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This time in Alternative Universe, the series in which our writers let their imaginations change the game: Our Sri Lankan masochist correspondent wonders what would have happened if Arjuna Ranatunga’s men hadn’t won the World Cup 24 years ago.
The moment
Sri Lanka achieved perhaps the biggest underdog win in cricket history when they won the 1996 World Cup with a mostly semi-professional team, backed by a board with less than $ 5,000 in their coffers at the time. But before they reached the final, they had to play India in a crowded Eden Gardens, with 100,000 Indian fans in the stands, an experience that many of the Sri Lankan players describe as one of the most daunting and surreal in their lives.
The adjustment
Chasing 252, it looked like India was heading for a major loss at 120 for 8, before the Calcutta crowd started throwing projectiles at the field and the match had to be lost. But it could have gone in a completely different way. The collapse of India was greatly aided by a crumbling pitch, something neither team saw coming. Sri Lankan captain Arjuna Ranatunga has repeatedly said he would have hit second if he had won the draw, due to his team’s preference for chasing. He also admits that hitting second in that field was practically impossible. Which means that if the coin had fallen against Mohammad Azharuddin, it would have been India who progressed to that final in Lahore.
What happened after
India could have won a World Cup final in Pakistan to begin with, earning the kind of epic bragging rights that the Pakistan team will never have recovered from. Furthermore, even if India didn’t win, given that Australia were their opponents in the final, it would mean that the teams we now call the Big Three would have won all the World Cups for the past 24 years. Disgusting.
There are tactical things. Would Virender Sehwag have thrilled a generation at the top of the order if Sanath Jayasuriya’s riots in the first 15 overs hadn’t brought his country a World Cup? Would the careers of Adam Gilchrist or Chris Gayle, or even those of Tamim Iqbal, have developed in the same way? Would ODI’s strategy, which focused intensely on opening the hitters beginning in ’96, have evolved in a completely different direction?
This was a group of bankers, vendors, and insurers who lifted the biggest trophy in their sport when they had no right to do so. Without fantastic stories like this, cricket would be all systems, processes and resources, without the joyous jewels of storytelling that sometimes sprout uncontrollably to disrupt the relentless march of professionalism. Without stories like this, tactical revolutions would rarely change the sport, heroes would come in pre-made shapes and sizes. Fans around the world would also be much poorer. Just to bring the point home, you’d probably be a virgin your whole life.
Also read Danyal Rasool about Pakistan winning the Gabba test 2016-17
