Why the 2005 Super Series was not really a bad idea

Do you remember the World XI line-up that played a Test match against Australia in 2005? Pat yourself on the back (and have a long, hard think about your life choices) if you got each of these names right: Grame Smith, Virender Sehwag, Rahul Dravid, Brian Lara, Jacques Kallis, Inzamam-ul-Haq, Andrew Flintoff, Mark Boucher, Daniel Vettori, Steve Harmison, Muttiah Muralitharan.

I'm guessing, probably correctly, that you didn't get all 11 names, and I don't blame you, because the ICC Super Series - which included three ODIs and that six-day "Supertest" (it ended soon after lunch on day four) - was one of the most forgettable cricketing events of the 21st century. We signed up for a thrilling fortnight of intense, best-versus-rest action; we ended up with Australia handing out beating after beating: by 93 runs, 55 runs and 156 runs in the ODIs, and by 210 runs in the Test match.

The crowds stayed away, with Melbourne's Docklands Stadium "never more than 60% full" during the three ODIs, according to Wisden, and the SCG recording its lowest aggregate attendance for the first three days of a Test match since the 1996-97 season (barring the October 2003 game against Zimbabwe). Some of the players didn't appear too keen on these matches either. Inzamam initially refused to play, miffed at being ignored for the original squad and only being picked as a replacement for the injured Sachin Tendulkar. Flintoff, who had just starred in a physically and emotionally draining Ashes series, said he was "only [t]here for the food". All this, and all the one-sided contests, turned a considerable section of the media against the idea of the Super Series.

The ICC performed a spectacular backflip on the final day of the Test, insisting that the concept was only a trial, and that it had made no commitment to staging it every four years - contradicting what its own website said.

In the years since that hasty burial, no one has mourned the Super Series. It's a pity, because it was an idea that never got the time and backing it deserved.

The concept was tried and tested; contests involving mixed-nationality teams are part of the fabric of cricketing folklore. Dennis Lillee running through the World XI at the WACA, and Garry Sobers responding with an immortal, match-turning 254 at the MCG). The Richardses, Barry and Viv, pulverising the Australians in tandem during Kerry Packer's World Series. Sunil Gavaskar signing off from first-class cricket with 188 for the Rest of the World against the MCC at Lord's. Sachin Tendulkar shining brightest among the jewels of international cricket in a one-day version of that contest 11 years later. Michael Bevan scoring an unbeaten 185 and almost pulling off an improbable chase against an Asia XI in 2000. If you put the best active cricketers in the world in the same place, magic is bound to happen.

It might not happen immediately. The Rest of the World tour of England in 1970, for instance, began with a "Test" match as one-sided as the SCG Supertest of 2005 (though it did contain the irresistible ingredient of Sobers' all-round genius ), and the first "Test" of the World XI tour of Australia a year later was a dull, rain-affected draw.

Crowds may take time to catch on too. We remember World Series Cricket - from which the ICC borrowed the "Supertest" label - for the successes of its second season, during which its attendances outstripped those from the concurrent Ashes Tests of 1978-79. But it took its time to generate widespread interest. Or any interest.

"In its first year, World Series Cricket really was a poor cousin," Greg Chappell wrote in his book Fierce Focus. "I remember in December 1977, Channel Seven running a newspaper ad for their tennis coverage. It was a big photograph of a 10,000-seat section of VFL Park in Melbourne, during our first Supertest, with about three people sitting in it. The caption said, 'These are some of the people who aren't watching tennis on Seven.'" This for a match involving, among others, Chappell, Chappell, Walters, Marsh, Lillee, Greenidge, Richards, Lloyd, Roberts and Holding.

The Super Series of 2005 did not lack for big-name players, but it had other things going against it. The tour took place in October, well before the usual start of the season in a country that does the bulk of its cricket-watching during the Christmas-New Year holiday period. The World XI was an excellent collection of names, but it fell short of being an ideal team for Australian conditions, especially on the bowling front, with its two main fast bowlers, Flintoff and Harmison, knackered from playing a full Ashes series, and with Kallis playing a role - third seamer - that he almost never performed for South Africa. And even if it had been a more thoughtfully assembled team, it was going up against an all-time-great Australia side that had lost just two of its last 38 home Tests, and was smarting from a close-run Ashes defeat. It was a recipe for unmet expectations.

But if cricket had persevered with the concept, it's unlikely that it wouldn't have caught on. Looking down at his shirt and not seeing the England crest reportedly left Harmison feeling less than inspired during that series; there's no reason why the World XI badge couldn't have acquired similarly talismanic qualities by now, if the series had become a regular part of the cricket calendar, especially since the matches had official ODI and Test status. World XI caps would have certainly become a factor in GOAT debates on Twitter ("How many World XI caps did that fraud Bradman have?").

Who knows, in this unfortunate time of no live cricket, our go-to highlights videos might have included AB de Villiers' 39-ball 84 not out in the deciding ODI of the 2013 Super Series, and the magnificent spells that Kagiso Rabada and R Ashwin bowled in the Wankhede Supertest of 2017. Taking a cue from the MLB and NBA All-Star games, the ICC might even have turned to fan voting to determine the World XI squad for the 2021 Super Series. Imagine that.

We can only imagine, because T20 has eaten away every last inch of space that cricket's calendar might have had for an event of this nature. We'll probably never see another Super Series. Our World XIs will only play on paper.