5 lesser-known names that helped their teams to World Cup glory

When a team goes to a World Cup, their fans expect the star names to take them to glory. And who could blame them? After all, it is the big name players that give hope to the fans because of their extravagant skills.

However, the big names don’t always win you trophies. And even if they do, they need a helping hand from someone else. Often, that someone else turns out to be a player who is a relatively unknown name within the cricketing fraternity.

Just like Castrol Activ’s Actibonds help protect the engine by clinging on and forming a protective coat, these 5 unsung heroes turned up just when their teams needed their contribution, protecting them and helping them win.

And here are 5 such players who helped their teams to World Cup glory -

#5 Asanka Gurusinha

When one is asked to make a list of the greatest Sri Lankan batsmen of all time, names like Mahela Jayawardena, Arjuna Ranatunga, Sanath Jayasurya, Aravinda de Silva and Kumar Sangakkara would be the most common names.

However, only a very few people would write down Asanka Gurusinha’s name in their lists.

Some of you might be wondering who he is and why someone unknown like him should feature in a list of such importance. Simple: he was one of the founding pillars of the Sri Lankan team. In Sri Lanka’s 1996 World Cup win, he played a crucial role in almost every game.

His performances might have gone unnoticed due to Aravinda de Silva’s limelight-stealing shows, but it can never be undermined. He scored three 50s in the 1996 World Cup, with one of them being a match-defining 65 against Australia in the final—which helped Sri Lanka recover from 23/2 and chase down Australia’s target of 245.

Aravinda de Silva’s unbeaten innings of 107 grabbed all the attention, but his work under the shadows was just as important.