🏏What if Ganguly had elected to bat first in the 2003 World Cup final?

🧢 Cricket World Cup: ODIs once again takes the centre stage

Would India be a different country today had Sourav Ganguly elected to bat first in the 2003 World Cup final?

First, the assumptions.

• Ganguly chooses to bat first and India put up a good total on the board.

• Their new-found bowling and fielding firepower restrict Australia to less than the India score.

• India win the 2003 World Cup. 

And that leads to this thought experiment: would that victory have subliminally nudged millions of Indian cricket fans to exact and expect higher standards from themselves and from the systems around them?

“If we can be world beaters at cricket, why should we not be good in other areas too?” 

While the Tendulkar phenomenon was a celebration of individual genius, a victory in the 2003 final would have validated the triumph of a system. 

A loss in that game put Indian cricket fans face-to-face with an all too familiar sentiment—that we could be this good but no more. That we could be this good but the best would always be someone else. 

If a thought has entered your mind, albeit related to sports, there is no stopping it from colouring your views on facets of your life that have nothing to do with the said game.

But it works both ways. If a loss of your favourite team makes your outlook defeatist, a victory can push you to be more risk-taking.

What the rise and rise of MS Dhoni did for the mindset of cricketers coming from small-town India, could a victory in the 2003 final have done the same for Indian cricket fans as a whole? 

Hey but I didn’t see any great change in Indian society after the 2011 World Cup win!

You’re right. But in my defence, the 2011 World Cup triumph was itself a result of the change in mindset that set in Indian cricket in the 2001–05 period.

In a way, the 2003 loss took the team to victory in 2011. Now imagine what a victory in 2003 could have done. 

But why did Ganguly choose to bowl first in the first place? 

To be fair, India had batted first against Australia in a group-stage game earlier in the World Cup and had been shredded by Gillespie, McGrath, and Lee.

Ganguly would have also been thinking of the previous final (1999) where Pakistan won the toss and chose to bat first, only to be bundled out by the same Australia for a 130 odd. 

Lastly, the previous time India had chased down a score against Australia was all the way back in 1998. The now-mythological Desert Storm innings of Tendulkar. 

It’s a ‘what-if’ I think about often. I was absolutely gutted that day. Even now, when I come across the number ‘359’, a momentary dejection follows. 

But of late, I found myself not caring so much about the fortunes of the Indian cricket team, especially in the one-day format. 

Why is that? Is the one-day format going extinct? Will the 2023 World Cup be the last tournament of the format? 

My colleague Karan Kamble has delved deep into this issue today. His conclusion—things aren’t that bad but an immediate fix is needed.

Read the full piece here and let me know your thoughts: Let ODIs be — ahead of the Cricket World Cup, a format frequently written off once again takes the prized centre stage

Until next time, 

Arush Tandon