The best and worst players from the 14 teams at the WC

The Australian team has had an up and down tournament so far and that is easily visible in the contribution of the players.

While Shane Watson continues his good run through the tournament, Brett Lee has also staged a remarkable return to international cricket.

Mitchell Johnson has his good days, and so has the dependable Brad Haddin. Michael Clarke barely does enough without ever making a big difference with his performances.

Coming to the disappointments in the squad, captain Ricky Ponting has failed to lead from the front, proving to be an embarrassment. Cameron White is the other shameful act and has been both painful and pathetic.

Abdur Razzak, Tamin Iqbal, Imrul Kayes and Shafiul Islam had their good days, but weren't consistent enough and that's really why Bangladesh are out of this World Cup.

The Bangladeshis were heavily let down by Mahmudullah and Mohammed Ashraful. They have performed brilliantly in the past, but failed miserably when it came to performing on ODI cricket's biggest stage.

Pacer Harvir Baidwan picked 13 wickets, which is no mean feat. Skipper Ashish Bagai also made a name for himself with more than 200 runs against his name.

Then there's the big spinner Balaji Rao who has improved with every match and made useful contributions.

For John Davison it was a disappointing farewell, but he has illuminated the World Cup stage in his heyday, and hopefully has a promising coaching career ahead of him.

Andrew Strauss and Jonathan Trott also performed to the task when duty called, although Trott's low strike rate betrayed his Test match pedigree.

It was sad that England's former captain Paul Collingwood lost his place in the playing eleven. But the reliable all-rounder completely failed with bat and ball.

And take a look at James Anderson's economy rate -- his best contribution to the team came as a fielder!

Zaheer Khan has been clinical in his approach and Sachin Tendulkar played just the way you would expect the world's greatest ODI player to play.

Virat Kohli has batted competently and was easily India's best fielder (see his fielding points).

M S Dhoni has scored only 118 runs -- at a strike rate of just over 70 (his ODI career strike rate is close to 90).

In fact, Dhoni is now looking more like a wicket-keeper batsman (with 90 fielding points, he has more points as a 'keeper than as a batsman).

Yusuf Pathan's meagre aggregate of 74 runs at a strike rate of 115.6 suggests that he's going for the big shots without giving himself time to settle down.

Only Kevin has now moved ahead of Niall with his swashbuckling batting (he received a thunderous ovation in the India-Ireland match at Bangalore).

George Dockrell looked a competent spinner (he got Tendulkar's wicket!) and John Mooney bowled well along with taking a lot of catches in the deep.

Alex Cusack didn't translate his ability into performance, and while Boyd Rankin, bowled at express pace, he doesn't have enough wickets to show for all this effort.

This time they were abjectly disappointing. There were barely any noteworthy performances. Except that Collins Obuya scored a few runs, while N Odhiambo and Elijah Otieno managed to take a few wickets.

The biggest letdown was Steve Tikolo. Considered a world-class cricketer, Tikolo failed to come to the party and make any contribution what so ever.

Kenya's former coach Sandeep Patil must find this truly distressing!

With a MVPI of 450, ten Doeschate was in the top 10 MVPI list; he scored over 300 runs, took a fair number of wickets and, best of all, gave England a royal scare.

Pieter Seelaar looked an impressive spinner, while Peter Borren and Tom Cooper showed that they could bat a bit.

Alas, the same can't be said of Alexei Kervezee and Tom de Grooth who failed every time they came out to bat.

Tim Southee has been New Zealand's outstanding player claiming 14 wickets at an economy rate of just 4.0.

Brendon McCullum has been consistent without being explosive. Ross Taylor exploded against Pakistan, but has lacked consistency.

Jacob Oram was an adequate all-rounder and Martin Guptill did his bit.

On the hand we have Jesse Ryder, who couldn't even average 20. His strike rate of 74.5 makes one wonder where all his strokes have gone.

James Franklin is rated highly, but he'd like to forget this World Cup quickly.

Take those two away and the team looks much more ordinary.

Mohammad Hafeez and Abdul Razzaq have done just enough to make it to the top five, and Umar Akmal's batting against Australia gives him a deserved place among the best five.

For long periods, Younis Khan has been Pakistan's best batsman and Shoaib Akhtar (when available) has been Pakistan's best bowler. However, so far the duo has been disappointing.

In fact, it's Robin Peterson, who, thanks to his all-round abilities, has topped the list among the Proteas.

Peterson has picked a number of top-order wickets and scored quick runs to fetch South Africa crucial victories.

A B de Villiers threatened to become the outstanding batsman of this World Cup till injury briefly stalled his run.

Imran Tahir has been a surprise, and Jacques Kallis rarely fails to perform. Jean-Paul Duminy adds real solidity.

The biggest disappointment for the team has been skipper Graeme Smith. The other player to make minimal contribution to the team's cause has been 'keeper Morne van Wyk.

The South African selectors had picked Van Wyk ahead of Mark Boucher, but in hindsight this looks like a completely failed move.

The amazing Muralitharan keeps taking wickets even with injury and Mahela Jayawardene has been efficient without looking to be at his best.

The only puzzle in Sri Lanka's strategy has been the abiding faith in the batting of Thilan Samaraweera and Chamara Silva. They are good batsmen for sure, but appear to be misfits in this imposing Sri Lankan line-up.

The real surprise is finding captain Darren Sammy on this list. The uncharitable say he doesn't deserve to be in the playing eleven, but Sammy has done pretty well.

Elton Chigumbura was a major disappointment and one never understood why Regis Chakabva got so many chances. Perhaps Zimbabwe just doesn't have enough quality players.

That's rather sad because from the 1999 till around the early years of the last decade, Zimbabwe looked a pretty formidable squad.

How many of us still remember that they beat India in the 1999 World Cup, and again reached the Super Six in 2003?