The blitz on behalf of India’s World Cup campaign has started inreal earnest

Partab Ramchand21-Nov-2002The blitz on behalf of India’s World Cup campaign has started inreal earnest. If on TV we have Shah Rukh Khan yearning for , in the print media we have Kapil Dev saying thatIndia can dream about winning the World Cup following India’svictory against West Indies at Ahmedabad when the home teamsuccessfully chased a total of 324. Over the next couple ofmonths we will have more such aspirations, lengthy analyses byexperts and all sorts of public opinion polls. One’s mind goesback to a similar blitz carried out on the eve of the 1999competition highlighted by a national news magazine’s rather lopsided cover story on ’11 reasons why India will win the WorldCup’. We all know what happened. In fact only the bookies, thedown-to-earth breed of people who think with their heads and notwith their hearts, got it right. They put India sixth in the listof favourites as the tournament commenced and that was how Indiafinished.Admittedly, this time around, the Indians from being just one ofthe contenders for the World Cup, have emerged as strongchallengers on the sheer weight of their performances over thelast few months. The NatWest Trophy triumph and the sharing ofthe ICC Champions Trophy are being cited as proof that Indiastand a realistic chance of regaining the trophy they won 20years ago.Detractors, however, never tire to point out that even if theNatWest Trophy triumph was registered away from the subcontinent, the opposition was not very strong in the absence ofAustralia, West Indies, New Zealand, South Africa and Pakistan.The pessimists also underscore the fact that in the full-strengthICC Champions Trophy, the joint triumph was achieved on the subcontinent whereas conditions in South Africa will be verydifferent. And it must be remembered that India’s record in thatcountry is anything but impressive. To compound matters, India’sshowing in the ongoing series against the West Indies has beenuneven. After all, even without Sachin Tendulkar and Zaheer Khanthey were favoured to take the series easily.It does take certain special qualities to emerge as a World Cupwinning side and at the moment it must be admitted that Indiafall short of being a trophy taking combination. Even the supremeoptimist will admit that the bowling is weak. And the rash ofexperiments being tried out by the team management is proof thatthere are certain lacunae in the squad that have to be plugged. Aformidable batting line up can come to naught when not backed bystrong bowling.As I said, it takes certain qualities to emerge as World Cupchampions, qualities that will undoubtedly emerge after taking aquick look at the seven sides that have won the trophy so far.
© ICCIn 1975 and 1979, West Indies were champions on the strength oftheir awesome batting and bowling. Six great batsmen and fourgreat bowlers made for an unbeatable combination. Even, though,they possessed utility players in Keith Boyce and Bernard Julien(in 1975) and Collis King (in 1979) they were regarded primarilyas bowlers thanks to the awesome batting line up (Greenidge,Fredericks, Haynes, Richards, Kallicharran, Lloyd, Kanhai andGomes) and a fearsome quartet of fast bowlers in Holding,Roberts, Garner and Croft.Few will deny that India’s unexpected triumph in 1983 wasscripted in the main because of the presence of a number of allrounders – Kapil Dev, Ravi Shastri, Roger Binny, Madan Lal and MohinderAmarnath. By this time, the bits-and-pieces player had becomeessential to the one-day side and Steve Waugh underlined this byplaying a prominent role in Australia’s victorious campaign onthe sub continent in 1987. Of course, Australia were also wellserved in the batting department by the likes of Geoff Marsh,David Boon and Dean Jones while Craig McDermott with a bag of 18wickets saw to it that the bowling too played its part in thetriumph.Around this time, another quality associated with championshipwinning sides came to the fore – outstanding leadership. AllanBorder provided that in 1987 by leading the Australians tovictory when they were still in the rebuilding process andreckoned as having little chance of getting beyond thesemifinals.In Australiasia in 1992, it was Imran Khan’s turn to provideinspirational leadership. Again Pakistan’s chances were not ratedtoo highly especially after they had lost three of their firstfive matches. Indeed, at this stage Pakistan were virtually outof the tournament but by winning their last three league matches,they squeaked into the semifinals as the fourth team and the restis history. Imran’s contributions with bat and ball were modestbut he inspired his teammates to great deeds and Javed Miandad,Rameez Raja, Amil Sohail and young Inzamam with the bat and WasimAkram, Aaqib Javed and Mushtaq Ahmed with the ball responded in atelling manner.The Sri Lankans in 1996 brought back memories of the twin WestIndian triumphs and not just in the manner of playing. It wasback to the six batsmen and four bowlers policy but with oneimportant change. They had a wicketkeeper who could double up asa pinch hitter at the top of the order. The Jayasuriya-Kaluwitharana pairing was really something else and the Lankansby going for the bowling in an uninhibited manner virtuallydecided the course of the match in the first 15 overs. The highpoint came at Kandy in the game against Kenya when Jayasuriya andKaluwitharana brought up the 50 in an amazing 3.2 overs. Notsurprisingly, Sri Lanka went on to register the highest total ina limited overs international – 398 for five in 50 overs ontheir way to a glorious trophy triumph at Lahore a couple ofweeks later.While the batting was Sri Lanka’s chief strength, the bowling inthe hands of Chaminda Vaas and Muthiah Muralitharan was anythingbut weak while Jayasuriya doubled up as a utility player andthere was also the inspiring captaincy of Arjuna Ranatunga.
© CricInfoLeadership again was an important factor in Australia’s triumphin the last World Cup. Steve Waugh provided the spark thatignited the entire team, again at a time when they seemed headedfor elimination at the preliminary stage. They made it to theSuper Six carrying no points but from then on everything wentright for them. Waugh led from the front, his aggregate of 398being the second highest in the competition while twin brotherMark (375) played his part admirably. They were well served inthe bowling department too and while Shane Warne (20) finished asthe joint top wicket taker, Glenn McGrath (18) was not farbehind. So astute was the captaincy and so effective was thebatting and bowling that the utility qualities of Michael Bevanand Tom Moody were barely required.So there you have it the mantra for a World Cup winning side.Astute or inspiring leadership, a formidable batting line up, anawesome bowling attack and one or two utility players allied toother mandatory factors like brilliant fielding and catching,self belief, the ability to win anywhere and not just in yourbackyard, a thoroughly professional approach and the readiness toinnovate. Does the Indian team have all this? I leave it to thereader to be the judge.