Waiting for another Super Series? Don't hold your breath. ICC boss Malcolm Speed has done a backflip over the concept in the aftermath to the hopelessly lopsided contests between a resurgent Australian team and the badly misfiring Rest of the World. In all likelihood, this is the end of the World XI as we know it.
Speed was bitterly disappointed by their efforts in three limited-overs defeats and a shellacking in the Test. The ineptitude of the World XI's batting in their ill-fated trek to Australia was highlighted by the fact that they lasted 50 overs, exactly 50 overs, just once: in the second innings of the Test.
The ICC had planned to stage the Super Series every four years, but those plans have been shelved. Part of the reason is that there may not be a clear-cut No.1 team in future years. The major reason, though, is the failure of the World XI to fight while on these shores to make the project work. A possible solution is to hold a one-off clash every four years between the first- and second-ranked Test nations. Otherwise, the idea is heading for the scrap heap.
Advertisement
Advertisement"As far as the Rest of the World team is concerned, we share the players' disappointment in their performance," Speed said. "It's not something we will put in on a regular basis. It's not something where we're going to say we'll play this every two years, every four years or every six years. I would have liked the World XI to make more runs. We all would have liked that. The performance of the team is not under our control and, as I say, we share the players' disappointment.
"What we had hoped was by bringing a team of champions together, a team spirit would come from the two weeks they've been together. I'm not sure whether that happened."
World XI coach John Wright said the missing ingredient was that indefinable last little skerrick of commitment that can make such a difference to a cricketer's performance - the type of commitment Wright was only able to quantify by placing his index finger just inches from his thumb, grimacing, shaking his head and saying: "That much." In other words, not much at all.
Wright said the players' intensity was less than it would have been for their countries. He refused to point the finger but the villains were there for all to see. Andrew Flintoff, for example, seemed eager to hit as many balls as possible out of the stadium and onto Bondi Beach, whereas he would have been far more selective with his shotmaking if wearing an England cap.
"That's been the hardest bit for me to grapple with - getting that last ? whatever that extra bit is that seems to come more to the fore for your country," Wright said. "That was always going to be the challenge for us all.
"Some of the shots we saw in certain situations, you'd probably want more. That's where I look at myself and say, well, could I have gotten something else out of them that I didn't?" World XI captain
Graeme Smith, who made 12 and nought, agreed. "You grow up in your country and dream of playing for your country ?" he said. "You come here, where you don't know the guys you are playing with and playing for.
"That all adds up to an environment where you maybe lose that 20 per cent. For your country it is do or die. Maybe this isn't do or die for every individual that is here."
It might not have been do or die for the players, but it was for the concept. No need to go to the video umpire. It's out.
