Australia

Nathan Bracken
Stuart Clark
Michael Clarke
Adam Gilchrist
Brad Haddin
Matthew Hayden
Brad Hodge
Brad Hogg
Mike Hussey
Mitchell Johnson
Glenn McGrath
Ricky Ponting
Australian man, Andrew Symonds of Australia
Shaun Tait
Shane Watson

Australia news

Main page

Other Australian players we wrote about who didn't make the squad:

Jason Gillespie
Phil Jaques
Brett Lee
Damien Martyn

Jason Gillespie, Australia – Player profile

If Jason Gillespie’s in Australia’s World Cup squad there’s either been some sort of a disaster or some sort of monstrous turn around in Gillespie’s fortunes. Jason Gillespie was formerly a devastating fast bowler, like a patient, accurate Brett Lee. He bowled at over 90mph, swung the ball, seamed the ball. He was accurate. He produced sharp bounce.

These days Jason Gillespie is an ‘innocuoso’. That’s a word that we made up to describe someone who excels at the art of harmlessness.

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Brett Lee, Australia – Player profile

Brett Lee is without doubt one of the best one-day bowlers in the world. Harrowingly fast anyway, knowing he’s only got at most ten overs to bowl seems to make him quicker still.

Brett Lee’s a much improved batsman these days as well and is quite capable of playing ‘properly’. Very powerful, he can hit sixes, but he’s got decent technique behind that. That he’ll be an influence with the ball is a given, but we’re not ruling out a World Cup performance with the bat as well.

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Nathan Bracken, Australia – Player profile

Nathan Bracken is decent without being great, we’d say. And that’s all we’d say because we don’t really know anything about Nathan Bracken that’s worth passing on to the world.

Update: We just wrote a second Nathan Bracken profile. We could have used that one instead, but the mere fact that we wrote a second one merely underlines what we said in this version: Not all that memorable.

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Australian man, Andrew Symonds of Australia, Australia – Player profile

Birmingham-born Australian man, Andrew Symonds of Australia is an Australian. It’s very important to never go on about how he was born in the UK. He’s Australian, you see. England’s Kevin Pietersen was born in South Africa, so if you’re English you’re opening yourself up to attack if you continually cite Australian man, Andrew Symonds of Australia’s place of birth.

Australian man, Andrew Symonds of Australia is technically an all-rounder, but his violent batting’s by far his main strength. His bowling’s not bad, but a little bit nothingy. You’d pay good money to watch him bat though. Say what you like about Australian man, Andrew Symonds of Australia’s place of birth, he loves those boundaries.

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Australian man, Andrew Symonds of Australia news

Mike Hussey, Australia – Player profile

Like the unparalleled Darren Lehmann, Mike Hussey had to wait far too long to get his chance for Australia and then promptly went about making up for missed time. Despite a late start to his international career, Hussey seems keen to rewrite a few records.

No jokes about his surname being ‘Hussey’. Keep up the good work.

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Michael Clarke, Australia – Player profile

Isn’t Michael Clarke some sort of populist dancer in Ireland or somewhere. Ballet maybe? We don’t know. It’s not our area of expertise. This Michael Clarke – Michael Clarke of Australia’s middle order – is also quite quick-footed, dancing around the crease hitting the spinners to all parts.

Michael Clarke is also an occasional bowler. He seems to be successful a lot of the time. No-one really seems ready to credit this.

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Damien Martyn, Australia – Player profile

Have you seen Damien Martyn’s eyes? It’s like he can see into your soul. We hope that we never accidentally say something about Damien Martyn’s mother in his presence because he’d try and stare us out and we really don’t think we could stand that. We’re a bit on edge just thinking about it.

Damien Martyn bats for Australia. He doesn’t seem to get himself out in one-dayers as readily as he does in Tests.

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Ricky Ponting, Australia – Player profile

Ricky Ponting is known for three things. One, Ricky Ponting is what Tony Soprano would describe as a ‘degenerate gambler,’ only Tony would use a naughty word in front of ‘degenerate’. This doesn’t actually mean that Ricky Ponting is a degenerate in any way. It’s just a turn of phrase meaning he likes to bet.

Two, Ricky Ponting had a hilariously unrestrained hissy fit when he got run out by a substitute during the 2006 Ashes series.

Three, Ricky Ponting is one of the greatest batsmen of all time. He’s Australia’s captain as well, but he’s not ‘known’ for that. Everyone knows it, but he’s not ‘known’ for it.

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Phil Jaques, Australia – Player profile

We always thought that Phil Jaques was a Yorkshire youth product or something having never seen him. Then he started scoring heaps of runs and it became immediately apparent that he was one of the many Australian batsmen supporting the art of run-scoring in the County Championship.

Phil Jaques: Australian. Phil Jaques: Batsman. That’s pretty much all we know.

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Adam Gilchrist, Australia – Player profile

Have you seen the way Adam Gilchrist holds a cricket bat? Seriously. How does he hit the ball? He holds it so close to the end of the handle that only his thumb and forefinger of his top hand actually make contact. It’s practically impossible to control like that, however it does give you unrivalled leverage. The kind of leverage that means middling the ball equals a boundary.

That’s Adam Gilchrist’s batting in a nutshell. You don’t know how he middles it, but middle it he does and the ball is summarily dispatched to the fence. Excellent wicketkeeper as well. Excellent.

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Lasith Malinga, Sri Lanka – Player profile

Lasith Malinga’s ‘thing’ is that he slings the ball like a kid. It’s great. It’s just how you were told not to bowl and because of that unfamiliarity batsmen find Malinga difficult to handle.

He’s a fast bowler. Fast bowlers are to be cherished, especially when their technique means that it’s a minor miracle that the ball goes anywhere near the stumps. For defying reason, we salute you Lasith Malinga.

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Michael Vandort, Sri Lanka – Player profile

Michael Vandort is one of the race of beings known as ‘giants’. Having discovered space travel in prehistory and then constructed a network of tunnels linking all the continents of the earth, the giants went into hiding, reappearing only at times of great crisis.

Sri Lanka were having great difficulties identifying a successor to Benevolent Uncle Sanath Jayasuriya and so forward stepped Michael Vandort. He’s watchful in defence.

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Shoaib Akhtar, Pakistan – Player profile

Just what are you going to do next Shoaib Akhtar? He’s always newsworthy. Whether saying that he’s the only decent player for Pakistan and that everyone else keeps letting him down or being photographed dancing in a nightclub when injured. Whether being called for throwing because of his hyper-extended elbow or bowling the first documented 100mph delivery you can’t keep the boy quiet.

Even his run-up’s attention-seeking. In an age of economy of movement, Shoaib’s half-marathon prior to each delivery is a thing of splendour.

Fast bowlers should be fast. Shoaib’s the fastest of the lot.

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Danish Kaneria, Pakistan – Player profile

Despite sounding like a Nordic aviary, Danish Kaneria is actually a leg-spinner. Leg-spinners are the finest of all the bowlers and Kaneria’s quite a fine one.

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Abdur Razzaq, Pakistan – Player profile

We’re sure we remember Abdur Razzaq telling everyone that actually he was called ‘Abdul’ a few years back, but no-one seems to have paid him any attention, so ‘Abdur’ it is.

Abdur Razzaq’s been around for far longer than his actual age. He actually looks substantially older than his age as well, we’d have to say. What do you reckon? Abdur Razzaq is Pakistan’s eternally reliable first-change bowler and despite a Test batting style that errs on the side of obduracy, in the one-day game he’s a combustible lower-order batsman of the Shahid Afridi school. Maybe it’s many years of batting alongside Afridi that’s rubbed off. Maybe he saves his energy for one-dayers. Maybe he’s literally two different people. We can’t really explain it.

Update: Apparently everyone IS calling him 'Abdul' these days. We're not changing it. We can't be bothered. You have to change all the links and things as well. We're not doing it. Get your own Cricket World Cup 2007 website if you've got a problem with that.

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Inzamam-ul-Haq, Pakistan – Player profile

Inzamam-ul-Haq is Pakistan’s captain and one of our longest-serving heroes. As fat batsmen go, Inzy’s probably the best. Disappointingly he’s not quite as large as he used to be, but he’s still solid enough to make running between the wickets seem a little bit arduous.

Fortunately for Inzy, he’s one of the few batsmen who’s good enough that he can avoid running between the wickets wherever possible. He stands at the crease like the fat kid from school who couldn’t do sport. If you’d never seen him bat before you’d wonder what he was doing in an international team. Then suddenly as the ball’s just about to arrive, his body moves into exactly the right position and the ball is dispatched to the boundary. Then he just stands there like nothing’s happened and he looks like a malcoordinate again. A malcoordinate’s someone who has staggeringly bad co-ordination.

The point is that Inzy moves only if he absolutely has to. Economy of movement doesn’t describe it. This is someone who can play every shot in the book and refuses, point blank, to do anything else.

We’re realising that we could probably write about Inzy forever. We’re going to stop though.

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India

Ajit Agarkar
Mahendra Dhoni
Rahul Dravid
Sourav Ganguly
Dinesh Karthik
Zaheer Khan
Anil Kumble
Munaf Patel
Irfan Pathan
Virender Sehwag
Harbhajan Singh
Yuvraj Singh
Sreesanth
Sachin Tendulkar
Robin Uthappa

Main page

Other India players we wrote about who didn't make the squad:

Mohammed Kaif
Ramesh Powar

West Indies

Ian Bradshaw
Dwayne Bravo
Shivnarine Chanderpaul
Corey Collymore
Chris Gayle
Brian Lara
Kieron Pollard
Daren Powell
Denesh Ramdin
Marlon Samuels
Ramnaresh Sarwan
Lendl Simmons
Dwayne Smith
Devon Smith
Jerome Taylor

West Indies news

Main page

Other West Indies players we wrote about who didn't make the squad:

Carlton Baugh
Tino Best
Fidel Edwards
Runako Morton
Darren Sammy

Pakistan

Shahid Afridi
Kamran Akmal
Iftikhar Anjum
Yasir Arafat
Umar Gul
Mohammad Hafeez
Inzamam-ul-Haq
Danish Kaneria
Younis Khan
Azhar Mahmood
Shoaib Malik
Rana Naved-ul-Hasan
Imran Nazir
Mohammad Sami
Mohammad Yousuf

Pakistan news

Main page

Other Pakistan players we wrote about who didn't make the squad:

Shoaib Akhtar
Mohammad Asif
Salman Butt
Imran Farhat
Yasir Hameed
Abdur Razzaq
Taufeeq Umar

Sri Lanka

Russel Arnold
Marvan Atapattu
Malinga Bandara
Tillakaratne Dilshan
Dilhara Fernando
Sanath Jayasuriya
Mahela Jayawardene
Nuwan Kulasekara
Farveez Maharoof
Lasith Malinga
Muttiah Muralitharan
Kumar Sangakkara
Chamara Silva
Upul Tharanga
Chaminda Vaas

Sri Lanka news

Main page

Other Sri Lanka players we wrote about who didn't make the squad:

Michael Vandort

Harbhajan Singh, India - Player profile

Harbhajan Singh really loves to celebrate his wickets. He always seems to run round like footballers do, whirring his arms and whooping. Good on him.

India will be hoping that Harbhajan can win them some matches with his off-spin. He’s still really quite young. Does everyone know that? He’s been around a long time.

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Ramesh Powar, India - Player profile

Ramesh Powar is kind of round. He bowls off-spin very slowly. It works for him

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Ajit Agarkar, India - Player profile

Everyone in India wanted Ajit Agarkar to turn out like Irfan Pathan. Agarkar pretty much fails on both counts. He’s an unsuccessful bowler in the main and he’s produced but a couple of decent innings.

Is there really such a dearth of Indian pace bowling that Agarkar has to keep coming back? We don’t think there is, but we can’t really explain his presence otherwise.
Agarkar should definitely prove to be top wicket-taker and run-scorer during the World Cup now.

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Mahendra Dhoni, India - Player profile

Everyone likes a six-hitter – Indian supporters more than most. In Mahendra Dhoni they have their hero. He’s incredibly powerful. He can hit the ball the length of a cricket ground. It may look pretty hideous when he does go for the big hit – in fact there’s no doubt about that – but he seems to have quite a talent for it.

Dhoni’s more than just a slogger. He’s a proper batsman with a disfigured technique. He’s also a solid wicketkeeper.

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Mohammed Kaif, India - Player profile

Mohammed Kaif is a gifted batsman seemingly permanently out of form. The Indian selectors know that he’s gifted and try and give him every opportunity to get back into form. He never does.

It stands to reason that Mohammed Kaif is one of our candidates for top run-scorer during the World Cup.

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Yuvraj Singh, India - Player profile

Yuvraj Singh is a bloody good batsman. He’s one of a few players who we’ve sort of adopted. Not in any paternal way, we just take a special interest.

Over the last year or so, Yuvraj has made the transition from a decent one-day batsman to a phenomenally successful one. He makes runs. He makes them slogging the ball around and he makes them manoeuvring the ball around for singles.

We once described him as being kind of a cross between a slightly off-colour Michael Bevan and a slightly off-colour Shahid Afridi. That’s higher praise than it sounds, but we’re not going to explain why this time. You’ll just have to take our word for it.

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Irfan Pathan, India - Player profile

India have waited a long time for a top drawer new ball bowler and an all-rounder. Irfan Pathan is both of these.

Pathan frequently takes early wickets. He is often asked to bat near the top of the order as well. This tactic has been kind of hit and miss so far, but India will probably persist with it.

We could say that Irfan Pathan could make a big impression during this World Cup, but anyone could make a big impression. It’s meaningless, so we’re not going to say it.

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Virender Sehwag, India - Player profile

In Test matches Virender Sehwag scores vast amounts of runs off very few balls. He’s made for one-day cricket. In one-day cricket Virender Sehwag scores very few runs. No-one really knows why.

On the grounds that these things tend to sort themselves out, we’re tipping him to be the top run-scorer in the World Cup along with about twenty other batsmen.

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Rahul Dravid, India - Player profile

Rahul Dravid is described as ‘textbook’ so often that you wouldn’t be surprised to see him in a school library with rude pictures scrawled in his margins.

People seem reluctant to give Dravid the credit he’s due because he doesn’t play with as much panache as some batsmen. The fact that he’s pretty much universally lauded tells you how far beyond ‘good’ he’s gone. People may be loath to admire him, but you’ve really got no choice. He’s as close to flawless as a batsman can be.

Rahul Dravid is sometimes nicknamed ‘the Wall’. We’re led to believe that this is because the French have a tendency to try and urinate on him. Or it could be because it’s hard to get him out.

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Fidel Edwards, West Indies - Player profile

We’ve always had a soft spot for Fidel ever since he produced a classic fast-bowler’s wicket at a time when everyone was going on about how the West Indies didn’t produce fast bowlers any more. Sadly those wickets have been few and fat between since then, so people still go on about how the West Indies doesn’t produce fast bowlers any more.

He is fast: Tiny and fast. He really puts his back into it when he bowls. It’s admirable. We wish he was better than he is.

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Player profile – Shivnarine Chanderpaul, West Indies

Those things under Shivnarine Chanderpaul’s eyes are to help him see. They reflect extra light or something.

The other thing you tend to notice about Chanderpaul is how he stands when he bats. Don’t be confused – he is a batsman. He’s even a good batsman somehow. It may look hideous, but the whole mess seems to sort itself out just in time for the ball to arrive on the middle of his bat. We don’t know how he does it, but he’s been doing it long enough that it’s not a fluke.

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Brian Lara, West Indies - Player profile

Brian Lara’s one of the best batsmen there’s ever been. Whoever you are, you must know that. He’s twice broken the record for the highest Test score, 375 and the current highest, 400. He’s the holder of the highest first-class score, 501. He’s also scored more runs than anyone in the history of Test cricket – a million or something like that.

You’ll be able to spot him in action by the enormous back lift and the way the ball travels to the boundary in the blink of an eye – it’s like someone’s fired a dark red laser gun. What do you call the equivalent of a bullet from a laser gun? It’s technically a laser, but that conjures up the image of a solid beam. We’re on about the small segments of laser you get in Star Wars and stuff. Anyway, that’s what the ball looks like when Brian Lara smashes it to the cover boundary.

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Ramnaresh Sarwan, West Indies - Player profile

We don’t really know what to say other than that Ramnaresh is a very good batsman. He bowls decent leg-spin as well. There must be a thing about him though; a thing that we can all cling to; an unusual fact to lift him out of the crowd.

We’re sure there’s something that we’re forgetting; something really obvious. Maybe it’ll come to us later.

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Chris Gayle, West Indies - Player profile

Chris Gayle has an irregular heartbeat and occasionally has to abandon sizzling innings to go and have a bit of a sit down.

Gayle is a ridiculously aggressive opening batsmen and a very reliable and economical spin bowler. West Indies’ chances in the World Cup probably hang off him more than many people realise.

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Chris Gayle news

England

James Anderson
Ian Bell
Ravinder Bopara
Paul Collingwood
Jamie Dalrymple
Andrew Flintoff
Ed Joyce
Jon Lewis
Sajid Mahmood
Paul Nixon
Monty Panesar
Kevin Pietersen
Liam Plunkett
Andrew Strauss
Michael Vaughan

Main page

Other England players we wrote about who didn't make the squad:

Kabir Ali
Gareth Batty
Ian Blackwell
Ashley Giles
Steve Harmison
Matthew Hoggard
Geraint Jones
Simon Jones
Mal Loye
Matt Prior
Owais Shah
Vikram Solanki
Marcus Trescothick

Chaminda Vaas, Sri Lanka - Player profile

Hopefully Chaminda Vaas has got rid of his faintly ridiculous long hair now. He has a long name as well. We’re not going to type it out here in full. Just take our word for it – it’s massive.

Chaminda Vaas has taken heaps of one-day wickets. We remember him getting absolutely astounding figures once. Unfortunately, we haven’t got the internet on as we write this, so you’ll have to check Cricinfo or somewhere yourself. They were really good figures though. Really good.

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Mahela Jayawardene, Sri Lanka - Player profile

Mahela Jayawardene was one half of the select underachievers club along with Inzamam ul Haq at the last World Cup. This most gifted of batsmen couldn’t seem to get to double figures.

Aren’t his eyebrows surprisingly big? Bigger than you expect.

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Sanath Jayasuriya, Sri Lanka - Player profile

Sanath Jayasuriya didn’t invent pinch-hitting, the art of going for quick runs early on in a side’s innings. However, he was one half of the innovation of having two pinch-hitters, alongside Romesh Kaluwitharana, as Sri Lanka stormed the World Cup back in 1996.

With his fantastically aggressive approach, he redefined what a decent 50 over total was, chasing down innumerable massive targets. He’s getting on a bit now, meaning he looks even more like a benevolent uncle. He’s a massively underrated spin bowler as well. Sri Lanka will need him.

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Kumar Sangakkara, Sri Lanka - Player profile

England fans remember Kumar Sangakkara’s first appearances against them because he was a really annoying wicketkeeper who wouldn’t shut up. We don’t know what was going on back then, because he’s never been the slightest bit annoying since then.

Kumar Sangakkara is a masterful batsman and a much-improved wicketkeeper.

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Muttiah Muralitharan, Sri Lanka - Player profile

If you’re new to cricket, you’ve just seen Muttiah Muralitharan bowl for the first time and you’ve come here to find out more information; firstly, well done on spelling his name right; secondly, you’re doubtless thinking: “What the… with the… how does he… what is he…?”

Well here goes. Muralitharan’s body is unique. When he stands with his arms by his side, his palms face forwards. He also has a double-jointed wrist. We’re about to describe how he bowls. It’s very important that you don’t try and do this because you will dislocate your shoulder, which is astoundingly painful.

From the camera’s perspective, behind the bowler, Murali’s hand points roughly to the left, with the palm facing towards the floor when his arm is nearing the top its arc. This is just prior to his releasing the ball. As he is in the process of releasing the ball, his hand flips over to the right so that the palm faces towards the sky. It is this movement that spins the ball. If there were some way of holding that spinning ball in mid-air, carpenters could use it to sand wood. That’s how fast the ball is spinning.

You can’t underestimate how special this man is. He can do this all day and every single delivery will land exactly where he wants it to. Then, for an encore, he can bowl his doosra. This delivery will spin in the opposite direction to his normal delivery. Oh, he’s the nicest guy in the world as well.

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Shahid Afridi, Pakistan - Player profile

When they bat, kids pretend to be Dhoni, Flintoff or Gilchrist. Dhoni, Flintoff and Gilchrist pretend to be Shahid Afridi when they bat – or they would do, but for the fact that the world of Shahid Afridi is just too frightening.

Never has a man been so enslaved by his need to score runs very very quickly. Shahid Afridi can’t possibly hold any regard for anything else in life whatsoever. This man doesn’t even play the same game as everyone else.

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Shahid Afridi news

Matt Prior, England - Player profile

Matt Prior is a few years younger than England wicketkeeper Geraint Jones and his erstwhile rival Chris Read. It seems likely that Prior will one day keep wicket for England’s Test team. Until then, he’s just a batsman.

There are probably better English batsmen out there. Not that Prior’s not good – he is – it just seems that he might have got the vote as wicketkeeping cover. When he does bat, he can be fairly explosive. Matt Prior is one of about a million players in this World Cup with unfulfilled promise.

Expect lots of interviews entitled 'Prior conviction' accompanied by photos of Matt Prior looking determined.

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Kabir Ali, England - Player profile

Kabir Ali played one Test match and since then has seen innumerable quick bowlers overtake him in the pecking order. Strangely hardly anyone has overtaken him in the one-day pecking order, even though his performances have erred towards solid but unspectacular.

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Simon Jones, England - Player profile

Here’s the story of Simon Jones’ career: Identified as a genuine fast bowler; injured; recovers from injury after what seems like twenty years; gets injured; recovers; isn’t actually that fast any more; turns out to be quite good anyway; helps win the Ashes, getting faster all the while; gets injured; makes comeback; gets injured.

We can write what we like here. Simon Jones is highly unlikely to be fit for the World Cup.

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Sajid Mahmood, England - Player profile

Mustn’t mention that Sajid Mahmood is British boxer Amir Khan’s cousin. Mustn’t mention that Sajid Mahmood is British boxer Amir Khan’s cousin – ah, gosh darn it.

Sajid Mahmood is British boxer Amir Khan’s cousin. He’s also a lanky bowler who on occasions can probably be classed as fast. Mahmood has the complete fast bowler’s armoury: Swing, reverse swing, seam movement, bounce and pace. We once saw him hit a rapid fifty for Lancashire. Don’t expect that to happen in the World Cup though.

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Liam Plunkett, England - Player profile

Liam Plunkett is a reliable and accurate bowler and a capable batsman. He has an excellent name. We’re not that up to speed on Liam Plunkett. Maybe we’ll update this at a later date. However, if you’re reading this, we clearly haven’t. We’ll probably be bogged down by the Namibia side or someone.

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Kevin Pietersen, England - Player profile

Only in cricket would Kevin Pietersen be seen as glamorous. He’s quite softly-spoken really and prone to inadvisable, knee-jerk fashion statements.

Kevin Pietersen is often depicted as brash and self-possessed. This is really just obscene self confidence. If you were Kevin Pietersen you’d be self-confident – the man’s gifted. He can deposit good balls for six and dispatch the most unlikely balls for four in the most surprising directions. Expect a good few runs to come from his bat during the World Cup.

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Paul Collingwood, England - Player profile

Paul Collingwood was for many years described as a ‘bits and pieces’ cricketer. This is what cricket writers say when they think someone’s rubbish. Paul Collingwood has proved himself to be anything but rubbish. Along with Marcus Trescothick he’s shown he knows how to build a one-day innings. This is something that no other England player has the faintest idea about.

On top of that, he can bowl a bit and then there’s his fielding. Paul Collingwood is arguably the best fielder in the world. If a multitude of children aren’t inspired to play cricket by a Paul Collingwood catch during the World Cup then we’ll happily contract herpes.

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Gareth Batty, England - Player profile

We’re writing this in May 2006 and if Gareth Batty’s in the World Cup squad we’ll be astounded.

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