Novelty and change marked the 1992 World Cup, staged jointly by
Australia and New Zealand. Imran Khan led Pakistan to their maiden World
Cup title, South Africa took part for the first time, and a series of
fresh ideas were implemented in the format and rules but the new
regulations for deciding rain-curtailed matches drew a lot of flak.
South
Africa, banned from international cricket due to the apartheid policy
pursued by its government, were included as the ninth team after being
re-admitted into the International Cricket Council (ICC) once the
apartheid era ended.
While the World Cup caravan travelled to the
Southern Hemisphere for the first time, it was only the second occasion
that the competition was co-hosted.
The host of innovations in
rules included use of two white balls from the two ends, coloured
clothing for players, sightscreens behind the bowler and staging of
matches under lights. Instead of the group matches in the previous
tournaments, the round-robin format was introduced to decide the four
semi-finalists.
The tournament saw some surprising results. Most
of the pre-tournament favourites failed to make it even to the
semi-finals. Defending champions Australia began with double losses,
recovered to win four of their remaining six matches, but narrowly
missed qualification. West Indies finished behind Australia on run rate,
while a lacklustre India took the seventh spot.
Even eventual
winners Pakistan were lucky to reach the knockouts. Bowled out for a
pathetic 74 against England, Pakistan were staring at an inevitable
defeat when the rain gods smiled at them. England needed to score 64 of
16 overs as per the rain rules, but had managed 24/1 when the match was
abandoned as the leaden-eyed skies opened up again and Pakistan got a
valuable point which helped them make it to the last four.
New
Zealand proved to be the surprise pack. Skipper Martin Crowe led from
the front, topping the scoring list with 456 runs to bag the
Man-of-the-Series award. They adopted two unconventional strategies.
In
batting, opener Mark Greatbatch was deployed as a pinch-hitter to take
advantage of having more fielders inside the circle in the initial
overs. Veering from the usual practice of utilising fast bowlers with
the new ball, skipper Crowe opened the bowling with spinner Dipak Patel.
Both the tactics succeeded and the Kiwis marched to the semi- final
topping the round robin.
In the first semi-final, Crowe's 91 went
in vain as Pakistan rode on young batsman Inzamam-ul-Haq's 37-ball 60
to finish with a four-wicket win.
The well contested final saw
Pakistan post 249/6 as Inzamam and pacer Wasim Akram played cameos after
Imran and experienced batsman Javed Miandad laid the foundation with
respective half centuries, forging a century partnership. England lost
early wickets, but middle-order batsmen Neil Fairbrother and Allan Lamb
tried to repair the damage with a 72-run fifth wicket stand. But they
lost three more wickets within a short time and the match was virtually
decided then.
The 39-year-old Imran, playing his final
international match, ended England's innings by taking the wicket of Ray
Illingworth. Pakistan won by 22 runs, and Imran announced in the post
match conference that the team will donate the prize money for building a
cancer hospital in the name of his mother Shaukat Khanum. Akram, having
scored 33 runs and taken three wickets was adjudged the
Man-of-the-Match.
For India, it was a disastrous outing. They lost five matches, and won two, while one was a no result.
Indian team manager Abbas Ali Beg, however, put the blame on the travel and poor facilities.
"The travelling and the long tour hurt. It was really tiring and in some places facilities were not up to the mark."
But still there were two positives.
One was the win over arch-rivals Pakistan. But it was not without its share of controversies.
Miandad,
trying to bring Pakistan out of a precarious position, was riled by
constant vociferous appeals from Indian wicketkeeper Kiran More to
disturb the batsmen. Miandad came out of the crease and thrice monkey
jumped to mimick More's appealing.
Both players should have been
held guilty of breaching the ICC code of conduct, but went unscathed.
Surprisingly, neither the umpires, David Shepherd and Peter McConnell,
nor the match referee Ted Wykes thought of punishing Miandad and More,
simply because the language they had used was foreign to them.
Ted
Wykes, the match referee, explained: "One of the big problems of the
whole incident was that they were speaking not in English."
The
other was the World Cup debut of then 18-year-old batting prodigy Sachin
Tendulkar. He scored 283 runs, including three half centuries, and was
adjudged the Man- of-the-Match against Pakistan for his unbeaten 54.
But
while giving the award to the teenager, former England captain David
Gower remarked: "I first thought of giving the award to Miandad or
More,or jointly to both, but it had to go to Tendulkar".
(Kushal Chakraborty is a freelancer. He can be contacted at [email protected])
