Ten best ODI players never to have won a World Cup

May 25 (CRICEKTNMORE) - Winning a World Cup is never easy, just ask Sachin Tendulkar – it took the great man until his sixth and final attempt to get his hands on that coveted piece of silverware. L

Brian Lara (West Indies)

Brian Lara’s records in Test cricket are known to even the most casual of cricket fans. But the Prince of Port of Spain was also a titan of the one-day era and racked up the runs in 50-over cricket much like he did in the longest form.

Very few players before him had passed 10,000 career ODI runs – and even now he sits 10th in the overall standings. He played the unsatisfyingly high number of 299 ODIs for the West Indies but was one of very few men to pass 150 three times in an individual knock.

His style remained dashing to the last and that he arrived at the end of the West Indies’ long period of dominance is a shame for him, but a relief for the rest of the world. 

Lance Klusener (South Africa)

The man they called Zulu – chiefly because of his fluency of the language – was an all-rounder of serious talent. A fine red-ball player, Klusener would come alive in limited overs cricket and his annus mirabilis was undoubtedly 1999.

Voted man of the tournament as South Africa crashed out in the semi-finals, his big hitting and canny bowling made him the most valuable player by far and Wisden’s cricketer of the Year in 2000.

But he was no flash in the pan either, the South African with the baseball style backlift finished his career with an ODI batting average of 41 and bowling average of 29.

That puts him on a par with some of the great all-rounders in South African history – and indeed world cricketing history. 

Jacques Kallis (South Africa)

After Lance Klusener, it only seems right to mention the great South African all-rounder Jacques Kallis. Across both Tests and ODIs, there was little Kallis couldn’t do. And what a long time he managed to do it for.

He took 273 wickets and scored over 11,000 runs in ODI cricket, and was the first name on the team sheet for the Proteas year after year.

Only one other all-rounder in the history of the format has scored over 10,000 runs and taken 250 wickets – Sanath Jayasuriya.

And with 17 hundreds and 86 fifties, Kallis was the man with the willow who could do it all for his country – re-build an innings or press the accelerator after a strong start.

It’s just a shame that so many South African greats never got to lift the biggest prize in the format despite their golden generation. 

Kumar Sangakkara (Sri Lanka)

There was no more fitting way for Kumar Sangakkara to prove his brilliance in one day cricket than with his sign off at the 2015 World Cup.

The Sri Lankan left hander with silky smooth class smote four straight tons during the tournament.

Throw in his years of compiling runs while also keeping wickets – at the end of his career he switched to specialist batsman and saw his numbers go through the roof – and Sangakkara’s numbers are eye-popping.

By the end of his international career, only Sachin Tendulkar had more ODI runs than he.

The one achievement lacking in an exemplary copybook was that he never won it all but he was too young for Sri Lanka’s 1996 title and lost in the 2007 and 2011 finals – even if he did average more than 50 across the two show-piece appearances. 

AB de Villiers (South Africa)

AB de Villiers could do things with a bat in his hand that no other batsman could have even dreamed of. A career ODI average of 53.50 puts him in rarefied air but with a strike rate north of 100 makes him in a category all of his own.

Throw in his 31-ball ton against the West Indies – the fastest of all time no less – and the de Villiers CV is compelling just on numbers alone.

But watching the Proteas legend bat was about so more than the statistics. He could see shots others couldn’t, would give death bowlers nightmares and could single-handedly take a game away from your team in a nanosecond.

With his tennis, hockey and golf brilliance, he had power, timing and precision to bash you down the ground or paddle you over his own head – setting fields to him was impossible. 

Shahid Afridi (Pakistan)

You don’t get the nickname ‘Boom Boom’ for nothing. But while Shahid Afridi burst onto the scene as a big-hitting middle order batsman for Pakistan – his career has been one of reinvention.

Yes, he could hit the ball a mile and his 37-ball century back in 1996 was a record that stood for a long time.

But his wrist spin – that began as a part-time practice – also saw him end up as the current fifth highest wicket taker of all time.

Add to that his captaincy and Afridi’s all-round talents make him one of the greats that dragged the game of cricket into the modern era that we now know and love. 

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ICC