ICC World XI captain Shaun Pollock (second right) of South Africa and team-mates Andrew Flintoff (second left) of England, West Indians Chris Gayle (left) and Brian Lara, talk during training yesterday ahead of last night second one-day match against world champions Australia. (Photo: AFP)

MELBOURNE, Australia (CMC) - All of the money spent and effort expended by the International Cricket Council in seeking to give legitimacy to the concept of a Rest of the World XI almost came to nothing within the space of just two hours at Telstra Dome on Wednesday night.

In crashing to 162 all out off 43.1 overs and surrendering the opening one-dayer of the Super Series against Australia by a 93-run margin, the galaxy of under-performing stars added considerable weight to the oft-repeated argument that such an exercise is doomed to failure, and that according these matches official One-Day International and Test status was a big mistake.

Even before the opening fixture, Greg Baum, the respected sportswriter for The Age here in Melbourne, in referring to the intense pre-series publicity effort by the ICC, wrote: "This inaugural Super Series has been flogged so hard as to highlight the fact that it bears all the hallmarks of a dead horse."

Baum added that the World XI as a team was nothing more than a gimmick. "Cricket is at its best when both teams are real, and so is the contest.Inescapably the World XI can only be about individual aggrandisement."

However, Peter Roebuck, popular columnist with the Sydney Morning Herald and comments personality on ABC Radio commentary teams for several years, argued in favour of the Super Series, especially the one-day matches.

"Since the host nation holds the highest place in the rankings in the shorter version of the game, these three contests at Telstra Dome have a legitimacy arguably missing from the forthcoming Test in Sydney," he wrote on Wednesday.

Describing the decision to count the matches in players' official ODI and Test records as "a dubious move that will have the desired effect," Roebuck added: "As far as most players are concerned, matches not included in their records do not matter.

"Meanwhile, the Australians will be anxious to reassert themselves. For the first time in years, too, the Australians will be the underdogs, a role they may enjoy."

But in the aftermath of the anti-climactic opening fixture, cricket writer Jon Pierik of the Herald Sun summed up the match in the second paragraph of his report: "There was nothing super about the match, the modest crowd or the multi-million dollar World XI."

Writing in the same newspaper, senior cricket columnist Ron Reed took it a step further in noting: "the lop-sided result - especially it being no longer really in doubt at least 25 overs from the finish - will inevitably fuel the skepticism around a composite side cobbled together with no tangible sense of purpose, unless you count the seven-figure match payments and prize money on offer to both sides."

The Super Series resumed with the second one-dayer late last night (Caribbean time). The final ODI will be played on Sunday, also at Telstra Dome, before the Series shifts to the Sydney Cricket Ground for the scheduled six-day Test beginning October 14th.

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