We caught up with the Pakistan coach during the 1999 World Cup Richard Pybus and obtained some of his thoughts on the final itself and the build up to the final at Lords.

 by Saj Sadiq

2 June 2010 

The Pakistani "Class of 99" was regarded by many as one of their strongest ever one day lineups. A team that was not short on aggression and flair, a team that had plenty of experience and was led by one of their all time greats. 

The bowling attack Pakistan posessed in the 1999 World Cup had it all. The experience and guile of Wasim Akram, the hostility and sheer pace of Shoaib Akhtar, the mystery of Saqlain Mushtaq and backed up by two more than useful all rounders Abdul Razzaq and Azhar Mahmood. 

The batting was led from the front by the wand waving magician Saeed Anwar at the top of the order and was ably supported by a support crew of Ijaz Ahmed, Inzamam ul Haq, Yousuf Youhana as well as the ever so effective wicket keeper batsmen Moin Khan.

Pakistan breezed into the Super Six stage of the tournament beating all but Bangladesh in the opening group stage. Victories over Australia, Scotland, West Indies and New Zealand meant that the Bangladesh match was in effect a "dead rubber", but nonetheless raised eyebrows from some quarters.

With Pakistan carrying forward valuable points from the first round into the Super Six stage, it meant that even though they lost to South Africa and India, a victory over Zimbabwe was enough to see the men in green through to a semi final against New Zealand at Old Trafford.

3 wickets from the lightning quick Shoaib Akhtar and then a 194 run opening partnership between Saeed Anwar and Wajahatullah Wasti, and Pakistan and their fans were all set for a day out at Lords against Australia.

Pakistan had beaten the Aussies earlier in the tournament in Leeds, but the final itself proved to be 59.1 overs of the most one sided cricket you will ever see. It was indeed a sad day for the Pakistan players and fans alike and when the evaluation was carried out of this defeat, allsorts of accusations and finger pointing was the order of the day. 

 

Speaking exclusively to PakPassion.net ; the Pakistan assistant coach during the 1999 World Cup Richard Pybus clarified where he thought things went wrong for Pakistan on 20th June 1999.

"First things first, we were beaten by the better team on the day. No doubt about that. However things before the game started could have gone a lot better. The preparation was not satisfactory and not in accordance with how we had planned things during the course of the tournament".

Pybus who is currently residing in South Africa and is a consultant to the Natal team, as well as doing some freelance work for cricket teams around the world felt that the presence of Pakistan Cricket Board members in the dressing room prior to the start of the World Cup Final changed the environment in a negative way.

"There had been no Pakistan Cricket Board members present throughout the tournament, but suddenly just because we were in the final, we had Board members all over the dressing room, which affected the players and our preparation. As far as I am concerned there should not have been any Board members in the dressing room prior to the game".

The Pakistan performance in the final was so poor that certain representatives of the media as well as the public suspected that match fixing had taken place, however Pybus threw out that theory as a non starter.

"There was absolutely no evidence in my mind of any match fixing, we were quite simply outplayed in all areas of the game. As far as I am concerned, no players should have been accused of match fixing".

As well as the chaotic scenes in the dressing room shortly before the start of the match, Pybus added that preparations the day before the match went horribly wrong and were not in conjunction with the previous matches during the World Cup.

"Our gameplan had been to train hard throughout the tournament but give the players a day off, the day prior to a match. It had worked well, as it meant the players could relax and rest the day before a big game. It became a routine that the players were happy and comfortable with. However for the final the scheduling was such that we could only train the day before the final. We turned up at Lords to train but it was like a circus, there was very little security and there were fans from all over the world. There were chaotic scenes and the fans that had got into Lords that day for our training session totally ruined our attempts at training and in the end we just cancelled the session.