In a conversation with Sanjay Jog, International Cricket Council (ICC) President Sharad Pawar speaks about the ICC Cricket World Cup 2011.
Has the Indian victory after a gap of 28 years been a surprise?
As a citizen of India, I am extremely happy. However, as the ICC president, all 110 members and cricket-loving countries are quite close to me. The World Cup 2011 has shown that the Indian subcontinent can hold such a mega event successfully and in a dignified manner.
What will you attribute India’s victory to?
I do not want to be parochial, as all teams participated in the World Cup 2011 are praiseworthy for their hard work and great team spirit. There has been a tremendous improvement in the performance of individual players, too, in case of India.
How can you judge the performance of new and little established countries in the World Cup 2011?
Countries like Bangladesh, Ireland and Canada, to mention a few, have a bright future ahead. They made every attempt to fully exploit the opportunity to perform.
Can you tell us how ICC zeroed in on holding the World Cup 2011 in the Indian subcontinent?
As the ICC president, I took the initiative and held a meeting in New Delhi. The meeting was attended by the presidents of cricket boards of India, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Pakistan and also the ICC board members. It was not an easy job, as nearly 500 pages of documents regarding the proposal to hold the tournament in the Indian subcontinent were prepared. It was submitted to the ICC board for its consideration.
As many as seven of the total 10 board members supported the proposal and ultimately it was approved by the ICC board. It was decided to hold matches in India, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Pakistan.
However, due to the terror attack on some Sri Lankan cricketers in Pakistan last year, it was decided to hold matches only in India, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka.