There have been several “World Eleven” cricket sides selected over the years – most notably were the sides that contested series against England in 1970 and Australia in 1971-72.
There are also Wisden and ICC World XI selected each year. Unfortunately, unlike the two above these sides do not have the chance to play together as a team.
The inherent flaw in all these sides is that the selection focuses on the cricket aspect rather than the World aspect. That is to say that all the players come only from cricket-playing nations.
That’s hardly a WORLD XI.
What I have selected below is a World Eleven chosen from men and women originally from non-traditional cricket-playing countries.
That makes it a true world eleven.
There have been 45 players who have represented their adopted country at Test level but were born in non-cricket playing countries. This then excludes players like Usman Khawaja who while representing Australia was born in Pakistan, which is also a Test cricket-playing nation.
I have also elected not to choose players from Scotland because of its very proximity to England and the subsequent dilution of the “world” concept. Taking a bus from Dumfries to Galloway doesn’t really have a global feel about it – sorry to any Scots I may have upset in doing this.
I have chosen players, however, from elsewhere in Africa for reasons which will become apparent.
In keeping with the culture of the Australian selection panel I have chosen one or two players just because I like them.
My World XI:
Donald Carr
Nat Sciver-Brunt
George Headley
Ted Dexter (C)
Molly Hide
Freddy Brown
Geraint Jones
Buster Nupen
Steve O’Keefe
Henry Olonga
John Traicos
Jehan Mubarak (12th Man)
The side is possibly weaker than it could have been because I focused more on the World aspect and did not choose any two players from the same country of birth.
Donald Bryce Carr (2 Tests, 135 Runs @ 33.75, 2 wickets @70) played twice for England in 1951/52. He was Derbyshire’s captain between 1955 and 1962 and scored over 10,000 runs for the county. Donald Carr’s father John was an officer serving with The British Army of the Rhine in Germany when Donald was born.
Natalie Ruth Sciver-Brunt (10 Tests, 349 Runs @34.26, 11 wickets @ 37) represents England in all formats of the game. She was the first female English cricketer to take a hat-trick in a T20 international. The “Natmeg” shot is named after her, from when she hit a cricket ball through her legs during a game. Born in Tokyo, her mother was a British diplomat based in Japan at the time of her birth.
George Alphonso Headley (22 Tests, 2190 runs @60.83). The “black Bradman” was considered one of the greatest batsmen to have played the game. The West Indies were a relatively weak international team through most of Headley’s playing career; and as their one world-class player, he carried a heavy responsibility. Headley was born in Panama but raised in Jamaica and was chosen as one of the Wisden Cricketers of the Year in 1934.
Edward Ralph Dexter (62 Tests 4502 runs @ 47.89, 66 wickets @34.93) was an aggressive middle-order batsman of ferocious power and a right-arm medium-fast bowler. Dexter captained Sussex and England in the early 1960s and in fact, captained England in 30 Test matches out of his 62 appearances.
Dexter was a stylish player and persona was somewhat fittingly born in one of Europe’s most fashionable cities Milan in Italy, where his father Ralph Dexter ran a successful underwriting agency.
Mary Edith “Molly” Hide (15 Tests, 872 runs @ 36.33, 36 wickets @ 15.25) was an all-rounder who represented England between 1934 and 1954. A right-handed batter and right arm medium pace bowler she was also an inspiring leader and captained England for 17 of the twenty years in which she played.
One of the great early women cricketers in England, she played domestic cricket for Surrey and in 1973 became president of the Women’s Cricket Association. Hide was born in Shanghai, China and moved to England at the age of six.
Frederick Richard Brown (22 Tests 734 runs @ 23.31, 45 wickets @ 31.06) was an English player and captain between 1931 and 1953. He was a genuine all-rounder, batting right-handed and bowling both right-arm medium pace as well as leg breaks.
Brown was the son of Roger Grounds Brown, an English businessman in Peru who was a keen cricketer, opening the batting and taking 5/50 for Lima Cricket and Football Club against touring MCC in 1926–27.
Geraint Owen Jones (34 Tests, 1172 runs @ 23.91) played for both England and Papua New Guinea. He was the first-choice wicketkeeper for England between 2004 and 2006.
Jones was born in Kundiawa, Papua New Guinea, and moved to Australia with his parents, who were originally from Wales, soon after he was born.
Eiulf Peter “Buster” Nupen (17 Tests, 348 Runs @ 14.5, 50 wickets @ 35.75) played 17 Test matches for South Africa between 1921 and 1936.
He was born in Norway, lost an eye in a childhood accident, and was shot through both knees during the Rand Rebellion when he was 20.
Stephen Norman John O’Keefe (9 Tests, 86 Runs @ 9.55, 35 wickets @ 29.4) played nine Test matches for Australia as well as T20 internationals. He captained New South Wales in the Sheffield Shield and moved into commentary after his playing days.
O’Keefe was born in Malaysia to Stephen, who worked for the RAAF, and Jan, a nurse. His father was stationed in Malaysia at the time of his birth.
Steve O’Keefe (AAP Image/David Gray)
Henry Khaaba Olonga (30 Tests, 184 Runs @ 5.41, 68 wickets @38.52) played both Test and ODI cricket for Zimbabwe. When he made his Test debut in January 1995, he was both the first black cricketer and the youngest person to play for Zimbabwe. Olonga was born in Lusaka, Zambia but he was also regarded as Zimbabwe cricket’s poster boy.
Athanasios John Traicos (7 Tests, 19 Runs @ 3.16, 18 wickets @ 42.72) represented both South Africa and Zimbabwe at the international level. He was primarily an off-spinner, and one of a small number of cricketers to have played at the highest level for more than one country. Traicos was born in Zagazig, Egypt in 1947 where his father Tryphon worked in the family business.
Jehan Mubarak (13 Tests 385 Runs @ 13.05) played for Sri Lanka, in all formats of the game. He is a left-handed batsman and a right-arm off-break bowler. The son of Azeez Mohamed Mubarak, a first-class cricketer himself and later a prominent scientist, Mubarak was born in Washington D.C.
Although not against each other George Headley and Freddie Brown, both captained their adopted national sides in 1949 in what can be the only time a South American and a Central American have done so.
Freddie Brown was awarded an MBE in 1942 for gallantry in the evacuation of the British Army from Crete.
I find it hard to leave Henry Olonga and John Traicos out of any World XI. Olonga for attempting to clean up his part of the world as he saw that it needed it and suffering exile as a result. His international career came to an end in 2003 after he and teammate Andy Flower wore black armbands during an international cricket match in the 2003 World Cup to “mourn the death of democracy” in Zimbabwe.
Death threats forced him to live in exile in England. Olonga and Flower were given honorary life membership of the Marylebone Cricket Club later in 2003.
He and Flower were also honoured by the Cricket Writer’s Club during the annual dinner where they were conferred with the Peter Smith Memorial Award, an award which is given as an annual acknowledgement of outstanding contributions to the game of cricket.
John Traicos was awarded a SAF cap and played three Tests prior to the apartheid bans. Not one to give up, twenty-two years later he played for Zimbabwe upon their admission to Test cricket. He left Zimbabwe due to its political turmoil and now resides in Perth.
Both of these fine sportsmen have taken quite a journey through life.