1992 and 2015: World Cups comparison

LAHORE: The Gregorian calendar for the month of March 2015 is exactly the same as it was for March 1992, which had brought a lot of luck to the Pakistani cricket team and everlasting memories for the whole nation.
In 1992, Pakistan was also struggling during the initial phase of the Fifth World Cup in Australia and New Zealand and it has again risen from the bottom in the 2015 World Cup, which is again being played in Australia and New Zealand.
In 1992, March 1 had fallen on a Sunday, as did March 1, 2015.
Similarly, March 31, 2015 will fall on a Tuesday, as did March 31, 1992.
In 1992, the then Premier Nawaz Sharif had launched the Lahore-Islamabad motorway project. In 2015, during his third stint as country’s Prime Minister, Nawaz Sharif has recently laid the foundation stone of the first phase of the motorway between Karachi and Lahore.
In 1992, operation had started in Karachi and now in 2015, a similar operation is again underway in the port city.
By the way, both Imran Khan and Misbahul Haq also have a few things in common:
In the 2015 World Cup, Pakistan is being led by District Mianwali’s Misbahul Haq Niazi, whose birthday on May 28 coincides with the “Youm-e-Takbeer Day,” which marks Pakistan’s historic entry into the select Nuclear Club in 1998.
In the 1992 World Cup, Imran Ahmed Khan Niazi (also from Mianwali) had captained the national Cricket squad. Both Imran and Misbah were over 39 years of age before the start of the 1992 and 2015 World Cups respectively.
The two clean-shaven captains had announced their retirement before the start of the prestigious events.
Both Imran and Misbah are 6-foot tall and have individually scored over 5,600 runs in Test matches and One Day Internationals, though Misbah has surpassed Imran’s tally of runs as Pakistan’s captain in One Day Internationals at least and has a much better batting average than Imran in both forms of the game.
While Imran had lost his key strike bowler Waqar Younis before the start of the 1992 event, Misbah had flown to Australia and New Zealand—handicapped without the formidable Saeed Ajmal in 2015. Even fast bowler Junaid khan had got injured before the 2015 World Cup.
However, despite all the similarities between him and Imran Khan, it remains to be seen if Misbahul Haq emulates his predecessor by lifting the World Cup in 2015 or not!
Just to recap what had happened 23 years ago during the 1992 Cricket World Cup, Pakistan had lost its opening match against the West Indies by 10 wickets (with 3.1 overs remaining) on February 23, 1992, it had won against Zimbabwe on February 27, 1992 by 53 runs, rain had then come to the rescue of the lucky green-shirts on March 1, 1992 after they were all out for just 74 and England were 24 for one when generous showers from the Adelaide skies had saved the blushes of the Imran Khan-led unit and it was this one-point each that had helped Pakistan reach the semi-finals, the Pakistanis had then lost to India on March 4 of the same year by 43 runs and were trampled all over by the South Africans by 20 runs on March 8.
The fortunes had then swung dramatically in Pakistan’s favour on March 11, 1992 when it had beaten Australia by 48 runs, trounced Sri Lanka by 4 wickets on March 15 and then humiliated New Zealand by seven wickets on March 18 at Christchurch.
During the first semi-finals played at Auckland against New Zealand on March 21, 1992, Pakistan had again made the hosts bite the dust by beating them by four wickets and then emerging victorious in the March 25, 1992 Melbourne Final against England by 22 runs on a happy Wednesday-becoming the World Cup champions for the first time.
As far as Pakistani squads for the 1992 and 2015 Cricket World Cups are concerned, they also bear a few striking similarities, as various social media sites have already pointed out.
Here follow these resemblances:
While two leg-spinners-Messrs Mushtaq Ahmed and Iqbal Sikander-were part of the 1992 team; two leg spinners — Messrs Shahid Afridi and Yasir Shah — happen to represent the 2015 world cup squad.
Pakistan had pinned a lot of hopes on the 6-foot plus raw rookie Inzamamul Haq from Multan in the 1992 event and 23 years down the road in 2015, another 6 foot plus middle-order batsman Sohaib Maqsood (also from Multan) is gearing up to prove his mettle.
In 1992, the Pakistani wicket keeper Moin Khan (from Karachi) loved to sweep fast bowlers and in 2015; wicket keeper-batsman Sarfaraz Ahmed (also from Karachi) loves to sweep brisk pacers too.