Contenders for T20 World Cup?
Among the 8 teams who have made it to the Super 8 stages of the ongoing T20 World Cup South Africa, New Zealand and England carry a dubious record of being among the only Test team nations (barring Bangladesh and Zimbabwe) never to have won a World Cup. South Africa inspite of being rated very highly since their re admission to international cricket have never ever won a World Cup. They have participated in 5 ODI World Cups and 2 T20 World Cups and let alone winning the World Cup, they have never ever reached the final.
New Zealand's record is even worse. New Zealand have participated in 9 ODI World Cups and 2 T20 World Cups and barring their performance in 1992 were never in contention for a title in any of the World Cups failing to reach even the final. England though can boast of a slightly better record than the South Africans and New Zealanders as they too their credit have made a couple of World Cup finals the first one in 1979 and their last appearance in 1999. On both occasionsthey lost to two mighties teams of their times, first o the West Indies in 1979 and to the Aussies in 1999.
West Indians were the proud winners of the first two world cups before losing their hold on the trophy in the 1983 final and since then have never ever been anywhere close to being called as contenders for a World Cup. Their best effort was a semi final appearance in 1996 which was more of a fluke aided by a flawed format. However hosts West Indies have a slight advantage because in Gayle and Pollard they have two of the best strikers whose game is best suited to the shortest format of the game. With free stroking batsmen like Gayle and Pollard not under any pressure to play safe cricket they can go after the bowlers. West Indians steady decline in Test Matches has been due to the fact that their batsmen have been playing too many shots and were unable to last the full distance in an innings and their undoing in Test Matches is a blessing in disguise for them in T20 format. However one thing which goes against the West Indies is whether they would be able to handle the pressure when the going gets tough should they make the semi finals or finals?
Going by past records one can safely say that South Africa, New Zealand, England and West Indies are the least favourites for the title. However these teams can take comfort in a thought that in general motivation levels have been very low in T20 World Cups and these teams would not have to compete as hard for a T20 World Cup as in a ODI World Cup.
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