1992 was the year I was initiated into cricket seriously. I watched cricket before that, but 1992 world cupm was when I became a serious follower of cricket. I was 10 at that point. The world cup was hosted by Australia and New Zealand. I remember getting up at 3AM with my dad and watching the India matches. I was still learning about cricket. i still remember the India pakistan match. We were winning comfortably, and then there was the Javed frog jump mocking More. Well, More had the last laugh. I also remember a great fighting inning by Azhar against Australia and we ended up losing by a couple of runs. Then came 1996 world cup in India. India were one of the favorites. I was expecting India to win or rather cheering passionately for an Indian win. We reached the QF. We defeated Pakistan in a match where Jadeja flayed Waqar in Bangalore. And then the SF was with Sri Lanka. We were humiliated. A series of miscalculations by our team that resulted in tears for me. That was when I realized what cricket means to me. Slowly, but surely I was becoming really passionate about the game. I did not have too much ability to play the game, but analysis, statistics and history of the game were things I loved. So, I continued learning about the game and soon 1999 came around. We had a disasterous world cup in England. It was after 1999 world cup that Ganguly started leading Team India. In his own style mind you. We went into the 2003 World Cup in bad form losing to New Zealand. But then Zaheer, Srinath and Nehra had a great tournament in South Africa and we made it to the finals (of course we only had to beat kenya in the S/F, not our mistake is it!). Then a giant screen viewing experience was arranged in IITM and after a drubbing by Ponting and Co. the dream of world cup win remained elusive. Then, we seemed very well prepared for the 2007 version in West Indies. Alas, it was one of the worst tournaments. We were eliminated in the prelimniary rounds. So, one day legends like Dravid and Ganguly never won a world cup. Of all the one day legends Sachin remained continuing his quest for the elusive cup. Then came 2011 world cup in India. And in this one after a wait covering six world cups I witnessed India winning a World Cup. Yes, you read it correct. India now are the World Champions of Cricket. After playing every world cup I watched as a kid (1992 through 2011 - 6 in total), Sachin finally has the World Cup medal. Its poetic justice that he won it after playing for 20 years! Amazing! Just Amazing. Also, Sachin was the leading scorer for India in this World Cup too. Yet in the final it was the generation next players (Gambhir, Kohli, Dhoni, Yuvraj) that batted to ensure we won the world cup. Most of them would have took up the game because of Sachin. I find this a perfect tribute to the Little Master. I feel if there was anyone who deserved the cup medal it was him and the script was perfect! Not to mention the bonus of my dude sehwag winning the medal too! Its great.
Coming to me, after having watched cricket for 19 years I can finally say I have watched India win a World Cup. I was not sure how long I will have to wait for saying that words. 19 years and it was worth the wait. i just hope the wait for the next time will be shorter :)
Thanks Team India and enjoy the awards and glory that comes your way!
One more thing, I am extremely impressed at the unbelievable ability of Dhoni to absorb the pressure. Dude you are amazing!
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