Athea Gibson once said, “In sports, you simply aren't considered a real champion until you have defended your title successfully. Winning it once can be a fluke; winning it twice proves you are the best".Australia fits in nicely with her description. What makes the four times World champions even more awe inspiring is their stupendous record of winning three consecutive titles. The team which has lost stalwarts like Hayden, McGrath, Warne, and Steve Waugh has been widely termed as a spent force but as Navjot Siddhu brilliantly pointed out, how many teams in world cricket can boast of such a reservoir of talented players who can take up the vacant places in the team and perform with relative ease at the international stage.
It is at this point where I would like to bring India in and stress on the fact that our moment of truth has indeed arrived. To win the World Cup we need to beat the defending champions, a potential semi final clash with arch rivals Pakistan & a final showdown with either SriLanka/SouthAfrica (Provided they take care of ENG & NZ as expected). As a player, nothing else can inspire you to win the ultimate prize. All the hype, expectations boils down to this. Performing now is what will lift them from potential champions to world champions.
The Match
The pitch at Motera will assist spinners. Let’s make sure the only thing which the ball does after landing on the pitch is spin. I don’t want bounce, I don’t want pace, I just want Ashwin,Harbhajan,Yuvraj to turn it as much as they can. Fast bowling has never been our strength and with Munaf,Ashish Nehra supporting Zaheer, the last thing we would want to do is to bowl 'fast'. If Geoffrey Boycott was commenting on our fast bowling he surely would have mentioned his mama and how she would have played the lollipops from our so called speedstars. Zaheer Khan needs to handle the burden alone. Can we afford to take risk with Sreesanth and his rants or should we persist with the military medium of Munaf along with his snail pace movement on the boundary line? Given the fact we are playing at Gujarat, the local boy will win the race as is the general custom with Indian team selection aided by BCCI 'divine' intervention. One last dig at our average 'fast' bowlers. What they do at the MRF pace foundation? When bowling a yorker, we as kids were taught to target the toes of the batsman and make sure they are not there after the delivery. Perhaps they bowl at ghosts without toes at the pace academy. It’s a difficult art but so is the arduous task of getting into the Indian team.
Coming to the batting, we seem to go to coma during the last power play.Our batsmen seems to bat with hockey sticks which makes it difficult for them to keep away full length deliveries bowled straight at the stumps. The other day Munaf Patel batted like a zoozoo who didn’t know what he is suppose to face, the bowler, the ball or something out of the world. The middle order needs to complement the superb start given by the top order. Virat Kohli under all circumstances should bat at No 3 followed by Yuvraj. Dhoni and Pathan needs to buck up and contribute more consistently.
The World Cup comes every 4 years. Amidst the chaos of World T20 and the serenity of test cricket, ODI cricket has managed to hold its ground. Australia's strangle hold on the tag of 'World Champions' will be put to test. This is the best time to beat them. The ignominity of the 2003 World Cup loss still hurts. It is also the last time we will be witnessing Sachin Tendulkar representing India at the World Cup and he deserves the winning medal more than anyone.
As I bring my note to a close, a quote from a famous Liverpool manager Bill Shankly comes to my mind. At Anfield (Liverpool's home ground) there is a plaque named "This is Anfield". On that he said, "It's there to remind our lads who they're playing for, and to remind the opposition who they're playing against." Perhaps this is the time for MS Dhoni to do a Bill Shankly and tell the team who they are playing for and what is at stake.
Over and Out.
