Well India finally win a world cup. Good on them, they have under achieved for so long and the country has had to wait so many years for this over paid group of rich boys to finally bring home a decent trophy.
That fact that Mahendra Singh Dhoni is the captain when this has happened is no surprise either. He is a quality leader who has been able to bring together a team with as much cultural diversity as a world 11 side has. Not to mention the political pressures of the BCCI and the individual states in India.
India's rise to the top started though when they removed Tendulkar as captain and brought in Ganguly. Sachin for all his great skill as a batsmen was probably the worst captain in world cricket. He is revered world wide, not because he leads but because he does. Ganguly came in and used his silver spoon background and really toughened the Indian side up with his personal strength. Must say though I couldn't stand Ganguly as a person, but he lead India very well for a long period.
When Mahenda Singh Dhoni took over the team, he really brought a youngish team and made them follow him. He is a gentleman and a great player. but he also commands respect of his team. I was happy to see that he hit the winning runs for India and it would have been a disaster if India had not won this tournament.
This World Cup was an Indian victory in the making, it was their to lose. They had home games, pitches created for their strengths and a huge emotional desire to win it for Sachin.
Sadly Sachin failed again in a big match which most people will forget about but Champions rise in big matches. I can't recall Sachin ever rising when the pressure was on and winning a big match for India. He will go down in history as the 2nd greatest batsmen of all time behind Sir Donald Bradman but in my mind, he is an accumulator of records not trophies.
Give me Richards, Ponting or Gilchrist with their multiple world cups and massive domination of world cricket over Sachin's record, which it must be said was strengthened against playing Zimbabwe, Bangledesh and a lot of homes games.
India has risen as the world power in cricket and this win will be great for a nation which holds its cricketers as demi-gods and heroes. In some ways, cricket fans need to be grateful for India keeping cricket alive.
In Australia, cricket seems to have lost its mojo. In a time when there are so many options for kids, cricket seems to becoming less popular and the days of Australian domination is at an end. Michael Clarke is no champion and won't lead Australia out of it's downwards spiral.
The Last thing I have to say on this world cup is that you expect sporting events to provide better competition as they evolve and change. Sadly this world cup showed that the standard of world Cricket is on the decline. The great Australian side of the last 20 years is gone and with it the last if the trully dominant champion eras. Cricket today is very average compared to the days when Australia dominated 3 world cups and when an average player like Yuvraj Singh can win player of the tournament, please can someone send us a Champion.
That's my rant for today.
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