© Stamp Publicity
In the 1992 World Cup conducted jointly by Australia and New
Zealand, few gave Pakistan any chances of winning the trophy,
particularly after they had lost three of their first four games
in the preliminary stage
Partab Ramchand15-Mar-2003
| © Stamp Publicity |
In the 1992 World Cup conducted jointly by Australia and New
Zealand, few gave Pakistan any chances of winning the trophy,
particularly after they had lost three of their first four games
in the preliminary stage. But inspired by their charismatic
captain Imran Khan, then in the twilight of a long and
illustrious career, Pakistan displayed the kind of fighting
spirit generally not associated with the side. With the image of
a team full of talented individuals but lacking in cohesiveness,
Pakistan had too often flattered only to deceive. This time,
however, there was no faltering at the last hurdle and with a
performance that could not fail to win admiration, Pakistan were
unexpected but deserving winners, defeating England in the final
in the day/night final at Melbourne.The five-week long cricket carnival was not just the first to be
held in Australiasia. It was also the first to feature night
cricket, coloured clothing, white balls and black sightscreen
all the innovations brought into the game by Australian TV tycoon
Kerry Packer in 1977 while promoting the breakaway World Series
Cricket. But the most welcome feature of the fifth edition of the
World Cup was South Africa’s return to the international arena.
In fact, the fixtures had already been drawn up with eight
contestants when the decision was taken to re-admit South Africa.
The organisers drew up a fresh fixture list and for the first
time nine nations took part. The format was also changed. All the
teams took part in a league competition in which they all played
each other once. The top four teams qualified for the semifinals.Australia were the favourites as the tournament commenced and few
could argue with that. The holders had the home advantage besides
being arguably the leading team in the world. But they were off
to a bad start losing to New Zealand by 37 runs in the tournament
opener and little went right for them after that and, though,
they came briefly into contention for a berth in the semifinals
with two straight victories late in the campaign, they were edged
out. Ultimately they finished fifth in the league table with four
victories and four defeats. Both the batting and bowling
presented problems, symbolised by Allan Border scoring just 60
runs at an average of 8.57 and no bowler taking more than nine
wickets. Some good work with the bat by David Boon, who hit two
hundreds and Dean Jones were not enough to sustain the campaign
beyond the preliminary stage.The co-hosts fared much better. In fact, for a long while, New
Zealand seemed the team to beat, for they registered seven
successive wins. This surpassed the record held by the West
Indies who scored six victories on the trot in 1983. They went
down to a resurgent Pakistan team in their final league match but
still finished clearly on top in the final standings. Imaginative
strategies such as promoting big-hitting left-hander Mark
Greatbach to the opening slot to take maximum advantage in the
first 15 overs and having off-spinning all-rounder Dipak Patel to
open the bowling were responsible for this dream run and
underlined the fact that innovation is the name of the game in
one-day cricket. The batting of Martin Crowe and Andrew Jones and
the bowling of Gavin Larsen, Willie Watson and Chris Harris made
New Zealand the `hot’ team of the tournament until the end of the
league stage.Not unexpectedly, the return of South Africa evoked much interest
and the team acquitted itself most creditably. The batting of
Peter Kirsten, skipper Kepler Wessels and Andrew Hudson and the
bowling of Allan Donald and Brian McMillan saw South Africa
comfortably make the semifinals after they finished third in the
league with five wins and three losses. But the one quality that
made South Africa huge favourites with the spectators was their
work in the field. Led by Jonty Rhodes, who carried fielding to
the kind of standards that one had not witnessed before, South
Africa were outstanding in this aspect.They put up a gallant display in the semifinal against England
and were in with a chance of making the title round. But a fiveminute rain delay robbed them of a possible victory. When play
resumed, the huge scoreboard gave the unpalatable information
that South Africa needed 22 runs off one ball for victory. This
was of course impossible and exposed the absurdity of the rules.England had a good tournament and deservingly made the final for
the second successive year and for the third time in four
competitions. They suffered a jolt when they lost to Zimbabwe in
their final league match in the upset of the tournament and were
probably a shade lucky to make the title round after South Africa
were balked by rain in the semifinal. In the final, Pakistan
almost always had the match under control and England went down
by 22 runs. The batting of Graham Gooch, Graeme Hick, Neil
Fairbrother and Alec Stewart, the bowling of Dermot Reeve and
Phil DeFreitas and the all-round exploits of Ian Botham were the
factors behind England’s splendid showing.The other teams never really had much of a chance, though, West
Indies briefly were in the run for a spot in the semifinals. They
finished with a record of four wins and four defeats and the
batting of Brian Lara, Desmond Haynes and Keith Arthurton and the
bowling of Anderson Cummins and Winston Benjamin were the few
crumbs of comfort. For India, it was a campaign to forget. Little
went right for them and the final standing of seventh was
something that not even the most cynical follower of the game in
the country would have bargained for. Two victories, five losses
and one no result was a poor return for a team which had a number
of fine players. Mohammad Azharuddin and Sachin Tendulkar came
good with the bat while Manoj Prabhakar did well with the ball
but these silver linings were woefully inadequate. Sri Lanka (two
wins, five losses and one no result) and Zimbabwe (just that
shock victory over England which followed seven straight defeats)
were never really in the hunt for higher honours and they brought
up the rear. But the performances of Arjuna Ranatunga and Roshan
Mahanama for Sri Lanka and Andy Flower and Eddo Brandes for
Zimbabwe did not go unnoticed.
| © CricInfo |
Finally a word about the champions who were well served in the
batting department by Javed Miandad, Rameez Raja and Aamir
Sohail. Among the bowlers, Wasim Akram, Mushtaq Ahmed and Aaqib
Javed were outstanding.And a new star was discovered in Inzamam-ul-Haq. The burly righthander was at his blazing best in the semifinal when he slammed
60 off just 37 balls to steer Pakistan to victory after New
Zealand seemed to have the match in the bag. Overall, however, it
was Imran’s inspiring leadership he also pulled in his weight
with both bat and ball that was a key factor in Pakistan’s
triumph.
