~~Chak De India: A View~~

February 3, 2011 maverickHSR Direct Dil Se, Featured 2

My World Cup memoirs goes way back to Reliance World Cup 1987. I still brag few blurry-footprints of an eight-year old cricket frenetic’s mind; I witnessed transformation of a stroke-less wonder to spinners’ nemesis called Sidhu and I felt the same heart-break of losing in Semis as if I have missed first rank in the class, by a whisker.

If 1992 could only be remembered as the debut World Cup for ‘THE GOD’, 1996 was a big heartbreak as one of the host could not make use of the familiar conditions, when our neighbours did exactly the same. Losing in Semis under the torrid circumstances was more painful than my marksheet embellishing with lowest percentages (the same year) in my whole academic career.

1999 world cup’s result only re-confirmed the forego-conclusion as Team India was more of a bunch of individuals than a cohesive unit. Without any shadow of doubt, 2003 WC’s performance was the best I have seen and we almost pulled it off, well… Almost!!! As they say: “Jo Jeeta Wohi Sikandar“, nobody give a damn about the runners-up. So a 50 overs’ world cup is still elusive in my cricketing (Watching/Commenting/Writing) career; I still can’t share the world cup winning experience with everyone as my Dad could do with utmost pride, for Kapil’s Devils. They also say “Never say Never“.It remains to be seen if the year 2011 would be lucky for me and million other think-alikes.

Coming back to the present now. We have a Captain with midas touch, We have (arguably) the best batsman in the world giving his last shot at the coveted crown, We have a deadly-combo of batting and bowling especially in Indian conditions and last but not the least, We have enormous crowd-support. So this time around, surely WE WOULD DO IT!!!

Men-in-Blue need to gaurd against the complacency, though; the scars of embarrasing defeats at the hands of Zimbabwae and Bangladesh in 1999 and 2007 worldcups are still fresh in our minds. Another thing that Dhoni needs to take care of is, his personal preference should not hamper the best possible 11 on the particular day. Quite a few handful of part-time spinners at his disposal is another factor in Dhoni’s favor. Recent rise of the likes of Kohlis and Pathans has given Dhoni few pleasant headaches ahead of team selection.

All seems rosy and promising from outside but few bumpy-layers and grey-areas might be unleashed once the epic tournament unfolds on Feb 19th.
Will India cross the final hurdle? I hope they does, fingers crossed. What about You??

— To be Continued: Chak De India: A Counterview!!

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Author is a hardcore cricket fan who takes pride in induliging himself in all the cricketing talks. He’s often blamed by his family members, of eating, drinking and sleeping cricket which ‘practically’ never is the case. He has a keen eye and picks the nuances of the game with ridiculous ease. He is more of a Cricketriot (Cricket + Patriot) and stays in two extremes; goes ga-ga over Men-in-Blue when they do click and never shy of tearing them apart after every abysmal performance.
He would be more than happy to share a healthy discussion with the readers throughout the World Cup.
About maverickHSR 4 Articles
Author is a hardcore cricket fan who takes pride in induliging himself in all the cricketing talks. He's often blamed by his family members, of eating, drinking and sleeping cricket which 'practically' never is the case. He has a keen eye and picks the nuances of the game with ridiculous ease. He is more of a Cricketriot (Cricket + Patriot) and stays in two extremes; goes ga-ga over Men-in-Blue when they do click and never shy of tearing them apart after every abysmal performance. MaverickHSR would be more than happy to share a healthy discussion with the readers throughout the World Cup.

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