India is the world champions of cricket and what an awesome feeling for 1.2 billion Indians !!! Many people of this generation were not even born when Kapil Dev's Indian team lifted the cup in 1983. So, except the proud momentous video of Kapil lifting the cup, many couln't even relate to that win. Because youngsters of this generation haven't seen Kapil, Gavaskar and Amarnath play cricket. All they know is Sachin Tendulkar!!!! This guy has been closely followed by the young Indians because they have grown up watching him play cricket. For many of them, Sachin experience in cricket i.e 21 years is their age.
After watching him do all that is possible in cricket: highest number of runs in tests, ODI, highest single innings score in ODI cricket, highest number of centuries in both tests and ODI's ... this is the one jewel in the crown that was elusive for little champion. So, no wonder when India won the world cup, he had tears in his eyes. Probably the first time anybody woud have seen Sachin, the child-faced legend cry literally like a child. That shows how much he wanted to have that world cup winners medal. So, now everything has been achieved by him and truly he has become the 'King of Cricket'!!!
Dhoni - the boy from the small town Ranchi and look where he has gone in just a space of seven years. He has done eveything as captain: Captain of the no: 1 test team, Captain of the IPL winning team, Captain of the champions league winning team and now Captain of the world cup winning Indian team. So, for sure he is the best captain for India after Sourav Ganguly. People shouldn't forget the strong foundation to this team laid by Sourav Ganguly, Anil Kumble and Rahul Dravid. They too deserve a tremendous applause for the way they had groomed today's senior players like Sehwag, Yuvraj singh, MS Dhoni, Harbhajan Singh and Zaheer Khan.
For me, the most important player to this team is Zaheer Khan. He has responded everytime India were in a bad position by taking very crucial wickets. Yuvraj Sigh, Sachin Tendulkar, Sehwag and Munaf Patel had their moments. Harbhajan Singh was big let down. But that analysis can wait for later posts.
And finally, not least by any stretch of imagination is Gary Kirsten and his support staff. Gary along with Paddy Upton, mental conditioning coach and Eric Simmons, the bowling coach has transformed a very talented Indian team to be world beaters in every cricket stage. BCCI should do all that is possible to retain him as the Indian coach.
