A cup to cheer upon !!

Hi all,
The past one and half months have been awesome , to tell the truth. It was a brilliant world cup, from the news articles i read, its a mega event which worked both commercially and lifted the spirit of the game too.. Considering the last worldcup edition , in 2007 , where both India and Pakistan crashed out in the group stage itself,was a flop commercially,as its only due to these subcontinent countries,many sponsors come for the tournament. You all might have seen the ad-boards of the companies in the presentation ceremony stage during all matches, and of course the stickers in the stickers of the stumps in the game, All these will have brands which are very famous in India and Pakistan, as these 2 countries are definitely the super-powers , as far as Cricket is considered.
Coming back to this world cup edition , its been a terrific tournament, but the group stages were little bit stretched as this edition had 14 teams, this i guess, considering the hosts, ICC would have decided to have as many matches as possible,as there is definitely a chance of more revenue for them.
In the group stages, India definitely looked out of shape, and to be honest, we all should agree that,none of the matches India won convincingly,considering the kind of batting line up we had.
We managed to scathe through , and none of the expected teams were sent out in the initial stages. But it was in the knock out format that the real teams survived and crossed the boundaries. The knock out stage went pretty awesome,the South African jinx continuing in this tournament too , making them the evergreen perennial chokers, speaking of this i remember a article in some daily, before the match , that it was told , SouthAfrica's challenge is not in overcoming the Kiwis,but to overcome itself,which I should tell ,they failed miserably.
And India who were in a stage like , they no-where in form to lift the cup, peaked at the right time,as captain cool ,tells always. To tell , the truth, it was a stunning performance , in all the knock out games , first one being against the defending champions, Aussies, and the next one , the mother of all games, India and Pakistan , in semi-final.
I still remember, what Dhoni said , after the quarter-final victory against Aussies, now that we have to play Pakistan,people will tell to win that match against Pakistan alone, and to prioritize the cup next to it. Thats how India Pakistan match is treated in these countries, and successfully India managed to send Pakistan out of the tournament , and best of all avoided Pakistan to visit Mumbai,which even our intelligence department couldn do.

India Pakistan match , is always considered one of the biggest matches in ODI's. If u call Ashes as the mother of test matches, then this will be the mother of ODIs. Last time these 2 teams met , was in 2003 worldcup at Centurion , where India chased a mammoth 273 , and leading in front was the master himself with a brilliant 98. Many of us will remember the dropped catch by Razaak of Akram. Akram's quote after the match was, he didn drop the catch but the cup. True to the fact that Pakistans , were sent out that time,but India too lost to Aussies in the final, but this time , when Sachin was dropped by many , nobody was there to tell , that its the worldcup they have lost, as it was very obvious , and India went on to win the final too against Srilanka.I still remember, the quarter final match , in which the first innings I saw in office, the second half ,we were standing , in Forum mall , as there was powercut in our place.Semifinal , in office again , was just a brilliant environment, where my fellow mates came with chart papers, face painted with tricolour, and lot of musical instruments ,which changed the environment of auditorium to cricket ground itself. For final , I was in my native , a small village in southern part of Tamilnadu,where people are not that much knowledgeable as the people in towns and cities, where even schools are a few, was entirely a different experience. Kids and youth were chanting names of the people in Indian team, small school kids praying to God that they will put 11,21,51 rs in temple hundial , if India wins. They didn know fully about the rules of the game, they didn know the powerplays, they didn know UDRS , but all they knew is India , and a man named Sachin.
I was shocked to see that, they didn know much of the political things happening, I personally spoke with many , as it was election time , and parties were campaigning in full swing, those people didn know what was the issue of the tamilians in Srilanka, they didn know anything about 2G spectrum , they didn know about the scams that shook India, but still they knew the man named Sachin. And school kids and youth ,obviously know other players too,but the majority knew only one man named Sachin, and to everyone's delight the team won it for Sachin...
(Considering India's victory, I too dropped in a hundred rupee note to hundial in Tiruchendur temple :) thats another issue )
Of all the things spoken about India , during this tournament, the best one which I remember,
" Ungaluku oru vengala kinnam kuda kidayathu" , after India's performance in match against SouthAfrica in the group stage, where India looked like reaching 400 , and in the end managed 290 odd runs , and did not even bat the full quota of 50 overs.
(Courtesy : Rahul Sheshadri , my friend )
And the best one of all , after India won ,
The Current Cricket WC situation between IND v/s SL is this : IND ( Ram ) married World Cup (Sita ) in 1983 and in 1996 SriLanka ( Raavan ) took away Sita ( World cup ).
Now after 14 years of Vanvaas they meet again and we all know our Ramayan well...dont we..... :) ;) ;

But I dont consider the above, but consider the below for reason for India's victory, it is ofcourse the superstar,who was in Wankhade cheering for India,there is no way that India would have lost the match.

And last but not the least, we should not remain dreaming about our achievements, but to plan for the future ,

while all other teams have already laid their plans . To dominate, like the Aussies did, we have to win them in their backyard,where the next worldcup is gonna happen, is where our aim should be..

If u all have time,see this awesome video of 2015 world cup promo.. This is where our real victory lies, to conquer the world. We have won the world cup in our home , which no-one else has achieved, a significant achievement, but to conquer the world, we should conquer in all places too, Considering our performance in 2003 world cup in South Africa, it was a good achievement, but we should conquer in Aussies's backyard,thats where our goal should be..

Related posts :
Aussies in the world cup

Prelude to the world cup 2011




Bye till next,