Cricket almost came full circle, but Australia had something to say
Patterns are naturally appealing for human beings. For the cricket faithful, the final of the ICC Men's Cricket World Cup 2023 was full of promises of self-fulfilling patterns, of long-winded journeys coming to an end, of cricket's evolution now that one chapter could be closed. We almost got there, but in a delightful twist in this game of glorious uncertainties, it wasn't quite how everyone had imagined it.
Turn the clock back to 2003, when Sourav Ganguly's India found a brand of cricket that was starting to get them regular success. They went into the world cup final that year as clear underdogs. The mountain they needed to climb to become the best in the world was a belligerent Australia, led by Ricky Ponting. In a jam-packed Wanderers Stadium surrounded by a sea of India supporters, Australia proved why they were a cut above the Indians, not hesitating to break hearts in a thrashing that many Indian fans, to this day, are traumatised by.
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Twenty years on, Australia and India faced off in yet another final, but a lot had changed. Australia had won two more world cups in between, India had taken one trophy as well, but the tides of cricket had turned. The change in Indian cricket that started with Sourav Ganguly turned into a revolution under MS Dhoni, and India scaled to the top of world cricket. They became world T20 champions, reached the pinnacle of Test rankings, bagged a champion's trophy, and of course, a home world cup triumph in 2011. Coupled with the financial success of the IPL thereafter, India successfully became the new home of global cricket. They were the trendsetters, the favourites in every game they played, a juggernaut, a monolith that could only be overcome in an upset or, as it turned out, in knockout games.
For a while, India have had the habit of being heavy favourites to win every tournament because of the quality of their players, the depth of their squad, and the fact that with the backing of the richest board in world cricket, they are always well-prepared. But they lost knockout games and finals in ICC events in 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2019, 2021, and 2022. Heading into the home world cup this year, this was the challenge. India would be the best prepared, most powerful team on paper, but this time they were supposed to break the curse of knockout games, and they would take every step necessary to ensure that.
Before pitch preparation could even become an issue, India had already done enough to put themselves in the best position to win the semi-final and final of this world cup. A winning habit leads to more winning, and India had convincingly won every game they played in the tournament. All their batters were in form, their bowling was firing on all cylinders, and the fielding had always been sharp. The semi-final saw them falter a bit, but India outclassed New Zealand the same way they had outclassed everyone else, and a final awaited them. Win this, and India could draw a line under a sustained period of domination in world cricket. The battle off the field, the commercial side of the game and the control of the administrative power within cricket had already been won. It was up to the team now to deliver on the stage that had been laid for them, in a purpose-built stadium in front of 100,000 people. The perfect opposition was put in front of them: the same Australians who had defeated them in 2003, arguably the beginning of this long journey.
But as we know by now, things have not worked out for India. They failed to perform at the big stage once more, and the story of India's complete domination over cricket is left unfinished. There were talks that the 50-over format itself would come to a natural conclusion, if India took home the crown, but the competitive spirit that defines Australian sports have shone through to make them the ultimate party crashers. Throughout this world cup, Australia had been weaving together a story of their own in the background. They lost their first two games against India and South Africa, but then went on to beat every other team in the tournament. They completed a full circle of their own by beating South Africa in the semifinal and India in the final.
Here's the thing though. In sports, narratives are everything. A group of men playing a silly game on a field only starts to matter when we attach weighty narratives to them. The Indian team's narrative is the one that has been amplified across our screens over the last month, or maybe even the last couple of years. But other teams play this game too. All Australia did was remind India that for once, not everything is about them.
Azmin Azran is a journalist at The Daily Star.
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