What if: India had won the 1996 World Cup at Lahore
When India won the 1996 World Cup quarter-final against Pakistan at Bangalore, the celebrations were as though India had already won the World Cup. Everybody was talking about the finals to be played at Lahore. The fans had forgotten that there was a semi-final to be played prior to that against a Sri Lankan team who had been the talking point of the World Cup for their attacking strategy in the first 15 overs.
The Indians began well in the semi-finals and had the Sri Lankans three down for only 35 runs on the board. But the Lankans recovered well courtesy an aggressive half-century from Aravinda de Silva and ended up scoring 251 runs for the loss of 8 wickets in the allotted 50 overs.
At 98-1, the Indians looked on track to reach Lahore. But the fall of Sachin Tendulkar’s wicket triggered a collapse and Indians were staring defeat at 120-8 in the 35th over. This sudden fall of wickets did not go down too well with the emotional Eden Gardens crowd and the match could not be completed due to the crowd disturbance. The match was finally awarded to Sri Lanka, and what was going to be a day to celebrate for the Indian fans turned out to be a day to forget for the entire nation.
Sri Lanka went on to win the World Cup and announced their arrival on the cricketing stage as a formidable team. But have you ever thought what would have happened if India had won that World Cup?
Read: What if Sreesanth dropped that 2007 World Cup, Also: What if India never won the 1983 World Cup
It is said that in cricket, or for that matter in any sport, there is no space for “ifs and buts”. The fact will remain that India did not make it through till Lahore.
But in the third edition of SK What if, for academic purposes, here is an attempt to see how different the history of Indian cricket would have been if India had won that match at the Eden Gardens and also the finals at Lahore.
1. Vinod Kambli & Sachin Tendulkar would have remained the Jai & Veeru of Indian cricket
One image that every Indian cricket fan of the 1990s will remember is that of a crying Vinod Kambli when the match was awarded to Sri Lanka. Although the Indians were struggling at 120-8 when the crowd trouble started, one got the impression that Kambli thought he could have won the match on his own.
If that had actually happened, Kambli would have become the poster boy of Indian cricket. His cricketing career would not have met with the sad end that it eventually did, and he may not have needed to get into talk shows to remain in the limelight. And more importantly, he might have continued his friendship with Sachin Tendulkar.
The two could have become the Jai & Veeru of Indian cricket. Subhash Ghai would have made a movie on their story and on their coach Ramakant Archekar titled – “Mere do anmol ratan – Ek hai Tendulkar aur ek Kambli”.