Having featured in the 1996 World Cup, I didn’t play the 1999 edition but made a comeback to get selected in the 2003 World Cup squad. I’ll tell you how that transpired. The 1996 World Cup was followed by a tour of England. I scored 45 runs in our first Test match at Lord’s, which we won. Unfortunately I injured my back in a side match after that, which brought Moin Khan into the Pakistan squad for the Leeds Test where he also scored a ton.

So when they were including me for the last Test match of the series it was my turn to inform our team manager Yawar Saeed and assistant manager Nasim ul Ghani to carry on with Moin as he was doing well while I needed some time to recuperate.

The Tests were followed by the ODIs. We lost two and then they brought me back in for the last one at Nottingham, which I would say I won for Pakistan by ‘mistake’. As a consequence of my doing well there, I was not just dropped for the Sahara Cup to be played in Canada, but was in fact ousted from the team for two-and-a-half years until PCB got a new Chief Executive Officer in Majid Khan, who named me captain of the national team.

Unfortunately, I dislocated a disk in my neck during Pakistan’s 1998 tour of South Africa. The injury was rather severe and doctors advised surgery, which I didn’t get done but it forced me to miss the 1999 World Cup. However, my fine batting and keeping during the domestic seasons helped me make a comeback in 2000 and subsequently I got selected for the 2003 World Cup in South Africa.

About that tournament, I think we over-trained or exerted ourselves before the mega event which resulted in draining us out. Many of us like myself, Saeed Anwer, Wasim Akram and Waqar Younis had also aged a bit by this time and even our training hard didn’t pay off since South Africa is too high above the sea level and we would tire easily.

Our big matches were against India, Australia and England and we found ourselves dominating in all these matches for only 30 to 38 overs of the first half after which there would be a gradual slide in our performance. Then we were also not very tough mentally. After all it is your fine preparation ahead of an event, which gives you the confidence to be able to face any challenge that may come your way. Sadly that wasn’t the case with the Pakistan squad of 2003.—Rashid Latif was speaking to Shazia Hasan