Cricket:The Final Winner

Hi friends, i have written this blog purely from my perspective. I am no cricket expert nor am i a great cricket player. But i am an ardent fan of the game and i love its unpredictability. My following posts would be based on cricket solely viewed from my perspective.

Well, World Cup 2007 has already started and Australia has already kicked off its campaign on a very high note. They truly do have a chance of retaining the world cup.
If you ask me who the favorites would be, i would say "None".

Yes, i agree that Australia have strong team, and teams like NewZealand, England and SouthAfrica are in peak form, but as we all have seen. No worldcup, except the 1975 and 1979 editions, have been won by teams labelled as favorites.

Each world cup has its own share of Surprises, India surprised the world by winning the 1983 WC with its team of allrounders. The 1987 WC had its own share of surprises when WestIndies failed to reach the finals for the first time since the inauguration of the worldcup edition. The 1987 Final between England and Australia was labelled as one of the most thrilling matches. In the end, the team which held its nerve won.
The 1987 Wc was a revelation purely because of many new additions like the usage of coloured clothing, whiteballs etc. Australia made it their own due to their concept of Quick running between wickets.

The 1992 WC was an even exciting one. South Africa surprised the world when they fielded a brilliant allround unit that boasted of the best ever fielder, Jonty Rhodes.
Who can forget the run out of Inzamam, where Rhodes made a full-stretched dive towards the stumps and dislodged the bails. That was one great revelation.
It was unfortunate as SouthAfrica(also called as Proteas) were knocked out of the WC when the Rain rule required them to win 22 runs of 1 ball against England.

Pakistan were supposedly the worst team of the tournament until their Captain Imran Khan led Pakistan to its first ever World Cup truimph, courtesy Inzamam, Wasim, Javed and of course, the rained out match against England(where PAk wre all-out for 74 and yet they got a precious MATCH point which qualified them for the Quarter finals). England were unlucky again for the third time.

Although Pak and England made it to the finals, it was Newzealand, led by Martin Crowe, who revolutionised cricket by introducing the concept of Pinch hitting courtesy Mark Greatbatch and Martin Crowe. The 1987 match is best remembered for being the first WC to bring a sea of changes in the way One Day Internationals were being played.


If 1987 was dramatic, WC 1996 was excellent.
The 1996 WC saw the rise of Srilanka as one of the superpowers. Led by the plumpy Arjuna Ranatunga, the team upstaged the great teams like Australia, NewZealand, India and Pak to lift the cup for the first time.
Thanks to the pinch hitting of Sanatha Jayasuriya(The mindless Marauder) and Aravinda De Silva(One of the most stylish batsmen ever), Srilanka upset Australia in the final and romped home to lift the ultimate trophy.
The 1996 WC had many great moments like the AUS vs NZ match: NewZealand made a daunting target of 286 thanks to Harris(130) and Lee Germon(89), but Australia made a mockery of it when Mark Waugh (130) and Steve Waugh (59*) took Australia to a great victory.
The 1996 IND vs PAk match still stands out from the rest due to Ajay Jadeja, Aamir Sohail, Prasad and Waqar Younis. If you ask Why, please refer to Cricinfo.


The 1999 WC was one of the most boring WC, where Australia upstaged SouthAfrica in the SemiFinal and thrashed Pakistan in teh final to win the WC for the 2nd time.
The highlights of 1999 Wc was the SA vs AUS matches (one in the quarter and the other in Semis where the match was tied)
The 2003 WC saw India rising like a phoenix only to be burnt down by Australia in the final. The final was one of the worst one sided ones ever as India lost the match in the very first over when Gilchrist plundered Zaheer Khan for 15 runs.

Well, 2007 has just started. I just pray that this Tournament sees a much deserving and of course a new champion. I sincerely feel that Australia don't deserve to win this one. I also feel that Srilanka, India, and even Pakistan have an edge over the other teams due to their spinners who may play a crucial role(if the pitches suit them as expected). My final contenders would be SouthAfrica, NewZealand, India, Srilanka and of course Australia.

I would be very surprised if Pakistan come out of the dark to win this one. I just hope it doesn't. India do have a great chance to repeat 1983 ; only if they play as a team. I feel that they must stop depending on individual players to win matches.
Who knows, if Dravid, Saurav,Kumble, Pathan, and Sachin perform well consistenly, India might lift the Cup on April 28th.

The bottomline is,"Only a team that plays as a unit can lift this ultimate trophy".
Let the game be the true winner.