Twenty Eight Years Later

I am glad that probably some , if not all the players have read my post about last world cup victory. I am not sure how many of them were even born by that time. Even if they were born, most  of them were too infant to be inspired by that victory.

The point is, this victory stands on its own. The players found their own way to the glory. To me, it looked almost ten years of constant journey. The path was shown by Dada.  Sehwag, Yuvraj, Zaheer, Harbhajan  and to some extent, Dhoni and Gambhir  too – were spotted and encouraged by Dada … Encouraged to fight, encouraged to believe in themselves , encourage to not only meet the challenges but to throw the challenges across.  I wish that Rahul Dravid , Laxman and Kumble should be the part of the team – just like Tendulkar. But no, we never missed them .These young guys stood up to the occasion. Look at the report card of the team. Every one contributed. If some one failed, others rushed in to plug the gap. That was precisely  what had happened in Final. The team does not depend on Tendulkar only , unlike it used to do in mid and  late nineties. So what if Sehwag was out in just second ball ! It was pity to see that guys like Pathan and Ashwin, who did not do any bad for whatever chances they got, were sitting on benches. Hopefully , that will enhance their hunger to do well.

Now, just a world of caution – please keep your feet on the ground. Still there are a lot of grey areas. Batting can not always hide the shortcoming of bowling. Fielding is still pretty ordinary. Running between wickets requires improvement. Team needs to learn how to handle batting power play – both while bowling and batting.

Now, Gary Kirsten will not be around. Most probably, BCCI will rope Fleming for the coaching assignment.

But let us hope Tendulkar with us forever. At least, till he completes tweny five thousand runs in both the form of Cricket.