In the history of the World Cup, if we could find instances where
destinies were bent by sheer will of the winning skippers, there are only two
instances that come to mind:  1983 and of course 1999.

1983: DEV'S DETERMINATION

1983 was the year when Bhaarath's skipper Kapil Dev went about writing
a new chapter in the annals of his country's cricket lore.  A tournament
where Lloyd's mighty and invincible Windies dreams of a hat trick in World Cup wins was a forgone conclusion at the start of the tourney and where it seemedthe forces of destiny had already set their sights for this event to
happen, was bent by the sheer-iron-will of Kapil Dev.  Indeed it seemed that destiny was on WI's side in that epic final as Viv Richards was making a mockery of the run-chase of the paltry total of 180+ set by Bhaarath...
UNTIL... 

Dev took that near impossible over-shoulder-catch from a nonchalan Richard stroke headed routinely for the boundary.  It was there that destiny was bent and then history was made by Dev and his boys. Dev's knock of 175 against the Zimbabweans in the league phase was also a testimony to his will but it still looked inadequate against the might of Lloyd's men till that catch.

1999: WAUGH'S WILL:

And the 1999 Wcup was even a greater testimony to this destiny bending
by the will of ice-cold steel... the will of Waugh...   Indeed it seemed
at the start of the tourney that destiny had chosen the Proteas who were at
their finest at One-day cricket.  Klusner's bat was humming in top gear and
it seemed NOTHING could stop RSA from righfully claiming its first WC...
NOTHING INDEED except Steve Waugh whose will to win the trophy was
stronger than the raw power of the forces of destiny.  And such a destiny bender came in the form of a suicidal run-out by RSA pacer Donald that handed an epic tie for the Aussies and salvaged their seemingly dead WC dream.. And the history followed.  One can always quote the dropped catch of Waugh by Gibbs as the destiny bender.. but I will always rate that suicidal run out of Donald...

Sadly, in this 2011 World Cup we are not seeing that destiny bending
hunger from any of the participating teams....at least so far...

Shiva IYER
140311
KrishNaarpaNam