CRICINFO'S WORLD XI

After picking the All-Time XIs for top 8 Test-playing nations, Cricinfo has now decided to pick a World XI out of these 88 players picked. Hard enough as it is to pick 11 players from 1 country across generations, now they have decided to pick 11 from 8 countries with diversities in their cricket cultures.

Bold venture this! It is going to be a very very difficult task.

Here is the list of players eligible for selection into this coveted XI -
Openers: Arthur Morris, Barry Richards, Glenn Turner, Gordon Greenidge, Graeme Smith, Hanif Mohammad, Marvan Atapattu, Saeed Anwar, Sanath Jayasuriya, Sir Conrad Hunte, Sir Jack Hobbs, Sir Leonard Hutton, Stewie Dempster, Sunil Gavaskar, Victor Trumper, Virender Sehwag.
Middle order: Arjuna Ranatunga, Bert Sutcliffe, Brian Lara, Dudley Nourse, George Headley, Graeme Pollock, Greg Chappell, Inzamam-ul-Haq, Jacques Kallis, Javed Miandad, Ken Barrington, Kevin Pietersen, Mahela Jayawardene, Martin Crowe, Martin Donnelly, Rahul Dravid, Sachin Tendulkar, Sir Donald Bradman, Sir Viv Richards, Vijay Hazare, Wally Hammond, Zaheer Abbas.
Allrounders: Aubrey Faulkner, Chaminda Vaas, Imran Khan, John Reid, Kapil Dev, Keith Miller, Mike Procter, Sir Garry Sobers, Sir Ian Botham, Sir Richard Hadlee, Vinoo Mankad.
Wicketkeeper: Adam Gilchrist, Alan Knott, Ian Smith, Jackie Hendriks, John Waite, Kumar Sangakkara, MS Dhoni, Rashid Latif.
Bowlers: Abdul Qadir, Allan Donald, Anil Kumble, Ashantha de Mel, Bill O'Reilly, Curtly Ambrose, Daniel Vettori, Dennis Lillee, Derek Underwood, Erapalli Prasanna, Fazal Mahmood, Fred Trueman, Glenn McGrath, Harold Larwood, Hugh Tayfield, Jack Cowie, Javagal Srinath, Lance Gibbs, Malcolm Marshall, Michael Holding, Muttiah Muralitharan, Rumesh Ratnayake, Shane Bond, Shane Warne, Shaun Pollock, Somachandra De Silva, Sydney Barnes, Waqar Younis, Wasim Akram.

I am still weighing a few combinations in my team before I cast my vote with Cricinfo. There have been numerous players who were selected in their respective Country XIs unanimously. But in this World XI, I guess there will be just 1 unanimous choice - Sir Donald Bradman. If anyone else makes it to the team with even 90% of votes, it will be a remarkable feat.

So readers, please do pitch in your comments... I will post more about my choices for this XI as and when I finalise them!