It's just 69 days away. Once again the hopes of an entire nation would cream up together and come to the surface. In India, my great country, where emotions are on a all time high, definitely the world cup of cricket brings out the best of the sporting audience or may be just the not so sporting sports' audience. Remember the semi final debacle of the 1996 world cup where seemingly the Eden Garden pitch turned into a minefield right after Sachin's dismissal. It was definitely one of those events in the history of cricket where we as a nation failed to show the true sporting attitude. Poor crying Vinod kambli's live footage on television summed it all. Victory or defeat notwithstanding, the real zeal of playing a sport and that too representing one's nation comes out in the best possible way only after a heart breaking defeat. One who takes the punch right on the chin is a true sportsman. The ones who fail; I call them cry babies! It reminds me of another great one day match where India defeated Pakistan in fading lights in the finals of a tri series played at Dhaka. The then Pakistani skipper, Rashid Latif, just could not take the defeat and almost broke down in the post match presentation. Still, I reckon he took it better than Vinod Kambli did.
Anyway, all of those things are a part of the past now and what we have today in front of us is very different from what things were 14 years ago or even in the year of 2003 when India reached the finals only to lose to the rightful winners. As the reaction would have been in a country like ours, we blamed the then skipper Sourav Ganguly, who in my opinion was the first masculine captain India ever had, for putting Australia to bat. Those things don't matter or even the early dismissal of Sachin Tendulkar in that final. It wouldn't have had mattered because all the arguements put aside, the fact remained that India were not the best team in the world at that moment. The best team, unfortunately for India was playing against them in the finals. It does not matter in a team sport if you have the best player of your generation playing for you. What matters the most is the fact that are you as a team able to achieve what is your expected best. The moment the team starts beating the expectations of their perceived best, they truly belong to the league where they know they have it in them to go on and be the world beaters. It's not about being better than the other teams. Instead it's more about being better than one's own expectations on a consistent basis and the belief that comes is the tonic required to be what we know as winners! Remember the Pakistani team in the year of 1992. Led by a charismatic captain who took pain killing injections on field and operated with a shoulder which could loose its socket any moment, who allowed the be(a)st in Wasim Akram to be unleashed in a way which was totally unknown to the world, who had faith in a new comer Inzamam Ul Haq who took every team by it's horns and beat them to dust. And that faith which people think was more blind than based upon the skills of players took Pakistan to their first world cup title. The fact is for someone to comment on a team without actually being a part of it is as difficult as it is for a vegetarian to comment on the taste of beef steaks.
The past and the history is all gone by. The new era saw the rise of India in a manner never seen before. The team transformed itself from being a group of exception talents to a nicely gelled team. And lucky was India as a country that saw the return of the little master in a big way. This team has that heat and power to be where only Kapil Dev could take India to. This team has a captain who is unorthodox and not unwilling to accept defeat. Except he never lets those defeats to enter his mind. he learnt his game in the streets playing with men and not boys. talk of mental toughness and the team as a whole has it. being in winning positions and actually going on to win are two different things. This indian team knows that difference. If they can translate that potential in a successful campaign or not is a question which only time will answer. As spectators we should cheer for good cricket and quietly say our prayers.
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