Allan Donald ignores Asian cricketers in his all-time best XI

Former South African cricketer Allan Donald has recently revealed his all-time best XI with two South African players – Jacques Kallis and AB de Villiers. The pace legend unveiled his XI on the Lord’s YouTube channel. The criteria to select the XI is that the player should have played with or against them or have been strongly influenced by the players picked in the XI.

Donald, who is currently the assistant coach of Kent County Cricket Club, picked two Australians as openers in Matthew Hayden and Justin Langer. At the toughest No.3 position comes one of the greatest all-rounders Jacques Kallis. Donald termed Kallis as ‘probably the greatest cricketer of all time’. He picked two Carribean cricketers for No. 4 and No. 5 slots – Brian Lara and Sir Viv Richards.

He went on to pick AB de Villiers and Adam Gilchrist for the 6th and 7th batting slots. While picking AB de Villiers, the former pace legend referred him as “one of the all-time bests and is an explosive batsman.” Donald picked Shane Warner, Malcolm Marshall, Curtly Ambrose and Glenn McGrath as the bowling options.

No Asians in the XI

Donald, who was famously known as “White Lightning” during his cricketing career, faced the wrath of his fans on YouTube for not picking Indian and Pakistan cricketers like Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid and Imran Khan, Wasim Akram. In fact, the pacer did not pick any of the Asian legends in his XI. The last time a top cricketer missed Indian and Pakistan cricketers in his all-time XI was Alastair Cook.

Allan Donald’s all-time XI:

Matthew Hayden (Australia), Justin Langer (Australia), Jacques Kallis (South Africa), Brian Lara (West Indies), Sir Viv Richards (West Indies – captain), AB de Villiers (South Africa), Adam Gilchrist (Australia – wicketkeeper), Shane Warne (Australia), Malcolm Marshall (West Indies), Curtly Ambrose (West Indies), Glenn McGrath (Australia)

Here’s the video