The 1996 World Cup started with us all being confident of a good run.
We got through the early rounds without too much difficulty only losing to Kenya, so we were on a rise when
we won against an undefeated South African side in the quarter finals and we were flying high against Australia in the
semi finals until disaster struck – we were defeated by just 5 runs.
It still haunts me up to this day. It is about the only regret I've had during my career, not having a
World Cup medal around my neck. It's that one missing link and would really have been the zenith to my career. It hurts
all the more too because we had the game won and how we lost it still remains a mystery. It was a strange
loss by just those five runs and there was nothing really we could have done. We had to get a run per ball and
were doing so quite easily when suddenly we panicked and it all fell apart. I knew that if we had taken care of
Australia, there was no way Sri Lanka could have beaten us in the final. I really was that confident.
After the match there was complete silence in the dressing room. Not a man said a word. No one spoke because
no one knew what to say... Oh to have just got another five runs on my tally and my cricket life
would have been complete and perfect.