Durban, Mar 24: Despite the lacklustre performance of the Indian cricket team in the World Cup final, two of its players have been chosen by a local newspaper group for a World XI consisting of the best players of the tournament. The independent newspaper group, which publishes several leading newspapers such as the Mercury, Daily News and Post from Durban and star from Johannesburg, named Sachin Tendulkar and Zaheer Khan as the only two Indians to represent the world XI.
While Tendulkar was chosen for his superb batting performance throughout the tournament, the newspaper said it had chosen Khan because he and Australia's Brett Lee would still be around for the next world cup in the West Indies in 2007.

Though the newspaper said one of the most startling aspect of the tournament was the remarkably poor showing by all-rounders, it singled out Tendulkar's 98 against Pakistan and Ricky Ponting's match-winning unbeaten 140 in the final for special praise.

However, despite Tendulkar's brilliant form, the newspaper named Adam Gilchrist and Herschelle Gibbs as openers pushing the Indian batting maestro to the middle order.
Bureau Report