ICC World XI in Test Cricket

Why the Super Series happened

In the middle of the 2000s the ICC ran a one-off event, the Super Series, in which the reigning number-one Test side (Australia) played a composite ICC World XI drawn from every other Test nation. The stated motivation was to give one number-one measurement against the rest of the world in one series, in one country, in one autumn. Cricket had not tried the format before at any real scale, and has not tried it since at any level above the Under-19 game.

The one Test

The Super Series Test was played at Sydney between 14 and 17 October 2005. Graeme Smith captained a World XI that included Virender Sehwag, Rahul Dravid, Jacques Kallis, Brian Lara, Inzamam-ul-Haq, Andrew Flintoff, Muttiah Muralitharan, Mark Boucher, Daniel Vettori and Steve Harmison. Australia won by 210 runs. Matthew Hayden made 111 in the first innings; Sehwag’s 76 was the highest World XI score. Flintoff took 4-59; Muralitharan 5-157 in the match.

The three ODIs that accompanied the Test were also won by Australia, 3-0. Cricket concluded that a composite XI, however talented on paper, needs weeks of training as a unit to play like one, and shelved the format. The single Test on the record remains the whole of ICC World XI’s Test history.

What CricArcade shows

CricArcade lets you pick a cross-nation XI at any point - a modern all-time World XI, a 1980s composite side, a 2005 Super Series-style team - and play a five-day Test at any of the venues in the archive. The engine reads each player’s real career profile rather than a single number, so a composite XI plays like the sum of its individual careers rather than a national side; the 2005 Test itself is on the archive above if you want to see how one such team actually performed.