Before the CWC Final, Rohit Sharma completely misread the pitch conditions, he got blinded by overconfidence after 10/10 win.
In 2007, the Cricket World Cup had 16 teams playing. Fast forward to 2023 and only 10 teams are in the tournament. Now, compare this to football: the FIFA World Cup went from 32 teams in 2006 to 48 teams planned for 2026, an increase of 16 teams. This difference makes us ask a simple yet important question: why is cricket shrinking when football is growing?
Until 1994, the idea of fixing a cricket match was unimaginable for most fans. The turning point came during Australia's tour of Pakistan that year. Australian cricketers Shane Warne, Tim May, and Mark Waugh reported that Pakistani cricketer Salim Malik had approached them with an offer of $276,000 (₹2 crores) to deliberately lose a match. Malik reportedly pleaded, “Our houses will be burned if we lose.”