“So, who’s going to win?” asked the immigration officer.
Usually, the standard question at the start of this conversation is about duration of visit or details of accommodation. One suspects a lot of immigration officers at Heathrow (London) or other airports across England will be asking similar questions to the large influx of journalists and fans this summer. For good reason – it’s World Cup time.
“England, if they can soak up the pressure,” I replied.
“They are a well balanced team, aren’t they?” replied the officer, as he stamped my passport. Seven out of ten people crossing these borders might have the same answer. Maybe six, for there are enough Indians fans around to tilt that number. Even so, there is no denying who starts as tournament favourites.
And for good reason, this is the team that has changed how the one-day format is conceived nowadays. Batting on friendly pitches, smacking everything out of sight, England have made sure 300 is no longer considered a safe total. Tournament scorecards for spectators have been corrected to make sure 500 can be slotted in, if the situation arises.
It has never been tougher to be a bowler. Since the 2015 ODI World Cup ended, England have scaled peak-300 a staggering 38 times in 88 ODIs, including four 400-plus and 12 350-plus totals. The implication being that this English batting line-up scores 300 every 2.3 innings – that’s more regularity than a camel drinking water in a desert.
“It’s not hot air you know,” said Eoin Morgan, fielding questions at the captains’ joint presser last week. “If we have been given that title (of favourites), it’s for a reason. Over the last two years, our form at home, in particular, has been outstanding, and that’s the reason it’s there.”
For a nation that gave birth to this sport, they are astonishingly short of success on the world stage. They boast a solitary piece of ICC silverware in their cabinet – the 2010 World T20 (in West Indies), and even then, they weren’t dead-on favourites at the start.
Staying in the ‘bubble’
In fact, when was the last time England entered an ODI World Cup bearing that tag?
Not since the inaugural edition in 1975 perhaps, before Clive Lloyd’s West Indies asserted their supremacy on world cricket. The underlying point is simple – since time immemorial, England have featured in an ODI World Cup as also-rans. Even in 1999, when the tournament returned home for the first time in 16 years, they weren’t the leading side and failed to make it past the group stage.
Times have changed though. This is the era of slam-bang. And since the embarrassment in 2015, Morgan has worked hard to make sure this English team belongs. He has succeeded, at least to the point of getting them into contention.
“In a lot of World Cups earlier, we have gone in with very little expectation and not done that well. I would rather pick this position over any other,” he said, in the build-up to the tournament opener against South Africa on Thursday.
What does it do to a dressing room then, knowing that you are ‘expected’ to win it all? A squad of 15 players – add a few more staff personnel – have to live up to what people on the outside think. How do you control it? Rather, can you control it? How will Morgan and his teammates temper that wave of expectancy every time they walk out onto the field?
At this juncture, the word ‘bubble’ comes to the fore. It isn’t relevant to cricket alone – every other sport/sportsperson uses it. You build this imaginary wall around you, and block everything out, or at least you pretend to. Indian cricketers live in this make-believe space all through their active careers – it is a great blueprint to copy, no pun intended.
This ‘bubble’ is a strange one, though. Both success and failure fuel it. England will build it with belief and their world number one status. Meanwhile, their first opponents – South Africa – will do so too, but with memories of World Cups past.
Need to stay calm
From 1992 to 2015, their tales of woe ring out loud – whether due to rain, or misreading D-L notes, or simply repeated heartbreaks in tense situations (let’s not use the C-word already), the Proteas have known failure like no other team.
On the one hand, South Africa have the likes of Kagiso Rabada, Lungi Ngidi and Aiden Markram – youngsters who have tasted success at the junior level. But Faf du Plessis was young too once upon a time. When he entered the 2011 ODI World Cup in India, for example? Age didn’t shield him from the ghosts of previous failures, and then he watched first-hand as New Zealand shattered Proteas’ dreams in Dhaka (2011) and Auckland (2015) twice in a row.
Perhaps, a lack of pre-tournament chattering will save these young Proteas any blushes, at least they will be hoping so. Since their re-entry into international cricket in 1992, whether it was an ODI World Cup or a World T20, or even the now-defunct Champions Trophy, South Africa had always been in the mix as one of the favourites.
Much of their ensuing disappointment obviously stems from that tag they didn’t live up to.
Oddly, it is different this time. For whatever reason, the likes of Hashim Amla, Dale Steyn, Rabada, Chris Morris and others do not inspire that ‘favourites’ conversation.
Could it be the historical failures?
It doesn’t matter; du Plessis is happy to keep it that way. Could it be relief?
“(In tournaments like this) You perhaps feel like you have to do more. You have to be a Superman on the day. You’re trying to win a World Cup. For me, that’s not what we need to do. We need to be nice and calm, just stay in the moment even if we make mistakes,” said the Proteas’ skipper, ahead of the World Cup.
Two captains trying to change how their country’s cricketing fortunes are defined; two teams that have never lifted the World Cup.
Whether succeeding in line with expectation or not yielding to the fear of failure, it is about how you deal with ‘pressure’. Both sides are eager to get on the park. Yet Morgan went golfing 48 hours before the tournament began, while du Plessis sweated it out in the nets.
It is about staying within that proverbial ‘bubble’, one that shape-shifts every day, moment-to-moment, match-to-match, and week-on-week. Maybe, at the end of it all, one of them will get a chance to rewrite history, long overdue.