Agree with you shravi. Imran's was my first choice too, but not by a lot. It's his all-round ability that makes him #1 I think.
Anyway, since Cricketman's AWOL I get the next pick.
I've chosen...Abdul Qadir!
Abdul Qadir
A good World Cup spinner is not the easiest thing to find and when I made a quick list of spinners that I wanted in this draft there was only one guy I could find that I wanted more than Qadir - and there's no way he'll fall to my pick. So Abdul Qadir it is!
Who is Abdul Qadir? He's a Pakistani leg-spinner who played in the 1983 and 1987 World Cups. The 1983 World Cup was his ODI debut in fact. All the more significant since in those days, a) there were hardly any leg spinners around, and b) leg spinners were thought of being too expensive to play in ODI cricket. But the selectors soon found he was good enough to be fairly miserly AND to attack constantly. As a leggie he had all the variations, packaged in a fast, hard to read action. There was too many variations sometimes as every ball was different it seemed. But because of that action and his different deliveries, batsmen rarely ever felt comfortable against him.
How did he go in World Cups? Very well, thanks for asking. His overall record is good, but it is the stamp he put on individual games that impress me. For example, his 5/44 vs Sri Lanka came when Sri Lanka were cruising to victory at 2/162 chasing 236. Then Qadir came on and ripped out a 5fer to get Pakistan home by 11 runs.
World Cup Stats:
Matches: 13
Wickets: 24
Average: 21.08
Economy: 3.72
Best Bowling: 5/44 (12 overs) v Sri Lanka, 1983
3 Man of the Match awards: 4/21 (12 overs) v New Zealand, 1983; 5/44 (12 overs) v Sri Lanka, 1983; and 4/31 (10 overs) v England, 1987.
And a word on his batting: Qadir usually batted at #9 for Pakistan, but his record with the bat in World Cups is a little better than that. In his 9 knocks, he was only dismissed twice and both were run outs! All those NOs left Qadir with a World Cup average of 59.00, with a HS of 41* v NZ. But his more famous innings was 16* v West Indies in 1987, where he took 14 off the last over of the match bowled by Courtney Walsh to get Pakistan a last ball win with only 1 wicket in hand. I think that deserves a promotion to #8 at this stage - depending on who else I pick of course.
So in summary, you could argue there have been other World Cup spinners who have been more consistent than Qadir, but not as many who have been able to produce brilliant spells that turn and win matches. That's why he's in my team - to win me matches and to be a constant menace for opposing batsmen in those middle overs for the Sifter XI.
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8 Abdul Qadir
9
10
11 Geoff Allott
You're up now Zorax
