© Stamp Publicity In the 1992 World Cup conducted jointly by Australia and NewZealand, few gave Pakistan any chances of winning the trophy,particularly after they had lost three of their first four gamesin the preliminary stage

Partab Ramchand15-Mar-2003
© Stamp PublicityIn the 1992 World Cup conducted jointly by Australia and NewZealand, few gave Pakistan any chances of winning the trophy,particularly after they had lost three of their first four gamesin the preliminary stage. But inspired by their charismaticcaptain Imran Khan, then in the twilight of a long andillustrious career, Pakistan displayed the kind of fightingspirit generally not associated with the side. With the image ofa 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 aperformance that could not fail to win admiration, Pakistan wereunexpected but deserving winners, defeating England in the finalin the day/night final at Melbourne.The five-week long cricket carnival was not just the first to beheld in Australiasia. It was also the first to feature nightcricket, coloured clothing, white balls and black sightscreen ­all the innovations brought into the game by Australian TV tycoonKerry Packer in 1977 while promoting the breakaway World SeriesCricket. But the most welcome feature of the fifth edition of theWorld Cup was South Africa’s return to the international arena.In fact, the fixtures had already been drawn up with eightcontestants when the decision was taken to re-admit South Africa.The organisers drew up a fresh fixture list and for the firsttime nine nations took part. The format was also changed. All theteams took part in a league competition in which they all playedeach other once. The top four teams qualified for the semifinals.Australia were the favourites as the tournament commenced and fewcould argue with that. The holders had the home advantage besidesbeing arguably the leading team in the world. But they were offto a bad start losing to New Zealand by 37 runs in the tournamentopener and little went right for them after that and, though,they came briefly into contention for a berth in the semifinalswith two straight victories late in the campaign, they were edgedout. Ultimately they finished fifth in the league table with fourvictories and four defeats. Both the batting and bowlingpresented problems, symbolised by Allan Border scoring just 60runs at an average of 8.57 and no bowler taking more than ninewickets. Some good work with the bat by David Boon, who hit twohundreds and Dean Jones were not enough to sustain the campaignbeyond the preliminary stage.The co-hosts fared much better. In fact, for a long while, NewZealand seemed the team to beat, for they registered sevensuccessive wins. This surpassed the record held by the WestIndies who scored six victories on the trot in 1983. They wentdown to a resurgent Pakistan team in their final league match butstill finished clearly on top in the final standings. Imaginativestrategies such as promoting big-hitting left-hander MarkGreatbach to the opening slot to take maximum advantage in thefirst 15 overs and having off-spinning all-rounder Dipak Patel toopen the bowling were responsible for this dream run andunderlined the fact that innovation is the name of the game inone-day cricket. The batting of Martin Crowe and Andrew Jones andthe bowling of Gavin Larsen, Willie Watson and Chris Harris madeNew Zealand the `hot’ team of the tournament until the end of theleague stage.Not unexpectedly, the return of South Africa evoked much interestand the team acquitted itself most creditably. The batting ofPeter Kirsten, skipper Kepler Wessels and Andrew Hudson and thebowling of Allan Donald and Brian McMillan saw South Africacomfortably make the semifinals after they finished third in theleague with five wins and three losses. But the one quality thatmade South Africa huge favourites with the spectators was theirwork in the field. Led by Jonty Rhodes, who carried fielding tothe kind of standards that one had not witnessed before, SouthAfrica were outstanding in this aspect.They put up a gallant display in the semifinal against Englandand were in with a chance of making the title round. But a fiveminute rain delay robbed them of a possible victory. When playresumed, the huge scoreboard gave the unpalatable informationthat South Africa needed 22 runs off one ball for victory. Thiswas of course impossible and exposed the absurdity of the rules.England had a good tournament and deservingly made the final forthe second successive year and for the third time in fourcompetitions. They suffered a jolt when they lost to Zimbabwe intheir final league match in the upset of the tournament and wereprobably a shade lucky to make the title round after South Africawere balked by rain in the semifinal. In the final, Pakistanalmost always had the match under control and England went downby 22 runs. The batting of Graham Gooch, Graeme Hick, NeilFairbrother and Alec Stewart, the bowling of Dermot Reeve andPhil DeFreitas and the all-round exploits of Ian Botham were thefactors behind England’s splendid showing.The other teams never really had much of a chance, though, WestIndies briefly were in the run for a spot in the semifinals. Theyfinished with a record of four wins and four defeats and thebatting of Brian Lara, Desmond Haynes and Keith Arthurton and thebowling of Anderson Cummins and Winston Benjamin were the fewcrumbs of comfort. For India, it was a campaign to forget. Littlewent right for them and the final standing of seventh wassomething that not even the most cynical follower of the game inthe country would have bargained for. Two victories, five lossesand one no result was a poor return for a team which had a numberof fine players. Mohammad Azharuddin and Sachin Tendulkar camegood with the bat while Manoj Prabhakar did well with the ballbut these silver linings were woefully inadequate. Sri Lanka (twowins, five losses and one no result) and Zimbabwe (just thatshock victory over England which followed seven straight defeats)were never really in the hunt for higher honours and they broughtup the rear. But the performances of Arjuna Ranatunga and RoshanMahanama for Sri Lanka and Andy Flower and Eddo Brandes forZimbabwe did not go unnoticed.
© CricInfoFinally a word about the champions who were well served in thebatting department by Javed Miandad, Rameez Raja and AamirSohail. Among the bowlers, Wasim Akram, Mushtaq Ahmed and AaqibJaved 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 slammed60 off just 37 balls to steer Pakistan to victory after NewZealand seemed to have the match in the bag. Overall, however, itwas Imran’s inspiring leadership ­ he also pulled in his weightwith both bat and ball ­ that was a key factor in Pakistan’striumph.