Top 5 "Worst" Sports Champions, EVER!
Be it cricket, tennis, football or any other sports in the galaxy, a champion is mostly the one who is the favourite to win any event he had won previously. He/she is the person every potential winner targets, every youngster looks up to and who has to bear all pressure to successfully win or sometimes even lose gracefully. However, there have been a few instances when the champions have fallen down, without either fighting back or by not reaching the expected level. The top 5 such worst champions are discussed below.
Richard Krajicek: The virtually unknown Richard Krajicek from Netherlands stunned the world by defeating Pete Sampras of US in the quarter finals of the Wimbledon tennis Championships in 1996. Fair enough, even Sampras was a human. Nevertheless, he went onto win the Grand Slam, shocking all. So the next year when he failed in the first competitive match of the 1997 edition, against England’s Tim Henman in the fourth round, his loss ended his short-lived reign at Wimbledon, making him number 5 on the list of worst champions!
Pakistan Cricket Team: They are always an unpredictable lot when they are on the field, and the way they performed in their two mega tournaments as defending champions, Pakistan deserves to be on number 4. While defending the World Cup Trophy in 1996, the co-hosts with India and Sri Lanka lost the battle in the knock out stage. India’s jay Jadeja hammered Waqar Younis and Aaqib Javed as they were club bowlers, while the middle-order succumbed more to the pressure than to the Indian bowlers miserably. The match at Bangalore was Javed Miandad’s final innings, and till he was there, Pakistan had an outside chance. With him gone, India won the match to reach the semi finals, where they were in return thrashed by Sri Lanka, the eventual winners. 14 years later, Waqar Younis coached the Pakistan side to the semi final of the third Twenty20 World Cup but the team remained uncommitted and unconvinced despite scoring 190 odd runs in the semi final, where Michael Hussey took apart Saeed Ajmal in the final over to win the berth to the final.
France Soccer Team: The French team was the defending champion in the first FIFA World Cup to be played in Asia, but it seems a change of continent is unhygienic to their health. They crashed out in the first round of the 2002 World Cup while when the tournament was held in Africa for the first time, they fared the same. In both the events, they failed to win a single match, losing or drawing their matches. In between, they reached the final of the 2006 edition where Zidane head butted an Italian player instead of the ball, and the rest is history!
Indian Cricket Team: Since winning the inaugural Twenty 20 Cricket World Cup, the Indian cricket team has lost the race to the semi finals in both the editions. Some blame the ill-timed Indian Premier League for their lack of form, but the Indian captain on all three occasions – Mahendra Singh Dhoni – blames the late night parties for the debacle.
Pakistan Hockey Team: They won the Hockey World Cup for the third time in 1982, defeating West Germany in the final 3-1. However, in the 1986 edition, they came 11th out of the 12 team event and the performance was considered a black mark in Pakistan’s hockey history, until it was ‘bettered’ by the current squad which came 12th this year!
The Italian football team is yet to impress in this year’s football World Cup in progress in South Africa, and the next few hours will confirm whether they deserve a place in the list of worst champions, or they will manage to escape being named on the list for the right reasons. Go Azzuris, Go!
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