Too much confidence may result in complacency and complacency is the greatest foundation of failure. If that be the Thesis, the Anti Thesis will be that too much low morale or confidence will result in additional pressure.
When it comes to complacency and pressure, we can say that since it is the World Cup and since it has been defined as a an even Cup, no team can afford to be complacent. There are dangerous players, matchwinners, in all teams. Afridi of Pak, Sehwag of India, Gayle of Windies, Watson of Australia, Trott of England, Amla of SA, Shakib of Bangladesh, Mahela of Lanka & Brendon McCullum of NZ. These are players who can win the game single handedly on their day.
In the 1975 final, Clive Lloyd scored a hundred and WI won.
In 1979, Viv Richards scored 138 no and WI won.
In 1996, A de Silva scored a hundred and SL won.
So a single player can bring home the bacon and every team has potential match winners.
The question is not complacency, it is pressure. It is the pressure of playing in the World Cup, which will test the players. Look at Virat Kohli. He is now second in ICC Rankings. But can he overcome the pressure of the WC. Or Ashwin?
Similarly, every team has potential young talent. We have Umar Akmal of Pakistan, a talented player. The Akmal brothers are talented but can they survive the immense pressure ?
Pak is under tremendous pressure. The pressure is more on Pak than India, as three of their top players have been banned. They are not playing on their home grounds. They have to win a Cup hosted in India ! All these factors add to the pressure. They announced their captain just now only. Shows the pressure on the Board and the selectors as well. We wish them luck, as they are highly talented.
Pressure is on Aussies also. They are the defending champions and they have to retain the Cup. The loss of major players, Hayden, Gilchrist, Warne etc affects them. They have now a world class all rounder in Shane Watson, who is only second to Shakib. He recently scored 161 not out against England and his team beat England 5-1, after losing the Ashes.
Immense pressure is on SL. All Lankans believe that they can do it. But will they ?
Can SA, who is also under pressure, break the jinx of losing in the semis. They play well, but lose in the semis.
England ? They are also under pressure. They are the current T20 champions, but they have never won an ODI Cup. Can they do it ?
And what about WI ? They have potential matchwinners in Gayle and Pollard. Can they do it ?
As Trevor Bailey used to say " It is the situation". The team which wins eventually will be the team who can handle pressure !
More than one billion people look for the result anxiously and this WC will be cricketing heaven !
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