India plotted a new era of cricket domination the day after its stunning World Cup success confirmed its status as the sport's superpower. The comfortable six-wicket win over Sri Lanka in Mumbai, India's first world title since 1983, was also being viewed as a reflection of the country's growing commercial and political muscle. In the last three to four years India has done well in shooting, badminton, tennis, hockey and football. We are growing as a sporting nation. But cricket is special because of the infrastructure. It all started with the 1983 win. Then two big players, Anil Kumble and Sachin Tendulkar, came on the scene, followed by Sourav Ganguly and Rahul Dravid.
Dhoni, the son of a steel factory worker, is a multi-millionaire thanks to a career which has seen him become the first man to captain a World Cup and World Twenty20 winning side. His team are also top of the Test world rankings. Throughout the six-week tournament, he was a regular on match-day TV commercials, endorsing everything from ceiling fans to mobile phones to high-end property.
Significantly, even before the last celebratory firework exploded in the Mumbai night sky on Saturday, the team's paymasters were keeping them sweet with rewards of $225,000 per player for capturing the trophy. Indian newspapers revelled Sunday in victory, hailing Dhoni's men as heroes for a new generation. "The World At Our Feet" crowed the front page headline in the Times of India. "The wait has ended and a new legend has been born," the Times said, putting Dhoni's squad on the same pedestal as the 1983 side. "Windia!" was the banner headline in the Indian Express.
Saturday's victory for India also sparked tributes to Sachin Tendulkar, the record-breaking batsman, who finally won a world title at his sixth attempt and just three weeks short of his 38th birthday. "Tendulkar has carried the burden of the nation for 21 years. It was time we carried him," young team-mate Virat Kohli said.
On both counts, the Indians came off at the Wankhede Stadium like the fireworks that lit up the Mumbai night seconds after Dhoni's bold signature six sealed their triumph. The final was the time when all the incomplete notes of India's World Cup performance fell into sync. Gautam Gambhir, who had three fifties in the Cup yet had not seized a game by its throat personally, produced his most convincing performance to lift India from the shock of losing their openers. He was central to two partnerships that took India from 32 for 2 to a six-wicket victory. There they were. Not a familiar India dependant on its batting, but a more secure, self-assured India, batting as if chases in finals were like having a net, except with a crowd cheering them on. This was India in its most accomplished situational batting performance of the event, chasing down 274 with 99 singles, 24 twos and even a three. In every knock out game, India has, through sheer consistency of method, exposed the weakness of its opposition. It made the most of Australia's uneven bowling attack, defended against Pakistan by pressing hard in the field and forcing its batsmen to fumble, and stunned Sri Lanka by letting the weight and experience of its batting bear down by taking the barest minimum of risks, but making sure to always keep the score moving.
India's danger signs for the opposition in this World Cup came not with its attacking openers or any flood of fours, but with what its weakest links were able to do. When Indian fielders start diving, its batsmen start taking threes or sprinting surprising singles, or its most medium of pacers begin to repeatedly beat the edges and hurry batsmen, it is time for the opposition to worry. Or as the old says goes, to be afraid. In a World Cup knockout, that should have read very afraid. After the game at the Wankhede, Dhoni said that the World Cup win had ended a chapter in Indian cricket that had opened with the World Twenty20 win of 2007, where, not only was he captain but also top scorer in the final. "Right now we can close the chapter. We need to build a team again. Because of the amount of cricket we play, we need quite a few reserves players to come in and bowl. We need spinners and batsmen to be at their best because if we want to do well at the international level, we will have to try out quite a few players and not think about the result."
Two weeks ago, the audience would have guffawed. Now, it must nod in agreement. Today, it is perhaps wiser to give Dhoni and India's theories the time to be tried out. After all, over the course of six weeks, with their victory, they have busted a few old ones and proved several of their own right. That fielding can be lifted, no matter what dotage the players may belong to. All through the tournament, Dhoni had constantly reminded outsiders that the Indians were not really good fielders yet in the knockouts, they stepped up a level with every single game. No matter how clumsy or non-polished their techniques, the oldest and creakiest of the Indians were diving to stop boundaries. Where India were most astonishingly impressive during the knockouts was in cricket's most 'unselfish' art - in the field. All through the tournament, Dhoni who specialises in automobile analogies, had compared the Indian fielding to an old car engine trying to adjust to working with hybrid fuel. After the semi-final, he had said, that all he hoped for now was one more game. "After that, even if some of the cars fall down, it is okay."
Then there is this last one: about India not really hacking it in ICC tournaments. Partly true. Not in the World Twenty20, not in the Champions Trophy. But in this one, the ICC's biggest tournament, the Indians more than hacked it. When it came down to the rounds where both ability and nerve came into play, India became the team that refused to be beaten.
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