No Malayali, no World Cup! Little-known fact behind India's World Cup triumphs

AHMEDABAD: Five world titles will embellish the Indian cabinet in the coming days. The ODI World Cup in 1983 and 2011, the Twenty20 World Cup in 2007, 2024 and 2026. The special feature involved in all five titles is a Malayali presence. That is, India has not won a single World Cup without a Malayali in the squad. A post on X related to the topic went viral, even grabbing the attention of commentator Ravi Shastri, who mentioned it during the game.

When India won the World Cup for the first time in 1983, Malayali Sunil Valson was part of the team. He played for Tamil Nadu, Railways and Delhi in the Ranji Trophy but never played a single match in the World Cup. S Sreesanth, a native of Ernakulam, was a Malayali presence in the Indian team that won the 2007 (T20) and 2011 (ODI) World Cups. In 2007, it was Sreesanth’s decisive catch of Pakistani player Misbah-ul-Haq that won India the World Cup title. Sreesanth was also part of the team in 2011.

Thiruvananthapuram native Sanju Vishwanath Samson was the Malayali presence in the team in the 2024 and 2026 Twenty20 World Cups. As an icing on the cake, Sanju was declared the Player of the Tournament in 2026 for his stupendous performance in the last three crucial matches. In a recent podcast that involved Sreesanth and Harbhajan Singh, the duo discussed that whenever a Punjabi and a Malayali are in the team, the World Cup is certain to end with India.