India's exit puts pressure on Azharuddin (12 June 1999)

12 June 1999

India's exit puts pressure on Azharuddin

Peter Deeley

A crestfallen India departed from the World Cup yesterday in the manner they would have least liked - watching on television in their Nottingham hotel rooms as their arch-rivals Pakistan squeezed them out of the semi-finals.

It was a bitter pill for their captain, Mohammad Azharuddin, to swallow since India had convincingly beaten Pakistan only four days before.

"We have played pretty well through the whole tournament," Azharuddin said. "It was just the Zimbabwe game where we let ourselves down and now we are paying the price."

There must be serious doubts about Azharuddin's future as captain. India's failure to progress beyond the Super Six stage will spark off an enraged debate both at home and among the thousands of supporters here who have followed them around the World Cup stage.

Sachin Tendulkar would be the automatic choice to take over from Azharuddin again but for the fear that the demands of the job might impinge on his batting form. The selectors may instead go for vice-captain Ajay Jadeja, who has done the job previously with some success.

India's coach, Anshuman Gaekwad, felt that the points system adopted for this World Cup had rebounded unfairly on India. If all victories in the tournament had been taken into account, rather than just those against other sides in the Super Six, then India would have been in the top four.

Gaekwad said: "I think the points system is a positive one but it should have been left behind at the qualifying stage, after the first round.

"Zimbabwe deserve some credit if they make the semi-finals but if you look at the teams they lost to at the outset - England and Sri Lanka - we beat them both convincingly."

Gaekwad indicated that India might blood some of their fringe players in today's meeting with New Zealand at Trent Bridge but Saurav Ganguly is likely to return to the side after recovering from injury.

He missed the Pakistan match at Old Trafford after twisting his right knee during practice there. Ganguly came through a test in the nets yesterday without problem but will have a further trial today.

If India allow their World Cup downfall to affect their spirit at Trent Bridge today, it could give New Zealand just the edge they need to keep alive their own frail hopes of reaching the semi-finals.

After the decisive beating at the hands of South Africa in Birmingham on Wednesday, the New Zealand players were given the day off yesterday to recover.

It will not help that they have to play two games in the space of three days and there was a thorough debriefing after the Edgbaston game.

New Zealand captain Stephen Fleming hoped that his players would take something positive from the South Africans' approach to the game. "We have got to look at where we went wrong in that match. They put tremendous pressure on us from the outset and I would like us to approach India in a similar frame of mind."

Steve Rixon, New Zealand's coach, said: "The only thing within our control is going out to win. Then the other permutations about qualifying for the semi-finals will fall into place."

Source :: The Electronic Telegraph