Story India's Journey For Sucess [ICC3] - Someone Close This Story Please

[Samad]

India Cricket Team​

The year is 1999 and the ICC Cricket World Cup is just round the corner. India have a new coach Anshuman Gaekwad. Can he lead the Indians to sucess?​

The Indian Cricket Team have a variety of new and upcoming stars in their squad including the lights of: Sachin Tendulkar, Saurav Ganguly & Sanghoppan Ramesh.
They also have the experienced ones: Mohammad Azharuddin, Javagal Srinath & Venkatesh Prasad​

Will this lead them to glory?​

Other news and information coming up!​

 

[Karachi Xpress]

Looking forward to the story. Maybe try making your start a little longer!

 

[surendar]

Welcome to the story forums.

And good luck with this story.. lets see how this 99 WCup goes as in real life, we didn't get good result from it. This reminds me the Zim's heroic performances in that WCup especially Neil Johnson.

 

[Samad]

Thank you very much guys. By the way I have edited the first post.

 

[Karachi Xpress]

Looks better. Really looking forward to the story!

 

[Samad]

Fixtures & Squads Announced​

7th May, 1999
Today the Indian team had a press conference announcing their team for the World Cup in 8 days time. Here is the Squad:

* SR Tendulkar (Mumbai)
* SC Ganguly (Bengal)
* S Ramesh (Tamil Nadu)
* R Dravid (Karnataka)
* *M Azharuddin (Hyderabad) (Captain)
* A Jadeja (Haryana)
* AR Khurasiya (Madhya Pradesh)
* +NR Mongia (Baroda) (Wicket-Keeper)
* J Srinath (Karnataka)
* BKV Prasad (Karnataka)
* AB Agarkar (Mumbai)
* RR Singh (Tamil Nadu)
* N Chopra (Delhi)
* A Kumble (Karnataka)
* DS Mohanty (Orissa) ​

Player To Look At:​

1) Sachin Tendulkar - In the previous World Cup Sachin scored 523 runs in seven matches, the highest by and batsmen in 6 World Cups so far, and averaged 87.17 with two centuries and three other scores of 70, 90 and 65.

Here are India's Fixtures​

v South Africa
Hove, 15 May 1999

v Zimbabwe
Leicester, 19 May 1999

v Kenya
Bristol, 23 May 1999

v Sri Lanka
Taunton, 26 May 1999

v England
Birmingham, 29-30 May 1999

More news coming later!​

World Cup Flashback

The Wills World Cup, 1996
India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka
India Vs Sri Lanka. Semi-Final 1 - Eden Gardens, Kolkata

Coming into the semi-final in 1996, India was the favourite and playing in front of a home crowd in Kolkata's Eden Gardens, it was expected to be a peace of cake for India. Indian Captain Mohammad Azharuddin won the toss and put Sri Lanka in to bat. A good tactci by Azhar as Sri Lankans are well known for chasing targets.

And when both their destructive openers (Jayasuriya & Kaluwitharana) went in the first over, it seemed like India would romp home. Aravinda de Silva, Arjuna Ranatunga and Roshan Mahanama, though made sure that the Sri Lankans did not collapse and their efforts ensured a challenging total of 251.

252 was not a particularly tough target to achieve, but the pitch at the Eden Gardens was new and unpredictable. The rate at which it crumbled left most wondering whether this really was the Eden Gardens pitch renowned for its runs!

India had started well and were at 98 for 1 when tragedy struck. Tendulkar was batting on 65 when he danced down the track to one ball too many and the crumbling pitch ensured that he missed it. He was stumped and this triggered a collapse that saw India lose 7 wickets for 21 runs.

The crowd could not understand how this had happened and when de Silva completed the catch of Ashish Kapoor, they let their anger show. The stands were literally on fire and all players were in danger of being injured. Vinod Kambli, batting on 10 at the time, tried to tell the crowd (and the press, later) that he could have still taken India home. Doubtful as that claim was, considering there were still 132 runs needed in just 16 overs with only Kumble and Prasad for company, he was right in that the match should have been allowed to play out to its logical conclusion.

Match referee Clive Lloyd waited but after a point, had no option but to forfeit the match in favour of Sri Lanka. An embarrassed crowd apologised to the players and the world that was watching on TV, but Eden Gardens' reputation had been tarnished. It would be tarnished once more in the next two years, but this was on the world stage.

Azhar had to cop a lot of the blame for his decision to bowl first, but he defended his strategy. No one could have predicted the pitch or the crowd that day. It's a miracle no serious injuries to any player were reported. A shameful day in the history of Indian cricket and one that rankles the memory to this day.

 

[Karachi Xpress]

Good presentation! I hope you continue your story unlike me.

 

[Pakistani Army]

I agree! Great start mate. Keep this story going!

 

[Samad]

Latest Scores​

Game 1
England vs Sri Lanka
England won the toss and elected to bat first.

England: 213/9 50 Overs:N.Hussain 64 , N.Knight 51 - C.Vaas 3-32, U.Hathurusingha 2-33

Sri Lanka: 218/7 49.5 Overs:A.de Silva 89 , *R.Kaluwitharana 74 - A.Flintoff 3-45, A.Fraser 2-30

Sri Lanka win by 3 Wickets
Man Of The Match: Aravinda de Silva​

 

[Left_Hander]

Good win for Sri Lanka. Did it with one ball to go

 

[Pakistani Army]

What a tight game! Great start to a World Cup!

 

[jacobfelix]

v Zimbabwe
Leicester, 19 May 1999

this match haunted India right thru that World Cup....hope the same thing doesnt happen here...

Also I think it was the day when Sachin's father expired

 

[surendar]

Also I think it was the day when Sachin's father expired

Sachin was not there for that match. He went to his home for that. We had bad memories as well as good memories(India hunting SriLanka especially Murali )

Well, it was a good start for the WCup with a close win for Lankans. And good flash back segment too. I still remember, how Kambli cried while returning to dressing room in that 96 Semis.

 

[Samad]

Can someone please close this story. I will be starting a new one. Thanks.

 

[surendar]

Thread closed on request.