Aficionados are still curious to know what provoked Javed Mianded to jump about in front of India stumper Kiran More in the 1992 World Cup match at Sydney. After 22 years, More who was talent-scouting in Pune during the Maharashtra-Delhi Ranji Trophy match said: “Certainly not a pesky fly. When Javed came to bat, I remembered the strokes he played in the previous match. He had a back injury and it’s the wicket-keeper’s job to advise the bowler how to bowl to a batsman. I told Kaps (Kapil Dev) that Javed played only late cuts, square cuts and the flick shots in the previous match. He did not drive through the covers or mid-off or mid-on. He was struggling against us and suddenly there was an appeal for a leg side catch off Sachin Tendulkar’s bowling. I thought it was very close.”
Furthermore More said: “Javed and myself always got along well. So Javed asked me: “ Thu kya kalle ; why are you appealing, thothla . That’s typical of Javed. I told him, you do your job and I will do mine. Everyone was giving it to him and this mounted pressure on him. They were 60 for two or something like that. We fielded well in that game. So the pressure kept on building on him. The conversations between the players were altogether different; I cannot repeat the original conversation. An India- Pakistan match is always like that.”
Different match “It was not easy for the bowlers too. It was a different match with every player saying something or the other. Javed feels constant talking helps to ease pressure. There was a run out incident after I jumped and flicked the bails. And Javed started imitating me by jumping, because I appealed twice. Umpire David Shepherd warned Javed that he will send him off if he jumps again. I was also giving hell to Javed with one glove on my face. Then both the umpires warned him. He got Imran Khan run out for 0; I had four victims in that match, including that of Imran. If I had caught Javed, it would have been five and probably I would have got the ‘man-of-the-match’ award. We won the match, but we had to take enormous pressure.”
More ascribed the sharp exchanges between India and Pakistan due to some one-sided encounters in Sharjah. “Pakistan had dominated India in Sharjah for many years. We were playing Pakistan for the first time in a World Cup and there was so much hype around it. I did not sleep well the night before. The pressure was so much. We had a young team and Pakistan had some very good senior players. We were the underdog team. Once the players stepped on the field, they started giving a mouthful; not the good morning, good afternoon and how are you stuff. It was competitive and fun.”
About the match itself, More said Sachin (Tendulkar) batted superbly to make an unbeaten half century. “Kapil also batted very well and we made 216. We were struggling actually; it was a brilliant pitch for an ODI match. But our seamers and spinners bowled exceptionally well. Sachin bowled beautiful seam too. So it was a great win against Pakistan. So far, we have not lost to Pakistan in a World Cup match. Hopefully we will win at Adelaide this time.”
Fatigue took a toll Without being too harsh on his own teammates, More said probably fatigue resulted in a lack-lustre performance by the Indian team. “The Australian tour of 1992 was a long one. The thought process of preparing for the ’92 World Cup was good. We played five Test matches and a tri-series. We did not play well enough, but the youngsters became richer by exposure and experience in the Australian conditions. But fatigue caught up with us. I also believe that for bigger events, teams should have luck. We started with a close matches against England and Australia, the match against Sri Lanka was virtually washed off. The rain rules were funny. That’s the reason I say that teams have to be lucky. We played New Zealand at Dunedin on the coldest day in many years. It was also very windy and the sightscreen crashed. If we had won the close games against England and Australia, we would have been motivated. But we were not lucky in these two crucial games at the start.”
India came close to putting it across Australia, but Venkatapathy Raju’s judgment probably went wrong at crunch time. “We should have won against Australia. Raju was dancing at the non-striker’s end, thinking that Javagal Srinath’s shot had crossed the big boundary rope for a six. But actually Steve Waugh had dropped the catch and the ball rolled almost ten yards away from him. We were shouting from the dressing room: “Raju run, Raju run,” but Raju thought it was a six and started dancing. David Boon, who was keeping the wickets, went up to point position, picked up the ball and ran out Raju. That match could have ended in a tie or India could have won it. They could have run five and won the match. It was windy and drizzling a bit. These are small things that one has to be careful about in a match. Pakistan was nowhere in the picture; they were very luck to share points with England.”
