24 years is a long period of time, considering the fact that personally I have not reached that figure as yet! “1983” was the golden year in the history of India in general & cricket in particular. When the Kapil Dev led vintage Indian team did the unthinkable of beating the mighty Lloyd XI in the World Cup finals. Somebody once quoted:
“Cricket is by chance & hockey is by dance”.
And 24 years back, we took our chances & henceforth the crowning glory. The Heaven was indeed with the Gods!!!

Come 13 March 2007, & the search for that elusive WC begins again. Though cricket is a game of shocks & surprises, still one can safely assume that the no. of teams: 16 are only for statistics. For when it comes down to listing the title contenders, we have 8 teams vying for the title: Amazing Australia, Enigmatic England, Indomitable India, Never-say-die Newzeland, Pulsating Pakistan, Super South Africa, Scintillating Sri lanka & the Wonderful West Indies.

At the start of the year, it looked as if it was a foregone conclusion that the Aussies would have a cakewalk in this cricket mahakumbh. But much to almost everyone’s relief, this no longer seems to be the case, especially after “A series of six shocking losses” for the defending champs & the tournament is wide open. England is a rejuvenated lot, Newzeland are on cloud no. 9 after blanking the kangaroos 3-0, Pakistan are as always the unpredictable lot, South Africa is the most consistent of them all & my favourites for the title, Sri lanka come along with their “chuppa rustam” tag, & the hosts can never be underestimated especially with inspirational leader Lara at their helm.

So this leaves us with the million dollar question: What about the Men in Blue???

Well Dravid may not be a perfectionist when it comes to captaincy, Sehwag may be woefully out of touch, Dhoni is not at its riveting best, Irfan is no longer regarded as the next Kapil & so on…

But the point is this: According to Kapil paaji himself this Indian cricket team is much superior to those 1983 fanatics in terms of talent & has the potential & the ability to go all the way. Ofcourse its easier said then done, but with Sachin slowly but surely coming to his majestic best, Ganguly: the man on a mission, Yuvraj & the younger co. ready to put all they have got. There is indeed a glimmer of hope at the end of the tunnel & maybe just maybe when the curtains fall on this grand saga on 28 April, the Heaven is indeed returned to the Gods after an agonizing wait of 24 years.

GO INDIA GO!!!