5 unbreakable ODI World Cup records

#4 Most wickets in World Cups - Glenn McGrath

Only 2 pure bowlers, Wasim Akram and Muttiah Muralitharan have featured in 5 World Cups; 3 if you add Daniel Vettori to the list, who spent the whole of ‘99 as substitute, never making it to the team.

Even if a genuinely good bowler figures in 5 World Cups, he still has the unenviable task of picking at least 14 wickets to come anywhere close to McGrath’s tally. If one plays just 4 World Cups, like McGrath did, he has to pick 18 per World Cup to cross McGrath’s mark.

As the game gets more batsman friendly, it is hard to imagine a bowler picking 71 wickets in World Cups – especially with an astounding average of below 20 and economy rate of below 4, like McGrath did. Muralitharan had 68 wickets in the same number of innings, but his longevity is the stuff of legends.

To put these numbers into perspective, you need to look at the tally of a current bowler – Lasith Malinga with 31 wickets, probably in his last World Cup. That means it will be at least 3 more editions of the World Cup before we even have a chance of seeing anyone push the ‘McGrath mark’, leave alone breaking it.