Haq's Musings: 2015

Saturday, February 21, 2015

Pakistan Won 1992 World Cup After Losing to India and West Indies

Pakistan cricket team has drawn widespread derision after performing miserably in its first two matches of World Cup 2015. Many Pakistanis are understandably very angry at the top batting order that fell like flies to create a new world record of the loss of 4 wickets in the first few minutes of the match against West Indies with the score stuck at 1 run.

While I agree with much of the criticism of the Pakistan cricket team for its poor performance seen so far, I do think the hysteria is unnecessary. All we have to do is to look at the history of Pakistan's performance in the 1992 World Cup which Pakistan won.

Like the 2015 World Cup, the 1992 Cricket World Cup was hosted by Australia and New Zealand. Before going on to win the1992 World Cup, Pakistan lost badly to three teams: India, West Indies and South Africa. Here are the scores from these matches:

Pakistan (173 runs) lost to India (216/7) by 43 runs.

Pakistan (220/2) lost to West Indies (220/0) by 10 wickets.

Pakistan (173/8) lost to South Africa (211/7) by 38 runs.

Pakistan were bowled out by England for a meager 74 runs. Had luck not favored the Pakistanis with rain in England-Pakistan match, the "talented" 1992 players like Imran Khan, Wasim Akram and Javed Miandad would not have gone on to win the 1992 World Cup. Instead, they would have returned home defeated.

1992 World Cup Points Table Source: Wikipedia

Pakistan side remains as talented and resilient but unpredictable as ever. While the start of the 2015 World Cup is terrible for Pakistan's national team, it's too early to write them off. Let's hope Pakistan can still repeat the 1992 performance yet again.