As the latest edition of the World Cup was concluded in 2019 which saw England stealing an absolute thriller from the jaws of defeat against a soaring New Zealand, there were players who were a part of the squad but also managed to lay their hands on the trophy without even playing a solitary game.
We will look at cricketers who made it to this unique list of being saddled with a label of World Cup ext to their name, without even playing for the team.
10. Brad Haddin (2007)
Haddin played the perfect successor to Adam Gilchrist once the legend called it a day. Unfortunately, in 2007, Haddin had no chance of surpassing the man as he was still very much in his prime and his wondrous knock in the final left Sri Lanka begging as he destroyed the bowlers from the Island nation.
9. Marvan Atapattu (1996)
The World champion side of Sri Lanka had one of the finest middle-order batting line-up that saw the presence of Aravinda De Silva and Arjuna Ranatunga, the two most towering stroke players in international cricket at that moment. Even the opening slot had Jayasuriya and Kaluwithrana who were always on the offensive, penning a new era of Sri Lankan cricket. Hence Atapattu got a fair bit of learning in the tournament that later saw him leading the side.
8. Liam Dawson (2019)
Dawson has created a lot of ripples across the world with a few blistering performances in the recent days, but when he was a part of the last World Cup, he lost his spot in the national squad to more experienced Ben Stokes, Johnny Bairstow and Joe Root who led a humdinger uprising to outmatch every other team in the world to lift the trophy. Despite not being a part of the team, he still managed to keep the spirits in the dressing room pretty high and had a world cup to his name.
7. Upul Chandana (1996)
Despite making it big in the later years of Sri Lanka’s dominance in world cricket, Chandana couldn’t find himself a place in the 1996 World Cup squad that also saw future legends like Marvan Atapattu warming the bench. It was quite an obvious point that he was never going to beat the likes of veteran campaigner Muralitharan to the race of finding himself a national berth.
6. Mitchell Johnson (2007)
One of the most dangerous bowlers of Australian cricket, the man who sported a moustache that reminded everyone of Mervyn Hughes, one of the most terrorizing bowlers of all time, Mitchell Johnson had to stay confined to the bench as the Australian line up in that year’s World Cup seemed invincible and under no circumstances, unless a player was injured, Johnson was not going to supersede Brett Lee and McGrath.
5. Sunil Walson (1983)
We have heard of names like Kapil Dev, Mohinder Amarnath, Kirti Azad and others but a certain Sunil Walson always sported a disarming smile in the dugouts and kept on spurring his team members. However, he did play for India until 1987 before finally calling it a day.
4. Tom Curran (2019)
Curran is one of the upcoming stars of England and was also a part of the gilt-edged 2019 World Cup-winning squad. However, competing with Jofra Archer wasn’t something he was really hoping for that he could be good at.
3. Nathan Bracken (2003)
Called up as a replacement, Bracken was to fill the void left by an injured Jason Gillespie. However, the Australian squad had talented players in every single department and by no chance was he going to upset the combination of Glenn Mc Grath, Brett Lee and Andy Bichel to make it into the team.
2. Nathan Hauritz (2003)
Coming on as a replacement of Shane Warne is never something that could be easier but when the emperor of leg-spin was ruled out of the tournament for alleged drug abuse, Hauritz was called up to fill that void. However, Australia was too stubborn to break their winning combination and used Darren Lehmann as a better spinning option.
1. Collis King (1975)
Despite being a performer of the night on the 1979 World Cup final for West Indies, Collis King failed to win himself a cap in the 1975 World Cup where his nation lifted the trophy after playing 5 matches. His final heroics of the ensuing tournament saw him smashing 86 runs from 66 deliveries.
