Mark Richardson: In a roundabout way, the World XI now has to step up

There is a saying in life: swings and roundabouts. It's apt for cricket and provides comfort in tough times. The game is so full of variables that, from time to time, fluctuations in form and results just can't be rationally explained. So the best way to deal with them is to shrug the shoulders and say: "Hey, swings and roundabouts" and just keep on keeping on.

Take a look at Matthew Hayden, who became mortal over the last year and even looked in selectorial jeopardy but who's now scored back-to-back hundreds.

Or Adam Gilchrist, who couldn't buy a run in England but has bounced back to plunder the World XI. These players and the selectors know how the game works and great players don't become poor players overnight. Neither do the World XI players and, at some stage over the next year, all the failures we saw during the one-day series will turn into stunning success.

However, the ICC World XI concept has not been afforded the same luxury of time and all of a sudden the World XI players have to speed up the roundabout or the Super Series concept is going to fall off the carousel.

Now, though, these players do have something to play for. These World XI players are charged with saving the continuity of something that should be a triumphant celebration of cricket and cricketers. If this test is as one-sided in favour of Australia as the one-day series, there is a good chance the ICC will bow to an uncompromising public and scrap the whole idea.

If that happens then I believe we all miss out. The players miss out on the chance to represent a team supposedly higher than the current top level, the ones from the dominant country miss the chance to be really tested and all, apparently, miss the chance to win some really big coin too.

The public miss the chance to see cricket at a higher level, played by all the stars at once, and the ICC miss out on what could be a great money spinner.

However, the success and continuity of just about everything relies on its acceptance by the public. With no public buy-in comes no revenue, and with no revenue not much continues.

For the public to buy into this concept it needs credibility and it needs it fast. The world won't wait for the natural order of form reversal and so the World XI players find themselves under massive pressure. If they thought it would be all smiles and "she'll be right, mate" in Oz then that would have certainly changed now.

None would want to be held responsible for the ridicule of this concept and they will be feeling the heat. But these are the world's best cricketers, who should be able to handle pressure better than most.

But just a thought to ponder: If a World XI was put together to take on the famous West Indies team of the 1980s and if, in those games, Viv Richards and Michael Holding decided to front, would you really give a World XI that much hope?