Would you pick a guy who has 5902 one day runs at 44.04, with eight centuries and 42 fifties to his name?

How about this other guy who has 164 wickets at 29.74, at a strike rate of 38.32 and an economy rate of 4.66?

How about if you could graft the two together into one heck of a player -- who goes by the name of Jacques Henry Kallis?

If you are looking for the Most Valuable Player in the upcoming World Cup, look no further than 'Kally', the high-living six-footer of Western Province, Middlesex, Glamorgan and South Africa.

The current definition of all-rounder is a bloke who can bowl a few overs and score a few runs. But if you go with the classical definition of all rounder as someone who can win you a game with bat and/or ball, Kallis has to be head and shoulders above his contemporaries -- check out the table for yourselves.

The chart looks at a two-year period beginning January 1, 2001, and lists all those who have in that time-frame scored 1000+ runs and taken 20+ wickets.

Other than the absolute dominance of Kallis -- who has the best batting average of the lot, and is next only to Chris Gayle in the bowling average stakes -- what is interesting is the West Indies strength in this regard: Of 12 players who meet the criteria defined above, the Windies has three, which helps the balance of the team no end.

India, meanwhile, can stop toying with the Bangars and Agarkars -- based on performance over the last couple of years, the only two players worth slotting in the all-rounder category are Virender Sehwag and the skipper, Saurav Ganguly himself.

You might want to keep an eye on some names outside the box -- Brett Lee, Shane Warne, Wasim Akram and Shane Bond suggest themselves, immediately, as bowlers who can play devastating, even match-winning cameos with the bat.

Chris Cairns suggests himself as a genuine all-rounder who did not make the above list -- but who can have enormous impact on the Cup -- thanks mainly to injury; while Lance Klusener is another player in the same mould, suffering from poor form.

Pakistan, already well served by Shahid Afridi and Abdul Razzak, will be beefed up further by the re-entry of Azhar Mahmood who incidentally first captured the imagination with a terrific century on debut in South Africa.

The only other names that suggest themselves -- unless you are prepared to really relax the criteria and dilute the whole concept of all-rounder -- are Scott Styris (515 runs at 25.75; 29 wickets at 24.06) and Heath Streak (674 runs at 32.09 and 48 wickets at 31.00).

Styris, Razzaq and the inevitable Kallis are the only three bowlers who have five-wicket hauls (one apiece) to their names. Similarly, Jayasuriya (6) and Sehwag (5) top the list of batsmen who consistently produce big, match-winning scores.

You have the form book now -- you pays your money, and you takes your choice, on which of these will turn out to be the most consistently valuable player in the upcoming Cup.

• Second innings stars - I