As news trickled in yesterday that the sub-continent has been awarded the World Cup — even though in 2011 and after 15 years — a wave of joy swept across India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh. After all, it is only the third time that cricket’s showcase trophy will travel to this part of the world.
But how did they manage to do it? How did they manage to beat a joint bid by Australia and New Zealand, who boast of better facilities and had hosted the event (1992) before Asia’s last shot in 1996?
As it turns out, it took just 30 minutes on a Sunday evening in Dubai to do the trick.
It was in those precious moments that former BCCI president IS Bindra gave an audio-visual presentation in front of International Cricket Council members on why the 2011 World Cup should be awarded to the sub-continent. And, as the 10-3 margin suggests, they were enchanted.
The electronic show gave the ICC enough reasons to forget organisational bottlenecks in a four-nation bid and award the rights to the sub-continent.
As BCCI vice-president Lalit Modi told Mumbai Mirror, the presentation was the key.
“Almost 90 per cent of the issue was settled with the presentation. It told the ICC about our vision for the cup, it talked about the direction we wanted to take cricket in Asia and the world, it talked about the facilities we have and those we want to create...
“It talked about the commitment and the dedication of the four boards. We were confident that the other ICC member nations had enough faith in us and in the end we won it despite talks of a weak and delayed bid.”
Modi also broke into the board’s new-found professional mantra. “We are a professional body now. There are things that you and I are not experts in and a specialised agency had to be approached.
“When we approached an outside agency that helped us in the presentation, we gave them a simple brief — take out the common factors in support of the joint bid and project it in the best possible way. They did that and, coupled with the hard work done by the four boards, we clinched the deal.”
However, the tech-savvy businessman in Modi also knows that there is still a long way to go and issues like tax rebate and non-payment of 1996 PILCOM money are still to be sorted out.
“On the tax issue, we have written to all the four governments and are confident of getting it sorted out on time. The PILCOM issue is also being discussed among boards.”
Modi also denied that the descision on holding the World Cup final in Pakistan has already being taken. “This is all speculation. We are yet to even discuss this issue. We are yet to decide on the league venues how can we decide on final venue?
“All this will be decided once the logistics are worked out at the committees to into all these are formed.”
So the demand to host a WC Final does not in any way overstate our significance in International Cricket . And if anything we have every right to do so given our cricketing achievements compared to some others who have been in International Cricket for over 7 decades but despite this are eternal under achievers and I need not state who they are.
