s Glen McGrath who dominated the world of cricket with his medium pace attack.
“I think that side would be quite hard to beat,” Cook claiming adding that a lot of greats are missing out and he sincerely apologises for that.
