The Sub-Continent Effect

Its been two days since the World Cup ended. I managed to get up and see the firecrackers bursting and Australians holding the World Cup for the third consecutive time and also their fourth time. Its amazing that the "wounded Australians", as they were called so after their terrible series loss to New Zealand and England just before the World Cup, managed to win all the matches without any strain. I actually wanted to write many posts regarding the World Cup including India's devastating loss in the Group matches, but since my computer was not working for quite sometime, I dropped the plan. Well, I think I am going out of topic. The topic is "Sub-Continent Effect",rite??? Lets go!

It all started in the 1992 World Cup. Pakistan won their first World Cup victory over England in the finals. The following 1996 World Cup saw India hosting the World Cup for the first time and the Sri Lankans managed to win the World Cup against Australia in the finals by a very close margin. As everyone knows, 1999 World Cup saw the World Champions Australia marking their first World Cup victory since 1987 against Pakistan and since then, they never lost the World Cup. In 2003, everyone saw India losing to Australia and now in 2007, everyone saw (atleast outside Asia) Sri Lankans losing to Australia (1996 revenge???). (Thanks to Wikipedia for the list of matches.)

All these are known facts. But did you see anything peculiar here? If you had closely observed, since 1992, atleast one team from the Indian sub-continent had managed to reach atleast the finals. Interesting, right? Since 1999, Australians never lost the World Cup to any nation and the order of teams which lost the cup to Australia in the finals were the big-three of Indian-subcontinent – Pakistan (1999), India (2003), Sri Lanka (2007). If that is not interesting, the next World Cup at 2011 would be hosted by these three nations (plus Bangladesh, which hosts the World Cup for the first time).

These things are absolutely true. If all these happen to be true, then one prediction can become true in 2011 World Cup (if Sub-Continent effect continues). As said above, since 1992, all the sub-continents have fought their way atleast to the finals. The list comes again Pakistan -> Sri Lanka -> Pakistan -> India -> Sri Lanka. If you look again, Pakistan and Sri Lanka had already made their entry into finals twice. Only India has made its entry only once into the finals since 1992. So if my predictions are right, India should go into the finals in 2011 World Cup. That would even up the odds. Still not juicy enough? All the sub-continents mentioned above except India has won atleast once in the World Cup finals since 1992. Only India hasn’t gone twice and its victory is still pending. So if the sub-continent effect continues, India should win the 2011 World Cup (also it plays in the sub-continent pitches, that should ease things a bit) (Also let us assume that Bangladesh doesn’t become super power in cricket). Are you wondering about the non-subcontinent teams?. Let them lose to India at the finals at Wankhede stadium, Mumbai in 2011. Who knows? Sometimes, predictions can become true. Thanks to Sub-Continent effect! ;)