Former India fast bowler Javagal Srinath has said that the ties against Pakistan in World Cups has excited him the most compared to other matches. India take on Pakistan in the opening game of the ICC World Cup 2015 and Srinath, who has played four World Cup’s for India between 1992-2003 has expressed his excitement of playing the arch-rivals during his playing days.
“I had my fair share of success at the World Cups, but no match excited me more than the four showdowns against Pakistan. That we won all four matches makes it even sweeter”, writes Srinath in his column in icc-cricket.com.
He also had good things to say bout some of the past players like Ricky Ponting, Aravinda de Silva and Inzamam-ul-Haq. Srinath writes,”Aravinda de Silva from Sri Lanka was among the toughest to bowl to, while Inzamam-ul-Haq always seemed to have a lot of time. Brian Lara was another phenomenal batsman who made the art of batting appear ridiculously easy. But Ricky was perhaps the toughest batsman to bowl to, especially after he had played out the first 10 or 15 minutes”.
Srinath, who was India’s most successful bowler in World Cups along with Zaheer Khan with 44 wickets recalls his first World up in 1992 and says that his experience was overwhelming. “I was part of four ICC Cricket World Cups, and each one was a unique experience. 1992 was quite overwhelming, because it was my first World Cup and everything happened too fast. Before we realised what was happening, we were out of the tournament. After that one-run loss to Australia in Brisbane, everything seemed to work against us, and we were eliminated in the first stage,” writes Srinath.
Srinath, who currently is a member of the Emirates Elite Panel of ICC Match Referees has picked up 315 wickets for India in One-Day Internationals (ODI) in 229 matches.