Australia vs World XI: Match 3

[Occasional Fan]

So, Australia win by 156 runs inside 28 overs. A valid question has been raised by a commentator on the ABC just now: Which RoW players have enhanced their reputations in this series? Hard to find one, I'd say.

Congratulations, of course, to Australia who have clean-swept the series - but I have to temper that slightly by saying that I would have expected nothing less against a scratch XI, albeit a scratch XI made up of the rest of the world's best. I was never much inspired by this so-called Super Series and I have heard little of it over the last week, not because it has not been available but simply because there have been more interesting things to do - e.g. I cut my toe-nails this morning. I would also expect the test match to go to Australia by a mile and inside three days. Overall, a pretty pointless exercise, I'm afraid.

[Rob.]

As far as I am concerned this injury to Flintoff is a blessing if it keeps him out of this 'super' test () and still in the England touring party.

The only result of this series for Englands players (who's performances were all I cared about) are a pulled hamstring and a bruised wrist. Fabulous. What a waste of time and effort.

The World XI have been thrashed here and will be thrashed in the test match.

[rineet]

Brian Lara has been an utter waste in the 3 matches for World XI. He hasnt contributed in any form. They could have played him as the super sub instead of Afridi.

[djdannybrown]

I cant believe how bad the world 11 has done.Even with Dravid batting down at number 7 we still get bowled out for under 150.Unbelievable.The only reasons I can think is that many of the world 11 havent played for ages and that it is in Austrailia,because the Austrailan team couldnt have changed from a team who lost the Ashes and against Bangledesh to now.Seeing highlights of the games,some of the players didnt want to be there.What a shame because the idea was great.The batting lineup of the world 11 was a disgrace and the pace bowling was average.

[Mike]

If you had said to me before the series that Lara, Kallis and Dravid would only make 72 runs in three innings between them and a couple of Australian fringe players in Watson and Hussey would make 181 runs in two innings between them I would have scoffed.

They claim lack of match fitness was a problem for some World XI players. In that case, the ICC better address that issue before they schedule another junket like that.

[greg]

Credit to Watson,he has been talking about putting in performances like Flintoff and he started to prove he is a better player than i thought he was in this series.He now needs to carry on putting in solid performances over the next few months to try to claim a Test spot.

[Paoli]

Well, the ICC WILL most definitely do another one; which is all quite logical in the business world, it has attracted a lot of sponsors and 80,000 people to the three matches, even with ridiculously priced tickets.

The ICC would've made a lot of money out of this match.

[Maranello]

The ICC would've made a lot of money out of this match.

And so would all the players and others involved. According to Hussain on Sky Sports, Flintoff would make around £80,000 from his participation - not bad for a week or two's "work"!

[Occasional Fan]

The Guardian this morning calculates that Brian Lara made $A6,335 (£2,880) per run. That comes to a total of $A31,675 or £14,400. Why would Andrew Flintoff have made more than five times that (unless there was some kind of performance related pay, that is)? Even at $A6,335 per run, though, some of us would not complain. As Gideon Haigh says in The Guardian, if the ICC is not ashamed of that, it should be.

[Maranello]

So either The Guardian or Sky (or both) have their sums wrong. I would go with The Guardian's figures though, because {a} they are lower (can't be imprudent now, can I OF ) and {b} print journalism should have greater diligence and fact-checking, or at least be wrong less often than broadcast, off-the-cuff 'journalism'.


PS: OF, Flintoff's attributed earnings on Sky were not for the three ODIs alone, they included the whole trip (ie the Test and the warm-up game etc too)