Top 5 England cricketers who never played the Cricket World Cup

During the first five editions of the ICC Cricket World Cup, England were the ultimate underachievers of the tournament, having finished runners-up on three occasions in 1979, 1987 and 1992. Nevertheless, a lot of the country’s finest players have played in the World Cup including the likes of Graham Gooch, Geoffrey Boycott, Alec Stewart, Bob Willis, Ian Botham, just to name a few.

However, there have been a number of cricketers from England who had what it takes to play in the World Cup but did not find a place in the squad. Here are five prominent England cricketers who never played in the World Cup.

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#5 Devon Malcolm

Devon Malcolm was one of England's finest Test bowlers during the early and mid-90s and one of the fastest bowlers in the world during his prime. He took 128 Test wickets throughout his Test career including 5 five-wicket hauls with his best bowling figures being 9/57 against South Africa.

However, Malcolm hardly got the opportunity to showcase his bowling in ODIs despite an impressive record of 249 wickets in List-A cricket that includes two five-wicket hauls and a spell of 7/35. The Jamaican-born had a remarkable start to his ODI career with a spell of 2/19 against New Zealand at The Oval in 1990.

After playing a few matches in 1990, Malcolm did not feature in the ODI team till 1993 despite doing fairly well in Tests. He thus failed to find a spot in the 1992 World Cup. He played in a few ODIs in 1993 and 1994, taking three wickets on two occasions. However, despite bowling a fine spell of 3/41 against West Indies, Malcolm was dropped from the ODI team once again and was never recalled.

#4 Owais Shah

Shah's performances deteriorated at the wrong time

Owais Shah's ODI career began in 2001 and ended in 2009. However, his appearances during this period were not very consistent. He began his ODI career decently, scoring a half-century in his second ODI against Pakistan at Lord’s.

He made sporadic appearances for the team until January 2003 before being dropped from the team. He did not find a place in the squad for the 2003 World Cup. By that time, he scored only 283 runs from 15 innings at an average of 21.76 with two fifties to his name.

He returned to the national team in 2006 due to many first team members sustaining injuries. However, he scored a combined 11 runs in three innings and would not feature in the ODI team until the series against India. He thus missed out on a place in the 2007 World Cup.

Shah produced some really wonderful performances from 2007-2009 including a century against India and a match-winning knock of 98 against South Africa during the 2009 Champions Trophy. However, his poor performances in the ODI series against Australia before the Champions Trophy put his place in the national team in jeopardy. He was not chosen in the Tour of South Africa and with Middlesex not renewing his contract at the end of the 2010 season, Shah’s chances of entering the national team and even the slightest chance of securing a place in the 2011 World Cup were put paid to.

Shah’s ODI career ended with 1834 runs at an average of 30.56 with 12 fifties and a hundred to his name.

#3 Mark Butcher

Mark Butcher sadly, never got the chance to play an ODI

Mark Butcher is remembered for being one of England’s finest middle-order Test batsmen during the late 90s and early 2000s. Butcher has quite an impressive Test record, scoring 4288 Test runs across 7 years with 23 fifties and 8 centuries to his name.

Butcher also has quite an impressive List-A record with 4460 runs and 49 wickets. He has 28 fifties and two centuries to his name. Despite this, Butcher never got the chance to play for the ODI team. Butcher is the only player in the ODI era who has never played an ODI despite playing more than 30 Tests (he went on to play 71 Tests).

With the presence of the likes of Graham Thorpe, Graeme Hick and the experienced Neil Fairbrother, Butcher had no chance of finding a place in the 1999 World Cup. He played some really wonderful innings from 2000-2002 and was among the Top 30 Test run-scorers from 1st January 2000- 31 December 2002. However, this wasn’t enough for Butcher to play a single ODI let alone play a World Cup.

Butcher’s Test performances lost consistency during 2004 and he was dropped from the Test team following England’s Tour of South Africa in late 2004.

#2 Matthew Hoggard

Hoggard was never given an opportunity to play a single match at the 2003 World Cup

Matthew Hoggard has made quite a name for himself in England’s Test Cricket history, being their 9th highest wicket-taker with 248 wickets including 26 five-wicket hauls. Hoggard’s List-A record is also pretty good with 205 wickets including 4 five-wicket hauls.

However, his ODI numbers aren’t as impressive as his Test or List-A numbers. He has 32 wickets to his name in 26 ODIs across five years. Hoggard had a brilliant start to his ODI career though. He was the highest wicket-taker in his debut series against Zimbabwe in October 2001 with 10 wickets including his best spell of 5/49 at Harare.

He produced a few decent spells in 2002 and found a place in the 2003 World Cup. However, he was always in the pavilion as the likes of Craig White, Ronnie Irani, Andrew Caddick and James Anderson were preferred. Hoggard then made a few sporadic ODI appearances from post 2003 World Cup to 2006. He was dropped from the ODI team after the Tour of India and was never recalled.

#1 Alastair Cook

It's a pity that England's greatest Test batsman never played the World Cup despite having a more than decent ODI record

All the players which have been discussed in this slider so far, have either made sporadic ODI appearances or haven’t played a single ODI. However, Alastair Cook has played quite a number of ODIs and is England 14th highest ODI run-scorer with 3204 runs.

Cook made his ODI debut in 2006 and played only two ODIs which was hardly enough for him to find a place in the 2007 World Cup squad. The left-handed batsman produced some brilliant performances in 2007 and 2008 but did not return to the ODI team until 2010. He played just three ODI matches in 2010 but averaged 52, scoring two fifties. However, due to skipper Andrew Strauss coming back to the ODI team, Cook was dropped from the ODI team and was not called for the 2011 World Cup.

Cook produced some brilliant performances from 2011-2013, many of them coming as England captain. However, following the 2013 Champions Trophy, Cook’s performances deteriorated. He was named in the squad for the 2015 World Cup in Australia and New Zealand as England’s captain before being axed from the team due to his poor performances in Sri Lanka.