Former South Africa fast bowler Allan Donald faced the anger of Indian fans when he announced his all-time XI. The fact that enraged several followers of the game were that there was no Indian – not even Sachin Tendulkar or Rahul Dravid – mentioned in his best XI. Or for that matter, there was not a single Asian legend in Allan Donald’s all-time team.
Allan Donald, who picked 602 international wickets, chose the Australian opening pair of Matthew Hayden and Justin Langer as his openers. The two left-handers tormented the opposition bowling right from the start, especially Hayden with his aggressive manner of batting.
For number 3, Donald went with his compatriot Jacques Kallis, who he termed as ‘probably the greatest cricketer of all time’. Kallis had an incredible record – 24868 runs along with 565 wickets – and is arguably the greatest all-rounder to play the game.
For No. 4 and No. 5, Allan Donald named the West Indian pair of Brian Lara and Sir Viv Richards, also two of the greatest cricketers to pick a bat.
To add a strong, counter-attacking pedigree to his line-up, the Bloemfontein-born seamer had AB de Villiers and Adam Gilchrist for the 6th and 7th batting slots. Two stylish batters who could change the course of the game in quick time found a place in Donald’s best eleven.
For the role of the lead spinner, the Protea chose Shane Warne (708 Test wickets) over Muttiah Muralitharan (800 Test wickets). In the pace bowling department, he wants to have a deadly trio: Malcolm Marshall, Curtly Ambrose, who are two of West Indies’ top three international wicket-takers, and to join them would be Glenn McGrath, who is still the leading wicket-taker among pacers in international cricket.
This was Allan Donald’s all-time eleven which he had picked in a video on Lord’s YouTube channel, where the South African didn’t include the likes of Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid, Wasim Akram, Imran Khan, Muttiah Muralitharan, Kumar Sangakkara.
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)
