WORLD CUP: Eleven greats who never won the tournament

JAKE SHARPE looks back through the history of the World Cup, putting together his select XI of the greats who never won the tournament

Tillakaratne Dilshan

27 matches, 1,112 runs at 52.95; 18 wickets at 24.83

Arguably the player of the tournament in 2011, the flamboyant opener was part of the Sri Lanka sides that made consecutive appearances in World Cup finals in 2007 and 2011. His one-day record alone makes for an impressive set of numbers, but his numbers in World Cups are even more so.

Explosive at the top of the innings, his Dilscoop shot has become one of the hallmarks of the modern white-ball game. As well as opening the innings with the bat, he would occasionally take the new ball with his canny off-spin.

Graham Gooch

21 matches, 897 runs at 44.85

To this day, Gooch looks back on his failure to win a World Cup as the biggest regret from his England career. Of the four World Cups Gooch played in, he reached the semi-finals on every occasion, including three appearances in the final.

He is the only player to have received three runners-up medals at the World Cup. Gooch is most often remembered for his Test performances, but at the World Cup he played an important anchoring role at the top of the innings, passing fifty on nine occasions in 21 attempts. His century in the 1987 semi against India in Mumbai has been described by many who witnessed it as one of the finest one-day innings.

Kumar Sangakkara

37 matches, 1,532 runs at 56.74

Sangakkara ranks behind only Ricky Ponting and Sachin Tendulkar in terms of World Cup runs. Four of his five hundreds in the competition came in consecutive innings during his last edition in 2015, and he is the only player to have achieved this feat in ODI cricket. Like Dilshan, Sangakkara appeared in both the 2007 and 2011 finals, only to come off second best on both occasions.

Brian Lara

34 matches, 1,225 runs at 42.24

For all the debate over the greatest players of all time, none – at their best – can have made batting look as easy as Lara. Despite his achievements in the game, World Cup glory eluded him on five occasions between 1992 and 2007; the closest he came was in 1996, when West Indies failed to get past Australia in the semi-final. Of those on this list, only Sangakkara scored more runs in the competition.

^{Sangakkara and Dilshan both lost in consecutive finals, while Lara made it past the final four.}

Jacques Kallis

36 matches, 1148 runs at 45.92; 21 wickets at 43.04

During his entire World Cup career, Kallis failed to win a single knockout game, an unwanted record that only came to an end in the 2015 World Cup – after he had retired. Had he not retired from international cricket in the summer of 2014, he may have joined an exclusive club of those to have appeared in six World Cups, alongside Sachin Tendulkar and Javed Miandad.

Brendon McCullum

34 matches, 742 runs at 33.72

The revolutionary McCullum added dynamism to the one-day game, helping to move 50-over cricket into a new era. Yet, despite playing in every World Cup between 2003 and 2015 and making it to the last four on three occasions, the Kiwi great never tasted victory.

Oh, how close he came in 2015 when, on home soil, his team of Black Caps played with a level of fearlessness that became the story of the tournament, even if defeat in the final left a sense of pain. In his World Cup career, he scored at a strike-rate of over 120, the highest of any player to have scored more than 500 runs in the competition’s history.  In addition, his 32 dismissals rank as fourth on the list of wicketkeeper dismissals at the tournament.

Ian Botham

22 matches, 297 runs at 18.56; 30 wickets at 25.40

Botham has two runners-up medals to his name – from the 1979 and 1992 tournaments. How great an asset would the aggressive all-rounder be now?

A monumental talent with both bat and ball, many will argue that the competition never saw him at his very best. Even with England’s current strength in depth, what they would do for Botham in his pomp.

Anil Kumble

18 matches, 31 wickets at 22.83

In the modern one-day game, every top side has a leg-spinner. This summer alone, Adil Rashid, Adam Zampa, Ish Sodhi, Imran Tahir, Yuzvendra Chahal, Rashid Khan, Shadab Khan and Jeffrey Vandersay will all feature.

Despite playing in a home tournament in 1996 and featuring in a side packed full of the game’s modern greats, his own success never translated into World Cup glory. On a personal level, however, only Zaheer Khan and Javagal Srinath – with 44 wickets apiece – have taken more World Cup scalps for India.

^{Shoaib Akhtar broke the 100mph barrier at the 2003 World Cup in South Africa.}

Curtly Ambrose

17 matches, 24 wickets at 20.79

Of the three World Cups that Ambrose appeared in, the West Indies progressed to the semi-finals once, in 1996, when he was run out against Australia as his side fell to an agonising five-run defeat. Despite only playing 17 matches, he ranks third on the West Indies’ list of World Cup wicket-takers, with his 24 dismissals coming at less than 21 runs each.

Shoaib Akhtar

19 matches, 30 wickets at 27.70

The Rawalpindi Express set the cricketing world alight in Cape Town during the 2003 World Cup, breaking the 100mph barrier as he charged in to bowl at Nick Knight.

In his previous World Cup experience in England, he had been part of the Pakistan side that lost emphatically to Australia at Lord’s in the final. Although Pakistan made it to the semis of the 2011 World Cup, he was – by this point – far from the force of old.

Allan Donald

25 matches, 38 wickets at 24.02

Had he not run himself out in that famous 1999 semi-final in Headingley, Donald may well have been be ineligible for this list. He is South Africa’s all-time leading wicket-taker in World Cups, though the 2003 tournament was a sad farewell for a star who was, by then, fading.

Donald was also part of the South Africa side that made it to the semi-finals during their first appearance in the tournament in 1992.

Our coverage of the ICC Cricket World Cup 2019 is brought to you in association with Cricket 19, the official video game of the Ashes. Pre-order your copy now at Amazon.co.uk