Even prior to the World Cup, Sri Lanka had been making quiet progress since that 6-1 thrashing that India handed out to them. Followers of Lankan cricket were quite happy to credit the transformation to Mahela Jayawardene. While his batting form was cause for concern coming in to the World Cup, he has redeemed his reputation with a couple of good knocks and one, by all accounts, all-time great knock in the semi-final. So, at this point of time (prior to the WC finals) he does have a whole lot going for him.
However, it is by resting Vaas, Malinga and Murali in the league game against the Aussies, that Mahela might well have played his biggest reputation enhancer card. It definitely depends on how the final pans out, but, if all goes well, it could be the difference between Mahela the legendary World Cup winning captain and Mahela the World Cup winning captain. What is the difference?
History indicates that as time passes, players / leaders / performances need readily presentable anecdotes for their reputations to become a part of legend. Steve Waugh's "We need to win the next 8 games to lift the Cup" and "You just dropped the World Cup" are two of those that readily come to mind. Mahela's reputation maker could be the resting of his bowling trio, particularly if Malinga could play a key part in the triumph. In the years to come, he could be the captain that played rope-a-dope with the unbeatable Aussies and came out on top. And we all know the reputation of the man that invented that tactic, don't we? Now, all he needs to do is to defeat an Australian team that is undefeated in 22 matches in the World Cup.
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2 comments:
Steve waugh never said " you have dropped the world cup" (Waugh himself admitted that).
http://www.cricketwukup.com/?p=321
It's just a myth hyped up by india media.
True, though, it is not just the Indian media that talks about the incident that never happened.
Anyway, my point was about how such anecdotes (in this case, strangely, something that never happened) are very helpful to enhance one's reputation. Every time the stirring deeds of Steve Waugh are recollected from the 1999 World Cup, the unsaid quotes get mentioned. Strange, but true.
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