Asian World Cup Review

How good was the World Cup for the Asian teams involved? In terms of team performances, India excelled to reach the final and play some thrilling cricket along the way. They were beaten by a better side in Australia on the day, and every other day as all the teams in the tournament found out. After losing heavily to Australia in the first group match, India strode over everyone in their path until coming up against the mighty Australians once again in the final.

Sri Lanka did well to make it through to the semi-finals, especially after their upset in Nairobi, Pakistan failed to achieve their potential while Bangladesh, regrettably, probably did reach theirs by crashing out at the first opportunity. They lost to both Canada and Kenya and only salvaged something resembling a result when their match against the West Indies was washed out.

When it comes to individual performances, there were some outstanding efforts and, inevitably, others that were a disappointment. For instance, in years to come there will be some good money to be made by asking the question: "Which player from an Asian side finished with the best batting average in the 2003 World Cup?"

In fact, there might be some good money to be made now. Sachin Tendulkar? Marvan Atapattu perhaps? No. Shoaib Akhtar is the answer. And we are talking about the batting averages. He finished with an average of 72.00 and a strike rate of 141.17. Naturally, those statistics are inflated by the fact that he went to the middle four times and was only out once, but good luck to him for his memorable 43 from 16 balls against England in a failing cause.

India's top batting average belonged to Rahul Dravid with 63.60, closely followed by Tendulkar and Sourav Ganguly with 61.18 and 58.12 respectively. Atapattu led the way for Sri Lanka with 54.57, Saeed Anwar was top of the serious Pakistani list with 54.50, and Tushar Imran was the leading Bangladeshi at a mere 28.50.

The biggest disappointment from an Asian point of view was the new, slim-line Inzamam-ul-Haq. Just 19 runs and an average of 3.16 does no justice to the talent of a man who apparently shed form as easily as he shed pounds.

Obviously a total of 19 did not propel Inzamam anywhere near the top of the run aggregate list. Tendulkar took that prize with 673 - the highest total in the tournament. Ganguly was next in the overall list with 465, and Atapattu took sixth place and was most prolific Sri Lankan with 382. Saeed Anwar was the top-scoring Pakistani with 218, while it says it all that Khaled Mashud's 99 led the way for Bangladesh.

There were some impressive returns by the bowlers from Asia, with Chaminda Vaas leading the way with a new record for a World Cup tournament. He took 23 wickets, while Zaheer Khan managed 18 for India, Muttiah Muralitharan finished with 17 for Sri Lanka. Just to underline the new dominance asserted by India's pace attack, Javagal Srinath claimed 16 wickets and Ashish Nehra 15. Wasim Akram was the most successful Pakistani with 12, while the ever-trying Khaled Mahmud managed six for Bangladesh.

Yuvraj Singh's five wickets at 14.00 gave him the best bowling average among the Asian countries, but Vaas managed to take his wickets at only 22.90 and conceded only 3.76 runs an over.

It is never easy to use statistics to assess wicket-keepers. It is all very well to talk about catches and stumping chances taken, but what about those missed? All that can be said is that Kumar Sangakarra was, statistically, the second best wicket-keeper in the tournament with 17 dismissals (15 catches and two stumpings) to edge ahead of Rahul Dravid (15 and one). Rashid Latif managed seven catches and a stumping, while Khaled Mashud just got the two catches.

When it comes to catches in the field without the aid of gloves, Virender Sehwag and Dinesh Mongia both held eight, Aravinda de Silva six, Younis Khan four, as did Sanwar Hossain.

When looking at all these figures, it is important to remember the dictum of a former British prime minister, Benjamin Disreali. He is reputed to have said: "There are lies, damned lies and statistics." And there is no statistic devised by man which can measure the beauty of a Tendulkar straight drive, the thrill of a 100 mph ball from Shoaib Akhtar or the myriad of other sensations that make cricket the game it is.