India’s shambolic ICC Cricket World Cup 2007 campaign still hurts quite a lot of their fans. Taking into consideration the names available at their disposal, no one had really expected them to start on a losing note against Bangladesh. Interestingly, former India captain Anil Kumble, who didn’t even play that match, ended up unintentionally playing a part in a loss.
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Kumble, an eminent personality in the cricketing fraternity across the globe, wasn’t part of many controversies during the course of a legendary 18-year-old international career. However, although unknowingly, he had irked former Bangladesh captain Mashrafe Mortaza which propelled him to take revenge.
With this incident happening just before the India-Bangladesh match, a fired up Mortaza was inspired to a tee to prove Kumble wrong. What followed was the right-arm bowler being the pick of the Bangladeshi bowlers as a match-winning effort made him a deserving candidate of the Player of the match award.
Mortaza, who dismissed Indian opening batters Robin Uthappa and Virender Sehwag cheaply in his first spell itself, had returned with figures of 9.3-2-38-4 in Port of Spain on what is considered as a dreadful day for Indian cricket till date. Apart from the openers, Mortaza had also sent pacers Ajit Agarkar and Munaf Patel back to the pavilion.
Mashrafe Mortaza Was Fired Up Because Of Anil Kumble’s Arrogance
For the unversed, India were placed alongside Bangladesh, Bermuda and Sri Lanka in Group B of a 16-team tournament. With Bangladesh and Bermuda being comparatively weaker teams on paper, a Super Eight spot was all but guaranteed for India before the start of the competition. Hence, it wasn’t surprising when Kumble had also expressed similar expectations in front of Mortaza.
Having met each other in the hotel (same for all Group B teams), Kumble brought to light India’s hectic scheduling stating how there was a less than a two-week gap between the final of the World Cup and their subsequent tour of Bangladesh.
As quoted by News 18, Mortaza wasn’t pleased with Kumble’s overconfidence with respect to India qualifying all the way to the finals. He had later admitted that it motivated him to prove a point as Bangladesh weren’t meant to be mere a “punching bag” for more established teams.
“[Anil] Kumble’s statement almost implied that they expected India to reach the final of the 2007 World Cup. He didn’t say it to spite us but I was struck by the arrogance embedded in the statement. Here the tournament was still to begin and Indians were already expecting a berth in the final,” Mortaza had said.
While Mortaza’s efforts had sown the seeds for the same, India were handed an embarrassing first round defeat from the tournament after they also lost to Sri Lanka at the same venue a few days later. Bangladesh, on the other hand, not only qualified for Super Eights but also managed to defeat South Africa later in the World Cup.
It is noteworthy that Mortaza didn’t let his guard down even after defeating India in 2007 World Cup. During the India Tests that followed, Mortaza was Bangladesh’s highest run-scorer and wicket-taker with 151 runs and six wickets to his name respectively.
Anil Kumble Had Warned Against Taking Bangladesh Lightly In 2019
Kmble, the last of whose 271 ODIs had come during that World Cup, had warned teams against taking Bangladesh lightly during ICC Cricket World Cup 2019. With Bangladesh improving manifold times under Mortaza 12 years after the above mentioned incident, teams were vary of what they could do in world events.
“You can’t take Bangladesh lightly anymore. They have done really really well over the last few years. Mashrafe Mortaza is a very good leader. When he will be captaining, one will see a different Bangladesh team,” Kumble had told CricketNext as quoted by CricTracker.
Apart from the adulation, Kumble had even highlighted Bangladesh’s primary issue of not lifting their game in the knockouts. It is worth of a mention that Bangladesh had finished at the eighth position on the back of three wins and five losses (including one against India in Birmingham) across nine matches in the previous World Cup.
