Tendulkar, Zaheer in World XI team

While Tendulkar was chosen for his superb batting performance throughout the tournament, the newspaper said it had chosen Zaheer 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.

West Indian Ramnaresh Sarwan has also been chosen as a batsman and the Independent predicts that he could “very well be one of the stars of the next World Cup.”

The full World XI is: Adam Gilcrhist, Herschelle Gibbs, Ricky Ponting, Sachin Tendulkar, Andrew Sydmonds, Michael Bevan, Ramnaresh Srawan, Brett Lee, Zaheer Khan, Andrew Bichel and Muttiah Muralitharan. 12th man – Lou Vincent.