Hussey's slump, and Inzamam's World Cup woes

Every four years, players have the chance to become cricketing heroes, forever remembered for their performances in a World Cup. Sanath Jayasuriya did it in 1996, Lance Klusener in 1999 and Ricky Ponting in 2003. But this isn't about them; this is about those who suffered from stage fright during the World Cups.

Michael Hussey's golden run had to end sometime and, unfortunately for him, he's acquainted with bad form right now in the West Indies. Fortunately for Australia, Hussey's slump has come when the rest of the batting order could pass off as a collective, unstoppable battering-ram. Hussey's slump began midway through the CB series against New Zealand and England in January 2007. He scored a hundred during the Chappell-Hadlee series that followed but Australia suffered a 3-0 whitewash under his charge. He entered the World Cup with an average of nearly 67 but scores of 4, 2, 5 and 9 - he had been dismissed in single figures only five times in 48 prior innings - have seen it plummet to 58.63. Those rushing to his defence may say that Hussey hasn't had enough time in the middle because he's batted during the slog overs, but that never stopped him before.

Inzamam-ul-Haq's first impact on the international circuit was an assault against New Zealand in the 1992 World Cup semi-final and a quickfire 42 in the final as well. His subsequent World Cups haven't been anywhere as successful. He retired from one-day cricket after the 2007 World Cup in which he scored only 74 runs in three innings as Pakistan were eliminated in the first round. But that wasn't his worst World Cup - Inzamam had a nightmare during Pakistan's 2003 campaign in South Africa, managing only 19 runs in six innings as Pakistan were knocked out during the preliminary stages.

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Viv Richards's World Cup career is nearly the opposite of Inzamam's. Richards' first World Cup in 1975 was disastrous with the bat. He made only 38 runs in four innings at an average of below 13 but his poor form was overshadowed by his three run-outs in the final that helped West Indies beat Australia. In his next three World Cups, Richards averaged 109, 73 and 65. Richards and Sunil Gavaskar - who scored all of 51 runs in 1983 - are the only two batsmen in the table whose teams have won a World Cup despite their terrible form.

It would be hard to find a batsman who had a worse World Cup than Keith Arthurton in 1996. He ran up an extraordinary binary sequence of 1,0,0,1,0 and did not play another one-day international for two years.

Allan Donald had been a force for South Africa in all their World Cups since their return from isolation but his powers were on the wane ahead of the World Cup at home in 2003. Donald had a terrible tournament, taking just one wicket for 133 runs. So blunt had he become that he went wicketless even against Canada. It was his last international appearance.

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As Donald made a significant impact in his first World Cup in 1992, another fearsome fast bowler called it quits with a flat swansong. Malcolm Marshall was playing only his second World Cup in 1992, at the fag end of his career. He had taken 12 wickets in six games at an average of just under 15 in 1983. He ended his career right after the 1992 edition in which he could manage only two wickets in five matches at 87 apiece.