Stage fright? What stage fright?

So Pakistan are without Inzamam-ul-Haq, their captain and highest runscorer, as they begin their quest for the Champions Trophy. Leaving captaincy aside The List says that Pakistan might not miss Inzamam the batsman much in such a big tournament. Before you dismiss this statement as rubbish, browse through Inzamam's stats in previous editions of the Champions Trophy . In fact, check out his World Cup stats - 30 innings, no centuries and an average of 23.81 - or his performances in all tournaments with more than five teams. He has only seven scores above 50 (93 in his career) and an average of 28.77 from 40 innings in such tournaments. Inzamam hasn't been much of a big tournament batsman since his heroics against New Zealand and England in the 1992 World Cup and needs to set this record straight at next year's World Cup.

Nathan Astle is another who has a dire record in big tournaments. He made 101 in the first match of the 1996 World Cup against England but thereafter scored 0,1,2,6 and 1 in the remainder of the tournament. He contributed all of 19 runs in the 1998 Wills international Cup and 68 in the World Cup that followed. Astle improved in the 2003 World Cup, scoring a fifty against South Africa, a hundred against Zimbabwe but ended the tournament with consecutive ducks. A massive 145 in the 2004 Champions Trophy pushed his average past 20, but it must be remembered that the opponents were USA . Here's an interesting stat: Astle has reached 20 only nine times out of 31 innings, but New Zealand lost none of those matches.

There have also been some fantastic successes in these tournaments, one of the biggest being Lance Klusener, who averages 78 in tournaments with more than five teams. He was irresistible during the 1999 World Cup and was a shoo-in for the Man of the Series with his power-hitting and clinical finishing. He scored 281 runs in the tournament, remained unbeaten six times out of eight, and had a strike-rate of 122.17.

India's big three - Tendulkar, Dravid and Ganguly - all have averages in the fifties in such tournaments. Dravid, who averages 57.15, was the top-scorer in the 1999 World Cup with 461 runs and Ganguly's 348 was the highest tally in the Champions Trophy in Nairobi the following year.

India have reached the finals of six of the 11 tournaments Tendulkar has played in, including four of the last five finals - the exception being the 2004 Champions Trophy in England. Tendulkar became the only player to score more than 500 runs in a World Cup in 1996 and bettered that in 2003 when he stacked up 673 in South Africa .

Shane Bond is the only bowler playing in their year's Champions Trophy to feature in the list of best averages - 23 wickets at 16.71 each - in tournaments with more than five teams. He took six wickets in two matches during the 2002 Champions Trophy and scalped 17 in eight games during the 2003 World Cup, the highlight being a six-wicket haul that helped reduce Australia to 84 for 7 before Andy Bichel and Michael Bevan staged a miraculous fightback.

Shane Warne is the only spinner in the list of top-ten bowlers. His 44 wickets cost only 17.88 apiece but even more impressive is his economy-rate of 3.70 in these matches which is far lower than his career figure of 4.25. Incidentally Warne, along with Geoff Allot, was the highest wicket-taker with 20 scalps in the 1999 World Cup.