5 Experiments in cricket that proved to be absolute duds

4. Super Series, 2005

The Australian side of the late nineties up until the mid-2000s was a sight to behold. Its didn’t really matter where who and which format they played. Test cricket. ODI cricket. In Australia or any part of the world for that matter, they were a ruthless juggernaut masquerading as a cricket team.

In 2005, the ICC decided to cash-in on their dominance and introduced a concept termed as ‘Super Series’ where the who’s who of World cricket will play in a team named: World XI against the Aussies in the latter’s backyard in three ODIs followed by a six-day Super Test.

The World XI was selected by a panel which comprised of former greats like Sunil Gavaskar, Michael Atherton, Sir Richard Hadlee, Sir Clive Lloyd, Jonty Rhodes, and Aravinda de Silva.

But, unfortunately, the World XI squad that boasted of stalwarts like Rahul Dravid, Brian Lara, Virender Sehwag, Inzamam ul-Haq, Jacques Kallis, Andrew Flintoff, Graeme Smith, proved no match to the rampaging Australians in either the One-Days or the six-day Test that followed. The margin of victory across formats read 93 runs, 55 runs, 156 runs, and 210 runs respectively

The original aim was that the Superseries would be played every four years. However, with the paucity of crowds in the stadium coupled by a lacklustre contest led to its premature demise.