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Players who play for their country in international cricket have the ambition to play a lot of matches and win big in a row with their best performances. For that, in the situation where it is impossible to perform well and win in all the matches, the hope of winning as many matches as possible for the star players is to perform better in the World Cup than ordinary wins and have a visionary goal to gift that great victory for the country.
In fact, every player who plays international cricket has a dream, an ideal and a desire to win the ICC World Cup. Many of the world-class players who work hard for it have performed very well in the series but the rest of the players falter at key moments and the dream is unachievable.
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For example, quality players like Rahul Dravid and AB de Villiers retired without being able to touch the World Cup in their lifetime, no matter how hard they tried. However, there are some players like Sachin Tendulkar who worked hard and fought till the end and won the World Cup champion title.
Lucky Players:
But there are also stories of very few players who, with the help of an angel of fortune, have easily touched the world cup that many legends could not touch, despite not having played in major international matches. So let’s take a look at 5 players in history who have kissed the World Cup goodbye despite playing less than 10 matches:
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5. Andrew Geisers 1987: The former player from Australia took more than 100 wickets in domestic cricket in his time and started his international cricket journey for the first time in 1987 in the World Cup held in India.
1987 Cricket World Cup Champions:
Allan Border (c)
David Boon
Greg Dyer (wk)
Dean Jones
Geoff Marsh
Tim May
Craig McDermott
Tom Moody
Simon O’Donnell
Bruce Reid
Peter Taylor
Mike Veletta
Steve Waugh
Andrew Zesers pic.twitter.com/RHL6ygcfDN— Zeus (@Zeus_Cricket) February 23, 2022
Cricket Australia certification Andrew zesers pic.twitter.com/osstgfv973
— GK Anil Kumar (@anilkumar_gk) August 8, 2017
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He was also included in the 11-man squad to play against India and New Zealand in that World Cup and began his career as Australia won their first World Cup under Alan Border as champions. But unfortunately he suffered a shoulder problem at the age of 21 and retired young after those 2 matches.
4. Wasim Haider 1992: In 1992, under the leadership of Imran Khan, Pakistan created history by winning the World Cup in challenging Australian soil. Wasim Haider, a young medium fast bowler in that historic team, made his debut in the World Cup and won the title in just 3 matches.
Happy Birthday to former Pakistan all-rounder, a @CricketWorldCup winner and current national selector, Wasim Haider! pic.twitter.com/jdzQs4OsMl
— Pakistan Cricket (@TheRealPCB) June 6, 2019
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Taking just 26 runs and 1 wicket in those 3 matches, he didn’t get a chance to play for Pakistan after that, but with the help of luck, he earned the status of world cup champion for life.
3. Iqbal Sikandar 1992: Another young player that Imran Khan found fit to play for his team in the same World Cup, he played only 4 matches as a spin-bowling all-rounder.
Happy Birthday Iqbal Sikander????
In 189 first-class matches he scored 4,204 runs and took 658 wickets. He represented Pakistan in four ODIs in the triumphant 1992 @cricketworldcup campaign. pic.twitter.com/pwZ97Cxbvn
— Pakistan Cricket (@TheRealPCB) December 19, 2021
He took only 3 wickets and 1 run in those 4 matches and fortunately he is being talked about as one of the Pakistan champion team led by Imran Khan. However, apart from those 2 matches, he did not get a chance to play in any other matches and after retirement acted as a referee in a few matches.
2. Liam Dawson 2019: A spin bowler, he made his ODI debut against Sri Lanka in 2016 and disappeared after playing only 3 matches. But as a spinner was needed in the World Cup held at home in 2019, the opportunity fortunately came to him, who performed somewhat amazingly in local cricket at that time.
Cricket World Cup: Liam Dawson still in contention for England squad – Bayliss https://t.co/memGucvK9G pic.twitter.com/yrYRvakmIq
— BahamasHerald (@BahamasHerald) May 20, 2019
Having sat on the bench without playing a single match in that series, he was part of the England team that won the World Cup under Ioin Morgan and is now playing domestic cricket as a cup-kissed champion.
1. Sunil Valson 1983: In the 1980s, he excelled in domestic cricket for Tamil Nadu and was selected to play in the Indian team for the 1983 ICC World Cup in England. A left-arm fast bowler, he did not get a chance to play a single match due to the presence of a few other fast bowlers including captain Kapildev.
R badree as Sunil Valson ????????#Thisis83 pic.twitter.com/1hMAyHcpXR
— Khadeejah❤️Ranveer (@KhadeejahRS) January 23, 2020
Sitting on the bench for the entire series, he went on to win the title as India defeated a strong West Indies to win the World Cup for the first time. But the surprising thing is that even after that he did not get a chance to play a single match for India and he also holds the rare record of being the only player in international cricket to win the World Cup without playing a single match.
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