History was made @ Wankhede Stadium Mumbai on 2-Apr-2011. India became the first country to hold all the possible cricket titles atleast once...
India won the 60-over WC in 1983
India won the 20-20 WC in 2007
India won the No.1 status in Tests in 2010
India won the 50-over WC in 2011
With this India becomes the only nation to have held the WC's in two formats in ODI's the 60-over & the 50-over. West Indies being the only other team being capable of this feat.
A billion hopes & prayers were answered on Saturday. When India won; it unleashed a frenzy of celebrations never seen before in the history of the nation. Impromptu parties started @ every nook & cranny of the country. People hugged complete strangers and distributed sweets to one and all... It was as if everybody knew everybody. Never before had any game, person or event been able to transcend the boundaries set by Indians among themselves so completely. That day nobody was a Hindu, a Muslim, a Sikh or a Christian; everybody was an Indian period... It was the proudest moment of my life when I saw for the first time what we can achieve if we put across our differences.
The Indian team itself is the epitomization of an India of my dreams. Having players from all religions and walks of life, the team has transcended the regional differences, something which Indian teams in past have struggled with. This is the most complete and harmonious team that I have ever seen in my life. Every player plays not for personal glory but for the glory of the nation. Each member of the team supports the others. This I believe is the basis and foundation for the successes achieved by the Indian Team on the field in the past couple of years.
In the run up to the Cup the Indian team was tagged as a tournament pre-favourites. They lived up to the expectations. This team deserves the World Cup on account of the quality of teams that they had defeated in the road to the finals. Bangladesh, Ireland, Netherlands may not seems like good opponents on paper, but on their day they could defeat any team, as demonstrated by Bangladesh & Ireland when they defeated England. A tie against England would have made any team start guessing itself, they snatched a tie from the jaws of defeat. The only blip came against South Africa, when Ashish Nehra gave away all those runs in the final over. But apart from that India had a perfect tournament.
It can be rightly said that India played 3 finals in the tournament. Each against a different opponent Australia, Pakistan and Sri Lanka.
While winning this cup they have beaten everybody that is there to be beaten, there was no backdoor entry or progressing on basis of Net Run Rate for this team. They won convincingly unlike in past.
The entire turnaround for this team revolved around 1 man, the unsung hero of the team - The man who planned this nearly 2 years ago. The man who had faith in players like Yuvraj & Raina when they were not in the best of forms. The man who put his life on hold for more than 3 years while building this champion side. Who?? GARY KIRSTEN
Foreign coaches have always been seen as people who try to divide a good team. Kirsten came in when Greg Chappell-Ganguly saga has left a bad feeling in eveybody's mouth. He came just when India had won the T20 worldcup under the auspices of Lalchand Rajput. The expectations were high, so were the apprehensions...
Unlike Chappell who loved to air dirty linen in public, Kirsten was seldom seen giving interviews. He believes in working from the background. Under him we have seen MS Dhoni mature as a captain. The raw potential was always there, but now there is a sense of purpose everytime Dhoni does something. He's the man with the Midas touch - our Captain.
Kirsten was able to do something no coach before him was able to, he made Virender Sehwag responsible. While the rash shot to which he get's out is always there, Sehwag has become more cautious in his approach of flaying every ball. When Yuvrah & Raina were struggling for runs, Dhoni & Kirsten persisted with them. While the people were baying for their heads, they took it in their stride & just look @ the rewards. Yuvraj walked away with the Man-Of-Tournament award while Raina saved India's butt in a couple of matches against Australia & Pakistan.
While it was not a fairy tale win for us.. Sachin scoring 100 100's would have been a perfect fairy tale finish, I would rather be selfish and say that I don't want him to score that century of centuries too soon, I still want to see the Maestro bat...
A perfect ending to a billion hopes and aspirations, I for one want the entire country to be inspired by this win and start working together to build a strong nation just like our team.
As the Indian team epitomises.. Together we can....
India won the 60-over WC in 1983
India won the 20-20 WC in 2007
India won the No.1 status in Tests in 2010
India won the 50-over WC in 2011
With this India becomes the only nation to have held the WC's in two formats in ODI's the 60-over & the 50-over. West Indies being the only other team being capable of this feat.
A billion hopes & prayers were answered on Saturday. When India won; it unleashed a frenzy of celebrations never seen before in the history of the nation. Impromptu parties started @ every nook & cranny of the country. People hugged complete strangers and distributed sweets to one and all... It was as if everybody knew everybody. Never before had any game, person or event been able to transcend the boundaries set by Indians among themselves so completely. That day nobody was a Hindu, a Muslim, a Sikh or a Christian; everybody was an Indian period... It was the proudest moment of my life when I saw for the first time what we can achieve if we put across our differences.
The Indian team itself is the epitomization of an India of my dreams. Having players from all religions and walks of life, the team has transcended the regional differences, something which Indian teams in past have struggled with. This is the most complete and harmonious team that I have ever seen in my life. Every player plays not for personal glory but for the glory of the nation. Each member of the team supports the others. This I believe is the basis and foundation for the successes achieved by the Indian Team on the field in the past couple of years.
In the run up to the Cup the Indian team was tagged as a tournament pre-favourites. They lived up to the expectations. This team deserves the World Cup on account of the quality of teams that they had defeated in the road to the finals. Bangladesh, Ireland, Netherlands may not seems like good opponents on paper, but on their day they could defeat any team, as demonstrated by Bangladesh & Ireland when they defeated England. A tie against England would have made any team start guessing itself, they snatched a tie from the jaws of defeat. The only blip came against South Africa, when Ashish Nehra gave away all those runs in the final over. But apart from that India had a perfect tournament.
It can be rightly said that India played 3 finals in the tournament. Each against a different opponent Australia, Pakistan and Sri Lanka.
While winning this cup they have beaten everybody that is there to be beaten, there was no backdoor entry or progressing on basis of Net Run Rate for this team. They won convincingly unlike in past.
The entire turnaround for this team revolved around 1 man, the unsung hero of the team - The man who planned this nearly 2 years ago. The man who had faith in players like Yuvraj & Raina when they were not in the best of forms. The man who put his life on hold for more than 3 years while building this champion side. Who?? GARY KIRSTEN
Foreign coaches have always been seen as people who try to divide a good team. Kirsten came in when Greg Chappell-Ganguly saga has left a bad feeling in eveybody's mouth. He came just when India had won the T20 worldcup under the auspices of Lalchand Rajput. The expectations were high, so were the apprehensions...
Unlike Chappell who loved to air dirty linen in public, Kirsten was seldom seen giving interviews. He believes in working from the background. Under him we have seen MS Dhoni mature as a captain. The raw potential was always there, but now there is a sense of purpose everytime Dhoni does something. He's the man with the Midas touch - our Captain.
Kirsten was able to do something no coach before him was able to, he made Virender Sehwag responsible. While the rash shot to which he get's out is always there, Sehwag has become more cautious in his approach of flaying every ball. When Yuvrah & Raina were struggling for runs, Dhoni & Kirsten persisted with them. While the people were baying for their heads, they took it in their stride & just look @ the rewards. Yuvraj walked away with the Man-Of-Tournament award while Raina saved India's butt in a couple of matches against Australia & Pakistan.
While it was not a fairy tale win for us.. Sachin scoring 100 100's would have been a perfect fairy tale finish, I would rather be selfish and say that I don't want him to score that century of centuries too soon, I still want to see the Maestro bat...
A perfect ending to a billion hopes and aspirations, I for one want the entire country to be inspired by this win and start working together to build a strong nation just like our team.
As the Indian team epitomises.. Together we can....
Beautiful man...i luved it..................just awesum....:)
ReplyDeleteThax once more.. :)
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