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India will have to
play to a plan to be in the reckoning
WHEN the players need time to
iron out their deficiencies at the nets, they have to ‘‘shoot’’
for their sponsors, who have gone into a frenzy to market the tournament
as the championship draws near, says Abhijit
Chatterjee.
The
1983 Indian cricket curry: Give me the bits-and-pieces players any day
THE fancy averages of the
present Indian batsmen don't impress me one bit. Not one player in
Kapil's team had an average touching 40. But they had hunger. They had
the spirit and the self-belief to beat the best in the game. And they
did it with remarkable ease, recalls L. H.
Naqvi.
Pakistan
waiting to come to the boil
Andy Hampson
FOR a side which has blown as
hot and cold as Pakistan over the years, their recent consistency has
come as a bit of a surprise. Unfortunately for those concerned, the only
consistency they have been showing is in losing matches. Quite
why a side laden with so much talent has been so below par of late is
difficult to fathom, although the refusal of sides to tour their country
has undoubtedly been unsettling.
A
farewell World Cup for them!
Rajkumar Singh
IT
is the rule of nature that every beginning has an end. The game of
cricket is no exception to this. Even as some cricketers are going to
make a debut in the world cup, some will put in their last appearance. The
legendary Steve Waugh, who won the world Cup for the Australians in
1999, after a gap of eight years, could not even find a place in the
team, but some lucky ones, like Hasan Tilakratne, have made a surprise
comeback. He has played only two one-day matches after the previous
world cup!
Sri
Lanka back in the groove
THE competition may have caught
up with them after their trail-blazing performances of 1996, but Sri
Lanka remain serious contenders as the World Cup comes round again. Last
summer’s disappointing tour of England may have led to them being
written off in some quarters, but with some of the world’s most
destructive players in their line-up they can never be counted out.
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