Cricket: Indians are back in business.

Heya, The World Cup is over (but bloggers never retire), and so is that unrelenting n vibe atmosphere, where the cricketing world discovered the new Runner-up, ofcourse, ICC might be thinking of shortening the pattern the tournament followed when every approach eventually leads to only one conclusive winner. We realized that even the average performance by the Aussies could surpass around dozen teams that featured in the tournament. In last four years, every time when a team raised its performance standard, we would compare it with this very talented bunch of specimens in yellow. It was India in 2003-04, followed by England, South Africa, New Zealand, and in this tournament Sri Lanka looked to be the only team who could have challenged them. But when the D-Day arrived, Sri Lanka faced an unexpected threat from someone against whom they might didn't have any plans.

Anyways, we have another 4 years now to talk all that that has happened. For me, the biggest irony is that, after India, Pakistan humiliating exit so early in the tournament, if Britannia will come up with any short "Do you know" book talking abt CWC-2007, India will be remembered as the team that registered highest team score in the WC (414/5 again BMU) & Imran Nazir (Pakistan opener) for his highest individual score (160 against ZIM). This is Optimism at its best.

So now the WC is over and players are back with their families enjoying some light moments to cover up for the tough last 2 months. For some of the countries, their next official international outing will be in September (Twenty20 WC) in Sri Lanka. But, India has some other plans for its biggest fan following. No idea, whether they knew it well in advance that they are not gonna make it to semifinal stage (alas!, they didn't even get till Super 8), that they will be playing Bangladesh in the second week of May.

BCCI has acted very strongly against their team for its forgettable n unforgiving performance in WC. They have cancelled their previous contracts and have introduced new ones on performance basis (As expected, this has lead to row b/w players n board about which we are gonna listen in months to come). New rules pertaining to player's endorsements. They are searching more desparately now to induce some fresh talent in their ODI team. Looking for fresh inspiration, they have gone ahead and selected a new coach-cum-manager in Ravi Shastri, Fielding Coach as Robin Singh, and Venkatesh Prasad as Bowling Coach.

India were ousted from the World Cup after their five-wicket defeat to Bangladesh in Trinidad, and this tour that will last more than 3 weeks gives Rahul and his men an opportunity to redeem some pride and put that defeat behind them. They say its not a revenge series (though it wasn't when it was planned months ago), but for Indian junta, who knows very well how to forgive n forget, haven't forgotten India's recent debacle easily. Yeah!, today we are in the same seat in which West Indians were in 1983 when they beated us black n blue following their WC defeat in finals. Indian fans wants the same performance full of passion from their men now. So now what is Bashar saying, that he is not afraid. That his team has drawn enough confidence and they have some very good match turning players in Ashraful, Mortaza. Gaud, he is right. For this being Whatmore's last assignment as B'desh coach, he will be looking forward to some more feathers in his cap. He has made this team look more threatening than ever and the upset victories are more frequent now. And now is their time to consolidate over the advance made in the world cup. But they also need to realize that they are up against an opposition whose egos have been hurt and would be yearning to prove a point or two, more for themselves rather. India who has kept Tendulkar, Ganguly out of ODI team(expecting a tough season ahead) will be looking forward to their young talents in Gambhir, Yuvraj, Piyush Chawla, Manoj Tiwary et al as they play three ODIs, on May 10, 12, and 15, before going into two back-to-back Tests.

Image src: cricinfo
Technorati Tags: Cricket, India, Bangladesh