'Chaotic' situation ahead of final, reason behind Pak's 1999 World Cup loss: Pybus

Islamabad, Jun.3 (ANI): Former Pakistan cricket coach Richard Pybus has blamed the 'chaotic' situation ahead of the 1999 World Cup final for the loss against Australia in the all important match.

Pybus, who was then the assistant coach of the team, said that the 1999 Pakistan team had a number of star players, who had proved their mettle in the tournament, but failed to perform according to their talent when it mattered the most.

Pybus, who currently resides is South Africa and is a consultant to the Natal team, said things had gone awry ahead of the final against Australia at Lord's.

He added that preparations the day before the match went horribly wrong and were not in conjunction with the previous matches during the World Cup.

"First things first, we were beaten by the better team on the day. No doubt about that. However things before the game started could have gone a lot better. The preparation was not satisfactory and not in accordance with how we had planned things during the course of the tournament," PakPassion.net quoted Pybus, as saying.

He blasted the PCB for sending in so many officials to London just before the final, whose presence in the dressing room ruined the atmosphere completely.

"There had been no Pakistan Cricket Board members present throughout the tournament, but suddenly just because we were in the final, we had board members all over the dressing room, which affected the players and our preparation. As far as I am concerned there should not have been any board members in the dressing room prior to the game," Pybus said.

Pakistan's meek surrender to the Kangaroos in the match gave way to speculations regarding the match being fixed, however, Pybus denounced those aspersions.

"There was absolutely no evidence in my mind of any match fixing, we were quite simply outplayed in all areas of the game. As far as I am concerned, no players should have been accused of match fixing," he said. (ANI)