ICC WORLD CUP 2003 : A HEADY SOAP OPERA
D.K.
Bharadwaj *
It is an irony that
despite the meticulously framed rules covering all aspects of
the game with the best of intentions, the imponderables ruled
the roost in the ICC World Cup-2003 currently being played in
the southern part of the vast continent of Africa. Unexpected
results and equally fickle weather made the 8th World Cup of cricket
a veritable soap opera, which dished out a heady mix of joy and
sorrow, suspense and thrill, heroics and performances. Otherwise
who would have believed that an unknown player from a weak outfit
would rewrite the record books by scoring the fastest century
in the history of World Cups? John Davison of Canada did exactly
that and much more. Davison not only broke India’s own Kapil Dev’s
20-year-old record by scoring a 67-ball century against West Indies
at Centurion, but also bagged two coveted Man of the Match awards
in ties against the formidable Caribbeans and the Kiwis. Who would
have thought that an ordinary Dutch bowler with an exotic name
– Tim de Leede – would badly bruise the reputation of the Indian
team’s much – vaunted batting strength? Who would have dreamt
that strong contenders South Africa, West Indies, Pakistan and
England would fail to qualify for the elite "Super Six"
stage? And who would have put his hard-earned money on Kenya and
Zimbabwe, the two minor joint hosts making the "Super Six"
grade? But all this happened in the 8th World Cup.
The unexpected
early ouster of South Africa, the main host and a hot pre-tournament
favourite, is a big blow to the ambitions of the United Cricket
Board of South Africa, who hoped to make cricket, if not more,
as popular as rugby and football in their country through the
title success of their team. But everything went topsy-turvy for
the mighty hosts as they went down to West Indies in the tournament
opener at the Newlands in Cape Town due to the brilliance of Brian
Lara and, later, rains played a major role in their defeat at
the hands of the Kiwis and also in the disastrous tie in the crucial
match against Sri Lanka. Injury to Jonty Rhodes and bad form of
Allan Donald also hampered South Africa’s World Cup campaign.
West Indies was also a victim of the ire of the rain gods, who
disrupted their match against the weak Bangladesh team. The loss
of two valuable points ultimately proved costly for West Indies.
England must be ruing now their politically motivated decision
of not going to Harare to play against Zimbabwe as the home team
received a gift of four points which saw them reaching the "Super
Six" stage. However, New Zealand was lucky that it reached
the next round despite refusing to play in Nairobi against Kenya
simply because rains ruined the chances of both South Africa and
West Indies in their group.
Despite ace leg-spinner
Shane Warne’s failure to come clean in the doping test, the defending
champion, Australia, was the only team which kept its reputation
intact by giving a highly skilful and consistent display throughout.
It not only remained unbeaten, but also amply demonstrated its
all-round strength. So far as India is concerned, after initial
hiccups, it recovered soon to peak at the right time. May be the
ire of the fans back home spurred the Indian team on to rectify
the damage done to its image due to insipid batting against the
Dutch and the Kangaroos in the first two matches. Inspired by
the Little Master’s high quality batting performance, the Indian
team went on to win the next four matches convincingly. Sachin’s
demolition act against the dreaded pace attack of Pakistan and
equally penetrating attack of England was simply breathtaking.
India’s magnificent 6-wicket victory over arch – rival Pakistan
at Centurion in its last group match was highly creditable. It
was India’s fourth straight victory over Pakistan in the World
Cups since the two neighbours first met in the 5th world Cup in
1991-92 jointly hosted by Australia and New Zealand.
The highlight
of India’s performance in the present World Cup is the brilliant
form shown by Sachin Tendulkar, who has so far scored 469 runs
in the 6 group matches, far more than anybody else in the tournament
including Brian Lara (West Indies), Sanath Jayasuriya (Sri Lanka),
Matthew Hayden (Australia) and Herschelle Gibbs (South Africa),
the other heavy scorers. It may be recalled that Sachin Tendulkar
is the only batsman in the history of the World Cup who has scored
over 500 runs in a single World Cup competition. To be precise,
the Indian magician with the bat had scored 523 runs in the 6th
World Cup in 1996. This time also he is going to repeat this unique
feat. He has already taken his World Cup aggregate to a new all-time
high of 1529 runs in 28 matches leaving far behind the previous
World Cup record of Pakistan’s Javed Miandad, who had scored 1083
runs in 33 matches.
While Australia
and India were the two best teams in Group "A", Sri
Lanka made a big impression in Group "B" by winning
its first three matches in style, but slipped badly against Kenya
losing sensationally by 53 runs. Subsequently, Sri Lanka gave
a better account in the next two matches itself against West Indies
and South Africa. Though New Zealand lost its opener to Sri Lanka,
it played brilliantly against the hosts South Africa to record
a fabulous 9 – wicket win. Australia, India and Zimbabwe from
Group "A" and Sri Lanka., Kenya and New Zealand from
Group "B" qualified for the prestigious "Super
Six" round. Thus, India now has a good chance to reach the
semi-finals, the first step towards the big goal.
While Sachin
Tendulkar has outshone other batsmen through his brilliance and
consistency, there have been some stupendous batting performances
from others also. Zimbabwe’s Craig Wishart’s unbeaten 172 against
Namibia at Harare is the fifth highest ever individual score in
the history of the World Cups. Brian Lara’s 116 runs against South
Africa at Cape Town, Jayasuriya’s 120 runs against New Zealand
at Bloemfontein and Scott Styris’s 141 runs in the same match
for New Zealand, Andrew Symond’s unbeaten knock of 143 runs against
Pakistan at Johannesburg, Herschelle Gibbs’s 143 runs against
New Zealand at Johannesburg and New Zealand skipper Stephen Fleming’s
match-winning unbeaten knock of 134 runs in the same match against
South Africa are some of the highly impressive displays. In all,
15 centuries were scored in 40 group matches of the first stage.
In bowling, Australia’s
Glenn McGrath outshone others by capturing 7 Nambinian wickets
in 7 overs conceding only 15 runs, the best ever figures in the
World Cups. Another Australian, Andy Bichel, was only a shade
behind his illustrious teammate, when he bagged 7 England wickets
for only 20 runs. The Sri Lankan left-arm pacer Chaminda Vaas
stunned the Bangladesh team by claiming a hat-trick capturing
three wickets in the first three balls of the first over of the
match, a unique feat indeed! Vaas is the third bowler after Chetan
Sharma (India) and Saqlain Mushtaq (Pakistan) to perform a hat-trick
in the World Cups.
Displaying another
amazing feat, Sri Lanka bundled out Canada for merely 36 runs
in 18.4 overs, the lowest ever completed innings total in the
history of the World Cups. Australia also created a record defeating
Namibia by 256 runs, the biggest every victory margin in the one-dayers.
Wasim Akram (Pakistan) became the first bowler to capture more
than 50 wickets in the World Cups. Akram bagged 55 wickets in
38 World Cup matches.
* Senior
Sports Writer
