1996 World Cup:
As world cup is coming closer and closer, Indians are feeling that , this world cup belongs to them only. We, Indians always had high expectation from our team in the previous World Cups as well. Let it be the world cup 1996 , 1999, or 2003(In 2007 our expectation were drowned before it could raise).
Between the years 1993 to 1996, under the leadership of Azhar team was doing good; Sachin Tendulkar had just started to show that there was a legend in making. Navjot Singh Sidhu, Sanjay Manjarekar, Ajay Jadeja, Vinod Kambli and Azhar himself were respected players of their era. Vinod Kambli in particular had the tag of match winner after Sachin. In bowling department led by the very experience Manoj Prabhakar, Javagal Srinath, Anil Kumble, Venkatesh Prasad, Venkatpathy Raju, Ashish Kapoor and the man with golden arm Sachin Tendulkar. At that time Sachin was consider to be more reliable to get wicket and turn the match around at crucial times as the memories of Hero Cup semifinal verses South Africa was very much fresh. At that time Indian team didn’t had dashing wicketkeeper as we have today in form of Dhoni, but certainly very popular Nayan Mongia, because of his loud scream in Marathi “Aai g” (Oh Mummy).
League Matches:
1996 Campaign was started on good note beating Kenya, outclassed by century from the Sachin. India beat West Indies quite comfortably. Sachin scoring delightful 70 runs, with Kambli cheeping in with well made 33 runs. Sachin was man of the match on the both occasions; the whole team gaining momentum at the right time. Until Aussies beat India in a close match; again Sachin’s wicket was vital in that match and he played masterful innings of 90 runs.
The real can of worms turns out to be the match against the Sri Lanka. Again the man himself taken all the pride of scoring runs for India and Master Blaster scored 137 runs, with the help of his century India had given very competitive target of 271, which in those was winning score. I, like all Indians was relaxed and very happy that India will win this match for sure. But then you can’t take anything for granted, this was the first lesson I have learned. The loss against Sri Lankan team had created some DOUBT in the conscious & subconscious mind of Indian players, and when DOUBT is there in your mind (this DOUBT will come in to picture when I will tell you about the infamous Semifinal played at Eden Gardens), there were lots of IFs & BUTs were happened. Finally Prabhakar was dropped from playing eleven in the next match.
The rise of Jayasuriya ensured that Manoj Prabhakar will play his last international match. With Sanath making thunderous 79 runs and well supported by Ranatunga & Tilakrante achieved the unexpected (at least it was unexpected for the Indians). India lost to Sri Lanka which turns out to be real show spoiler for common Indian fan like me and nor did the Azhar’s team believed it till it happened. But as it was league match the team has moved on and played with great heart to beat Zimbabwe. The Kambli factor came in to picture here. When he came out bat Indian team were struggling for 32 /3. But the veteran Sidhu and very talented Kambli guided India to respectable total, many thanks to Ajay Jadeja for his all round abilities. Ajay played a blinder scoring 44 runs in 27 balls and took 2 wickets. In fact he was chosen man of the match.
The league matches were all over by this time, and thanks to Aussies, Sri Lanka emerged as number one in Group A. As the Aussies didn’t went to the Sri Lanka citing (unnecessary) security reasons, therefore Sri Lanka team were handed over free points for that match. Aussies were on second spot, followed by India on three and then by West Indies at fourth.
In Group B more predictable things were happened South Africa topped the group followed by Pakistan at second and New Zealand & England were at three & fourth respectively. (After league stages nothing predictable happened for the Group B teams, as in the semifinal stage all the 4 teams were from Group A.)
So stage was set up for the quarter final Sri Lanka v/ England, Australia v/s new Zealand, South Africa v/s West Indies and the BIG ONE India v/s Pakistan.
The Quarters:
In a first quarter final played between Sri Lanka & England at Faisalabad, in Pakistan, the match was pretty much one sided with Jayasuriya again showing his powerful hitting and scoring 82 runs from just 44 balls. Sri Lanka won the match with ease while chasing the modest score of 235 runs. Now Sri Lanka was scheduled to play in the semifinal with the winner of India & Pakistan quarterfinal match in Bangalore (now Bengaluru).
As we all know India v/s Pakistan was the highlight of 1996 world cup match, thanks to some scintillating hitting by Ajay Jadeja and the incident which took place between Aamir Sohail & Venkatesh Prasad. India won the match in grand style. Large amount of thinking was gone before this match and it was visible from the near perfect execution. Keep wickets in hand and then score a competitive score of 250-260. But thanks to late flurry by Ajay Jadeja in which he clearly dismantle Waqar Younis in the death overs. India scored very fine 287. Rest was up to bowlers, Anil Kumble and Venkatesh Prasad came to party with 3 wickets each. India grabbed a emphatic win here.
Now it was clear that India would be playing Sri Lanka at Eden Gardens Calcutta (now Kolkata). When the Indian team met to discuss the plans for this match, the think tank of the team; the wonder couple of Captain Azhar & Coach Ajit Wadekar were came to conclusion by looking at Lankan record in last 12 months and in world cup. They simply came to conclusion that Sri Lankan were good in chasing, as in quarterfinal also, Sri Lanka had won the match by chasing.
The Semifinal:
I think, Captain & Coach had decided well in advance that, India would be chasing in semifinal if they were lucky with the toss. Guess what, Azhar won the toss in that semifinal and invited Sri Lanka to have the honor of batting first at Eden Gardens; the decision looks damn good as the dynamic duo of Sanath & Kalu were back in pavilion in the very first over itself by Srinath. Then came the Madmax of Sri Lankan cricket Arvinda de Silva with his drives and pools scoring brilliant 66 runs. Ranatunga, Mahanama, Tilakratne and Vaas played good innings to ensure that Sri Lanka will post a score of 251 runs. Though the score looks good all the Indian fans including me had a very strange confidence that India will win this match very easily.
Then came the X factor in to play which Indian think tank never bother to thought of, more because of that DOUBT created by Jayasuriya. The DOUBT was very damaging that "even if we (Indian team) will score 300 runs, Sanath and Kalu will chase it down". This prejudice harmed the Indians most; whole team was unanimous that if we get a chance we will bowl first. Later Azhar faced the heat because of this decision to bowl first, as he was the captain of the drown ship. But as came in newspaper, it was decided in Team Meeting. The DOUBT was created in the minds of Indian players and that’s where I think India had lost the match before actually playing it.
Till the time Sachin was batting, the Indians were relaxed and thinking of lifting a trophy of world cup at Lahore. In a close LBW shout by Vaas, Sachin was given not out (I really think he was out and I said to myself that “the lady luck is with us today”). After that what happened was remain one of my very bitter memories, Sachin was stumped in orthodox fashion and then Indian wickets falling in heap. It is not that Sri Lankan bowler got some mantra and they were picking up wickets as on their will, but the very important fact that Indian think tank ignored the pitch of Eden Gardens will help bowlers and in more specifically spinners under the flood lights. If Azhar could have little bit memory of Hero Cup final, where Anil Kumble picked up 6 West Indians wickets for 12 runs on the same ground under flood lights; he would have chosen to bat first on the day of semifinal. But he and most people were fresh with an assault of Jayasuriya on the Feroz shah Kotla ground.
A Heart Break:
The people of Calcutta couldn’t bare the pain of seeing the world cup dream was tumbling like a house of cards, they started to throw water bottles in the ground and then came the match referee, umpires and Sri Lankan Captain in the picture. The match was stopped & resumed couple of times. Finally the match was called off by match referee Clive Lloyd and he declared Sri Lanka as a winner. It was hopeless situation for Indian team, score was 120 runs for the loss of 8 wickets, with Kambli as last recognized batsman along with Anil Kumble. At that point match referee did no nonsense thing by awarding the match to Sri Lanka because of rioting crowd.
We all remember the crying face of Vinod Kambli walking back to pavilion. I was disappointed, angry and disgruntled not only because Indian team were out of the world cup but more because the way Indian team lost the match. Then next day I heard all kind rumors in my small town Igatpuri from Lankan batsmen having spring in their bats to Vinod Kambli taking sleeping pills because of the semifinal shock. None of them came true.
Rest as they say is history, Aussies were lost due to dew factor (I was supporting Australia in the final, because I wanted the Sri Lankan team to lose as they had beaten India) and the great heart shown by Sri Lankan team. It was kind of payback for Sri Lanka as Aussies insulted Sri Lankan nation by not going to Sri Lanka to play the league match.
Today when I look back on 1996 world cup, Sri Lankan team looks more deserving team to win the world cup of that era. They were playing with sole purpose of winning world cup, playing with strategy and were playing attacking cricket that created the DOUBT in the mind of Indian team.
India didn’t lost because of a Azahr’s decision or Sachin’s dismissal or pitch playing its part; India lost only because of that DOUBT.
The picture of Vinod Kambli crying and making his way back to the pavilion will reside in the memory of the generation who saw that match. What a Heart Break it was!
(This is my first blog; your ideas, views, feedback & criticism are most welcome.)
