Finding the right fantasy side is not so simple (8 May 1999)

8 May 1999

Finding the right fantasy side is not so simple

Trevor Chesterfield

If you are one of those who have a firm believe in the tooth fairy, selecting a 1999 CricInfo World Cup challenge side should be easy enough. Finding 12 players, or one from each country, is as simple as reciting XYZ. Or is it? The CI team have again this year taken fiendish delight in supplying a lit of players for their Fun Fantasy Cup side, but if you go on the results of the 1996 you are in for a shock or three. There are four batsmen, two all-rounders, a wicketkeeper and four bowlers.

Simple, eh? To complicate matters Sachin Tendulkar and Jacques Kallis are classed as all-rounders.

So who are we looking at? Remember, one from each country: Nick Night, Nathan Astle, Sachin Tendulkar, Brian Lara , Steve Waugh running out of permutations?

So, try Kenny Otieno, from Kenya as the wicketkeeper ahead of Adam Parore, or Alec Stewart. Kenny who? And why him.

Well, if you statistically minded, and know all the ins and outs, he ended up as the top wicketkeeper in 1996, and remember SF Dukanwala, of the United Arab Emirates, and that dashing Kiwi Chris Harris? Both, if you delve into the stats, were the leading all-rounders. Now, there's a turn up.

For those in South Africa, learning that the only one of their players to make it to the WC96 side was not Allan Donald or Hansie Cronje or Jonty Rhodes but Gary Kirsten.

On the process\elimination of a player for each country, a number of favourite names are going to miss out. So, for South Africa we have not four but one candidate and you have your choice of names: Shaun Pollock being one, Kallis the other, or is Tendulkar going to be your India representative and Brian Lara your west Indian.

It is getting tight all right.

Here we have the CI96 XII:

Batsmen:

Mark Waugh (Aus)

Sachin Tendulkar (India)

Aravinda de Silva (SL)

Gary Kirsten (RSA)

Graham Thorpe (Eng)

All-rounders:

Chris Harris (NZ)

SF Dukanwala (UAE)

Wicketkeeper:

Kenny Otieno (Kenya)

Bowlers

Roger Harper (WI)

Paul Strang (Zim)

Waqar Younis (Pak)

Robert Lefebvre (Netherlands)

Based on this formula, if you have Jimmy Adams in as an all-rounder, you have to eliminate Lara; likewise Glenn McGrath if Shane Warne is your top Wizard of Oz, Darren Gough if he catches your fancy ahead of Graeme Hick. And do not forget there are countries such as Kenya, Bangladesh and Scotland to think about.

But I am not going to let you into a secret and give you my side, or the others at CI; you will have to work it all out for yourself.