4 great Australian cricketers who never played in a World Cup

With 5 World Cups to their name and two appearances in the final of the tournament, Australia is the most successful team in the history of cricket's showpiece event.

Needless to say, they have had some of the best cricketers in the world playing for them in different editions of the tournament. The task of actually getting selected for the Australian World Cup team is a tough ask for most.

However, there have been some highly successful Australian cricketers who acquired legendary status but did not play many one-day internationals and in fact, never played for them in the World Cup. Here is a look at 4 such cricketers, in no particular order.

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#4 Stuart MacGill

Now, not many would say that the former Australian leg-spinner was a great cricketer. But it is hard to deny that Stuart MacGill might have had a much bigger stature in the game had his career not coincided with that of Shane Warne.

He played Tests whenever Warne wasn't available but when it came to ODI cricket he had an even harder time to get into the side.

MacGill was a huge turner of the ball and he could produce results on any surface. However, his ODI career was restricted to only 3 games - none of which came in a World Cup.

He played his first ODI back in 2000 and in the same year, he played in his last game. He picked up 6 wickets in those three games and managed to get a superb 4 for 19 in one of them.

#3 Len Pascoe

Len Pascoe was an aggressive bowler

For a brief period in the late 1970s, Australian fast bowler Len Pascoe worked as the perfect foil to the fearsome duo of Dennis Lillee and Jeff Thomson. The right-arm fast bowler may not have been the most crafty bowler, but he could bowl at a searing pace and that aggression remained his forte.

Pascoe made his debut during the Ashes in England in 1977 and was impressive against a formidable side. However, he soon moved to World Series Cricket, and some of his prime years were lost to the lucrative Super Tests organized by Kerry Packer.

He played 29 One Day Internationals in his career but incredibly, none of them were in a World Cup. In 1979, WSC was still in operation and hence he could not participate.

Pascoe's knee injuries meant that his career in ODI cricket ended in 1982 with a haul of 53 wickets in 29 games. His average of 20.11 and economy rate of 4.07 are ample proof that he could have been one of the true greats for Australia in limited overs cricket.

#2 Ryan Harris

Ryan Harris picked up a lot of wickets in a very short span

Arguably, there hasn't been a modern Australian fast bowler who has been as good as Ryan Harris was when he was at his peak. Had it not been for Harris' chronic injury problems, he would have been included among the greats of the game.

He played in only 27 Test matches but picked up 113 wickets at an average of 23.52, and a strike rate of 50.7. Those are numbers that can only be generated by a bowler who is among the best of his generation.

He only played 21 ODIs but even in those games, he showed his worth by returning an average of 18.90 and going at only 4.84 an over, at a time when economy rates had gone up by a lot.

Harris picked up 44 wickets in ODIs but never got to play for Australia in World Cups. The 2011 World Cup was his only chance to play in the tournament but Australia preferred Shaun Tait and Brett Lee over him.

#1 Justin Langer

Justin Langer is a Test cricket legend

Langer is easily one of the greatest top order batsmen to have ever played for Australia. His transformation into one of the world's leading opening batsmen in the latter part of his career makes him one of the true greats of the game.

In addition to that, along with Matthew Hayden, Langer brought a brand of attacking batsmanship to opening batting that often demoralized the opposition within a fairly short period of time.

But despite all that, Langer became branded as a Test match player and only ever played 8 ODIs for the Australian team throughout the course of his career that spanned around 14 years.

What is even more interesting is that although he retired from international cricket in 2007, he played his last ODI almost a decade earlier - in 1997. Australia's sheer riches of talent meant that they could ignore the prowess of players like Langer and still win three consecutive World Cups in that period.